Chapter I.

CHILDHOOD, 1831-1844.*
The powerful, strongly-marked face of the co- founder of the Theosophical Society must be familiar to many, as her portrait is to be found in most of the Society's meeting-rooms, and has been printed in many places. But how few know the story of her arduous life ? No one knows it fully, nor is it anywhere completely recorded, save in the imperishable memory of nature, wherein the history of every life is preserved. Several books have, however, been written about Madame Blavatsky, and from them the following outline of her life is compiled.
Helena Petrovna Hahn was born at Ekaterinoslow in the South of Russia, in 1831.'^ Her father, Col. Hahn, was an officer in the Russian army, who belonged to a noble family coming from Mecklenburg, Germany, and her mother, Helene Fadeef, who attained some fame as an authoress, was the daughter of Princess Dolgorouky, and so came of one of the oldest Russian aristocratic families.
*The baby, whose career has meant so much to many of us, was born in the night between July 30th and 31st — a feeble little infant which was not expected to
» Compiled from Incidents in the Life of Mdme. Blavatsky, A. P. Sinnett,
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live. They decided that it must be baptised at once, and so all the preparations were made for this important ceremony ; a large room was selected and the whole household assembled, everyone being provided with a burning taper which had to be held during the service. A little girl, the child-aunt of the baby, who was in the front row, grew very tired, and settled, unobserved, on the floor with her lighted taper in her hand ; the sponsors were just in the act of renouncing the Evil One and his deeds, when they discovered that the long flowing robes of the priest had caught fire from the little girl's taper, and the poor old man was rather severely burnt. This was considered by the super- stitious servants to be a bad omen, and a troubled and eventful life was predicted for poor httle Helena Hahn.
Contrary to expectations the baby lived and grew up, although for some years her health was delicate ; but it improved greatly, for at ten years of age she was a good rider, and at fifteen she could control any Cossack horse ; a Cossack horse is generally considered to have a will and a way of its own, but so had Helena Hahn. She was daring, very lively, and full of humour, with a passionate love for everything unknown and mysterious, and a craving for independence and freedom of action.
The child's nurses were familiar with, and fully believed in all the legends and customs relating to the fairies and the goblins, and they were persuaded that Helena had some touch with the unseen worlds , thus on a certain day in July, each year, her nurse would carry her all round the establishment, and make her sprinkle the four corners with water, the nurse repeat-
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ing mystic sentences the while. Sometimes, when she was older and understood her superiority better, little Helena would frighten the poor nurse by telling her about these goblins, and so gain her own way when the nurse wished otherwise. For two or three years Helena and her younger sister went to stay with their father, and moved about with the soldiers of whom he had command ; they were chiefly taken care of by their father's orderlies, and Helena, at least, greatly preferred them to her female nurses.
Before Helena was eleven her mother died and she was taken to live with her grandmother. Princess Dol- gorouky, at Saratow, where she spent five years. The house was an old rambling castle-like place, with subterranean passages and weird nooks and corners ; and there was a large park which joined on to the deep forest, full of shadows and sombre paths. Many legends were related about the old place, which Helena quickly learnt. Altogether it was a home that was likely still further to quicken that love of the mysterious which was already so strong a trait in her character. She was a highly-strung, sensitive girl, given to walking in her sleep, sometimes full of mischief, and at other times as assiduous at her lessons as an old scholar. For her all nature seemed animated with a mysterious life of its own ; she heard the voice of every object and form ; she talked with birds and animals, and had some means of her own for understanding them, while inanimate objects, such as certain stuffed speci- mens of seals and crocodiles, and old antediluvian monsters which the house contained, suggested end- less romances to her Hvely imagination. Sometimes
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they were more than fancies which she wove round these objects, and often she would relate her stories to a group of younger children ; seated on her favourite animal, a huge stuffed seal, she would repeat his adventures, as told her by himself, or tell the romance of a tall white flamingo, whose behaviour while alive had left something to be desired, so that all the younger children grew quite afraid of him, even though he was stuffed. Her power of story- telling was remark- able, for she seemed actually to live in the events she was describing, and quite carried her audience away with her.
She made the acquaintance of an old man, a cen- tenarian, who was popularly considered to be a wizard, but of a benevolent type, for he willingly cured those who apphed to him in sickness, using herbs whose properties he well knew. He kept bees, and in the summer could be seen walking among his favourites and covered by them from head to foot, as by a living cloak, while he could put his hands into their hives with impunity ; the buzzing of the bees would stop when he spoke in a curious way to them — evidently he and they understood one another. Helena visited this strange old man whenever possible, and listened with eager interest to all he had to say about the language of the birds and beasts.
Besides these unusual elements which were added to the ordinary events of her childhood, there was another influence of great importance which ought to be mentioned. At a very early period of her hfe Helena was aware of a Protector, invisible to all but herself, a man of imposing appearance, whose features never
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changed, and whom she met in after Hfe as a hving man, and knew as though she had been brought up in his presence. This guardianship never forsook her throughout her hfe, as we shall see, and it showed itself even in her childhood as the following stories will show.
When she was about fourteen a horse bolted with her ; she fell with her foot entangled in the stirrup, and before the horse was stopped she ought to have been killed outright but for a strange sustaining power, which she distinctly felt around her and which seemed to hold her up in defiance of gravitation.
When she was quite a small mite another surprising adventure befell her. She conceived a wish to inspect closely a picture which hung high on a wall with a curtain in front of it — a wish which was not responded to by her elders. So when the coast was clear, determined to carry out her design, she dragged a table to the wall, and contriving to place another small table upon that, and a chair on the top of all, she succeeded in mounting this unstable erection, and found she could just reach the picture by leaning with one hand on the dusty wall, while with the other she pulled back the curtain. The picture startled her, her slight movement upset her frail platform and . . . exactly what occurred she could not say. But she lost consciousness from the moment she began to fall, and when she recovered her senses was lying quite unhurt on [the floor, the tables and chairs were in their usual places, the curtain was in front of the picture, and the only sign of her adventure was the mark of her small hand on the dusty
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wall high up beside the picture.
There was one trait in our heroine's character which showed itself in her early youth, and remained with her all through her life, and that was her sympathy for those who were of a humbler station in life than herself. As a child, she always preferred to play with the servants' children rather than with her equals, and had constantly to be watched lest she should escape from the house and make friends with ragged street boys. So, later in life, she cared nothing for mere nobility of birth, and always was especially sympa- thetic towards those who were socially beneath her.
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