This remarkable script purports to be produced under the
direct inspiration of Apollonius of Tyana. Apollonius was almost a
contemporary of Christ, though according to his biograpfer Philostratus he
lived to be more than hundred years old, dying in the reign of Nerva.
Philostratus He had the reputation of being the greatest philosopher and
thaumaturgist of his age. That being so, one would imagine that
the difference would be clear if an English lady, perfectly ignorant of
philosophy or of Apollonius, were to take his place, especially as her
script is written off without pause or emendation. I venture to say
that is no such difference and that this contribution to human
knowledge is in all ways worthy of one of the greatest minds that ever
functioned upon earth. Of course it would be easi to pick a sentence
here or a sentence there which would make such criticism seem
exaggerated, but I am alluding to the massive general effect of the
book- an effect so loftly that it would take a considerable
contemporary brain to canc. appreciate it fully. Yet canc. Apollonius
is conscious that it falls short of his true knowkedge, and he says
“I cannot pour the eternal wisdom of the cosmos into a vessel of
flesh and blood, but, as I am enabled, thus I do.”
The book [Nuctemeron] can I think stand or fall on its own
internal evidence of authorship. We may fairly ask 'If it
is impossible that this scribe [Marjorie Livingston] really wrote it, then who did?' Vague
talk of the Unconscious self will not help us. Canc. You cannot
try to explain the inexplicable There is the document. Does it correspond
with the alleged author; or is it the unaided work of an English
lady? There is I am told some extraneous corroboration, messages
received independently through other mediums. But the book itself
is its own best proof of a high external imperative.
Arthur Conan Doyle
