IV. CONCLUSIONS.

In my investigations of the physical phenomena of modern spiritualism, I have come to the following conclusion: While the majority of mediumistic manifestations are due to conjuring, there is a class of cases not ascribable to trickery, namely, those coming within the domain of psychic force--as exemplified by the experiments of Gasparin, Crookes, Lodge, Asakoff and Coues. In regard to the subjective phenomena, I am convinced that the recently annunciated law of telepathy will account for them. _I discredit the theory of spirit intervention._ If this be a correct conclusion, is there anything in mediumistic phenomena that will contribute to the solution of the problem of the immortality of the soul? I think there is. The existence of a subjective or subliminal consciousness in man, as illustrated in the phenomena mentioned, seems to indicate that the human personality is really a spiritual entity, possessed of unknown resources, and capable of preserving its identity despite the shock of time and the grave. Hudson says: "It is clear that the power of telepathy has nothing in common with objective methods of communications between mind and mind; and that it is not the product of muscle or nerve or any physiological combination whatever, but rather sets these at naught, with their implications of space and time.... When disease seizes the physical frame and the body grows feeble, the objective mind invariably grows correspondingly weak.... In the meantime, as the objective mind ceases to perform its functions, the subjective mind is most active and powerful. The individual may never before have exhibited any psychic power, and may never have consciously produced any psychic phenomena; yet at the supreme moment his soul is in active communication with loved ones at a distance, and the death message is often, when psychic conditions are favorable, consciously received. The records of telepathy demonstrate this proposition. Nay, more; they may be cited to show that in the hour of death the soul is capable of projecting a phantasm of such strength and objectivity that it may be an object of personal experience to those for whom it is intended. Moreover, it has happened that telepathic messages have been sent by the dying, at the moment of dissolution, giving all the particulars of the tragedy, when the death was caused by an unexpected blow which crushed the skull of the victim. It is obvious that in such cases it is impossible that the objective mind could have participated in the transaction. The evidence is indeed overwhelming, that, no matter what form death may assume, whether caused by lingering disease, old age, or violence, the subjective mind is never weakened by its approach or its presence. On the other hand, that the objective mind weakens with the body and perishes with the brain, is a fact confirmed by every-day observation and universal experience." This hypothesis of the objective and subjective minds has been criticised by many psychologists on the ground of its extreme dualism. No such dualism exists, they contend. However, Hudson's theory is only a working hypothesis at best, to explain certain extraordinary facts in human experience. Future investigators may be able to throw more light on the subject. But this one thing may be enunciated: _Telepathy is an incontrovertible fact_, account for it as you may, a physical force or a spiritual energy. If physical, then it does not follow any of the known operations of physical laws as established by modern science, especially in the case of transmission of thought at a distance. It is true, that all evidence in support of telepathic communications is more or less _ex parte_ in character, and does not possess that validity which orthodox science requires of investigators. Any student of the physical laws of matter can make investigations for himself, and at any time, provided he has the proper apparatus. Explain to a person that water is composed of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, and he can easily verify the fact for himself by combining the gases, in the combination of H2O, and afterwards liberate them by a current of electricity. But experiments in telepathy and clairvoyance cannot be made at will; they are isolated in character, and consequently are regarded with suspicion by orthodox science. Besides this, they transcend the materialistic theories of science as regards the universe, and one is almost compelled to use the old metaphysical terms of mind and matter, body and soul, in describing the phenomena. It is an undoubted fact that science has broken away from the old theory regarding the distinction between mind and matter. Says Prof. Wm. Romaine Newbold, "In the scientific world it has fallen into such disfavor that in many circles it is almost as disgraceful to avow belief in it as in witchcraft or ghosts." We have to-day a school of "physiological-psychology," calling itself "psychology without a soul." This school is devoted to the laboratory method of studying mind. "The laboratory method," says Roark, in his "Psychology in Education," "is concerned mostly with _physiological_ psychology, which is, after all, only _physiology_, even though it be the physiology of the nervous system and the special organs of sense--the material tools of the mind. And after physiological psychology has had its rather prolix say, causal connection of the physical organs with psychic action is as obscure and impossible of explanation as ever. But the laboratory method can be of excellent service in determining the material conditions of mental action, in detecting special deficiencies and weaknesses, and in accumulating valuable statistics along these lines. "It has been asserted that no science can claim to be exact until it can be reduced to formulas of weights and measures. The assertion begs the question for the materialists. We shall probably never be able to weigh an idea or measure the cubic contents of the memory; but the rapidity with which ideas are formed or reproduced by memory has been measured in many particular instances, and the circumstances that retard or accelerate their formation or reproduction have been positively ascertained and classified." That it is possible to explain all mental phenomena in terms of physics is by no means the unanimous verdict of scientific men. A small group of students of late years have detached themselves from the purely materialistic school and broken ground in the region of the supernormal. Says Professor Newbold (_Popular Science Monthly_, January, 1897): "In the supernormal field, the facts already reported, should they be substantiated by further inquiry, would go far towards showing that consciousness is an entity governed by laws and possessed of powers incapable of expression in material conceptions. "I do not myself regard the theory of independence [of mind and body] as proved, but I think we have enough evidence for it to destroy in any candid mind that considers it that absolute credulity as to its possibility which at present characterizes the average man of science." PART SECOND. MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THE THEOSOPHISTS. 1. The Priestess. The greatest "fantaisiste" of modern times was Madame Blavatsky, spirit medium, Priestess of Isis, and founder of the Theosophical Society. Her life is one long catalogue of wonders. In appearance she was enormously fat, had a harsh, disagreeable voice, and a violent temper, dressed in a slovenly manner, usually in loose wrappers, smoked cigarettes incessantly, and cared little or nothing for the conventionalities of life. But in spite of all--unprepossessing appearance and gross habits--she exercised a powerful personal magnetism over those who came in contact with her. She was the Sphinx of the second half of this Century; a Pythoness in tinsel robes who strutted across the world's stage "full of sound and fury," and disappeared from view behind the dark veil of Isis, which she, the fin-de-siecle prophetess, tried to draw aside during her earthly career. In searching for facts concerning the life of this really remarkable woman--remarkable for the influence she has exerted upon the thought of this latter end of the nineteenth century--I have read all that has been written about her by prominent Theosophists, have talked with many who knew her intimately, and now endeavor to present the truth concerning her and her career. The leading work on the subject is "Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky," compiled from information supplied by her relatives and friends, and edited by A. P. Sinnett, author of "The Occult World." The frontispiece to the book is a reproduction of a portrait of Madame Blavatsky, painted by H. Schmiechen, and represents the lady seated on the steps of an ancient ruin, holding a parchment in her hand. She is garbed somewhat after the fashion of a Cumaean Sibyl and gazes straight before her with the deep unfathomable eyes of a mystic, as if she were reading the profound riddles of the ages, and beholding the sands of Time falling hot and swift into the glass of eternity-- "And all things creeping to a day of doom." [Illustration: FIG. 32--MADAME BLAVATSKY.] Sinnett's life of the High Priestess is a strange concoction of monstrous absurdities; it is full of the weirdest happenings that were ever vouchsafed to mortal. We cannot put much faith in this biography, and must delve in other mines for information; but some of the remarkable passages of the book are worth perusing, particularly if the reader be prone to midnight musings of a ghostly character. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the daughter of Col. Peter Hahn of the Russian Army, and granddaughter of General Alexis Hahn von Rottenstern Hahn (a noble family of Mecklenburg, Germany, settled in Russia), was born in Eskaterinoslaw, in the south of Russia, in 1831. "She had," says Sinnett, "a strange childhood, replete with abnormal occurrences. The year of her birth was fatal for Russia, as for all Europe, owing to the first visit of the cholera, that terrible plague that decimated from 1830 to 1832 in turn nearly every town of the Continent.... Her birth was quickened by several deaths in the house, and she was ushered into the world amid coffins and desolation, on the night between July 30th and 31st, weak and apparently no denizen of this world." A hurried baptism was given lest the child die in original sin, and the ceremony was that of the Greek Church. During the orthodox baptismal rite no person is allowed to sit, but a child aunt of the baby, tired of standing for nearly an hour, settled down upon the floor, just behind the officiating priest. No one perceived her, as she sat nodding drowsily. The ceremony was nearing its close. The sponsors were just in the act of renouncing the Evil One and his deeds, a renunciation emphasized in the Greek Church by thrice spitting upon the invisible enemy, when the little lady, toying with her lighted taper at the feet of the crowd, inadvertantly set fire to the long flowing robes of the priest, no one remarking the accident till it was too late. The result was an immediate conflagration, during which several persons--chiefly the old priest--were severely burnt. That was another bad omen, according to the superstitious beliefs of orthodox Russia; and the innocent cause of it, the future Madame Blavatsky, was doomed from that day, in the eyes of all the town, to an eventful, troubled life. "Mlle. Hahn was born, of course, with all the characteristics of what is known in Spiritualism as mediumship in the most extraordinary degree, also with gifts as a clairvoyant of an almost equally unexampled order. On various occasions while apparently in an ordinary sleep, she would answer questions, put by persons who took hold of her hand, about lost property, etc., as though she were a sibyl entranced. For years she would, in childish impulse, shock strangers with whom she came in contact, and visitors to the house, by looking them intently in the face and telling them they would die at such and such a time, or she would prophesy to them some accident or misfortune that would befall them. And since her prognostications usually came true, she was the terror, in this respect, of the domestic circle." Madame V. P. Jelihowsy, a sister of the seeress, has furnished to the world many extraordinary stories of Mme. Blavatsky's childhood, published in various Russian periodicals. At the age of eleven the Sibyl lost her mother, and went to live with her grandparents at Saratow, her grandfather being civil governor of the place. The family mansion was a lumbering old country place "full of subterraneous galleries, long abandoned passages, turrets, and most weird nooks and corners. It looked more like a mediaeval ruined castle than a building of the last century." The ghosts of martyred serfs were supposed to haunt the uncanny building, and strange legends were told by the old family servants of weir-wolves and goblins that prowled about the dark forests of the estate. Here, in this House of Usher, the Sibyl lived and dreamed, and at this period exhibited many abnormal psychic peculiarities, ascribed by her orthodox governess and nurses of the Greek Church to possession by the devil. She had at times ungovernable fits of temper; she would ride any Cossack horse on the place astride a man's saddle; go into trances and scare everyone from the master of the mansion down to the humblest vodka drinker on the estate. In 1848, at the age of 17, she married General Count Blavatsky, a gouty old Russian of 70, whom she called "the plumed raven," but left him after a brief period of marital infelicity. From this time dates her career as a thaumaturgist. She travelled through India and made an honest attempt to penetrate into the mysterious confines of Thibet, but succeeded in getting only a few miles from the frontier, owing to the fanaticism of the natives. In India, as elsewhere, she was accused of being a Russian spy and was generally regarded with suspicion by the police authorities. After some months of erratic wanderings she reappeared in Russia, this time in Tiflis, at the residence of a relative, Prince ----. It was a gloomy, grewsome chateau, well suited for Spiritualistic séances, and Madame Blavatsky, it is claimed, frightened the guests during the long winter evenings with table-tippings, spirit rappings, etc. It was then the tall candles in the drawing-room burnt low, the gobelin tapestry rustled, sighs were heard, strange music "resounded in the air," and luminous forms were seen trailing their ghostly garments across the "tufted floor." [Illustration: FIG. 33--MAHATMA LETTER.] The gossipy Madame de Jelihowsy, in her reminiscences, classifies the phenomena, witnessed in the presence of her Sibylline sister, as follows: 1. Direct and perfectly clearly written and verbal answers to mental questions--or "thought reading." 2. Private secrets, unknown to all but the interested party, divulged, [especially in the case of those persons who mentioned insulting doubts]. 3. Change of weight in furniture and persons at will. 4. Letters from unknown correspondents, and immediate answers written to queries made, and found in the most out-of-the-way mysterious places. 5. Appearance of objects unclaimed by anyone present. 6. Sounds of musical notes in the air wherever Madame Blavatsky desired they should resound. In the year 1858, the High Priestess was at the house of General Yakontoff at Pskoff, Russia. One night when the drawing-room was full of visitors, she began to describe the mediumistic feat of making light objects heavy and heavy objects light. "Can you perform such a miracle?" ironically asked her brother, Leonide de Hahn, who always doubted his sister's occult powers. "I can," was the firm reply. De Hahn went to a small chess table, lifted it as though it were a feather, and said: "Suppose you try your powers on this." "With pleasure!" replied Mme. Blavatsky. "Place the table on the floor, and step aside for a minute." He complied with her request. She fixed her large blue eyes intently upon the chess table and said without removing her gaze, "Lift it now." The young man exerted all his strength, but the table would not budge an inch. Another guest tried with the same result, but the wood only cracked, yielding to no effort. [Illustration: FIG. 34--MAHATMA LETTER ENVELOPE.] "Now, lift it," said Madame Blavatsky calmly, whereupon De Hahn picked it up with the greatest ease. Loud applause greeted this extraordinary feat, and the skeptical brother, so say the occultists, was utterly nonplussed. Madame Blavatsky, as recorded by Sinnett, stated afterwards that the above phenomenon could be produced in two different ways: "First, through the exercise of her own will directing the magnetic currents so that the pressure on the table became such that no physical force could move it; second, through the action of those beings with whom she was in constant communication, and who, although unseen, were able to hold the table against all opposition." The writer has seen similar feats performed by hypnotizers with good subjects without the intervention of any ghostly intelligences. In 1870 the Priestess of Isis journeyed through Egypt in company with a certain Countess K--, and endeavored to form a Spiritualistic society at Cairo, for the investigation of psychic phenomena, but things growing unpleasant for her she left the land of pyramids and papyri in hot haste. It is related of her that during this Egyptian sojourn she spent one night in the King's sepulchre in the bowels of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, sleeping in the very sarcophagus where once reposed the mummy of a Pharoah. Weird sights were seen by the entranced occultist and strange sounds were heard on that eventful occasion within the shadowy mortuary chamber of the pyramid. At times she would let fall mysterious hints of what she saw that night, but they were as incomprehensible as the riddles of the fabled Sphinx. Countess Paschkoff chronicles a curious story about the Priestess of Isis, which reminds one somewhat of the last chapter in Bulwer's occult novel, "A Strange Story." The Countess relates that she was once travelling between Baalbec and the river Orontes, and in the desert came across the caravan belonging to Madame Blavatsky. They joined company and towards nightfall pitched camp near the village of El Marsum amid some ancient ruins. Among the relics of a Pagan civilization stood a great monument covered with outlandish hieroglyphics. The Countess was curious to decipher the inscriptions, and begged Madame Blavatsky to unravel their meaning, but the Priestess of Isis, notwithstanding her great archaeological knowledge, was unable to do so. However, she said: "Wait until night, and we shall see!" When the ruins were wrapped in sombre shadow, Mme. Blavatsky drew a great circle upon the ground about the monument, and invited the Countess to stand within the mystic confines. A fire was built and upon it were thrown various aromatic herbs and incense. Cabalistic spells were recited by the sorceress, as the smoke from the incense ascended, and then she thrice commanded the spirit to whom the monument was erected to appear. Soon the cloud of smoke from the burning incense assumed the shape of an old man with a long white beard. A voice from a distance pierced the misty image, and spoke: "I am Hiero, one of the priests of a great temple erected to the gods, that stood upon this spot. This monument was the altar. Behold!" No sooner were the words pronounced than a phantasmagoric vision of a gigantic temple appeared, supported by ponderous columns, and a great city was seen covering the distant plain, but all soon faded into thin air. This story was related to a select coterie of occultists assembled in social conclave at the headquarters in New York. The question is, had the charming Russian Countess dreamed this, or was she trying to exploit herself as a traveler who had come "out of the mysterious East" and had seen strange things? We next hear of the famous occultist in the United States, where she associated chiefly with spirit-mediums, enchanters, professional clairvoyants, and the like. "At this period of her career she had not,"[4] says Dr. Eliott Coues, a learned investigator of psychic phenomena, "been metamorphosed into a Theosophist. She was simply exploiting as a Spiritualistic medium. Her most familiar spook was a ghostly fiction named 'John King.' This fellow is supposed to have been a pirate, condemned for his atrocities to serve earth-bound for a term of years, and to present himself at materializing séances on call. Any medium who personates this ghost puts on a heavy black horse-hair beard and a white bed sheet and talks in sepulchral chest tones. John is as standard and sure-enough a ghost as ever appeared before the public. Most of the leading mediums, both in Europe and America, keep him in stock. I have often seen the old fellow in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington through more mediums that I can remember the names of. Our late Minister to Portugul, Mr. J. O'Sullivan, has a photograph of him at full length, floating in space, holding up a peculiar globe of light shaped like a glass decanter. This trustworthy likeness was taken in Europe, and I think in Russia, but am not sure on that point. I once had the pleasure of introducing the pirate king to my friend Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace, in the person of Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a noted medium of Washington. "But the connection between the pirate and my story is this: Madame Blavatsky was exploiting King at the time of which I speak, and several of her letters to friends, which I have read, are curiously scribbled in red and blue pencil with sentences and signatures of 'John King,' just as, later on, 'Koot Hoomi' used to miraculously precipitate himself upon her stationery in all sorts of colored crayons. And, by the way, I may call the reader's attention to the fact that while the ingenious creature was operating in Cairo, her Mahatmas were of the Egyptian order of architecture, and located in the ruins of Thebes or Karnak. They were not put in turbans and shifted to Thibet till late in 1879." In 1875, while residing in New York, Madame Blavatsky conceived the idea of establishing a Theosophical Society. Stupendous thought! Cagliostro in the eighteenth century founded his Egyptian Free-Masonry for the re-generation of mankind, and Blavatsky in the nineteenth century laid the corner stone of modern Theosophy for a similar purpose. Cagliostro had his High Priestess in the person of a beautiful wife, Lorenza Feliciani, and Blavatsky her Hierophant in the somewhat prosaic guise of a New York reporter, Col. Olcott, since then a famous personage in occult circles. During the Civil War, Olcott served in the Quartermaster's Department of the Army and afterwards held a position in the Internal Revenue Service of the United States. In 18-- he was a newspaper man in New York, and was sent by the _Graphic_ to investigate the alleged Spiritualistic phenomena transpiring in the Eddy family in Chittenden, Vermont. There he met Madame Blavatsky. It was his fate. [Illustration: FIG. 35. COL. H. S. OLCOTT.] Col. Olcott's description of his first sight of Mme. Blavatsky is interesting: "The dinner at Eddy's was at noon, and it was from the entrance door of the bare and comfortless dining-room that Kappes and I first saw H. P. B. She had arrived shortly before noon with a French Canadian lady, and they were at table as we entered. My eye was first attracted by a scarlet Garibaldian shirt the former wore, as being in vivid contrast with the dull colors around. Her hair was then a thick blonde mop, worn shorter than the shoulders, and it stood out from her head, silken, soft, and crinkled to the roots, like the fleece of a Cotswold ewe. This and the red shirt were what struck my attention before I took in the picture of her features. It was a massive Kalmuck face, contrasting in its suggestion of power, culture, and imperiousness, as strangely with the commonplace visages about the room, as her red garment did with the gray and white tones of the wall and woodwork, and the dull costumes of the rest of the guests. All sorts of cranky people were continually coming and going at Eddy's, to see the mediumistic phenomena, and it only struck me on seeing this eccentric lady that this was but one more of the sort. Pausing on the door-sill, I whispered to Kappes, 'Good gracious! look at _that_ specimen, will you!' I went straight across and took a seat opposite her to indulge my favorite habit of character-study." Commenting on this meeting, J. Ransom Bridges, in the _Arena_, for April, 1895, remarks: "After dinner Colonel Olcott scraped an acquaintance by opportunely offering her a light for a cigarette which she proceeded to roll for herself. This 'light' must have been charged with Theosophical _karma_, for the burning match or end of a lighted cigar--the Colonel does not specify--lit a train of causes and their effects which now are making history and are world-wide in their importance. So confirmed a pessimist on Theosophical questions as Henry Sidgwick of the London Society for Psychical Research, says, 'Even if it [the Theosophical Society] were to expire next year, its twenty years' existence would be a phenomenon of some interest for a historian of European society in the nineteenth century.'" [Illustration: FIG. 36. OATH OF SECRECY TAKEN BY CHARTER MEMBERS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. [Kindness of the _New York Herald_.]] The séances at the Eddy house must have been character studies indeed. The place where the ghosts were materialized was a large apartment over the dining room of the ancient homestead. A dark closet, at one end of the room, with a rough blanket stretched across it, served as a cabinet. Red Indians and pirates were the favorite materializations, but when Madame Blavatsky appeared on the scene, ghosts of Turks, Kurdish cavaliers, and Kalmucks visited this earthly scene, much to the surprise of every one. Olcott cites this fact as evidence of the genuineness of the materializations, remarking, "how could the ignorant Eddy boys, rough, rude, uncultured farmers, get the costumes and accessories for characters of this kind in a remote Vermont village." 2. What is Theosophy. Let us turn aside at this juncture to ask, "What is Theosophy." The word Theosophy (Theosophia--divine knowledge) appears to have been used about the Third century, A. D., by the Neo-Platonists, or Gnostics of Alexandria, but the great principles of the doctrine, however, were taught hundreds of years prior to the mystical school established at Alexandria. "It is not," says an interesting writer on the subject, "an outgrowth of Buddhism although many Buddhists see in its doctrines the reflection of Buddha. It proposes to give its followers the esoteric, or inner-spiritual meaning of the great religious teachers of the world. It asserts repeated re-incarnations, or rebirths of the soul on earth, until it is fully purged of evil, and becomes fit to be absorbed into the Deity whence it came, gaining thereby Nirvana, or unconsciousness." Some Theosophists claim that Nirvana is not a state of unconsciousness, but just the converse, a state of the most intensified consciousness, during which the soul remembers all of its previous incarnations. Madame Blavatsky claimed that "there exists in Thibet a brotherhood whose members have acquired a power over Nature which enables them to perform wonders beyond the reach of ordinary men. She declared herself to be a _chela_, or disciple of these brothers (spoken of also as 'Adepts' and as 'Mahatmas'), and asserted that they took a special interest in the Theosophical Society and all initiates in occult lore, being able to cause apparitions of themselves in places where their bodies were not; and that they not only appeared but communicated intelligently with those whom they thus visited and themselves perceived what was going on where their phantoms appeared." This phantasmal appearance she called the projection of the _astral_ form. Many of the phenomena witnessed in the presence of the Sibyl were supposed to be the work of the mystic brotherhood who took so peculiar an interest in the Theosophical Society and its members. The Madame did not claim to be the founder of a new religious faith, but simply the reviver of a creed that has slumbered in the Orient for centuries, and declared herself to be the Messenger of these Mahatmas to the scoffing Western world. Speaking of the Mahatmas, she says in "Isis Unveiled": * * * "Travelers have met these adepts on the shores of the sacred Ganges, brushed against them on the silent ruins of Thebes, and in the mysterious deserted chambers of Luxor. Within the halls upon whose blue and golden vaults the weird signs attract attention, but whose secret meaning is never penetrated by the idle gazers, they have been seen, but seldom recognized. Historical memoirs have recorded their presence in the brilliantly illuminated salons of European aristocracy. They have been encountered again on the arid and desolate plains of the Great Sahara, or in the caves of Elephanta. They may be found everywhere, but make themselves known only to those who have devoted their lives to unselfish study, and are not likely to turn back." The Theosophical Society was organized in New York, Nov. 17, 1875. Mr. Arthur Lillie, in his interesting work, "Madame Blavatsky and Her Theosophy," speaking about the founding of the Society, says: "Its moving spirit was a Mr. Felt, who had visited Egypt and studied its antiquities. He was a student also of the Kabbala; and he had a somewhat eccentric theory that the dog-headed and hawk-headed figures painted on the Egyptian monuments were not mere symbols, but accurate portraits of the 'Elementals.' He professed to be able to evoke and control them. He announced that he had discovered the secret 'formularies' of the old Egyptian magicians. Plainly, the Theosophical Society at starting was an Egyptian school of occultism. Indeed Colonel Olcott, who furnishes these details ('Diary Leaves' in the _Theosophist_, November to December, 1892), lets out that the first title suggested was the 'Egyptological Society.'" There were strange reports set afloat at the time of the organization of the Society of the mysterious appearance of a Hindoo adept in his astral body at the "lamasery" on Forty-seventh street. It was said to be that of a certain Mahatma Koot Hoomi. Olcott declared that the adept left behind him as a souvenir of his presence, a turban, which was exhibited on all occasions by the enterprising Hierophant. William Q. Judge, a noted writer on Spiritualism, who had met the Madame at Irving Place in the winter of 1874, joined the Society about this time, and became an earnest advocate of the secret doctrine. One wintry evening in March, 1889, Mr. Judge attended a meeting of the New York Anthropological Society, and told the audience all about the spectral gentleman, Koot Hoomi. He said: "The parent society (Theosophical) was founded in America by Madame Blavatsky, who gathered about her a few interested people and began the great work. They held a meeting to frame a constitution (1875), etc., but before anything had been accomplished a strangely foreign Hindoo, dressed in the peculiar garb of his country, came before them, and, leaving a package, vanished, and no one knew whither he came or went. On opening the package they found the necessary forms of organization, rules, etc., which were adopted. The inference to be drawn was, that the strange visitor was a Mahatma, interested in the foundation of the Society." [Illustration: FIG. 37. WILLIAM Q. JUDGE. [Reproduced by courtesy of the _New York Herald_.]] And so Blavatskyism flourished, and the Society gathered in disciples from all quarters. Men without definite creeds are ever willing to embrace anything that savors of the mysterious, however absurd the tenets of the new doctrine may be. The objects of the Theosophical Society, as set forth in a number of _Lucifer_, the organ of the cult, published in July, 1890, are stated to be: "1. To form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, or color. "2. To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions and sciences. "3. To investigate laws of Nature and the psychical powers of man." There is nothing of cant or humbug about the above articles. A society founded for the prosecution of such researches seems laudable enough. Oriental scholars and scientists have been working in this field for many years. But the investigations, as conducted under the Blavatsky régime, have savored so of charlatanism that many earnest, truth-seeking Theosophists have withdrawn from the Society. After seeing the Society well established, Madame Blavatsky went to India. Her career in that country was a checkered one. From this period dates the exposé of the Mahatma miracles. The story reads like a romance by Marie Corelli. Let us begin at the beginning. The headquarters of the Society was first established at Bombay, thence removed to Madras and afterwards to Adyar. A certain M. and Mme. Coulomb, trusted friends of Madame Blavatsky, were made librarian and assistant corresponding secretary respectively of the Society, and took up their residence in the building known as the headquarters--a rambling East Indian bungalow, such as figure in Rudyard Kipling's stories of Oriental life. Marvellous phenomena, of an occult nature, alleged to have taken place there, were attested by many Theosophists. Mysterious, ghostly appearances of Mahatmas were seen, and messages were constantly received by supernatural means. One of the apartments of the bungalow was denominated the Occult Room, and in this room was a sort of cupboard against the wall, known as the _Shrine_. In this shrine the ghostly missives were received and from it were sent. Skeptics were convinced, and occult lodges spread rapidly over India among the dreamy, marvel-loving natives. But affairs were not destined to sail smoothly. There came a rift within the lute--Madame Blavatsky quarreled with her trusted lieutenants, the Coulombs! In May, 1884, M. and Mme. Coulomb were expelled from the Society by the General Council, during the absence of the High Priestess and Col. Olcott in Europe. The Coulombs, who had grown weary of a life of imposture, or were actuated by the more ignoble motive of revenge, made a complete exposé of the secret working of the Inner Brotherhood. They published portions of Madame Blavatsky's correspondence in the _Madras Christian College Magazine_, for September and October, 1884; letters written to the Coulombs, directing them to prepare certain impostures and letters written by the High Priestess, under the signature of Koot Hoomi, the mythical adept.[5] This correspondence unquestionably implicated the Sibyl in a conspiracy to fraudulently produce occult phenomena. She declared them to be, in whole, or in part, forgeries. At this juncture the London Society for Psychical Research sent Mr. Richard Hodgson, B. A., scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge, England, to India to investigate the entire matter in the interest of science. He left England November, 1884, and remained in the East till April, 1885. During this period Blavatskyism was sifted to the bottom. Mr. Hodgson's report covers several hundred pages, and proves conclusively that the occult phenomena of Madame Blavatsky and her co-adjutors are unworthy of credence. In his volume he gives diagrams of the trap-doors and machinery of the shrine and the occult room, and facsimiles of Madame Blavatsky's handwriting, which proved to be identical with that of Koot Hoomi, or _Cute_ Hoomi, as the critics dubbed him. He shows that the Coulombs had told the plain unvarnished truth so far as their disclosures went; and he stigmatizes the Priestess of Isis in the following language: "1. She has been engaged in a long continued combination with other persons to produce by ordinary means a series of apparent marvels for the support of the Theosophic movement. "2. That in particular the shrine at Adyar through which letters purporting to come from Mahatmas were received, was elaborately arranged with a view to the secret insertion of letters and other objects through a sliding panel at the back, and regularly used for the purpose by Madame Blavatsky or her agents. "3. That there is consequently a very strong general presumption that all the marvellous narratives put forward in evidence of the existence of Mahatmas are to be explained as due either (_a_) to deliberate deception carried out by or at the instigation of Madame Blavatsky, or (_b_) to spontaneous illusion or hallucination or unconscious misrepresentation or invention on the part of the witnesses." The mysterious appearances of the ghostly Mahatmas at the headquarters was shown, by Mr. Hodgson, to be the work of confederates, the cleverest among them being Madame Coulomb. Sliding panels, secret doors, and many disguises were the _modus operandi_ of the occult phenomena. In regard to the letters and alleged precipitated writing, Mr. Hodgson says: "It has been alleged, indeed, that when Madame Blavatsky was at Madras, instantaneous replies to mental queries had been found in the shrine (at Adyar), that envelopes containing questions were returned absolutely intact to the senders, and that when they were opened replies were found within in the handwriting of a Mahatma. After numerous inquiries, I found that in all cases I could hear of, the mental query was such as might easily have been anticipated by Madame Blavatsky; indeed, the query was whether the questioner would meet with success in his endeavor to become a pupil of the Mahatma, and the answer was frequently of the indefinite and oracular sort. In some cases the envelope inserted in the Shrine was one which had been previously sent to headquarters for that purpose, so that the envelope might have been opened and the answer written therein before it was placed in the Shrine at all. Where sufficient care was taken in the preparation of the inquiry, either no specific answer was given or the answer was delayed." A certain phenomenon, frequently mentioned by Theosophists as having occurred in Madame Blavatsky's sitting-room, was the dropping of a letter from the ceiling, supposed to be a communication from some Mahatma. In all such cases conjuring was proved to have been used--the _deus ex machina_ being either a silk thread or else a cunningly secreted trap door hidden between the wooden beams of the bungalow ceiling, operated of course by a concealed confederate. Madame Blavatsky's favorite method of impressing people with her occult powers was the almost immediate reception of letters from distant countries, in response to questions asked. These feats were the result of carefully contrived plans, preconcerted weeks in advance. She would telegraph in cipher to one of her numerous correspondents, East Indian, for example, to write a letter in reply to a certain query, and post it at a particular date. Then she would calculate the arrival of the letter, often to a nicety. Her ability as a conversationalist enabled her to adroitly lead people into asking questions that would tally with the Mahatma messages. But sometimes she failed, and a ludicrous fiasco was the result. Mr. Hodgson's report contains accounts of many such mystic letters that would arrive by post from India in the nick of time, or too late for use. Among other remarkable things reported of the Madame was her power of producing photographs of people far away by a sort of spiritual photography, involving no other mechanical process than the slipping of a sheet of paper between the leaves of her blotting pad. When stories of this spirit-photography were rife in London, a scientist published the following explanation of a method of making such Mahatma portraits: "Has the English public never heard of 'Magic photography?' Just a few years ago small sheets of white paper were offered for sale which on being covered with damp blotting paper developed an image as if by magic. The white sheets of paper seemed blanks. Really, however, they were photographs, not containing gold, which had been bleached by immersing them in a solution of mercuric chloride. The latter gives up part of its chlorine, and this chlorine bleaches the brown silver particles of which the photograph consists, by changing them to chloride of silver. The mercuric chloride becomes mercurous chloride. This body is white, and therefore invisible on white paper. Now, several substances will color this white mercurous chloride black. Ammonia and hypo-sulphite of soda will do this. In the magic photographs before mentioned the blotting paper contained hypo-sulphite of soda. Consequently when the alleged blank sheets of white note paper were placed between the sheets of blotting paper and slightly moistened, the hypo-sulphite of soda in the blotting paper acted chemically on the mercurous chloride in the white note paper, and the picture appeared. As this was known in 1840 to Herschel, Blavatsky's miracle is nothing but a commonplace conjuring experiment." 3. Madame Blavatsky's Confession. The individual to whom the world is most indebted for a critical analysis of Madame Blavatsky's character and her claims as a producer of occult phenomena is Vsevolod S. Solovyoff, a Russian journalist and _litterateur_ of considerable note. He has ruthlessly torn the veil from the Priestess of Isis in a remarkable book of revelations, entitled, "A Modern Priestess of Isis." In May, 1884, he was in Paris, engaged in studying occult literature, and was preparing to write a treatise on "the rare, but in my opinion, real manifestations of the imperfectly investigated spiritual powers of man." One day he read in the _Matin_ that Madame Blavatsky had arrived in Paris, and he determined to meet her. Thanks to a friend in St. Petersburg, he obtained a letter of introduction to the famous Theosophist, and called on her a few days later, at her residence in the Rue Notre Dame des Champs. His pen picture of the interview is graphic: "I found myself in a long, mean street on the left bank of the Seine, _de l'autre cote de l'eau_, as the Parisians say. The coachman stopped at the number I had told him. The house was unsightly enough to look at, and at the door there was not a single carriage. "'My dear sir, you have let her slip; she has left Paris,' I said to myself with vexation. "In answer to my inquiry the concierge showed me the way. I climbed a very, very dark staircase, rang, and a slovenly figure in an Oriental turban admitted me into a tiny dark lobby. "To my question, whether Madame Blavatsky would receive me, the slovenly figure replied with an '_Entrez, monsieur_,' and vanished with my card, while I was left to wait in a small low room, poorly and insufficiently furnished. "I had not long to wait. The door opened, and she was before me; a rather tall woman, though she produced the impression of being short, on account of her unusual stoutness. Her great head seemed all the greater from her thick and very bright hair, touched with a scarcely perceptible gray, and very slightly frizzed, by nature and not by art, as I subsequently convinced myself. "At the first moment her plain, old earthy-colored face struck me as repulsive; but she fixed on me the gaze of her great, rolling, pale blue eyes, and in these wonderful eyes, with their hidden power, all the rest was forgotten. "I remarked, however, that she was very strangely dressed, in a sort of black sacque, and that all the fingers of her small, soft, and as it were boneless hands, with their slender points and long nails, were covered with great jewelled rings." Madame Blavatsky received Solovyoff kindly, and they became excellent friends. She urged him to join the Theosophical Society, and he expressed himself as favorably impressed with the purposes of the organization. During the interview she produced her astral bell "phenomenon." She excused herself to attend to some domestic duty, and on her return to the sitting-room, the phenomenon took place. Says Solovyoff: "She made a sort of flourish with her hand, raised it upwards and suddenly, I heard distinctly, quite distinctly, somewhere above our heads, near the ceiling, a very melodious sound like a little silver bell or an Aeolian harp. "'What is the meaning of this?' I asked. "'This means only that my master is here, although you and I cannot see him. He tells me that I may trust you, and am to do for you whatever I can. _Vous etes sous sa protection_, henceforth and forever.' "She looked me straight in the eyes, and caressed me with her glance and her kindly smile." This Mahatmic phenomenon ought to have absolutely convinced Solovyoff, but it did not. He asked himself the question: "'Why was the sound of the silver bell not heard at once, but only after she had left the room and come back again?'" A few days after this event, the Russian journalist was regularly enrolled as a member of the Theosophical Society, and began to study Madame Blavatsky instead of Oriental literature and occultism. He was introduced to Colonel Olcott, who showed him the turban that had been left at the New York headquarters by the astral Koot Hoomi. Solovyoff witnessed other "phenomena" in the presence of Madame Blavatsky, which did not impress him very favorably. Finally, the High Priestess produced her _chef d' oeuvre_, the psychometric reading of a letter. Solovyoff was rather impressed with this feat and sent an account of it to the _Rebus_, but subsequently came to the conclusion that trickery had entered into it. When the Coulomb exposures came, he did not see much of Madame Blavatsky. She was overwhelmed with letters and spent a considerable time anxiously travelling to and fro on Theosophical affairs. In August, 1885, she was at Wurzburg sick at heart and in body, attended by a diminutive Hindoo servant, Bavaji by name. She begged Solovyoff to visit her, promising to give him lessons in occultism. With a determination to investigate the "phenomena," he went to the Bavarian watering place, and one morning called on Madame Blavatsky. He found her seated in a great arm chair: "At the opposite end of the table stood the dwarfish Bavaji, with a confused look in his dulled eyes. He was evidently incapable of meeting my gaze, and the fact certainly did not escape me. In front of Bavaji on the table were scattered several sheets of clean paper. Nothing of the sort had occurred before, so my attention was the more aroused. In his hand was a great thick pencil. I began to have ideas. "'Just look at the unfortunate man,' said Helena Petrovna suddenly, turning to me. 'He does not look himself at all; he drives me to distraction'.... Then she passed from Bavaji to the London Society for Psychical Research, and again tried to persuade me about the 'master.' Bavaji stood like a statue; he could take no part in our conversation, as he did not know a word of Russian. "'But such incredulity as to the evidence of your own eyes, such obstinate infidelity as yours, is simply unpardonable. In fact, it is wicked!' exclaimed Helena Petrovna. "I was walking about the room at the time, and did not take my eyes off Bavaji. I saw that he was keeping his eyes wide open, with a sort of contortion of his whole body, while his hand, armed with a great pencil, was carefully tracing some letters on a sheet of paper. "'Look; what is the matter with him?' exclaimed Madame Blavatsky. "'Nothing particular,' I answered; 'he is writing in Russian.' "I saw her whole face grow purple. She began to stir in her chair, with an obvious desire to get up and take the paper from him. But with her swollen and almost inflexible limbs, she could not do so with any speed. I made haste to seize the paper and saw on it a beautifully _drawn_ Russian phrase. "Bavaji was to have written, in the Russian language with which he was not acquainted: 'Blessed are they that believe, as said the Great Adept.' He had learned his task well, and remembered correctly the form of all the letters, but he had omitted two in the word 'believe,' [The effect was precisely the same as if in English he had omitted the first two and last two letters of the word.] "'Blessed are they that _lie_,' I read aloud, unable to control the laughter which shook me. 'That is the best thing I ever saw. Oh, Bavaji! you should have got your lesson up better for examination!' "The tiny Hindoo hid his face in his hands and rushed out of the room; I heard his hysterical sobs in the distance. Madame Blavatsky sat with distorted features." As will be seen from the above, the Hindoo servant was one of the Madame's Mahatmas, and was caught in the act of preparing a communication from a sage in the Himalayas, to Solovyoff. "After this abortive phenomena," remarks the Russian journalist, "things marched faster, and I saw that I should soon be in a position to send very interesting additions to the report of the Psychical Society."... "Every day when I came to see the Madame she used to try to do me a favor in the shape of some trifling 'phenomenon,' but she never succeeded. Thus one day her famous 'silver bell' was heard, when suddenly something fell beside her on the ground. I hurried to pick it up--and found in my hands a pretty little piece of silver, delicately worked and strangely shaped. Helena Petrovna changed countenance, and snatched the object from me. I coughed significantly, smiled and turned the conversation to indifferent matters." On another occasion he was conversing with her about the "Theosophist," and "she mentioned the name of Subba Rao, a Hindoo, who had attained the highest degree of knowledge." She directed Mr. Solovyoff to open a drawer in her writing desk, and take from it a photograph of the adept. "I opened the drawer," says Solovyoff, "found the photograph and handed it to her--together with a packet of Chinese envelopes (See Fig. 34), such as I well knew; they were the same in which the 'elect' used to receive the letters of the Mahatmas Morya and Koot Hoomi by 'astral post.' "'Look at that, Helena Petrovna! I should advise you to hide this packet of the master's envelopes farther off. You are so terribly absent-minded and careless.' "It was easy to imagine what this was to her. I looked at her and was positively frightened; her face grew perfectly black. She tried in vain to speak; she could only writhe helplessly in her great arm-chair." Solovyoff with great adroitness gradually drew from her a confession. "What is one to do," said Madame Blavatsky, plaintively, "when in order to rule men it is necessary to deceive them; almost invariably the more simple, the more silly, and the more gross the phenomenon, the more likely it is to succeed." The Priestess of Isis broke down completely and acknowledged that her phenomena were not genuine; the Koot Hoomi letters were written by herself and others in collusion with her; finally she exhibited to the journalist the apparatus for producing the "astral bell," and begged him to go into a co-partnership with her to astonish the world. He refused! The next day she declared that a black magician had spoken through her mouth, and not herself; she was not responsible for what she had said. After this he had other interviews with her; threats and promises; and lastly a most extraordinary letter, which was headed, "My Confession," and reads, in part, as follows: "Believe me, _I have fallen because I have made up my mind to fall_, or else to bring about a reaction by telling all God's truth about myself, _but without mercy on my enemies_. On this I am firmly resolved, and from this day I shall begin to prepare myself in order to be ready. I will fly no more. Together with this letter, or a few hours later, I shall myself be in Paris, and then on to London. A Frenchman is ready, and a well-known journalist too, delighted to set about the work and to write at my dictation something short, but strong, and what is most important--a true history of my life. _I shall not even attempt to defend_, to justify myself. In this book I shall simply say: "In 1848, I, hating my husband, N. V. Blavatsky (it may have been wrong, but still such was the nature _God_ gave me), left him, abandoned him--_a virgin_. (I shall produce documents and letters proving this, although he himself is not such a swine as to deny it.) I loved one man deeply, but still more I loved occult science, believing in magic, wizards, etc. I wandered with him here and there, in Asia, in America, and in Europe. I met with So-and-so. (You may call him a _wizard_, what does it matter to him?) In 1858 I was in London; there came out some story about a child, not mine (there will follow medical evidence, from the faculty of Paris, and it is for this that I am going to Paris). One thing and another was said of me; that I was depraved, possessed with a devil, etc. "I shall tell everything as I think fit, everything I did, for the twenty years and more, that I laughed at the _qu'en dira-t-on_, and covered up all traces of what I was _really_ occupied in, i. e., the _sciences occultes_, for the sake of my family and relations who would at that time have cursed me. I will tell how from my eighteenth year I tried to get people to talk about me, and say about me that this man and that was my lover, and _hundreds_ of them. I will tell, too, a great deal of which no one ever dreamed, and _I will prove it_. Then I will inform the world how suddenly my eyes were opened to all the horror of my _moral suicide_; how I was sent to America to try my psychological capabilities; how I collected a society there, and began to expiate my faults, and attempted to make men better and to sacrifice myself for their regeneration. _I will name all_ the Theosophists who were brought into the right way, drunkards and rakes, who became almost saints, especially in India, and those who enlisted as Theosophists, and continued their former life, as though they were doing the work (and there are many of them) and _yet were the first_ to join the pack of hounds that were hunting me down, and to bite me.... "No! The devils will save me in this last great hour. You did not calculate on the cool determination of _despair_, which _was_ and has _passed over_.... And to this I have been brought by you. You have been the last straw which has broken the camel's back under its intolerably heavy burden. Now you are at liberty to conceal nothing. Repeat to all Paris what you have ever heard or know about me. I have already written a letter to Sinnett _forbidding him_ to publish my _memoirs_ at his own discretion. I myself will publish them with all the truth.... It will be a Saturnalia of the moral depravity of mankind, this _confession_ of mine, a worthy epilogue of my stormy life.... Let the psychist gentlemen, and whosoever will, set on foot a new inquiry. Mohini and all the rest, even _India_, are dead for me. I thirst for one thing only, that the world may know all the reality, all the _truth_, and learn the lesson. And then _death_, kindest of all. H. BLAVATSKY. "You may print this letter if you will, even in Russia. It is all the same now." This remarkable effusion may be the result of a fever-disordered brain, it may be, as she says, the "God's truth;" at any rate it bears the ear-marks of the Blavatsky style about it. The disciples of the High Priestess of Isis have bitterly denounced Solovyoff and the revelations contained in his book. They brand him as a coward for not having published his diatribe during the lifetime of the Madame, when she was able to defend herself. However that may be, Solovyoff's exposures tally very well with the mass of corroborative evidence adduced by Hodgson, Coues, Coleman, and a host of writers, who began their attacks during the earthly pilgrimage of the great Sibyl. On receipt of this letter, Feb 16, 1886, Solovyoff resigned from the Theosophical Society. He denounced the High Priestess to the Paris Theosophists, and the Blavatsky lodges in that city were disrupted in consequence of the exposures. This seems to be a convincing proof of the genuineness of his revelations. After the Solovyoff incident, Madame Blavatsky went into retirement for a while. Eventually she appeared in London as full of enthusiasm as ever and added to her list of converts the Countess of Caithness and Mrs. Annie Besant, the famous socialist and authoress. Finally came the last act of this strange life-drama. That messenger of death, whom the mystical Persian singer, Omar Khayyam, calls "The Angel of the Darker Drink," held to her lips the inevitable chalice of Mortality; then the "golden cord was loosened and the silver bowl was broken," and she passed into the land of shadows. It was in London, May 8, 1891, that Helena Petrovna Blavatsky ended one of the strangest careers on record. She died calmly and peacefully in her bed, surrounded by her friends, and after her demise her body was cremated by her disciples, with occult rites and ceremonies. All that remained of her--a few handfuls of powdery white ashes--was gathered together, and divided into three equal parts. One portion was buried in London, one sent to New York City, and the third to Adyar, near Madras, India. The New World, the Old World, and the still Older World of the East were honored with the ashes of H. P. B. Three civilizations, three heaps of ashes, three initials--mystic number from time immemorial, celebrated symbol of Divinity known to, and revered by, Cabalists, Gnostics, Rosicrucians, and Theosophists. Mr. J. Ransom Bridges, who had considerable correspondence with the High Priestess from 1888 until her death, says (_Arena_, April, 1895): "Whatever may be the ultimate verdict upon the life and work of this woman, her place in history will be unique. There was a Titanic display of strength in everything she did. The storms that raged in her were cyclones. Those exposed to them often felt with Solovyoff that if there were holy and sage _Mahatmas_, they could not remain holy and sage, and have anything to do with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. The 'confession' she wrote rings with the mingled curses and mad laughter of a crazy mariner scuttling his own ship. Yet she could be as tender and sympathetic as any mother. Her mastery of some natures seemed complete; and these people she worked like galley-slaves in the Theosophical tread mill of her propaganda movement. "To these disciples she was the greatest thaumaturgist known to the world since the days of the Christ. The attacks upon her, the Coulomb and Solovyoff exposures, the continual newspaper calumnies they look upon as a gigantic conspiracy brewed by all the rules of the black art to counteract, and, if possible, to destroy the effect of her work and mission." "Requiescat in Pace," O Priestess of Isis, until your next incarnation on Earth! The twentieth century will doubtless have need of your services! For the delectation of the curious let me add: the English resting place of Madame Blavatsky is designed after the model of an Oriental "dagoba," or tomb; the American shrine is a marble niche in the wall of the Theosophical headquarters, No. 144 Madison avenue, the ashes reposing in a vase standing in the niche behind a hermetically-sealed glass window. The Oriental shrine in Adyar is a tomb modelled after the world-famous Taj Mahal, and is built of pink sandstone, surmounted by a small Benares copper spire. 4. The Writings of Madame Blavatsky. Madame Blavatsky is known to the reading world as the writer of two voluminous works of a philosophical or mystical character, explanatory of the Esoteric Doctrine, viz., "Isis Unveiled," published in 1877, and the "Secret Doctrine," published in 1888. In the composition of these works she claimed that she was assisted by the Mahatmas who visited her apartments when she was asleep, and wrote portions of the manuscripts with their astral hands while their natural bodies reposed entranced in Thibetan Lamaseries. These fictions were fostered by prominent members of the Theosophical Society, and believed by many credulous persons. "Isis Unveiled" is a hodge-podge of absurdities, pseudo-science, mythology and folklore, arranged in helter-skelter fashion, with an utter disregard of logical sequence. The fact was that Madame Blavatsky had a very imperfect knowledge of English, and this may account for the strange mistakes in which the volume abounds, despite the aid of the ghostly Mahatmas. William Emmette Coleman, of San Francisco, has made an exhaustive analysis of the Madame's writings, and declares that "Isis," and the "Secret Doctrine" are full of plagiarisms. In "Isis" he discovered "some 2,000 passages copied from other books without proper credit." Speaking of the "Secret Doctrine," the master key to the wisdom of the ages, he says: "The 'Secret Doctrine' is ostensibly based upon certain stanzas, claimed to have been translated by Madame Blavatsky from the 'Book of Dzyan'--the oldest book in the world, written in a language unknown to philology. The 'Book of Dzyan' was the work of Madame Blavatsky--a compilation, in her own language, from a variety of sources, embracing the general principles of the doctrines and dogmas taught in the 'Secret Doctrine.' I find in this 'oldest book in the world' statements copied from nineteenth century books, and in the usual blundering manner of Madame Blavatsky. Letters and other writings of the adepts are found in the 'Secret Doctrine.' In these Mahatmic productions I have traced various plagiarized passages from Wilson's 'Vishnu Purana,' and Winchell's 'World Life'--of like character to those in Madame Blavatsky's acknowledged writings. * * * A specimen of the wholesale plagiarisms in this book appears in vol. II., pp. 599-603. Nearly the whole of four pages was copied from Oliver's 'Pythagorean Triangle,' while only a few lines were credited to that work." Those who are interested in Coleman's exposé are referred to Appendix C, of Solovyoff's book, "A Modern Priestess of Isis." The title of this appendix is "The Sources of Madame Blavatsky's Writings." Mr. Coleman is at present engaged in the preparation of an elaborate work on the subject, which will in addition contain an "exposé of Theosophy as a whole." It will no doubt prove of interest to students of occultism. 5. Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist. The funeral of Baron de Palm, conducted according to Theosophical rites, is an interesting chapter in the history of the Society, and worth relating. Joseph Henry Louis Charles, Baron de Palm, Grand Cross Commander of the Sovereign Order of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and knight of various orders, was born at Augsburg, May 10, 1809. He came to the United States rather late in life, drifted West without any settled occupation, and lived from hand to mouth in various Western cities. Finally he located in New York City, broken in health and spirit. He was a man of considerable culture and interested to a greater or less extent in the phenomena of modern Spiritualism. A letter of introduction from the editor of the _Religio-Philosophical Journal_, of Chicago, made him acquainted with Col. Olcott, who introduced him to prominent members of the Theosophical Society. He was elected a member of the Society, eventually becoming a member of the Council. In the year 1875 he died, leaving behind an earnest request that Col. Olcott "should perform the last offices in a fashion that would illustrate the Eastern notions of death and immortality."[6] He also left directions that his body should be cremated. A great deal of excitement was caused over this affair in orthodox religious circles, and public curiosity was aroused to the highest pitch. The funeral service was, as Madame Blavatsky described it in a letter to a European correspondent, "pagan, almost antique pagan." The ceremony was held in the great hall of the Masonic Temple, corner of Twenty-third and Sixth avenue. Tickets of admission were issued of decidedly occult shape--_triangular_; some black, printed in silver; others drab, printed in black. A crowd of 2,000 people assembled to witness the obsequies. On the stage was a _triangular_ altar, with a symbolical fire burning upon it. The coffin stood near by, covered with the orders of knighthood of the deceased. A splendid choir rendered several Orphic hymns composed for the occasion, with organ accompaniment, and Col. Olcott, as Hierophant, made an invocation or _mantram_ "to the Soul of the World whose breath gives and withdraws the form of everything." Death is always solemn, and no subject for levity, yet I must not leave out of this chronicle the unique burlesque programme of Baron de Palm's funeral, published by the _New York World_, the day before the event. Says the _World_: "The procession will move in the following order: "Col. Olcott as high priest, wearing a leopard skin and carrying a roll of papyrus (brown card board). "Mr. Cobb, as sacred scribe, with style and tablet. "Egyptian mummy-case, borne upon a sledge drawn by four oxen. (Also a slave bearing a pot of lubricating oil.) "Madame Blavatsky as chief mourner and also bearer of the sistrum. (She will wear a long linen garment extending to the feet, and a girdle about the waist.) "Colored boy carrying three Abyssinian geese (Philadelphia chickens) to place upon the bier. "Vice-President Felt, with the eye of Osiris painted on his left breast, and carrying an asp (bought at a toy store on Eighth avenue.) "Dr. Pancoast, singing an ancient Theban dirge: "'Isis and Nepthys, beginning and end: One more victim to Amenti we send. Pay we the fare, and let us not tarry. Cross the Styx by the Roosevelt street ferry.'" "Slaves in mourning gowns, carrying the offerings and libations, to consist of early potatoes, asparagus, roast beef, French pan-cakes, bock-beer, and New Jersey cider. "Treasurer Newton, as chief of the musicians, playing the double pipe. "Other musicians performing on eight-stringed harps, tom-toms, etc. "Boys carrying a large lotus (sunflower). "Librarian Fassit, who will alternate with music by repeating the lines beginning: "'Here Horus comes, I see the boat. Friends, stay your flowing tears; The soul of man goes through a goat In just 3,000 years.' "At the temple the ceremony will be short and simple. The oxen will be left standing on the sidewalk, with a boy near by to prevent them goring the passers-by. Besides the Theurgic hymn, printed above in full, the Coptic National anthem will be sung, translated and adapted to the occasion as follows: "Sitting Cynocephalus up in a tree, I see you, and you see me. River full of crocodile, see his long snout! Hoist up the shadoof and pull him right out." 6. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky. After Madame Blavatsky's death, Mrs. Annie Besant assumed the leadership of the Theosophical Society, and wore upon her finger a ring that belonged to the High Priestess: a ring with a green stone flecked with veins of blood red, upon the surface of which was engraved the interlaced triangles within a circle, with the Indian motto, _Sat_ (Life), the symbol of Theosophy. It was given to Madame Blavatsky by her Indian teacher, says Mrs. Besant, and is very magnetic. The High Priestess on her deathbed presented the mystic signet to her successor, and left her in addition many valuable books and manuscripts. The Theosophical Society now numbers its adherents by the thousands and has its lodges scattered over the United States, France, England and India. At the World's Columbian Exposition it was well represented in the Great Parliament of Religions, by Annie Besant, William Q. Judge, of the American branch, and Prof. Chakravatir, a High Caste Brahmin of India. [Illustration: FIG. 38. PORTRAIT OF MRS. ANNIE BESANT.] Mrs. Besant, in an interview published in the _New York World_, Dec. 11, 1892, made the following statement concerning Madame Blavatsky's peculiar powers: "One time she was trying to explain to me the control of the mind over certain currents in the ether about us, and to illustrate she made some little taps come on my own head. They were accompanied by the sensation one experiences on touching an electric battery. I have frequently seen her draw things to her simply by her will, without touching them. Indeed, she would often check herself when strangers were about. It was natural for her, when she wanted a book that was on the table, to simply draw it to her by her power of mind, as it would be for you to reach out your hand to pick it up. And so, as I say, she often had to check herself, for she was decidedly adverse to making a show of her power. In fact, that is contrary to the law of the brotherhood to which she belonged. This law forbids them to make use of their power except as an instruction to their pupils or as an aid to the spreading of the truth. An adept may never use his knowledge for his personal advantage. He may be starving, and despite his ability to materialize banquets he may not supply himself with a crust of bread. This is what is meant in the Gospel when it says: 'He saved others, Himself He cannot save.' "One time she had written an article and as usual she gave me her manuscript to look over. "Sometimes she wrote very good grammatic English and again she wrote very slovenly English. So she always had me go over her manuscript. In reading this particular one I found a long quotation of some twenty or thirty lines. When I finished it I went to her and said: 'Where in the world did you get that quotation?' "'I got it from an Indian newspaper of --,' naming the date. "'But,' I said, 'that paper cannot be in this country yet! How did you get hold of it?' "'Oh, I got it, dear,' she said, with a little laugh; 'that's enough.' "Of course I understood then. When the time came for the paper to arrive, I thought I would verify her quotation, so I asked her for the name, the date of the issue and the page on which the quotation would be found. She told me, giving me, we will say, 45 as the number of the page. I went to the agent, looked up the paper and there was no such quotation on page 45. Then I remembered that things seen in the astral light are reversed, so I turned the number around, looked on page 54 and there was the quotation. When I went home I told her that it was all right, but that she had given me the wrong page. "'Very likely,' she said. 'Someone came in just as I was finishing it, and I may have forgotten to reverse the number.' "You see, anything seen in the astral light is reversed, as if you saw it in a mirror, while anything seen clairvoyantly is straight." The elevation of Mrs. Besant to the High Priestess-ship of the Theosophical Society was in accord with the spirit of the age--an acknowledgment of the Eternal Feminine; but it did not bring repose to the organization. William Q. Judge, of the American branch, began dabbling, it is claimed, in Mahatma messages on his own account, and charges were made against him by Mrs. Besant. A bitter warfare was waged in Theosophical journals, and finally the American branch of the general society seceded, and organized itself into the American Theosophical Society. Judge was made life-president and held the post until his death, in New York City, March 21st, 1896. His body was cremated and the ashes sealed in an urn, which was deposited in the Society's rooms, No. 144 Madison avenue. Five weeks after the death of Judge, the Theosophical Society held its annual conclave in New York City, and elected E. T. Hargrove as the presiding genius of esoteric wisdom in the United States. It was originally intended to hold this convention in Chicago, but the change was made for a peculiar reason. As the press reported the circumstance, "it was the result of a request by a mysterious adept whose existence had been unsuspected, and who made known his wish in a communication to the executive committee." It seems that the Theosophical Society is composed of two bodies, the exoteric and the esoteric. The first holds open meetings for the discussion of ethical and Theosophical subjects, and the second meets privately, being composed of a secret body of adepts, learned in occultism and possessing remarkable spiritual powers. The chief of the secret order is appointed by the Mahatmas, on account, it is claimed, of his or her occult development. Madame Blavatsky was the High Priestess in this inner temple during her lifetime, and was succeeded by Hierophant W. Q. Judge. When Judge died, it seems there was no one thoroughly qualified to take his place as the head of the esoteric branch, until an examination was made of his papers. Then came a surprise. Judge had named as his successor a certain obscure individual whom he claimed to be a great adept, requesting that the name be kept a profound secret for a specified time. In obedience to this injunction, the Great Unknown was elected as chief of the Inner Brother-and-Sisterhood. All of this made interesting copy for the New York journalists, and columns were printed about the affair. Another surprise came when the convention of exoterics ("hysterics," as some of the papers called them) subscribed $25,000 for the founding of an occult temple in this country. But the greatest surprise of all was a Theosophical wedding. The De Palm funeral fades away into utter insignificance beside this mystic marriage. The contracting parties were Claude Falls Wright, formerly secretary to Madame Blavatsky, and Mary C. L. Leonard, daughter of Anna Byford Leonard, one of the best known Theosophists in the West. The ceremony was performed at Aryan Hall, No. 144 Madison avenue, N. Y., in the presence of the occult body. Outsiders were not admitted. However, public curiosity was partly gratified by sundry crumbs of information thrown out by the Theosophical press bureau. The young couple stood beneath a seven-pointed star, made of electric light globes, and plighted their troth amid clouds of odoriferous incense. Then followed weird chantings and music by an occult orchestra composed of violins and violoncellos. The unknown adept presided over the affair, as special envoy of the Mahatmas. He was enveloped from head to foot in a thick white veil, said the papers. Mr. Wright and his bride-elect declared solemnly that they remembered many of their former incarnations; their marriage had really taken place in Egypt, 5,000 years ago in one of the mysterious temples of that strange country, and the ceremony had been performed by the priests of Isis. Yes, they remembered it all! It seemed but as yesterday! They recalled with vividness the scene: their march up the avenue of monoliths; the lotus flowers strewn in their path by rosy children; the intoxicating perfume of the incense, burned in bronze braziers by shaven-headed priests; the hieroglyphics, emblematical of life, death and resurrection, painted upon the temple walls; the Hierophant in his gorgeous vestments. Oh, what a dream of Old World splendor and beauty! Before many months had passed, the awful secret of the Veiled Adept's identity was revealed. The Great Unknown turned out to be a _she_ instead of a _he_ adept--a certain Mrs. Katherine Alice Tingley, of New York City. The reporters began ringing the front door bell of the adept's house in the vain hope of obtaining an interview, but the newly-hatched Sphinx turned a deaf ear to their entreaties. The time was not yet ripe for revelations. Her friends, however, rushed into print, and told the most marvellous stories of her mediumship. W. T. Stead, the English journalist and student of psychical research, reviewing the Theosophical convention and its outcome, says (_Borderland_, July, 1896, p. 306): "The Judgeite seceders from the Theosophical Society held their annual convention in New York, April 26th to 27th. They have elected a young man, Mr. Ernest T. Hargrove, as their president. A former spiritual medium and clairvoyant, by name Katherine Alice Tingley, who claims to have been bosom friends with H. P. B. 1200 years B. C., when both were incarnated in Egypt, is, however, the grand Panjandrum of the cause. Her first husband was a detective, her second is a clerk in the White Lead Company's office in Brooklyn. "According to Mr. Hargrove she is--'The new adept; she was appointed by Mr. Judge, and we are going to sustain her, as we sustained him, for we know her important connection in Egypt, Mexico and Europe.'" In the spring of 1896, Mrs. Tingley, accompanied by a number of prominent occultists, started on a crusade through the world to bring the truths of Theosophy to the toiling millions. The crusaders before their departure were presented with a purple silk banner, bearing the legend: "Truth, Light, Liberation for Discouraged Humanity." The _New York Herald_ (Aug. 16, 1896) says of this crusade: "When Mrs. Tingley and the other crusaders left this country nothing had been heard of the claim of the reincarnated Blavatsky. Now, however, this idea is boldly advanced in England by the American branch of the society there, and in America by Burcham Harding, the acting head of the society in this country. When Mr. Harding was seen at the Theosophical headquarters, he said: "'Yes, Mme. Blavatsky is reincarnated in Mrs. Tingley. She has not only been recognized by myself and other members of the American branch of the Theosophical Society, who knew H. P. B. in her former life, but the striking physical and facial resemblance has also been noted by members of the English branch.' "But this recognition by the English members of the society does not seem to be as strong as Mr. Harding would seem to have it understood. In fact, there are a number of members of that branch who boldly declare that Mrs. Tingley is an impostor. One of them, within the last week, addressing the English members on the subject, claimed that Mme. Blavatsky had foreseen that such an impostor would arise. He said: "'When Mme. Blavatsky lived in her body among us, she declared to all her disciples that, in her next reincarnation, she would inhabit the body of an Eastern man, and she warned them to be on their guard against any assertion made by mediums or others that they were controlled by her. Whatever H. P. B. lacked, she never wanted emphasis, and no one who knew anything of the founder of the Theosophical Society was left in any doubt as to her views upon this question. She declared that if any persons, after her death, should claim that she was speaking through them, her friends might be quite sure that it was a lie. Imagine, then, the feelings of H. P. B.'s disciples on being presented with an American clairvoyant medium, in the shape of Mrs. Tingley, who is reported to claim that H. P. B. is reincarnated in her.' "The American branch of the society is not at all disturbed by this charge of fraud by the English branch. In connection with it Mr. Harding says: "'It is true that the American branch of the Theosophical Society has seceded from the English branch, but as Mme. Blavatsky, the founder, was in reality an American, it can be understood why we consider ourselves the parent society.' "Of the one letter which Mrs. Tingley has sent to America since the arrival of the crusaders, the English Theosophists are a unit in the expression of opinion that it illustrated, as did her speech in Queen's Hall, merely 'unmeaning platitudes and prophecies.' But the American members are quite as loud in their expressions that the English members are trying to win the sympathies of the public, and that the words are really understood by the initiate. "The letter reads: 'In thanking you for the many kind letters addressed to me as Katherine Tingley, as well as by other names that would not be understood by the general public, I should like to say a few words as to the future and its possibilities. Many of you are destined to take an active part in the work that the future will make manifest, and it is well to press onward with a clear knowledge of the path to be trodden and with a clear vision of the goal to be reached. "'The path to be trodden is both exterior and interior, and in order to reach the goal it is necessary to tread these paths with strength, courage, faith and the essence of them all, which is wisdom. "'For these two paths, which fundamentally are one, like every duality in nature, are winding paths, and now lead through sunlight, then through deepest shade. During the last few years the large majority of students have been rounding a curve in the paths of both inner and outer work, and this wearied many. But those who persevered and faltered not will soon reap their reward. [Illustration: FIG. 39. PORTRAIT OF MRS. TINGLEY. [Reproduced by courtesy of the _New York Herald_.]] "'The present is pregnant with the promise of the near future, and that future is brighter than could be believed by those who have so recently been immersed in the shadows that are inevitable in cyclic progress. Can words describe it? I think not. But if you will think of the past twenty years of ploughing and sowing and will keep in your mind the tremendous force that has been scattered broadcast throughout the world, you must surely see that the hour for reaping is near at hand, if it has not already come." The invasion of English territory by the American crusaders was resented by the British Theosophists. The advocates of universal brotherhood waged bitter warfare against each other in the newspapers and periodicals. It gradually resolved itself into a struggle for supremacy between the two rival claimants for the mantle of Madame Blavatsky, Mrs. Annie Besant and Mrs. Tingley. Each Pythoness ascended her sacred tripod and hysterically denounced the other as an usurper, and false prophetess. Annie Besant sought to disprove the idea of Madame Blavatsky having re-incarnated herself in the body of Mrs. Tingley. She claimed that the late High Priestess had taken up her earthly pilgrimage again in the person of a little Hindoo boy, who lived somewhere on the banks of the Ganges. The puzzling problem was this: If Mrs. Tingley was Mme. Blavatsky, where was Mrs. Tingley? Oedipus would have gone mad trying to solve this Sphinx riddle. The crusade finished, Mrs. Tingley, with her purple banner returned to New York, where she was royally welcomed by her followers. In the wake of the American adept came the irrepressible Annie Besant, accompanied by a sister Theosophist, the Countess Constance Wachmeister. Mrs. Besant, garbed in a white linen robe of Hindoo pattern, lectured on occult subjects to crowded houses in the principal cities of the East and West. In the numerous interviews accorded her by the press, she ridiculed the Blavatsky-Tingley re-incarnation theory. By kind permission of the _New York Herald_, I reproduce a portrait of Mrs. Tingley. The reader will find it interesting to compare this sketch with the photograph of Madame Blavatsky given in this book. He will notice at once how much the two occultists do resemble each other; both are grossly fat, puffy of face, with heavy-lidded eyes and rather thick lips. 7. The Theosophical Temple. If all the dreams of the Theosophical Society are fulfilled we shall see, at no distant date, in the state of California, a sombre and mysterious building, fashioned after an Egyptian temple, its pillars covered with hieroglyphic symbols, and its ponderous pylons flanking the gloomy entrance. Twin obelisks will stand guard at the gateway and huge bronze sphinxes stare the tourist out of countenance. The Theosophical temple will be constructed "upon certain mysterious principles, and the numbers 7 and 13 will play a prominent part in connection with the dimensions of the rooms and the steps of the stairways." The Hierophants of occultism will assemble here, weird initiations like those described in Moore's "Epicurean" will take place, and the doctrines of Hindoo pantheism will be expounded to the Faithful. The revival of the Egyptian mysteries seems to be one of the objects aimed at in the establishment of this mystical college. Just what the Egyptian Mysteries were is a mooted question among Egyptologists. But this does not bother the modern adept. Mr. Bucham Harding, the leading exponent of Theosophy mentioned above, says that within the temple the neophyte will be brought face to face with his own soul. "By what means cannot be revealed; but I may say that the object of initiation will be to raise the consciousness of the pupil to a plane where he will see and know his own divine soul and consciously communicate with it. Once gained, this power is never lost. From this it can be seen that occultism is not so unreal as many think, and that the existence of soul is susceptible of actual demonstration. No one will be received into the mysteries until, by means of a long and severe probation, he has proved nobility of character. Only persons having Theosophical training will be eligible, but as any believer in brotherhood may become a Theosophist, all earnest truthseekers will have an opportunity of admission. "The probation will be sufficiently severe to deter persons seeking to gratify curiosity from trying to enter. No trifler could stand the test. There will be a number of degrees. Extremely few will be able to enter the highest, as eligibility to it requires eradication of every human fault and weakness. Those strong enough to pass through this become adepts." The Masonic Fraternity, with its 33d degree and its elaborate initiations, will have to look to its laurels, as soon as the Theosophical College of Mystery is in good running order. Everyone loves mysteries, especially when they are of the Egyptian kind. Cagliostro, the High Priest of Humbug, knew this when he evolved the Egyptian Rite of Masonry, in the eighteenth century. Speaking of Freemasonry, it is interesting to note the fact, as stated by Colonel Olcott in "Old Diary Leaves," that Madame Blavatsky and her coadjutors once seriously debated the question as to the advisability of engrafting the Theosophical Society on the Masonic fraternity, as a sort of higher degree,--Masonry representing the lesser mysteries, modern Theosophy the greater mysteries. But little encouragement was given to the Priestess of Isis by eminent Freemasons, for Masonry has always been the advocate of theistic doctrines, and opposed to the pantheistic cult. At another time, the leaders of Theosophy talked of imitating Masonry by having degrees, an elaborate ritual, etc.; also pass words, signs and grips, in order that "one _occult_ brother might know another in the darkness as well as in the _astral_ light." This, however, was abandoned. The founding of the Temple of Magic and Mystery in this country, with ceremonies of initiation, etc., seems to me to be a palingenesis of Mme. Blavatsky's ideas on the subject of occult Masonry. 8. Conclusions. The temple of modern Theosophy, the foundation of which was laid by Madame Blavatsky, rests upon the truth of the Mahatma stories. Disbelieve these, and the entire structure falls to the ground like a house of cards. After the numerous exposures, recorded in the preceding chapters, it is difficult to place any reliance in the accounts of Mahatmic miracles. There may, or may not, be sages in the East, acquainted with spiritual laws of being, but that these masters, or adepts, used Madame Blavatsky as a medium to announce certain esoteric doctrines to the Western world, is exceedingly dubious. The first work of any literary pretensions to call attention to Theosophy was Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism." Of that production, William Emmette Coleman says: "'Esoteric Buddhism,' by A. P. Sinnett, was based upon statements contained in letters received by Mr. Sinnett and Mr. A. O. Hume, through Madame Blavatsky, purporting to be written by the Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and Morya--principally the former. Mr. Richard Hodgson has kindly lent me a considerable number of the original letters of the Mahatmas that leading to the production of 'Esoteric Buddhism.' I find in them overwhelming evidence that all of them were written by Madame Blavatsky. In these letters are a number of extracts from Buddhist Books, alleged to be translations from the originals by the Mahatmic writers themselves. These letters claim for the adepts a knowledge of Sanskrit, Thibetan, Pali and Chinese. I have traced to its source each quotation from the Buddhist Scriptures in the letters, and they were all copied from current English translations, including even the notes and explanations of the English translators. They were principally copied from Beal's 'Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese.' In other places where the 'adept' is using his own language in explanation of Buddhistic terms and ideas, I find that his presumed original language was copied nearly word for word from Rhys Davids' 'Buddhism,' and other books. I have traced every Buddhistic idea in these letters and in 'Esoteric Buddhism,' and every Buddhistic term, such as Devachan, Avitchi, etc., to the books whence Helena Petrovna Blavatsky derived them. Although said to be proficient in the knowledge of Thibetan and Sanskrit the words and terms in these languages in the letters of the adepts were nearly all used in a ludicrously erroneous and absurd manner. The writer of those letters was an ignoramus in Sanskrit and Thibetan; and the mistakes and blunders in them, in these languages, are in exact accordance with the known ignorance of Madame Blavatsky concerning these languages. 'Esoteric Buddhism,' like all of Madame Blavatsky's works, was based upon wholesale plagiarism and ignorance." [Illustration: FIG. 40. MADAME BLAVATSKY'S AUTOGRAPH.] Madame Blavatsky never succeeded in penetrating into Thibet, in whose sacred "lamaseries" and temples dwell the wonderful Mahatmas of modern Theosophy, but William Woodville Rockhill, the American traveller and Oriental scholar, did, and we have a record of his adventures in "The Land of the Laas," published in 1891. While at Serkok, he visited a famous monastery inhabited by 700 lamas. He says (page 102): "They asked endless questions concerning the state of Buddhism in foreign lands. They were astonished that it no longer existed in India, and that the church of Ceylon was so like the ancient Buddhist one. When told of our esoteric Buddhists, the Mahatmas, and of the wonderful doctrines they claimed to have obtained from Thibet, they were immensely amused. They declared that though in ancient times there were, doubtless, saints and sages who could perform some of the miracles now claimed by the Esoterists, none were living at the present day; and they looked upon this new school as rankly heretical, and as something approaching an imposition on our credulity." "Isis Unveiled," and the "Secret Doctrine," by Madame Blavatsky, are supposed to contain the completest exposition of Theosophy, or the inner spiritual meaning of the great religious cults of the world, but, as we have seen, they are full of plagiarisms and garbled statements, to say nothing of "spurious quotations from Buddhist sacred books, manufactured by the writer to embody her own peculiar views, under the fictitious guise of genuine Buddhism." This last quotation from Coleman strikes the keynote of the whole subject. Esoteric Buddhism is a product of Occidental manufacture, a figment of Madame Blavatsky's romantic imagination, and by no means represents the truth of Oriental philosophy. As Max Mueller, one of the greatest living Oriental scholars, has repeatedly stated, any attempt to read into Oriental thought our Western science and philosophy or to reconcile them, is futile to a degree; the two schools are as opposite to each other, as the negative and positive poles of a magnet, Orientalism representing the former, Occidentalism, the latter. Oriental philosophy with its Indeterminate Being (or pure nothing as the Absolute) ends in the utter negation of everything and affords no clue to the secret of the Universe. If to believe that all is _maya_, (illusion), and that to be one with Brahma (absorbed like the rain drop in the ocean) constitutes the _summum bonum_ of thinking, then there is no explanation of, or use for, evolution or progress of any kind. The effect of Hindoo philosophy has been stagnation, indifferentism, and, as a result, the Hindoo has no recorded history, no science, no art worthy the name. Compared to it see what Greek philosophy has done: it has transformed the Western world: Starting with Self-Determined Being, reason, self-activity, at the heart of the Universe, and the creation of individual souls by a process of evolution in time and space, and the unfolding of a splendid civilization are logical consequences. In the East, it is the destruction of self-hood; in the West the destruction of selfishness, and the preservation of self-hood. Many noted Theosophists claim that modern Theosophy is not a religious cult, but simply an exposition of the esoteric, or inner spiritual meaning of the great religious teachers of the world. Let me quote what Solovyoff says on this point: "The Theosophical Society shockingly deceived those who joined it as members, in reliance on the regulations. It gradually grew evident that it was no universal scientific brotherhood, to which the followers of all religions might with a clear conscience belong, but a group of persons who had begun to preach in their organ, _The Theosophist_, and in their other publications, a mixed religious doctrine. Finally, in the last years of Madame Blavatsky's life, even this doctrine gave place to a direct and open propaganda of the most orthodox exoteric Buddhism, under the motto of 'Our Lord Buddha,' combined with incessant attacks on Christianity. * * * Now, in 1893, as the direct effect of this cause, we see an entire religious movement, we see a prosperous and growing plantation of Buddhism in Western Europe." As a last word let me add that if, in my opinion, modern Theosophy has no right to the high place it claims in the world of thought, it has performed its share in the noble fight against the crass materialism of our day, and, freed from the frauds that have too long darkened its poetical aspects, it may yet help to diffuse through the world the pure light of brotherly love and spiritual development. List of Works Consulted in the Preparation of this Volume AKSAKOFF, ALEXANDER N. =Animism and Spiritism=: an attempt at a critical investigation of mediumistic phenomena, with special reference to the hypotheses of hallucination and of the unconscious; an answer to Dr. E. von Hartmann's work, "Der Spiritismus." 2 vols. Leipsic, 1890. 8vo. (A profoundly interesting work by an impartial Russian savant. Judicial, critical and scientific.) AZAM, DR. =Hypnotisme et Altérations de la Personnalité.= Paris, 1887. 8vo. BERNHEIM, HIPPOLYTE. =Suggestive Therapeutics=: A study of the nature and use of hypnotism. Translated from the French. New York, 1889. 4to. BINET, A. AND FÉRÉ, C. =Animal Magnetism.= Translated from the French. New York, 1888. BLAVATSKY, MADAME HÉLÈNE PETROVNA HAHN-HAHN. =Isis Unveiled=: A Master-key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology. 6th ed. New York, 1891. 2 vols. 8vo. (A heterogeneous mass of poorly digested quotations from writers living and dead, with running remarks by Mme. Blavatsky. A hodge-podge of magic, masonry, and Oriental witchcraft. Pseudo-scientific.) ------ =The Secret Doctrine=: The Synthesis of science, religion, and philosophy. 2 vols. New York, 1888. 8vo. (Philosophical in character. A reading of Western thought into Oriental religions and symbolisms. So-called quotations from the "Book of Dzyan," manufactured by the ingenious mind of the authoress.) CROCQ FILS, DR. =L'hypnotisme.= Paris, 1896. 4to. (An exhaustive work on hypnotism in all its phases.) CROOKES, WILLIAM. =Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism.= London, 1876. 8vo, (pamphlet). ------ =Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism.= London, 1875. 8vo, (pamphlet). (Very interesting exposition of experiments made with D. D. Home, the spirit medium.) DAVENPORT, R. B. =Death Blow to Spiritualism=: True story of the Fox sisters. New York, 1888. 8vo. DESSOIR, MAX. =The Psychology of Legerdemain.= _Open Court_, vol. vii. GARRETT, EDMUND. =Isis Very Much Unveiled=: Being the story of the great Mahatma hoax. London, 1895. 8vo. GASPARIN, COMTE AGÉNOR DE. =Des Tables Tournantes, du Surnaturel et des Esprits.= Paris, 1854. 8vo. GATCHELL, CHARLES. The methods of mind-readers. _Forum_, vol. xi, pp. 192-204. GIBIER, DR. PAUL. =Le Spiritisme= (fakirisme occidental). Étude historique, critique et expérimentale. Paris, 1889. 8vo. GURNEY, E., MYERS, F. W., AND PODMORE, F. =Phantasms of the Living.= 2 vols. London, 1887. (Embodies the investigations of the Society for Psychical Research into Spiritualism, Telepathy, Thought-transference, etc.) HAMMOND, DR. W. H. =Spiritualism and Nervous Derangement.= New York, 1876. 8vo. HARDINGE-BRITTAN, EMMA. =History of Spiritualism.= New York. 4to. HART, ERNEST. =Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New Witchcraft.= London, 1893. 8vo. (Scientific and critical. Anti-spiritualistic in character.) HOME, D. D. =Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism.= New York, 1878. 8vo. HUDSON, THOMAS JAY. =The Law of Psychic Phenomena.= New York, 1894. 8vo. ------ =A Scientific Demonstration of the Future Life.= Chicago, 1895. 8vo. JAMES, WILLIAM. =Psychology.= New York, 1892. 8vo, 2 vols. JASTROW, JOSEPH. =Involuntary Movements.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol. xl, pp. 743-750. (Interesting account of experiments made in a Psychological Laboratory to demonstrate "the readiness with which normal individuals may be made to yield evidence of unconscious and involuntary processes." Throws considerable light on muscle-reading, planchette-writing, etc.) ------ =The Psychology of Deception.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol. xxxiv, pp. 145-157. ------ =The Psychology of Spiritualism.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol. xxxiv, pp. 721-732. (A series of articles of great value to students of psychical research.) KRAFFT-EBING, R. =Experimental Study in the Domain of Hypnotism.= New York, 1889. LEAF, WALTER. =A Modern Priestess of Isis=; abridged and translated on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research, from the Russian of Vsevolod S. Solovyoff. London, 1895. 8vo. LILLIE, ARTHUR. =Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophy.= London, 1896. 8vo. LIPPITT, F. J. =Physical Proofs of Another Life=: Letters to the Seybert commission. Washington, D. C., 1888. 8vo. MACAIRE, SID. =Mind-Reading, or Muscle-Reading?= London, 1889. MOLL, ALBERT. =Hypnotism.= New York, 1892. 8vo. MATTISON, REV. H. =Spirit-rapping Unveiled.= An Exposé of the origin, history theology and philosophy of certain alleged communications from the spiritual world by means of "spirit-rapping," "medium writing," "physical demonstrations," etc. New York, 1855. 8vo. MYERS, F. W. H. =Science and a Future Life=, and other essays. London, 1891. 8vo. OCHOROWICZ, DR. J. =Mental Suggestion= (with a preface by Prof. Charles Richet). From the French by J. Fitz-Gerald. New York, 1891. 8vo. OLCOTT, HENRY S. =Old Diary Leaves.= New York, 1895. 8vo. (Full of wildly improbable incidents in the career of Madame Blavatsky. Valuable on account of its numerous quotations from American journals concerning the early history of the theosophical movement in the United States.) PODMORE, FRANK S. =Apparitions and Thought-Transference=: Examination of the evidence of telepathy. New York, 1894. 8vo. (A thoughtful scientific work on a profoundly interesting subject.) REVELATIONS OF A SPIRIT MEDIUM; or, =Spiritualistic Mysteries Exposed=. St. Paul, Minn., 1891. 8vo. (One of the best exposés of physical phenomena published.) ROBERT-HOUDIN, J. E. =The Secrets of Stage Conjuring.= From the French, by Prof. Hoffmann. New York, 1881. 8vo. (A full account of the performances of the Davenport Bros. in Paris, by the most famous of contemporary conjurers.) ROARK, RURICK N. =Psychology in Education.= New York, 1895. 8vo. ROCKHILL, WM. W. =The Land of the Lamas.= New York, 1891. 8vo. SEYBERT COMMISSION ON SPIRITUALISM. =Preliminary Report.= New York, 1888. 8vo. (Absolutely anti-spiritualistic. The psychical phases of the subject not considered.) SIDGWICK, MRS. H. =Article "Spiritualism" in "Encyclopædia Britannica,"= vol. 22. (An excellent resumé of spiritualism, its history and phenomena.) SINNETT, A. P. (_Ed._) =Incidents in the life of Mme. Blavatsky.= London, 1886. 8vo. (Interesting, but replete with wildly improbable incidents, etc. Of little value as a life of the famous occultist.) ------ =The Occult World.= London, 1885. 8vo. ------ =Esoteric Buddhism.= London, 1888. 8vo. SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH: =Proceedings.= Vols. 1-11. [1882-95.] London, 1882-95. 8vo. (The most exhaustive researches yet set on foot by impartial investigators. Scientific in character, and invaluable to the student. Psychical phases of spiritualism mostly dealt with.) TRUESDELL, JOHN W. =The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of Spiritualism=: Derived from careful investigations covering a period of twenty-five years. New York, 1883. 8vo. (Anti-spiritualistic. Exposés of physical phenomena: psychography, rope-tests, etc. Of its kind, a valuable contribution to the literature of the subject.) WEATHERLY, DR. L. A., AND MASKELYNE, J. N. =The Supernatural.= Bristol, Eng., 1891. 8vo. WILLMANN, CARL. =Moderne Wunder.= Leipsic, 1892. 8vo. (Contains interesting accounts of Dr. Slade's Berlin and Leipsic experiences. It is written by a professional conjurer. Anti-spiritualistic.) WOODBURY, WALTER E. =Photographic Amusements.= New York, 1896. 8vo. (Contains some interesting accounts of so-called spirit photography.) FOOTNOTES: [1] Introduction to Herrmann the Magician, his Life, his Secrets, (Laird & Lee, Publishers.) [2] Spiritualism and nervous derangement, New York, 1876. p. 115. [3] The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of Spiritualism, etc., New York, 1883. [4] Communication to _New York Sun_, 1892. [5] NOTE--These letters were purchased from the _Christian College Magazine_ by Dr. Elliot Coues, of Washington, D. C. [6] "Old Diary Leaves"--_Olcott_. Transcriber's Notes: Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.