The Two Worlds for 1889

The 1889 issues of The Two Worlds are now available on the Archive.

Call this year the year of amorphous opposition, or, to borrow from Emma herself, the year of "impassable lines of demarcation"...

The attack on Theosophy -- direct and otherwise -- intensifies, the occult linkages are further underscored (note a good few months worth of front-wrapper advertising of the works of one P. B. Randolph, and some mention of The Light of Egypt), and the red(dish) flag of small-s socialism is unfurled and waved about.

Among the highlights:

• January: Emma recycles another of the stories in The Wildfire Club (yes, in a different textual state); a letter from abroad from J.J. Morse; the return of the Sabeans; a whack at Thomas Henry Huxley; the claiming of Tennyson and Rider Haggard for the cause; TP Barkas starts a multipart series on "The History and Mystery of Mesmerism"
• February: Swinburne as control; the report of the first annual meeting of the shareholders of The Two Worlds Publishing Company Limited; Lena Loeb, the Electric Girl
• March: Hugh Junor Browne starts a multipart series called "The Grand Reality"; Emma decides against publishing letters when she does not (privately, at least) know the identity of the sender; Gerald Massey lectures on "The Origin of Christian Dogmas"; "the herb of prophecy" (!); a tribute to Amy Post; "Legal Murderers, Beware"!; J. R. Buchanan; an obituary for S. C. Hall; "On Elementals"
• April: "Tyrannical and Highhanded Legislation In America!"; a thitherto-unpublished EHB novella, called "The Light In The Tower"; the Two Worlds changes its printer (with some not-so-desirable results, but a marked increase in the number of font faces used in heads); the death of S. Govinda Sattay, "Hindoo Buddhist" Theosophist; a whack at the Seybert Commission from General Francis Lippitt; EHB and Wallis begin dividing up the turf of the newspaper in public;
• May: "A Practical View of a Hindu Fakir"; Sir John Franklin's fate and the spirits; shots fired at the Salvation Army; Victorien Sardou reprinted; Emma re-states her theory of "obsession"; Marie Gifford (who's she?); Captain Pfoundes on Buddhism; M.A. Oxon noticed; Summary report of the Spiritual Lyceum Annual Conference
• June: the return of Sirius, summarizing J. A. Froude, writing about Origen refuting Celsus; magic in Egypt; the sacred cemetery of Bombay; opium-smoking is not a good idea; "Theosophy abused and occultism mis-represented"; obituary of Laura Bridgman; Hudson Tuttle exalted;
• July: Sirius continues cutting and pasting J. A. Froude; F. M. Holland on (!!) Giordana Bruno; "The Labouring Man's House"; Molly Fancher, fasting; "a vigorous and suggestive letter from Madame Elise von Calcar" on reincarnation; reincarnation in practice; yet another recycled tale from "The Wildfire Club"; "Mrs. Besant and Theosophy"; Was Jesus A Medium?; more from Captain Pfoundes;
• August: Emma bans pro-reincarnation positions from her pages; one Arthur Edward Waite (nobody really) on "higher possibilities of alchemy," "earnestly reiterat(ing his) desire to receive communications from all students of esoteric literature who have the welfare of humanity at heart, and whose eyes turn to the light of the ancient mystics for help in their sublime purposes..."; Emma thundering on "Spiritualism, Theosophy and Reincarnation"; another letter from J.J. Morse in America; Emma wishing she'd written The Light Of Egypt, but confessing she lacks the capacity to have done so; more Marie Gifford (who she?); yet more Captain Pfoundes, on Sinnett, HPB and Olcott; J. L Mahony on "Spiritualism And The Materialistic Conditions Of Society" - "the amelioration of the social condition of the people" should be Spiritualism's objective; Emma contra capital punishment, the "murder of criminals"
• September: no, really, Ada Foye is a great test medium; no, really, it's all Egyptian solar worship; no, really, Christian Science is completely intellectually bankrupt; the International Magnetic Conference; "Sparks From The Foundries Of Progress"; Sirius, having undergone a complete personality transplant, comments on an article in the Manchester Evening News, adopts the EHBian "we", calls himself "a prophet....and the son of a prophet", and proclaims Spiritualism "the only religion of the future"; "How The Toilers Live"; whacks at George Jacob Schweinfurth
• October: transcript of a debate between Marsden Gibson and Charles Bradlaugh; Vesper asks "whether politics, reforms, strikes and subjects of that purely secular character are in harmony with spiritualism" and is politically corrected by the editor; Emma on "the celebrated Samaritan dog of San Francisco"; a letter from the Countess of Caithness to EHB; "Spiritualism in India"; E. W. Wallis takes off the gloves and batters Colonel Olcott, who won't debate EHB on an open platform - "a more immoral doctrine was never promulgated"; Emma announces she'll speak against Theosophy in public if Olcott won't debate her
• November: "Indian Ghost Charms"; more on Giordano Bruno; The Impassible Lines of Demarcation Between Spiritualism And Theosophy" ("Finding nothing of interest to reward them...they one after another quietly withdrew"); Emma's own double (re-telling of the Rose Cross stalking episode); the death of Dr. Gabriel the occulist; "A Practical Lesson in Co-Operation" for "those working men who desire to alter the social arrangements of this country"
• December: "The Communistic Employment Of Labour"; spiritualism in western India; more Fox sisters recantation dissection; "devil and ghost worsjip in western India"; a Christmas story from Emma;the second annual census of societies.

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