CHAPTER XIV.

THROUGH STORM TO PEACE.
OUT of all this turmoil and stress rose a Brother- hood that had in it the promise of a fairer day. Mr. Stead and I had become close friends — he Christian, I Atheist, burning with one common love for man, one common hatred against oppression. And so in Our Corner for February, 1888, I wrote : —
"Lately there has been dawning on the minds of men far apart in questions of theology, the idea of founding a new Brotherhood, in which service of Man should take the place erstwhile given to service of God — a brotherhood in which work should be worship and love should be baptism, in which none should be regarded as alien who was willing to work for human good. One day as I was walking towards Millbank Gaol with the Rev. S. D. Headlam, on the way to liberate a prisoner, I said to him : * Mr. Headlam, we ought to have a new Church, which should include all who have the common ground of faith in and love for man.' And a little later I found that my friend Mr. W. ^T. Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, had long been brooding over a similar thought, and
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wondering whether men ' might not be persuaded to be as earnest about making this world happy as they are over saving their souls.' The teaching of social duty, the upholding of social righteousness, the build- ing up of a true commonwealth — such would be among the aims of the Church of the future. Is thcihope too fair for realisation .? Is the winning of such beatific vision yet once more the dream of the enthusiast ? But surely the one fact that persons so deeply differing in theological creeds as those who have been toiling for the last three months to aid and relieve the oppressed, can work in absolute harmony side by side for the one end — surely this proves that there is a bond which is stronger than our antagonisms, a unity which is deeper than the speculative theories which divide."
How unconsciously I was marching towards the Theosophy which was to become the glory of my life, groping blindly in the darkness for that very brother- hood, definitely formulated on these very lines by those Elder Brothers of our race, at whose feet I was so soon to throw myself. How deeply this longing for some- thing loftier than I had yet found had wrought itself into my life, how strong the conviction was growing that there was something to be sought to which the service of man was the road, may be seen in the following passage from the same art:icle : —
" It has been thought that in these days of factories and of tramways, of shoddy, and of adulteration, that all life must tread with even rhythm of measured foot- steps, and that the glory of the ideal could no longer glow over the greyness of a modern horizon. But
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signs are not awanting that the breath of the older heroism is beginning to stir men's breasts, and that the passion for justice and for liberty, which thrilled through the veins of the world's greatest in the past, and woke our pulses to responsive throb, has not yet died wholly out of the hearts of men. Still the quest of the Holy Grail exercises its deathless fascination, but the seekers no longer raise eyes to heaven, nor search over land and sea, for they know that it waits them in the suffering at their doors, that the consecra- tion of the holiest is on the agonising masses of the poor and the despairing, the cup is crimson with the blood of the
" ' People, the grey-grown speechless Christ.'
... If there be a faith that can remove the mountains of ignorance and evil, it is surely that faith in the ultimate triumph of Right in the final enthronement of Justice, which alone makes life worth the living, and which gems the blackest cloud of depression with the rainbow- coloured arch of an immortal hope."
As a step towards bringing about some such union of those ready to work for man, Mr. Stead and I pro- jected the Link^ a halfpenny weekly, the spirit of which was described in its motto, taken from Victor Hugo : *' The people are silence. I will be the advocate of this silence. I will speak for the dumb. I will speak of the small to the great and of the feeble to the strong. ... I will speak for all the despairing silent ones. I will interpret this stammering ; I will interpret the grumblings, the murmurs, the tumults of crowds, the
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complaints ill-pronounced, and all these cries of beasts that, through ignorance and through suffering, man is forced to utter ... I will be the Word of the People. I will be the bleeding mouth whence the gag is snatched out. I will say everything." It announced its object to be the " building up " of a " New Church, dedi- cated to the service of man,'* and " what we want to do is to establish in every village and in every street some man or woman who will sacrifice time and labour as systematically and as cheerfully in the temporal service of man as others do in what they believe to be the service of God." Week after week we issued our little paper, and it became a real light in the darkness. There the petty injustices inflicted on the poor found voice ; there the starvation wages paid to women found exposure ; there sweating was brought to public notice. A finisher of boots paid 2s. 6d. per dozen pairs and '• find your own polish and thread " ; women working for loj hours per day, making shirts — *' fancy best " — at from lod. to 3s. per dozen, finding their own cotton and needles, paying for gas, towel, and tea (compulsory), earning from 4s. to los. per week for the most part ; a mantle finisher 2s, 2d. a week, out of which 6d. for materials ; " respectable hard-working woman " tried for attempted suicide, "driven to rid herself of life from want." Another part of our work was defending people from unjust landlords, exposing workhouse scandals, enforcing the Employers' Liability Act, Charles Bradlaugh's Truck Act, forming " Vigilance Circles" whose members kept watch in their own district over cases of cruelty to children, extortion.
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Insanitary workshops, sweating, &c., reporting each case to me. Into this work came Herbert Burrows, who had joined hands with me over the Trafalgar Square defence, and who wrote some noble articles in the Link. A man loving the people with passionate devotion, hating oppression and injustice with equal passion, working himself with remorseless energy, breaking his heart over wrongs he could not remedy. His whole character once came out in a sentence when he was lying delirious and thought himself dying : " Tell the people how I have loved them always."
In our crusade for the poor we worked for the dockers. " To-morrow morning, in London alone 20,000 to 25,000 adult men," wrote Sidney Webb, " will fight like savages for permission to labour in the docks, for /\d. an hour, and one-third of them will fight in vain, and be turned workless away." We worked for children's dinners. " If we insist on these children bein^- educated, is it not necessary that they shall be fed ? If not, we waste on them knowledge they cannot assimilate, and torture many of them to death. Poor waifs of humanity, we drive them into the school and bid them learn ; and the pitiful,, wistfial eyes question us why we inflict this strange new suffering, and bring into their dim lives this new pang. ' Why not leave us alone .? * ask the pathetically patient little faces. Why not, indeed, since for these child martyrs of the slums. Society has only formulas, not food." We cried out against " cheap goods," that meant " sweated and therefore stolen goods." "The ethics of buying should surely
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be simply enough. We want a particular thing, and we do not desire to obtain it either by begging or by robbery ; but if in becoming possessed of it, we neither beg it nor steal, we must give for it something equivalent in exchange ; so much of our neighbour's labour has been put into the thing we desire ; if we will not yield him fair equivalent for that labour, yet take his article, we defraud him, and if we are not willing to give that fair equivalent we have no right to become the owners of his product."
This branch of our work led to a big fight — a fight most happy in its results. At a meeting of the Fabian Society, Miss Clementina Black gave a capital lecture on Female Labour, and urged the formation of a Con- sumers' League, pledged only to buy from shops certificated " clean " from unfair wage. H. H. Cham- pion, in the discussion that followed, drew attention to the wages paid by Bryant & May (Limited), while paying an enormous dividend to their shareholders, so that the value of the original £^ shares was quoted at j^i8 7s. 6d. Herbert Burrows and I interviewed some of the girls, got lists of wages, of fines, &c. " A typical case is that of a girl of sixteen, a piece-worker ; she earns 4s, a week, and lives with a sister, employed by the same firm, who ' earns good money, as much as 8s. or 9s. a week.' Out of the earnings 2s. a week is paid for the rent of one room. The child lives only on bread and butter and tea, alike for breakfast and dinner, but related with dancing eyes that once a month she went to a meal where * you get coffee and bread and butter, and jam and marmalade, and lots of
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it.' " We published the fects under the title of " White Slavery in London," and called for a boycott of Bryant & May's matches. " It is time some one came and helped us," said two pale-faced girls to me ; and I asked : " Who will help ? Plenty of people wish well to any good cause ; but very few care to exert themselves to help it, and still fewer will risk anything in its support. ' Some one ought to do it, but why should I ? ' is the ever re-echoed phrase of weak-kneed amiability. ' Some one ought to do it, so why not I ? ' is the cry of some earnest servant of man, eagerly forward springing to face some perilous duty. Be- tween those two sentences lie whole centuries of moral evolution."
I was promptly threatened with an action for libel, but nothing came of it ; it was easier to strike at the girls, and a few days later Fleet Street was enlivened by the irruption of a crowd of match-girls, demanding Annie Besant. I couldn't speechify to match-girls in Fleet Street, so asked that a deputation should come and explain what they wanted. Up came three women and told their story : they had been asked to sign a paper certifying that they were well treated and con- tented, and that my statements were untrue ; they refused. "You had spoke up for us," explained one, " and we weren't going back on you." A girl, pitched on as their leader, was threatened with dismissal ; she stood firm ; next day she was discharged for some trifle, and they all threw down their work, some 1,400 of them, and then a crowd of them started off to me to ask what to do next. If we ever worked in our
33
lives, Herbert Burrows and I worked for the next fort- night. And a pretty hubbub we created ; we asked for money, and it came pouring in ; we registered the girls to receive strike pay, wrote articles, roused the clubs, held public meetings, got Mr. Bradlaugh to ask questions in Parliament, stirred up constituencies in which shareholders were members, till the whole country rang with the struggle. Mr. Frederick Charrington lent us a hall for registration, Mr. Sidney Webb and others moved the National Liberal Club to action ; we led a procession of the girls to the House of Commons, and interviewed, with a deputation of them, Members of Parliament who cross-questioned them. The girls behaved splendidly, stuck together, kept brave and bright all through. Mr. Hobart of the Social Democratic Federation, Messrs. Shaw, Bland, and Oliver, and Headlam of the Fabian Society, Miss Clementina Black, and many another helped in the heavy work. The London Trades Council finally consented to act as arbitrators and a satisfactory settlement was arrived at ; the girls went in to work, fines and deduc- tions were abolished, better wages paid ; the Match- makers' Union was established, still the strongest woman's Trades Union in England, and for years I acted as secretary, till, under press of other duties, I resigned, and my work was given by the girls to Mrs. Thornton Smith ; Herbert Burrows became, and still is, the treasurer. For a time there was friction between the Company and the Union, but it gradually dis- appeared under the influence of conmion sense on both sides, and we have found the manager ready to consider
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any just grievance and to endeavour to remove it, while the Company have been liberal supporters of the Working Women's Club at Bow, founded by H. P. Blavatsky.
The worst suffering of all was among the box- makers, thrown out of work by the strike, and they were hard to reach. Twopence-farthing per gross of boxes, and buy your own string and paste, is not wealth, but when the work went more rapid starvation came. Oh, those trudges through the lanes and alleys round Bethnal Green Junction late at night, when our day's work was over ; children lying about on shavings, rags, anything ; famine looking out of baby faces, out of women's eyes, out of the tremulous hands of men. Heart grew sick and eyes dim, and ever louder sounded the question, " Where is the cure for sorrow, what the way of rescue for the world ? "
In August I asked for a *' match-girls* drawing- room." " It will want a piano, tables for papers, for games, for light literature ; so that it may offer a bright, homelike reflige to these girls, who now have no real homes, no playground save the streets. It is not proposed to build an ' institution ' with stern and rigid discipline and enforcement of prim behaviour, but to open a home, filled with the genial atmosphere of cordial comradeship, and self-respecting freedom — the atmosphere so familiar to all who have grown up in the blessed shelter of a happy home, so strange, alas ! to too many of our East London girls." In the same month of August, two years later, H. P. Blavatsky opened such a home.
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338 ANNIE BESANT.
Then came a cry for help from South London, from tin-box makers, illegally fined, and in many cases grievously mutilated by the non-fencing of machinery ; then aid to shop assistants, also illegally fined ; legal defences by the score still continued ; a vigorous agitation for a free meal for children, and for fair wages to be paid by all public bodies ; work for the dockers and exposure of their wrongs ; a visit to the Cradley Heath chain-makers, speeches to them, writing for them ; a contest for the School Board for the Tower Hamlets division, and triumphant return at the head of the poll. Such were some of the ways in which the autumn days were spent, to say nothing of scores of lectures — Secularist, Labour, Socialist — and scores of articles written for the winning of daily bread. When the School Board work was added I felt that I had as much work as one woman's strength could do.
Thus was ushered in 1889, the to me never-to-be- forgotten year in which I found my way " Home," and had the priceless good fortune of meeting, and of becoming the pupil of, H. P. Blavatsky. Ever more and more had been growing on me the feeling that something more than I had was needed for the cure of social ills. The Socialist position sufficed on the economic side, but where to gain the inspiration, the motive, which should lead to the realisation of the Brotherhood of Man ? Our efforts to really organise bands of unselfish workers had failed. Much indeed had been done, but there was not a real movement of self-sacrificing devotion, in which men worked for Love's sake only, and asked but to give, not to take.
MEMIIKUS (II- TllK MATCIIMAKKUS INION.
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Where was the material for the nobler Social Order, where the hewn stones for the building of the Temple of Man ? A great despair would oppress me as I sought for such a movement and found it not.
Not only so ; but since 1886 there had been slowly growing up a conviction that my philosophy was not sufficient ; that life and mind were other than, more than, I had dreamed. Psychology was advancing with rapid strides ; hypnotic experiments were revealing unlooked-for complexities in human consciousness, strange riddles of multiplex personalities, and, most startling of all, vivid intensities of mental action when the brain, that should be the generator of thought, was reduced to a comatose state. Fact after fact came hurtling in upon me, demanding explanation I was incompetent to give. I studied the obscurer sides of consciousness, dreams, hallucinations, illusions, insanity. Into the darkness shot a ray of light — A. P. Sinnett's " Occult World," with its wonderfully suggestive letters, expounding not the supernatural but a nature under law, wider than I had dared to conceive. I added Spiritualism to my studies, experimenting pri- vately, finding the phenomena indubitable, but the spiritualistic explanation of them incredible. The phenomena of clairvoyance, clairaudience, thought- reading, were found to be real. Under all the rush of the outer life, already sketched, these questions were working in my mind, their answers were being dili- gently sought. I read a variety of books, but could find little in them that satisfied me. I experimented in various ways suggested in them, and got some (to me)
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curious results. I finally convinced myself that there was some hidden thing, some hidden power, and resolved to seek until; I found, and by the early spring of 1889 I had grown desperately determined to find at all hazards what I sought. At last, sitting alone in deep thought as I had become accustomed to do after the sun had set, filled with an intense but nearly hope- less longing to solve the riddle of life and mind, I heard a Voice that was later to become to me the holiest sound on earth, bidding me take courage for the light was near. A fortnight passed, and then Mr. Stead gave into my hands two large volumes. " Can you review these ? My young men all fight shy of them, but you are quite mad enough on these subjects to make something of them." I took the books ; they were the two volumes of "The Secret Doctrine," written by H. P. Blavatsky.
Home I carried my burden, and sat me down to read. As I turned over page after page the interest became absorbing; but how familiar it seemed; how my mind leapt forward to presage the conclusions, how natural it was, how coherent, how subtle, and yet how intelligible. I. was dazzled, blinded by the light in which disjointed facts were seen as parts of a mighty whole, and all my puzzles, riddles, problems, seemed to disappear. The effect was partially illusory in one sense, in that they all had to be slowly unravelled later, the brain gradually assimilating that which the swift intuition had grasped as truth. But the light had been seen, and in that flash of illumination I knew that the weary search was over and the very Truth was found.
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I wrote the review, and asked Mr. Stead for an introduction to the writer, and then sent a note asking to be allowed to call. I received the most cordial of notes, bidding me come, and in the soft spring evening Herbert Burrows and I — for his aspirations were as mine on this matter — walked from Notting Hill Station, wondering what we should meet, to the door of 17, Lansdowne Road. A pause, a swift passing through hall and outer room, through folding-doors thrown back, a figure in a large chair before a table, a voice, vibrant, compelling, " My dear Mrs. Besant, I have so long wished to see you," and I was standing with my hand in her firm grip, and looking for the first time in this life straight into the eyes of " H. P B." I was conscious of a sudden leaping forth of my heart — was it recognition ? — and then, I am ashamed to say, a fierce rebellion, a fierce withdrawal, as of some wild animal when it feels a mastering hand. I sat down, after some introductions that conveyed no ideas to me, and listened. She talked of travels, of various countries, easy brilliant talk, her eyes veiled, her exqui- sitely moulded fingers rolling cigarettes incessantly. Nothing special to record, no word of Occultism, nothing mysterious, a woman of the world chatting with her evening visitors. We rose to go, and for a moment the veil lifted, and two brilliant, piercing eyes met mine, and with a yearning throb in the voice : " Oh, my dear Mrs. Besant, if you would only come among us ! " I felt a well-nigh uncontrollable desire to bend down and kiss her, under the compulsion of that yearning voice, those compelling eyes, but with a
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flash of the old unbending pride and an inward jeer at my own folly, I said a commonplace polite good-bye, and turned away with some inanely courteous and evasive remark. " Child," she said to me long after- wards, " your pride is terrible ; you are as proud as Lucifer himself" But truly I think I never showed it to her again after that first evening, though it sprang up wrathfully in her defence many and many a time, until I learned the pettiness and the worthlessness of all criticism, and knew that the blind were objects of com- passion not of scorn.
Once again I went, and asked about the Theosophical Society, wishful to join, but fighting against it. For I saw, distinct and clear — with painful distinctness, indeed — what that joining would mean. I had largely con- quered public prejudice against me by my work on the London School Board, and a smoother road stretched before me, whereon effort to help should be praised not blamed. Was I to plunge into a new vortex of strife, and make myself a mark for ridicule — worse than hatred — and fight again the weary fight for an un- popular truth ? Must I turn against Materialism, and face the shame of publicly confessing that I had been wrong, misled by intellect to ignore the Soul ? Must I leave the army that had battled for me so bravely, the friends who through all brutality of social ostracism had held me dear and true ? And he, the strongest and truest friend of all, whose confidence I had shaken by my Socialism — must he suffer the pang of seeing his co-worker, his co-fighter, of whom he had been so proud, to whom he had been so generous, go over to
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the opposing hosts, and leave the ranks of Materialism? What would be the look in Charles Bradlaugh's eyes when I told him that I had become a Theosophist? The struggle was sharp and keen, but with none of the anguish of old days in it, for the soldier had now fought many fights and was hardened by many wounds. And so it came to pass that I went again to Lansdowne Road to ask about the Theosophical Society. H. P. Blavatsky looked at me piercingly for a moment. " Have you read the report about me of the Society for Psychical Research ^ " " No; I never heard of it, so far as I know." " Go and read it, and if, after reading it, you come back — well." And nothing more would she say on the subject, but branched ofF to her expe- riences in many lands.
I borrowed a copy of the Report, read and re-read it Quickly I saw how slender was the foundation on which the imposing structure was built. The continual assumptions on which conclusions were based ; the incredible character of the allegations ; and — most damning fact of all — the foul source from which the evidence was derived. Everything turned on the veracity of the Coulombs, and they were self-stamped as partners in the alleged frauds. Could I put such against the frank, fearless nature that I had caught a glimpse of, against the proud fiery truthfulness that shone at me from the clear, blue eyes, honest and fear- less as those of a noble child ? Was the writer of " The Secret Doctrine " this miserable impostor, this accomplice of tricksters, this foul and loathsome deceiver, this conjuror with trap-doors and sliding
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panels? I laughed aloud at the absurdity and flung the Report aside with the righteous scorn of an honest nature that knew its oWn kin when it met them, and shrank from the foulness and baseness of a lie. The next day saw me at the Theosophical Publishing Com- pany's office at 7, Duke Street, Adelphi, where Coun- tess Wachtmeister — one of the lealest of H. P. B.'s friends — was at work, and I signed an application to be admitted as fellow of the Theosophical Society.
On receiving my diploma I betook myself to Lans- downe Road, where I found H. P. B. alone. I went over to her, bent down and kissed her, but said no word. " You have joined the Society ? " " Yes." "You have read the report.?" "Yes." "Well.?" I knelt down before her and clasped her hands in mine, looking "Straight into her eyes, " My answer is, will you accept me as your pupil, and give me the honour of proclaiming you my teacher in the face of the world.? '* Her stern, set face softened, the unwonted gleam of tears sprang to her eyes ; then, with a dignity more than regal, she placed her hand upon my head. " You are a noble woman. May Master bless you."
From that day, the loth of May, 1889, until now — two years three and half months after she left her body, on May 8, 1891 — my faith in her has never wavered, my trust in her has never been shaken. I gave her my faith on an imperious intuition, I proved her true day after day in closest intimacy living by her side ; and I speak of her with the reverence due from a pupil to a teacher who never failed her, with the passionate grati- tude which, in our School, is the natural meed of the
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one who opens the gateway and points out the path. " Folly ! fanaticism ! " scoffs the Englishman of the nine- teenth century. Be it so. I have seen, and I can wait. I have been told that I plunged headlong into Theosophy and let my enthusiasm carry me away. I think the charge is true, in so far as the decision was swiftly taken ; but it had been long led up to, and realised the dreams of childhood on the higher planes of intellectual womanhood. And let me here say that more than all I hoped for in that first plunge has been realised, and a certainty of knowledge has been gained on doctrines seen as true as that swift flash of illumina- tion. I know^ by personal experiment, that the Soul exists, and that my Soul, not my body, is myself ; that it can leave the body at will ; that it can, disembodied, reach and learn from living human teachers, and bring back and impress on the physical brain that which it has learned ; that this process of transferring conscious- ness from one range of being, as it were, to another, is a very slow process, during which the body and brain are gradually correlated with the subtler form which is essentially that of the Soul, and that my own experience of it, still so imperfect, so fragmentary, when compared with the experience of the highly trained, is like the first struggles of a child learning to speak compared with the perfect oratory of the practised speaker ; that consciousness, so far from being dependent on the brain, is more active when freed from the gross forms of matter than when en- cased within them ; that the great Sages spoken of by H. P. Blavatsky exist ; that they wield powers and
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possess knowledge before which our control of Nature and knowledge of her ways is but as child's play. All this, and much more, have I learned, and I am but a pupil of low grade, as it were in the infant class ot the Occult School ; so the first plunge has been successful, and the intuition has been justified. This same path of knowledge that I am treading is open to all others who will pay the toll demanded at the gate- way— and that toll is willingness to renounce everything for the sake of spiritual truth, and willingness to give all the truth that is won to the service of man, keeping back no shred for self.
On June 23rd, in a review of " The Secret Doctrine " in the National Reformer^ the following passages occur, and show how swiftly some of the main points of the teaching had been grasped. (There is a blunder in the statement that of the seven modifications of Matter Science knows only four, and till lately knew only three; these four are sub-states only, sub-divisions of the lowest plane.)
After saying that the nineteenth-century Englishman would be but too likely to be repelled if he only skimmed the book, I went on : " With telescope and with microscope, with scalpel and with battery, Western Science interrogates nature, adding fact to fact, storing experience after experience, but coming ever to gulfs unfathomable by its plummets, to heights unscalable by its ladders. Wide and masterful in its answers to the ' How ? ' the * Why ? ' ever eludes it, and causes remain enwrapped in gloom. Eastern Science uses as its scientific instrument the penetrating faculties of the
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mind alone, and regarding the material plane as Maya — illusion — seeks in the mental and spiritual planes of being the causes of the material effects. There, too, is the only reality ; there the true existence of which the visible universe is but the shadow.
" It is clear that from such investigations some further mental equipment is necessary than that normally afforded by the human body. And here comes the parting of the ways between East and West. For the study of the material universe, our five senses, aided by the instruments invented by Science, may suffice. For all we can hear and see, taste and handle, these accustomed servitors, though often blundering, are the best available guides to know- ledge. But it lies in the nature of the case that they are useless when the investigation is to be into modes of existence which cannot impress themselves on our nerve-ends. For instance, what we know as colour is the vibration frequency of etheric waves striking on the retina of the eye, between certain definite limits — 759 trillions of blows fi-om the maximum, 436 trillions from the minimum — these waves give rise in us to the sensation which the brain translates into colour. (Why the 436 trillion blows at one end of a nerve become *Red' at the other end we do not know; we chronicle the fact but cannot explain it.) But our capacity to respond to the vibration cannot limit the vibrational capacity of the ether ; to us the higher and lower rates of vibration do not exist, but if our sense of vision were more sensitive we should see where now we are blind. Following this line of
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thought we realise that matter may exist in forms unknown to us, in modifications to which our senses are unable to respond. Now steps in the Eastern Sage and says : ' That which you say may be, is ; we have developed and cultivated senses as much superior to yours as your eye is superior to that of the jelly-fish ; we have evolved mental and spiritual faculties which enable us to investigate on the higher planes of being with as much certainty as you are investigating on the physical plane ; there is nothing supernatural in the business, any more than your knowledge is supernatural, though much above that accessible to the fish ; we do not speculate on these higher forms of existence ; we know them by personal study, just as you know the fauna and flora of your world. The powers we possess are not supernatural, they are latent in every human being, and will be evolved as the race progresses. All that we have done is to evolve them more rapidly than our neighbours, by a procedure as open to you as it was to us. Matter is everywhere, but it exists in seven modifications of which you only know four, and until lately only knew three ; in those higher forms reside the causes of which you see the effects in the lower, and to know these causes you must develop the capacity to take cognisance of the higher planes.' "
Then followed a brief outline of the cycle of evolu- tion, and I went on : *' What part does man play in this vast drama of a universe ? Needless to say, he is not the only living form in a Cosmos, which for the most part is uninhabitable by him. As Science has
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shown living forms everywhere on the material plane, races in each drop of water, life throbbing in every leaf and blade, so the ' Secret Doctrine * points to living forms on higher planes of existence, each suited to its environment, till all space thrills with life, and nowhere is there death, but only change. Amid these myriads are some evolving towards humanity, some evolving away from humanity as we know it, divesting themselves of its grosser parts. For man is regarded as a seven- fold being, four of these parts belonging to the animal body, and perishing at, or soon after, death ; while three form his higher self, his true individuality, and these persist and are immortal. These form the Ego, and it is this which passes through many incarnations, learning life's lesson as it goes, working out its own redemption within the limits of an inexorable law, sowing seeds of which it ever reaps the harvest, building its own fate with tireless fingers, and finding nowhere in the measureless time and space around it any that can lift for it one weight it has created, one burden it has gathered, unravel for it one tangle it has twisted, close for it one gulf it has digged."
Then after noting the approaches of Western Science to Eastern, came the final words : " It is of curious interest to note how some of the latest theories seem to catch glimpses of the Occult Doctrines, as though Science were standing on the very threshold of know- ledge which shall make all her past seem small. Already her hand is trembling towards the grasp of forces beside which all those now at her command are insignificant. How soon will her grip fasten on them ?
350 ANNIE BESANT.
Let us hope not until social order has been trans- formed, lest they should only give more to those who have, and leave the wretched still wretcheder by force of contrast. Knowledge used by selfishness widens the gulf that divides man fi-om man and race from race, and we may well shrink from the idea of new powers in Nature being yoked to the car of Greed. Hence the wisdom of those * Masters,' in whose name Madame Blavatsky speaks, has ever denied the knowledge which is power until Love's lesson has been learned, and has given only into the hands of the selfless the control of those natural forces which, misused, would wreck society."
This review, and the public announcement, demanded by honesty, that I had joined the Theosophical Society, naturally raised somewhat of a storm of criticism, and the National Reformer of June 30th contained the following : " The review of Madame Blavatsky's book in the last National Reformer^ and an announcement in the Star^ have brought me several letters on the subject of Theosophy. I am asked for an explanation as to what Theosophy is, and as to my own opinion on Theosophy — the word * theosoph ' is old, and was used among the Neo-platonists. From the dictionary its new meaning appears to be, ' one who claims to have a knowledge of God, or of the laws of nature by means of internal illumination.' An Atheist certainly cannot be a Theosophist. A Deist might be a Theosophist. A Monist cannot be a Theosophist. Theosophy must at least involve Dualism. Modern Theosophy, according to Madame Blavatsky, as set out in last
THROUGH STORM TO PEACE. 351
week's issue, asserts much that I do not believe, and alleges some things that, to me, are certainly not true. I have not had the opportunity of reading Madame Blavatsky's two volumes, but I have read during the past ten years many publications from the pen of her- self. Colonel Olcott, and of other Theosophists. They appear to me to have sought to rehabilitate a kind of Spiritualism in Eastern phraseology. I think many of their allegations utterly erroneous, and their reasonings wholly unsound. I very deeply regret indeed that my colleague and co-worker has, with somewhat of sudden- ness, and without any interchange of ideas with myself, adopted as facts matters which seem to me to be as unreal as it is possible for any fiction to be. My regret is greater as I know Mrs. Besant's devotion to any course she believes to be true. I know that she will always be earnest in the advocacy of any views she undertakes to defend, and I look to possible developments of her Theosophic views with the very gravest misgiving. The editorial policy of this paper is unchanged, and is directly antagonistic to all forms of Theosophy. I would have preferred on this subject to have held my peace, for the public disagreeing with Mrs. Besant on her adoption of Socialism has caused pain to both ; but on reading her article and taking the public announcement made of her having joined the Theosophical organisation, I owe it to those who look to me for guidance to say this with clearness.
"Charles Bradlaugh."
" It is not possible for me here to state fully my
352 ANNIE BESANT.
reasons for joining the Theosophical Society, the three objects of which are : To found a Universal Brother- hood without distinction of race or creed ; to forward the study of Aryan literature and philosophy ; to investigate unexplained laws of nature and the physical powers latent in man. On matters of religious opinion the members are absolutely free. The founders of the society deny a personal God, and a somewhat subtle form of Pantheism is taught as the Theosophic view of the universe, though even this is not forced on members of the society. I have no desire to hide the fact that this form of Pantheism appears to me to promise solution of some problems, especially problems in psychology, which Atheism leaves untouched.
"Annie Besant."
Theosophy, as its students well know, so far from involving Dualism, is based on the One, which becomes Two on manifestation, just as Atheism posits one existence, only cognisable in the duality force and matter, and as philosophic — though not popular — Theism teaches one Deity whereof are spirit and matter. Mr. Bradlaugh's temperate disapproval was not copied in its temperance by some other Freethought leaders, and Mr. Foote especially distinguished himself by the bitterness of his attacks. In the midst of the whirl I was called away to Paris to attend, with Herbert Burrows, the great Labour Congress held there from ^ July 15 th to July 20th, and spent a day or two at Fontainebleau with H. P. Blavatsky, who had gone abroad for a few weeks' rest. There I found her
THROUGH STORM TO PEACE. 353
translating the wonderful fragments from " The Book of the Golden Precepts," now so widely known under the name of " The Voice of the Silence." She wrote it swiftly, without any material copy before her, and in the evening made me read it aloud to see if the "English was decent." Herbert Burrows was there, and Mrs. Candler, a staunch American Theosophist, and we sat round H. P. B. while I read. The translation was in perfect and beautiful English, flow- ing and musical ; only a word or two could we find to alter, and she looked at us like a startled child, wondering at our praises — praises that any one with the literary sense would endorse if they read that exquisite prose poem.
A little earlier in the same day I had asked her as to the agencies at work in producing the taps so constantly heard at Spiritualistic Seances. " You don't use spirits to produce taps," she said ; " see here." She put her hand over my head, not touching it, and I heard and felt slight taps on the bone of my skull, each sending a little electric thrill down the spine. She then care- fully explained how such taps were producible at any point desired by the operator, and how interplay of the currents to which they were due might be caused otherwise than by conscious human volition. It was in this fashion that she would illustrate her verbal teachings, proving by experiment the statements made as to the existence of subtle forces controllable by the trained mind. The phenomena all belonged to the scientific side of her teaching, and she never committed the folly of claiming authority for her philosophic
23
354 ANNIE BESANT.
doctrines on the ground that she was a wonder-worker. And constantly she would remind us that there was no such thing as " miracle " ; that all the phenomena she had produced were worked by virtue of a knowledge of nature deeper than that of average people, and by the force of a well-trained mind and will ; some of them were what she would describe as " psychological tricks," the creation of images by force of imagination, and in pressing them on others as a " collective halluci- nation " ; others, such as the moving of solid articles, either by an astral hand projected to draw them towards her, or by using an Elemental ; others by reading in the Astral Light, and so on. But the proof of the reality of her mission from those whom she spoke of as Masters lay not in these comparatively trivial physical and mental phenomena, but in the splendour of her heroic endurance, the depth of her knowledge, the selflessness of her character, the lofty spirituality of her teaching, the untiring passion of her devotion, the incessant ardour of her work for the enlightening of men. It was these, and not her phenomena, that won for her our faith and confidence — we who lived beside her, knowing her daily life — and we gratefully accepted her teaching not because she claimed any authority, but because it woke in us powers, the possibility of which in ourselves we had not dreamed of, energies of the Soul that demonstrated their own existence.
Returning to London from Paris, it became necessary to make a very clear and definite presentment of my change of views, and in the Reformer of August 4th I find the following : " Many statements are being
THROUGH STORM TO PEACE. 355
made just now about me and my beliefs, some of which are absurdly, and some of which are maliciously, untrue. I must ask my friends not to give credence to them. It would not be fair to my friend Mr. Bradlaugh to ask him to open the columns of this Journal to an exposition of Theosophy from my pen, and so bring about a long controversy on a subject which would not interest the majority of the readers of the National Reformer. This being so I cannot here answer the attacks made on me. I kdi^ however, that the party with which I have worked for so long has a right to demand of me some explanation of the step I have taken, and I am therefore preparing a pamphlet dealing fully with the question. Further, I have arranged with Mr. R. O. Smith to take as subject of the lectures to be delivered by me at the Hall of Science on August 4th and nth *Why I became a Theosophist.' Meanwhile I think that my years of service in the ranks of the Freethought party give me the right to ask that I should not be con- demned unheard, and I even venture to suggest, in view of the praises bestowed on me by Freethinkers in the past, that it is possible that there may be something to be said, from the intellectual standpoint, in favour of Theosophy. The caricatures of it which have appeared from some Freethinkers' pens represent it about as accurately as the Christian Evidence carica- tures of Atheism represent that dignified philosophy of life ; and, remembering how much they are them- selves misrepresented, I ask them to wait before they judge."
The lectures were delivered, and were condensed
356 ANNIE BESANT.
into a pamphlet bearing the same title, which has had a very great circulation. It closed as follows : —
" There remains a great stumblingblock in the minds of many Freethinkers which is certain to prejudice them against Theosophy, and which offers to oppo- nents a cheap subject for sarcasm — the assertion that there exist other living beings than the men and animals found on our own globe. It may be well for people who at once turn away when such an assertion is made to stop and ask themselves whether they really and seriously believe that throughout this mighty uni- verse, in which our little planet is but as a tiny speck of sand in the Sahara, this one planet only is inhabited by living things ? Is all the universe dumb save for our voices ? eyeless save for our vision ? dead save for our life? Such a preposterous belief was well enough in the days when Christianity regarded our world as the centre of the universe, the human race as the one for which the Creator had deigned to die. But now that we are placed in our proper position, one among countless myriads of worlds, what ground is there for the preposterous conceit which arrogates as ours all sentient existence? Earth, air,. water, all are teeming with living things suited to their environment ; our globe is overflowing with life. But the moment we pass in thought beyond our atmosphere everything is to be changed. Neither reason nor analogy support such a supposition. It was one of Bruno's crimes that he dared to teach that other worlds than ours were inhabited ; but he was wiser than the monks who burned him. All the Theosophists aver is that each
THROUGH STORM TO PEACE. 357
phase of matter has living things suited to it, and that all the universe is pulsing with life. * Superstition ! ' shriek the bigoted. It is no more superstition than the belief in Bacteria, or in any other living thing invisible to the ordinary human eye. * Spirit * is a misleading word, for, historically, it connotes immate- riality and a supernatural kind of existence, and the Theosophist believes neither in the one nor the other. With him all living things act in and through a mate- rial basis, and * matter ' and ' spirit * are not found dissociated. But he alleges that matter exists in states other than those at present known to science. To deny this is to be about as sensible as was the Hindu prince who denied the existence of ice because water, in his experience, never became solid. Refusal to believe until proof is given is a rational position ; denial of all outside of our own limited experience is absurd.
" One last word to my Secularist friends. If you say to me, ' Leave our ranks,' I will leave them ; I force myself on no party, and the moment I feel myself unwelcome I will go.^ It has cost me pain enough and to spare to admit that the Materialism from which I hoped all has failed me, and by such admission to bring on myself the disapproval of some of my nearest friends. But here, as at other times in my life, I dare not purchase peace with a lie. An imperious necessity forces me to speak the truth, as I see it, whether the speech please or displease, whether
* I leave these words as they were written in 1889. I resigned my office in the N.S.S. in 1890, feeling that the N.S.S. was so identified with Materialism that it had no longer place for me.
358 ANNIE BESANT.
it bring praise or blame. That one loyalty to Truth I must keep stainless, whatever friendships fail me or human ties be broken. She may lead me into the wilderness, yet I must follow her ; she may strip me of all love, yet I must pursue her ; though she slay me, yet will I trust in her ; and I ask no other epitaph on my tomb but
"'SHE TRIED TO FOLLOW TRUTH.'"
Meanwhile, with this new controversy on my hands, the School Board work went on, rendered possible, I ought to say, by the generous assistance of friends unknown to me, who sent me ^^150 a year during the last year and a half So also went on the vigorous Socialist work, and the continual championship of struggling labour movements, prominent here being the organisation of the South LoYidon fur-pullers into a union, and the aiding of the movement for shortening the hours of tram and 'bus men, the meetings for which had to be held after midnight. The feeding and clothing of children also occupied much time and attention, for the little ones in my district were, thousands of them, desperately poor. My studies I pursued as best I could, reading in railway carriages, tramcars, omnibuses, and stealing hours for listening to H. P. B. by shortening the nights.
In October, Mr. Bradlaugh's shaken strength re- ceived its death-blow, though he was to live yet another fifteen months. He collapsed suddenly under a most severe attack of congestion and lay in imminent peril, devotedly nursed by his only remaining child,
THROUGH STORM TO PEACE. 359
Mrs. Bonner, his elder daughter having died the preceding autumn. Slowly he struggled back to life, after four weeks in bed, and, ordered by his physician to take rest and if possible a sea voyage, he sailed for India on November 28th, to attend the National Congress, where he was enthusiastically acclaimed as " Member for India."
In November I argued a libel suit, brought by me against the Rev. Mr. Hoskyns, vicar of Stepney, who had selected some vile passages from a book which was not mine and had circulated them as representing my views, during the School Board election of 1888. I had against me the Solicitor-General, Sir Edward Clarke, at the bar, and Baron Huddleston on the bench ; both counsel and judge did their best to browbeat me and to use the coarsest language, en- deavouring to prove that by advocating the limitation of the family I had condemned chastity as a crime. Five hours of brutal cross-examination left my denial of such teachings unshaken, and even the pleadings of the judge for the clergyman, defending his parishioners against an unbeliever and his laying down as law that the statement was privileged, did not avail to win a verdict. The jury disagreed, not, as one of them told me afterwards, on the question of the libel, but on some feeling that a clergyman ought not to be mulcted in damages for his over-zeal in defence of his faith against the ravening wolf of unbelief, while others, regarding the libel as a very cruel one, would not agree to a verdict that did not carry substantial damages. I did not carry the case to a new trial, feeling that it was not
36o ANNIE BESANT.
worth while to waste time over it further, my innocence of the charge itself having been fully proved.
Busily the months rolled on, and early in the year 1890 H. P. Blavatsky had given to her ^T 1,000, to use in her discretion for human service, and if she thought well, in the service of women. After a good deal of discussion she fixed on the establishment of a club in East London for working girls, and with her approval Miss Laura Cooper and I hunted for a suitable place. Finally we fixed on a very, large and old house, 193, Bow Road, and some months went in its complete renovation and the building of a hall attached to it. On August 15th it was opened by Madame Blavatsky, and dedicated by her to the brightening of the lot of hardworking and underpaid girls. It has nobly ful- filled its mission for the last three years. Very tender was H. P. B.'s heart to human suffering, especially to that of women and children. She was very poor towards the end of her earthly life, having spent all on her mission, and refusing to take time from her Theosophical work to write for the Russian papers which were ready to pay highly for her pen. But her slender purse was swiftly emptied when any human pain that money could relieve came in her way. One day I wrote a letter to a comrade that was shown to her, about some little children to -whom I had carried a quantity of country flowers, and I had spoken of their faces pinched with want. The following characteristic note came to me : —
"My Dearest Friend, — I have just read your
THROUGH STORM TO PEACE. 361
letter to and my heart is sick for the poor little
ones ! Look here ; I have but 30s. of my own money of which I can dispose (for as you know I am a pauper, and proud of it), but I want you to take them and not say a word. This may buy thirty dinners for thirty poor little starving wretches, and I may feel happier for thirty minutes at the thought. Now don't say a word, and do it ; take them to those unfortunate babies who loved your flowers and felt happy. For- give your old uncouth frieod, useless in this world !
" Ever yours,
" H. P. B.*'
It was this tenderness of hers that led us, after she had gone, to found the " H . P. B. Home for little children," and one day we hope to fulfil her expressed desire that a large but homelike Refuge for outcast children should be opened under the auspices of the Theosophical Society.
The lease of 17, Lansdowne Road expiring in the early summer of 1890, it was decided that 19, Avenue Road should be turned into the headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Europe. A hall was built for the meetings of the Blavatsky Lodge — the lodge founded by her — and various alterations made. In July her staff of workers was united under one roof; thither came Archibald and Bertram Keightley, who had devoted themselves to her service years before, and the Countess Wachtmeister, who had thrown aside all the luxuries of wealth and of high social rank to give all to the cause she served and the friend she loved
362 ANNIE BESANT.
with deep and faithful loyalty ; and Geofge Mead, her secretary and earnest disciple, a man of strong brain and strong character, a fine scholar and untiring worker ; thither, too, Claude Wright, most lovable of Irishmen, with keen insight underlying a bright and sunny nature, careless on the surface, and Walter Old, dreamy and sensitive, a born psychic, and, like many such, easily swayed by those around him ; Emily Kislingbury also, a studious and earnest woman ; Isabel Cooper Oakley, intuitional and studious, a rare combination, and a most devoted pupil in Occult studies ; James Pryse, an American, than whom none is more devoted, bringing practical knowledge to the help of the work, and making possible the large development of our printing department. These, with myself, were at first the resident stafl^, Miss Cooper and Herbert Burrows, who were also identified with the work, being prevented by other obligations from living always as part of the household.
The rules of the house were — and are — very simple, but H. P. B. insisted on great regularity of life ; we breakfasted at 8 a.m., worked till lunch at i, then again till dinner at 7. Aiter dinner the outer work for the Society was put aside, and we gathered in H. P. B.'s room where we would sit talking over plans, receiving instructions, listening to her explana- tion of knotty points. By 12 midnight all the lights had to be extinguished. My public work took me away for many hours, unfortunately for myself, but such was the regular run of our busy lives. She herself wrote incessantly ; always suffering, but of
THROUGH STORM TO PEACE. 363
indomitable will, she drove her body through its tasks, merciless to its weaknesses and its pains. Her pupils she treated very variously, adapting herself with nicest accuracy to their differing natures ; as a teacher she was marvellously patient, explaining a thing over and over again in different fashions, until sometimes after prolonged failure she would throw herself back in her chair : " My God ! " (the easy " Mon Dieu " of the . foreigner) '* am I a fool that you can't understand .'' Here, So-and-so " — to some one on whose countenance a faint gleam of comprehension was discernible — " tell these flapdoodles of the ages what I mean." With vanity, conceit, pretence of knowledge, she was merci- less, if the pupil were a promising one ; keen shafts of irony would pierce the sham. With some she would get very angry, lashing them out of their lethargy with fiery scorn ; and in truth she made herself a mere instrument for the training of her pupils, careless what they, or any one else thought of her, providing that the resulting benefit to them was secured. And we, who lived around her, who in closest intimacy watched her day after day, we bear witness to the un- selfish beauty of her lite, the nobility of her character, and we lay at her feet our most reverent gratitude for knowledge gained, lives purified, strength developed. O noble and heroic Soul, whom the outside purblind world misjudges, but whom your pupils partly saw, never through lives and deaths shall we repay the debt of gratitude we owe to you.
And thus I came through storm to peace, not to the peace of an untroubled sea of outer life, which no
364 ANNIE BESANT.
strong soul can crave, but to an inner peace that outer troubles may not avail to ruffle — a peace which belongs to the eternal not to the transitory, to the depths not to the shallows of life. It carried me scatheless through the terrible spring of 1891, when death struck down Charles Bradlaugh in the plenitude of his usefulness, and unlocked the gateway into rest for H. P. Blavatsky. Through anxieties and responsibilities heavy and nume- rous it has borne me ; every strain makes it stronger ; every trial makes it serener ; every assault leaves it more radiant. Quiet confidence has taken the place of doubt ; a strong security the place of anxious dread. In life, through death, to life, I am but the servant of the great Brotherhood, and those on whose heads but for a moment the touch of the Master has rested in blessing can never again look upon the world save through eyes made luminous with the radiance of the Eternal Peace.
PEACE TO ALL BEINGS.
LIST OF BOOKS QUOTED.
"Autobiography," J. S. Mill, 184
"Christian Creed, The," 173
" Freethinkers' Text-book," 144
"Gospel of Atheism, The," 145, 152, 158, 168
"Gospels of Christianity and Freethought," 164
"Life, Death, and Immortality," 147, 149, 150
Link, The, 333
National Reformer, The, 79, 80, 280, 346-50, 354
Our Corner, 286, 329
Theosophist, The, 282, 288
"True Basis of Morality," 156
" Why I do Not Believe in God," 146
"World without God," 165, 169, 172
INDEX.
Affirmation Bill brought in, zij
rejected, 299
Atheist, position as an, 139 Authorship, first attempts at, 84.
Bennett, D. M., prosecution of, 232 Blasphemy prosecution, 283, 287, 289 Blavatsky, H. P., 189, 337
, meeting with, 341
*' Bloody Sunday," 324.
Bradlaugh, Charles, first meeting with, 135
as friend, 137
in the Clock Tower, 258
and the scene in the House, 265
V, Newdigatej result, 289
prosecuted for blasphemy, 283, 289
Confirmation, 51
Daughter, application to remove, 213
, denied access to, 219
Death of father, 21
of mother, 126
Doubt the first, 58
"Elements of Social Science," 196
Engagement, 69
Essay, first Freethought, 113
Fenii-.ns, the, 73
Fleet hir.ker prosecution, 183, 287, 296
Freethought Publishing Company, the, 28 5
Harrow, life at, 30
Hoskyns, Rev. £., libel action against, 359
Knowlton pamphlet, the, 205
prosecution, 208
trial, 210
"Law of Population, The," 212, 220 " Law and Liberty League," the, 326 Lecture, the first, 18 r Linnell, the Trafalgar Square victim, 326
, funeral of, 327
Link, founding of the, 331
Malthusian League formed, 229 Malthusianism and Theosophy, 24.0 Marriage, 70
tie broken, 1 10
Match-girls' strike, 335 Union, established, 336
National Rfformer, the, 1 34
, first contribution to, 180
, resignation of co-editorship, 320
National Secular Society joined, 135
, elected vice-president of, 202
, resignation of, 357
Northampton Election, 183 struggle, 253, 3^4
Oaths Bill, the, 314, 32} Our Corner, 28 6, 314
Z<>}
368
INDEX.
Political Opinions, 174 Pusey, Dr., 109, 284
Russian politics, 311
Scientific work, 249 School Board, election to, 338 Scott, Thomas, 112, 127 Socialism, 299
, debate on, between Messrs. Brad- laugh and Hyndman, 301 Socialist debates, 318, 319 Socialists and open-air speaking, 312
Defence Association, 323
Stanley, Dean, 23, 122
Theosophical Society, the, 280
, joined, 344
headquarters established, 361
Theosophy and Charles Bradlaugh, 350
the National Secular Society, 357
Trafalgar Square, closing of, to the public,
Truelove, Edward, trial of, 225 Voysey, Rev. Charles, 106 Working Women's Club, 337, 360
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OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
" This is a shilling shocker, and no mistake, but one far superior to those which usually come under that title. Whatever Madame Blavatsky may or may not have been, there is no doubt that she was a wonderful writer. Although some of these stories are too horrible for anything, they all bear the distinctive mark of their author's genius. Nothing that Edgar Allan Poe ever wrote can excel the horror of the story of clairvoyance, with its awful illustration of the torture of eternity. It is impossible to read it without a shudder, for through it we get a ghmpse of a region in which it is possible to conceive of hell." — Review of Reviews.
" The late Madame Blavatsky in the rS/e of a writer of a shilling shocker is something new. Yet she plays the part in the book called Nightmare Tales to perfection. Her stories are marked by a weird, lurid power that is enthralling, and by a cultured, graceful style that is very pleasing. The first and longest tale — ' A Bewitched Life ' — is so gruesome as to be almost repulsive. The last story in the book — ' The Ensouled Violin ' — is the most artistic, but all the tales display strong literary power and brilliant imagination." — Dundee Advertiser.
" Whatever view is held of the author, readers will grant that she displays great literary power in weaving and depicting with graphic force these fanciful stories, which have enough of weirdness about them to furnish forth a dozen Christmas Annuals of the old-fashioned ghostly type." — Glasgow Herald.
"Nervous people had better not read Madame Blavatsky's tales." — Weekly Dispatch.
"The brain-work of this extraordinary woman [H. P. Blavatsky] was prolific, but the peculiar direction in which she exercised her talents naturally restricted her students to a comparatively Umited section. The Nightmare Tales, as the title sufficiently indicates, are of a different character, and as the imaginative element is strongly en evidence, the book will likely find its way into an infinitely wider sphere than that embraced by the Theosophical movement." — Belfast Morning News.
" These tales exhibit the powers of Madame Blavatsky as a writer, and especially her strong imaginative faculty." — Manchester Examiner.
" If you want something to give you the creeps, get Nightmare Tales by Madame Blavatsky ; but don't read the book just before going to bed, or you will have nightmare." — Bow Bells.
" A more gruesome story than ' A Bewitched Life' it would be difficult to find ; Mr. Edgar Poe might, indeed, have written it, but not without the aid of a colla- borator from Hanwell. ... It will not please Madame Blavatsky to see her book at the head of our 'shilling shockers," but that is the position it will occupy for some time to come. Nightmare Tales is the very name for it." — Illustrated London News.
ONE SHILLING,
THEOSOPHICE PUBLISHING SOCIETY, 7, Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C.
Twelfth Thousand. Prettily Bound in cloth, is. Post free, i^. zd. THE080PHICAL MANUALS, NO. I.
fflhe jSeven J^rinciples of Qan.
By ANNIE BESANT.
A popular exposition of the constitution of man, according to the Esoteric Philosophy, popularly known as Theosophy. It deals with the physical body and its consciousness; "the double," or ethereal body; the life-principle; the passional self, developing after death into the " spook " ; the brain-mind of man ; the higher mind ; the spiritual soul ; the spirit Also with the phenomena of the s^nce-room, ol mesmeric and hypnotic trance, thought-reading, &c., &c. The appendix gives some details about the Theosophical Society, and a list of Theosophical books and pamphlets suitable for the student.
OPINIONS OP THE PRESS.
" Whatever opinion may be formed about the value of Mrs. Besant's new faith, there can be no question of the remarkable ability with which her little manual has been written. The metaphysic of Theosophy is not an easy subject to popularise. Many of the ideas are entirely new to the English public. Many of them are appropriations from the profoundest thought of philosophers who were master-spirits of their time. The system is compUcated beyond anything that we have encountered in the writings of what may be called the classic metaphysicians. Yet in this small volume Mrs. Besant has laid its foundation in a masterly style. She has skilfully fitted the parts into each other, has explained each of them with lucidity, and she writes in a style that makes this new metaphysic a real pleasure to read. ... In its fundamental principle Theo- sophy is at one with the highest form of modern philosophy." — Daily Chronicle.
" Mrs. Besant describes in detail the Seven Principles, and with a characteristic clearness and force makes plain to us the points of Theosophic teaching on these principles. To the ordinary reader who has neither time nor inclination to engage in Theosophic research, Mrs. Besant's manual will be an attractive guide to some of the fundamental doctrines of the Theosophist's creed. It shows something of the claims of a system which has for its central doctrine the Brotherhood of Man, and which holds out hopes of wider knowledge and of spiritual growth." — Northampton Mercury.
' ' Distinguished by much earnestness and pure goodwill." — Manchester Guardian.
"The first of a series of manuals designed to meet the public demand for a simple exposition of Theosophical teachings. Theosophists are certainly in- debted to Mrs. Besant for this exceedingly lucid exposition. It removes the stumbling-block ot bewildering names and phrases that stood at the very threshold of the study of Theosophy, and deterred all but the most ardent from seeking to know more. , . . All technical words and phrases have been explained, and the doctrines of the Theosophists made as plain and clear and forcible as language can make them." — Dundee Advertiser.
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,
7, Duke Street, Adelphi, London, W.C.
Third Edition. Prettily Bound in cloth, is. Post free, is 'ad THEOSOPHICAL MANUALS, NO. 2.
REINCARNATION
By ANNIE BESANT,
A popular explanation of Reincarnation, according to the Esoteric Philosophy, now known as Theosophy. It deals with the wide spread of the doctrine ; what it is that reincarnates ; what it is that does not reincarnate and why we do not remember our past lives ; a reply to the question, can human souls transmigrate into animals ? the method of reincarnation ; thought forms ; the building of character ; the object of reincarnation ; the great renunciation ; the causes of reincarnation ; what determines successive reincarnations ; the proofs of reincar- nation ; recurring cycles in history ; rise and decay of races ; objections to reincarnation ; the increase of population ; the law of heredity ; effect of the belief on life.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
'"The author is Annie Besant, whose fine literary style would be sufficient to lend a charm to any subject." — Belfast Morning News.
"For inquiring students who are anxious to know somewhat of Theosophy 's fundamental tenet, Mrs. Besant's lucid and eloquent little book may be com- mended."— Daily Chronicle.
"Of a convenient pocket size, bound in serviceable cloth, and admirably printed, the Theosophical Manual at once attracts the busy reader. And when it is added that the first two of the series are written by Mrs. Besant herself, it may be readily surmised that the attention of the reader is charmingly enchained throughout. The second of these brochures deals with the doctrine of Reincar- nation, and Mrs. Besant expounds the Esoteric meaning of the doctrine in her most lucid style. As it is this doctrine that supplies the motive force for the practical morality of Theosophy, it is of especial interest to those who are anxious to know what Theosophy means." — Northampton Mercury.
"A lucid, eloquent Uttle book." — Novel Review.
" Whether the subject be studied for its Theosophical significance, or merely for its poetical value, this little book will prove equally interesting, as it is admirably written in a clear and concise style." — Tocsin.
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,
7, Duke Street, Adelphi, London, W.C.
Tenth Thousand. Prettily bound in cloth, is. Post free, is. 2d.
THEOBOFHZCAXi BXAXnTALB, XTo. 8.
DEATH
AND AFTER?
By ANNIE BESANT.
A popular exposition of post-mortem states, according to the Eso- teric Philosophy now known as Theosophy ; a map of the country that lies on the further side of the gateway of Death, and a description of its inhabitants. It sketches the views of the persistence of the soul held by many nations ; the perishable and the imperishable parts of man : body, soul, and spirit ; the fate of the body ; life in death ; Death an unrobing of the soul ; the moment of death ; the astral double ; the astral corpse ; the region called Kima Loka, the world of spooks, elementaries and elementals; communications between inhabitants of Kama Loka and persons on earth ; the length of stay in Kima Loka of the disembodied soul ; the fate of suicides and of persons suddenly killed ; earth-walkers ; shells ; Devachan, or para- dise ; "illusion" ; the life there the real life; effect of earth-life on life in Devachan ; working out in Devachan of spiritual and moral causes ; the soul in Devachan ; surrounded by all it loves ; Death separates bodies not souls ; love has its roots in Eternity ; the return to Earth ; Nirvana ; communications between the earth and other spheres ; different classes of communications.
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,
7, Duke Street, Adelphi, London, W.C.
THE
OCEAN OF
THEOSOPHY.
BY
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE,
Vice-President of the Theosopliical Society.
This work is designed to give the general reader some knowledge of the most important Theoso- phical Doctrines, and at the same time it will be of value to students in the Theosophical Society. It contains seventeen chapters, and gives a clear idea of the fundamental principles of the Wisdom- Religion.
Cloth, ^i.oo; Paper, 50 cents. Cloth, 4s. ; Paper, 2s. 6d.
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,
7, Duke Street, Adelphi, London, W.C.
LUCIFER:
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE
OF
Theosophy and the Occnlt Sciences.
{Founded by H. P. BLA VATSKY.) Editor: ANNIE BESANT. Sub-editor : G. R. S. MEAD.
Devoted to Theosophical topics, treating them with special reference to the intellectual aptitudes of the West, and to the varied problems, social, scientific, and literary, continually arising in the vital activity of Western civilisation.
Lucifer contains articles by Easterns on Eastern Religions, Philosophies and Sciences ; thus supplying information at first- hand, instead of its being filtered through Western Orientalists of various faiths.
" Has a large number of readable contributions." — Literary World.
" Full of capital writing. The mysteries of life and thought are treated of in a very interesting manner." — Western Morning News.
" Essentially a product of the present age.'' — Manchester Examiner.
" A most luxuriously printed magazine, in which the marvellous and the metaphysical are combined." — Manchester Guardian.
" Powerfully written." — Perthshire Advertiser.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, 17s. 6d. per annum ; Single Numbers, Is. 6d.
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,
7, Duke Street, Adelphi, London, W.C.
THE PATH,
EDITED BY
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.
DEVOTED TO
THE BROTHERHOOD OF HUMANITY, THEOSOPHY IN AMERICA,
AND THE STUDY OF
occult science, philosophy, and Aryan literature.
FOUNDED IN 1886.
New York: 144, MADISON AVENUE.
$2 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, 20 CENTS PER COPY. ISSUED MONTHLY.
Subscriptions, 8s. per annum, post free, may be sent to the Theosophical Publishing Society, 7, Duke Street, Adelphi, London, W.C. Single numbers, IS. each.
THE
THEOSOPHIST.
Zbc popular Heiattc flDagasine.
CONDUCTED BY
Colonel H. S. OLCOTT.
A Monthly Magazine of Oriental Philosophy, Art, Literature, and Occultism. It contains, each month, at least 64 pages of reading matter. It is now offered as a vehicle for the dissemination of facts and opinions con- nected with the Asiatic religions, philosophies, and sciences, and numbers among its contributors learned Br&hman pandits, Mohammedan, Sufi, and Buddhist native scholars, as well as those who are pursuing special studies, both practically and theoretically, in Occultism.
" A high-class literary organ. . . • We marvel at the beauty and accuracy with which this magazine is edited." — Public Opinion.
" ' The Theosophist ' should find many readers." — Indian Spectator (Bombay).
" Much to interest." — Times of India.
" Most interesting for lovers of the mystical lore." — Bombay Gazette.
' The Theosophist ' Is the organ of the Theosophical Society, and Is published In India, at Adyar, Madras.
Subscription price, 20s. per annum. Single nnmbers, 2s. each.
THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,
7, Duke Street, Adelphi, London, W.C.
Zhc ^beosopbfcal Societie.
The objects of the Theosophical Society are : —
1. To form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without dis- tinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour.
2. To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, reUgions, philosophies and sciences, and to demonstrate its importance.
3. To investigate unexplained laws of natiu'e, and the psychic powers latent in man.
Any one who accepts the first object of the Society, without reservation, can become a member. The rules of the Society, and all information, can be obtained by writing to the General Secretary, Theosophical Society, 17 & 19, Avenue Road, Regent's Park, London, N.W.
BOOKS FOR GENERAL ENQUIRERS.
Students are advised to read the books in the folloiving order : — s. d.
Ocean of Theosophy. William Q. Judge 26
The Seven Principles of Man. Annie Besant 10
Reincarnation. Annie Besant 10
Death-^nd After? Annie Besant 10
The Key to Theosophy. H. P. Blavatsky 60
Esoteric Buddhism. A. P. SiNNETT 40
FOR MORE ADVANCED STUDENTS:
Isis Unveiled. H. P. Blavatsky 42 o
The Secret Doctrine. H. P. Blavatsky 45 o
ETHICAL:
The Voice of the Silence. Trans, by H. P. Blavatsky . . . . 26
The Bhagavad Gita. {American Edition) 46
The Light of Asia, Sir Edwin Arnold 36
PAMPHLETS :
Wilkesbarre Letters on Theosophy. Alex. Fullerton , . . . 06
Indianapolis Letters on Tlieosophy. Alex. Fullekton . . . . 06
Epitome of Theosophical Teachings. Wm. Q. Judge .. .. 03
Esoteric Basis of Christianity. W. Kingsland 04
The Higher Science. W. Kingsland 02
Theosophy and its Evidences. Annie Besant 03
Why I became a Theosophist. Annie Besant 04
The Sphinx of Theosophy. Annie Besant 03
' In Defence of Theosophy. Annie Besant 02
From 1875 to 1891. (A Fragment of Autobiography.) Annie
Besant 02
A Rough Outline of Theosophy. Annie Besant 03
The Theosophical Society and H. P. B. Annie Besant and H.
T. Patterson 03
Short Glossary of Theosophical Terms. Annie Besant and
Herbert Burrows 01
ThiK)sophy and Christianity. Annie BesaNT 02
Theosophy in Questions and Answers. Annie Besant .. .. 03
Introduction to Theosophy. Annie Besant 03
Tbe above works can all be obtained at the offices of the Theosophical PnbUsMng Society, 7, Duke Street, Adelphi, London, W.C.
tile ©rc«|«m Pre00,
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