III. Manas,* the derivation or product in a reflected form

* Mahat or the " Universal Mind " is the som-ce of Manas. The latter is
Mahat, i.e., mind, in man. Manas is also called Kahetrajna, •' embodied
Spirit," becaiise it is, according to oxir philosophy, the Manasa-putraa, or " Sons

136 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

of Ahamkara, "the conception of I," or Ego-ship.
It is, therefore, when inseparably united to the first
two, called the Spiritual Ego, and Taijasi (the
radiant). This is the real Individuality, or the divine
man. It is this Ego which — having originally incarnated
in the senseless human form animated by, but uncon-
scious (since it had no consciousness) of, the presence
in itself of the dual monad — made of that human-like
form a real man. It is that Ego, that " Causal Body,"
which overshadows every personality Karma forces it
to incarnate into ; and this Ego which is held responsible
for all the sins committed through, and in, every new
body or personality — the evanescent masks which hide
the true Individual through the long series of rebirths.

Enq. But is this just ? Why should this Ego receive punishment as
the result of deeds which it has forgotten ?

Theo. It has not forgotten them ; it knows and remembers its mis-
deeds as well as you remember what you have done yesterday.
Is it because the memory of that bundle of physical compounds
called " body " does not recollect what its predecessor (the
personality that was) did, that you imagine that the real Ego
has forgotten them? As well say it is unjust that the new
boots on the feet of a boy, who is ilogged for stealing apples,
should be punished for that which they know nothing of

of the Universal Mind," who created, or rather produced, the thinking man,
"manu," by incarnating in the third Bace mankind in our Bound. It is Manas,
therefore, which is the real incarnating and permanent Spiritual Ego, the
INDIVIDUALITY, and our various and numberless personalities only its external
masks,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 137

Enq. But are there no modes of coromunication between the Spiritual
and human consciousness or memory ?

Theo. Of course there are ; but they have nevei- been recognised
by your scientific modern psychologists. To what do you
attribute intuition, the " voice of the conscience," premonitions,
vague undefined reminiscences, etc., etc., if not to such com-
munications ? Would that the ma,iority of educated men, at
least, had the fine spiritual perceptions of Coleridge, who
shows how intuitional he is in some of his comments. Hear
what he says with respect to the probability that "all thoughts
ai-e in themselves imperishable." '■ If the intelligent faculty
(sudden ' reviv;\ls " of memory) should be rendered more com-
prehensive, it would require only a diffei-ent and appropriate
organization, the body ceJcstiaJ instead of the body terrestrial, to
bring before every human soul the colhxtive experience of its
ichck j>ast e-vistcnce {e.riiieiices, rather)." And this body
celestial is our Manasic Ego.

ON THE EDWARD AND PUNISHMENT OF THE EGO.

ExQ. I have heard yon say that the Ego, whatever the life of the
person he incarnated in may have been on Earth, is never visited
with post-mortim punishment.

Theo. Xever, save hi very exceptional and rai'e cases of which we
wiU not speak here, as the natm-e of the " punishment " in no
wav approaches any oi' } our theological conceptions of damna-
tion.

138 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

Enq. But if it is punished in this life for the misdeeds committed in a
previous one, then it is this Ego that ought to be rewarded also,
whether here, or when disincarnated.

Theo. And so it is. If we do not admit of any punishment outside
of this earth, it is because the only state the Spiritual Self
knows of, hereafter, is that of unalloyed bliss.

Enq. What do you mean ?

Theo. Simply this : crimes and sins committed on a plane of objec-
tivity and in a world of matter, cannot receive punishment in a
world of pure subjectivity. We believe in no hell or paradise
as localities ; in no objective hell-fires and worms that never
die, nor in any Jerusalems with streets paved with sapphires
and diamonds. What we helieve in is a, post-mortem state or
mental condition, such as we are in during a vivid dream. We
believe in an immutable law of absolute Love, Justice, and
Mercy. And believing in it, we say : " Whatever the sin
and dire results of the original Karmic transgression of the
now incarnated Egos * no man (or the outer material and

' It is on this transgression that the cruel and illogical dogma of the Fallen Angels
has been built. It is explained in Vol. II. of the Secret Doctrine. All our
" Egoa " are thinliing and rational entities (Manasa-putras) who had lived,
whether under hxunan or other forms, in the precedent life-cycle (Manvantara),
and whose Karma it was to incarnate in the man of this one. It was taught in
the Mysteries that, having delayed to comply with this law (or having
" refused to create " as Hinduism says of the Kumaraa and Christian legend of
the Archangel Michael), i.e., having failed to incarnate in due time, the bodies
predestined for them got defiled (Vide Stanzas VIII. and IX. in the " Slokas of
Dzyan," Vol. II. Secret Doctrine, pp. 19 and 20), hence the original sin of the
senseless forms and the punishment of the Egos. That which is meant by the
rebellious angels being hurled down into HeU is simply ejsplained by these pure
Spirits or Egos being imprisoned in bodies of unclean matter, flesh.

D

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 139

periodical form of the Spiritual Entity) can be held, with any
degree of justice, responsible for the consequences of his birth.
He does not ask to be born, nor can he choose the parents
that will give him life. In every respect he is a victim to his
environment, the child of circumstances over which he
has no control ; and if each of his transgressions were
impartially investigated, there Avould be found nine out of
every ten cases when he was the one sinned against, rather
than the sinner. Life is at best a heartless play, a stormy sea
to cross, and a heavy burden often too difficult to bear. The
greatest philosophers have tried in vain to fathom and
find out its raison (Tkre, and have all failed except those who
had the key to it, namely, the Eastern sages. Life is, as
Shakespeare describes it : —

" . . . . but a walking shadow — a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing "

Nothing in its separate parts, yet of the greatest importance
in its collectivity or series of lives. At any rate, almost ever}^
individual life is, in its full development, a sorrow. And are
we to believe that poor, helpless man, after being tossed about
like a piece of rotten timber on the angry billows of life, is, if
he proves too weak to resist them, to be punished b}' a
sempiternity of damnation, or even a temporar}' punishment ?
Never ! Whether a great or an average sinner, good or bad,
guilty or innocent, once delivered of the burden of physical
life, the tired and worn-out Maim (" thinking Ego ") has won

to

140 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

the right to a period of absolute rest and bliss. The same
unerringly wise and just rather than merciful Law, which
inflicts upon the incarnated Ego the Karmic punishment for
every siu committed during the preceding life on Earth, pro-
vided for the now disembodied Entity a long lease of mental
rest, i.e., the entire oblivion of every sad event, aye, to the
smallest painful thought, that took place in its last life as a
personality, leaving in the soul-memory but the reminiscence
of that which was bhss, or led to happiness. Plotinus, who
said that our body was the true river of Lethe, for " souls
plunged into it forget all," meant more than he said. For, as
our terrestrial body is like Lethe, so is our celestial body in
Devachan, and much more.
Enq. Then am I to understand that the murderer, the transgressor of
law divine and human in every shape, is allowed to go unpunished ?

Theo. Who ever said that? Our philosophy has a doctrine of
punishment as stern as that of the most rigid Calvinist, only
far more philosophical and consistent with absolute justice. No
deed, not even a sinful thought, will go unpunished ; the
latter more severely even than the former, as a thought is
far more potential in creating evil results than even a deed.*
We believe in an unerring law of Eetribution, called
Karma, which asserts itself in a natural concatenation of
causes and their unavoidable results.

Enq. And bow, or where, does it act ?

Theo. Every labourer is worthy of his hire, saith Wisdom in the

* " Verily, I say unto you, that whosever looketh at a woman to lust after her, hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matt, v., 28.)

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 141

Gospel ; every action, good or bad, is a prolific parent, saith
the Wisdom of the Ages. Put the two together, and you will
find the " why." After allowing the Soul, escaped from the
pangs of personal hfe, a sufficient, aye, a hundredfold com-
pensation, Karma, with its army of Skandhas, wails at the
threshold of Devachan, whence the Ego re-emerges to assume
a new incarnation. It is at this moment that the future
destiny of the now-rested Ego trembles in the scales of just
Ketribution, as it now falls once again under the sway of
active Karmic law. It is in this rebirth which is ready for it,
a rebirth selected and prepared by this mysterious, inexorable,
but in the equity and wisdom of its decrees infallible LAW,
that the sins of the previous hfe of the Ego are punished.
Only it is into no imaginary Hell, with theatrical flames and
ridiculous tailed and horned devils, that the Ego is cast, but
verily on to this earth, the plane and region of his sins, where
he will have to atone for every bad thought and deed. As he
has sown, so will he reap. Eeincarnation wiU gather around
him all those other Egos who have suffered, whether directly
or indirectly, at the hands, or even through the unconscious
instrumentality, of the past persmiality. They wiU be thrown
by Nemesis in the way of the new man, conceahng the old, the
eternal Ego, and ....

ExQ. But where is the equity you speak of, since these new " personali-
ties " are not aware of having sinned or been sinned against ?

Theo. Has the coat torn to shreds from the back of the man who
stole it, by another man who was robbed of it and recognises
his property, to be regarded as fairly dealt with .'^ The new

142 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

" personality " is no better than a fresh suit of clothes with its
specific characteristics, colour, form and qualities ; but the
real man who wears it is the same culprit as of old. It is the
individuality who suffers through his " personality." And it is
this, and this alone, that can account for the terrible, still only
apparent, injustice in the distribution of lots in life to man.
When your modern philosophers will have succeeded in show-
ing to us a good reason, why so many apparently innocent and
good men are born only to suffer during a whole life-time ;
why so many are born poor unto starvation in the slums of
great cities, abandoned by fate and men ; whj', while these
are born in the gutter, others open their eyes to light in
palaces ; while a noble birth and fortune seem often given to
the worst of men and only rarelj' to the worthy ; while there
are beggars whose inner selves are j^eers to the highest and
noblest of men ; when this, and much more, is satisfactorilj^
explained by either your philosophers or theologians, then
only, but not till then, you wiU have the right to reject
the theory of reincarnation. The highest and grandest of
poets have dimly perceived this truth of truths. Shelley
believed in it, Shakespeare must have thought of it when
writing on the worthlessness of Birth. Eemember his words :

" Why should my birth keep down my mounting spirit?

Are not all creatures subject unto time?

There's legions now of beggars on the earth,

That their original did spring from Kings,

And many monarchs now, whose fathers were

The riff-raff of their age "

Alter the word " fathers " into " Egos " — and you will have
the truth.

IX.
ON THE KAMA-LOKA AND DEVAOHAN.

ON THE FATE OF THE LOWER " PBINCIPLES."

Enq. You spoke of Kama-loka, what is it ?

Theo. When the man dies, his lower three principles leave him
for ever ; i.e., body, life, and the vehicle of the latter, the
astral body or the double of the living man. And then, his
four principles — the central or middle principle, the animal
soul or Kama-rupa, with what it has assimilated from the
lower Manas, and the higher triad find themselves in Kama-
loka. The latter is an astral locality, the limbus of scholastic
theolog}', the Hades of the ancients, and, strictly speaking, a
locality only in a relative sense. It has neither a definite area
nor boundary, but exists within subjective space ; i.e., is
beyond our sensuous perceptions. Still it exists, and it is
there that the astral eidolons of all the beings that have lived,
animals included, await their second death. For the animals it
comes with the disintegration and the entire fading out of
their astral particles to the last. For the human eidolon it
begins when the Atma-Buddhi-Manasic triad is said to

14+ THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

" separate " itself from its lower principles, or the reflection of
the ex-personality, by falling into the Devachanic state.

Enq. And what happens after this ?

Theo. Then the Kama-rupic phantom, remaining bereft of its
informing thinking principle, the higher Manas, and the lower
aspect of the latter, the animal intelligence, no longer receiving
light from the higher mind, and no longer having a physical
brain to work through, collapses.

Enq. In what way ?

Theo. Well, it faUs into the state of the frog when certain portions
of its brain are taken out by the vivisector. It can think no
more, even on the lowest animal plane. Henceforth it is no
longer even the lower Manas, since this " lower " is nothing
without the " higher."

Enq. And is it this nonentity which we find materializing in Seance
rooms with Mediums ?

Theo. It is this nonentity. A true nonentity, however, only as to
reasoning or cogitating powers, still an Entity, however
astral and fluidic, as shown in certain cases when, having been
magnetically and unconsciously drawn toward a medium, it is
revived for a time and lives in him by proxy, so to speak.
This " spook," or the Kama-rupa, may be compared with the
jelly-fish, which has an ethereal gelatinous appearance so long
as it is in its own element, or water (the medium's specific
A URA), l)ut which, no sooner is it thrown out of it, than it
dissolves in the hand or on the sand, especially in sunlight.
In the medium's Aura, it lives a kind of vicarious life and
reasons and speaks either through the medium's brain or

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 145

those of other persons present. But this would lead us too far,
and upon other people's grounds, whereon I have no desire to
trespass. Let us keep to the subject of reincarnation.

Enq. What of the latter ? How long does the incarnating Ego remain
in the Devachanic state ?

Thbo. This, we are taught, depends on the degree of spirituahty
and the merit or demerit of the last incarnation. The average
time is from ten to fifteen centuries, as I already told you.

Enq. But why could not this Ego manifest and communicate with
mortals as SpirituaUsts wiU have it ? What is there to prevent a
mother from communicating with the children she left on earth, a
husband with his wife, and so on ? It is a most consohng behef, I
must confess ; nor do I wonder that those who believe in it are so
averse to give it up.

Theo. Nor are they forced to, unless they happen to prefer truth
to fiction, however " consoling." Uncongenial our doctrines
may be to Spiritualists ; yet, nothing of what we believe in
and teach is half as selfish and cruel as what they preach.

Enq. I do not understand you. What is selfish?

Theo. Their doctrine of the return of Spirits, the real " person-
alities " as they say ; and I wiU teU you why. If Devachan —
call it " paradise " if you like, a " place of bliss and of supreme
felicity," if it is anything — is such a place (or say stat^, logic
tells us that no sorrow or even a shade of pain can be experi-
enced therein. " God shall wipe away all the tears from the
eyes" of those in paradise, we read in the book of many
promises. And if the " Spirits of the dead " are enabled to
return and see all that is going on on earth, and especially in
their homes, what kind of bliss can be in store for them ?

146 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

WHY THEOSOPBISTS DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE BETUBN OF
PURE "SPIRITS."

Enq. What do you mean ? Why should this interfere with their
bhss ?

Theo. Simply this ; and here is an instance. A mother dies,
leaving behind her little helpless children — -orphans whom she
adores — perhaps a beloved husband also. We say that her
" Spirit " or Ego — that individuality which is now all impreg-
nated, for the entire Devachanic period, with the noblest feel-
ings held by its late personality, i.e., love for her children, pity
for those who suffer, and so on — we say that it is now entirely
separated from the " vale of tears," that its future bliss
consists in that blessed ignorance of all the woes it left behind.
Spiritualists say, on the contrary, that it is as vividly aware of
them, and more so than before, for " Spirits see more that
mortals in the flesh do." We say that the bliss of the
Devachanee consists in its complete conviction that it has
never left the earth, and that there is no such thing as death
at all ; that the post-mortem spiritual consciousness of the
mother wiU represent to her that she lives surrounded by her
children and all those whom she loved ; that no gap, no link,
will be missing to make her disembodied state the most perfect
and absolute happiness. The Spiritualists deny this point
blank. According to their doctrine, unfortunate man is not
liberated even by death from the sorrows of this life. Not a
drop from the life-cup of pain and suffering will miss his lips ;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 147

and nolens volens, since he sees everything now, shall he drink
it to the bitter dregs. Thus, the loving wife, who during her
lifetime was ready to save her husband sorrow at the price of
her heart's blood, is now doomed to see, in utter helplessness,
his despair, and to register every hot tear he sheds for her loss.
Worse than that, she may see the tears dry too soon, and
another beloved face shine on him, the father of her children ;
find another woman replacing her in his affections ; doomed to
hear her orphans giving the holy name of " mother " to one
indifferent to them, and to see those little children neglected,
if not ill-treated. According to this doctrine the "gentle
wafting to immortal life " becomes without any transition the
way into a new path of mental suffering ! And yet, the
columns of the "Banner of Light," the veteran journal of the
American Spiritualists, are filled with messages from the dead,
the " dear departed ones," who aU write to say how very
happy they are ! Is such a state of knowledge consistent with
bliss? Then "bliss " stands in such a case for the greatest curse,
and orthodox damnation must be a relief in comparison to it !

Enq. But how does your theory avoid this ? How can you reconcile
the theory of Soul's omniscience with its blindness to that which
is taking place on earth ?

Theo. Because such is the law of love and mercy. During
every Devachanic period the Ego, omniscient as it is
per se, clothes itself, so to say, with the reflection of the " per-
sonality " that was. I have just told you that the ideal
efflorescence of all the abstract, therefore undying and eternal
qualities or attributes, such as love and mercy, the love of the

148 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

good, the true and the beautiful, that ever spoke in the heart
of the Hving " personaht)'," clung after death to the Ego, and
therefore followed it to Devachan. For the time being, then,
the Ego becomes the ideal reflection of the human being it was
when last on earth, and that is not omniscient. Were it that,
it would never be in the state we call Devachan at all.

Enq. What are your reasons for it ?

Theo. If you want an answer on the strict lines of our philosophy,
then I will say that it is because everything is illusion (Maya)
outside of eternal truth, which has neither form, colour, nor
limitation. He who has placed himself beyond the veil of
maya — and such are the highest Adepts and Initiates — can have
no Devachan. As to the ordinary mortal, his bliss in it is com-
plete. It is an absolute oblivion of all that gave it pain or
sorrow in the past incarnation, and even oblivion of the fact
that such things as pain or sorrow exist at all. The Devachanee
lives its intermediate cycle between two incarnations surrounded
by everything it had aspired to in vain, and in the companion-
ship of everyone it loved on earth. It has reached the
fulfilment of all its soul-yearnings. And thus it lives through-
out long centuries an existence of unalloyed happiness, which is
the reward for its sufferings in earth-life. In short, it bathes in
a sea of uninterrupted felicity spanned only by events of still
greater felicity in degree.

Enq. But this is more than simple delusion, it is an existence of insane
hallucinations !

Theo. From your standpoint it may be, not so from that of philo-
sophy. Besides which, is not our whole terrestial life filled

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 149

with such delusions ? Have you never met men and women
living for years in a fool's paradise ? And because you
should happen to learn that the husband of a wife, whom she
adores and believes herself as beloved by him, is untrue to her,
would you go and break her heart and beautiful dream by
rudely awakening her to the reality ? I think not. I say it
again, such oblivion and hallucination — if you call it so — are
only a merciful law of nature and strict justice. At any rate,
it is a far more fascinating prospect than the orthodox golden
harp with a pair of wings. The assurance that " the soul that
lives ascends frequently and runs familiarly through the
streets of the heavenly Jerusalem, visiting the patriarchs and
prophets, saluting the apostles, and admiring the army of
martyrs " may seem of a more pious character to some.
Nevertheless, it is a hallucination of a far more delusive cha-
racter, since mothers love their children with an immortal
love, we all know, while the personages mentioned in the
" heavenly Jerusalem " are still of a rather doubtful nature.
But I would, still, rather accept the " new Jerusalem," with its
streets paved like the show windows of a jeweUer's shop,
than find consolation in the heartless doctrine of the Spiritual-
ists. The idea alone that the intellectual conscious souls of
one's father, mother, daughter or brother find their bliss in a
" Summer land " — only a httle more natural, but just as ridicu-
lous as the "New Jerusalem" in its description — would be
enough to make one lose every respect for one's " departed
ones." To beheve that a pure spirit can feel happy while
doomed to witness the sins, mistakes, treachery, and, above all,

L

I50 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

the sufferings of those from whom it is severed by death and

whom it loves best, without being able to help them, would be

a maddening thought.
Enq. There is something in your argument. I confess to having never

seen it in this light.
Theo. Just so, and one must be selfish to the core and utterly
devoid of the sense of retributive justice, to have ever imagined
such a thing. We are with those whom we have lost in
material form, and far, far nearer to them now, than when they
were alive. And it is not only in the fancy of the Devachanee,
as some may imagine, but in reality. For pure divine love is
not merely the blossom of a human heart, but has its roots in
eternity. Spiritual holy love is immortal, and Karma brings
sooner or later all those who loved each other with such a
spiritual affection to incarnate once more in the same family
group. Again we say that love beyond the grave, illusion
though you may call it, has a magic and divine potency which
reacts on the living. A mother's Ego filled with love for the
imaginary children it sees near itself, living a life of happiness,
as real to it as when on earth — that love will always be felt by
the children in flesh. It will manifest in their dreams, and
often in various events — m providential protections and escapes,
for love is a strong shield, and is not limited by space or time.
As with this Devachanic "mother," so with the rest of human
relationships and attachments, save the purely selfish or
material. Analogy will suggest to you the rest.

Enq. In no case, then, do you admit the possibihty of the communi-
cation of the living with the disembodied spirit ';*

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 151

Theo. Yes, there is a case, and even two exceptions to the rule.
The first exception is during the few days that follow imme-
diately the death of a person and before the Ego passes into
the Devachanic state. Whether any living mortal, save a few
exceptional cases — (when the intensity of the desire in the
dying person to return for some purpose forced the higher
consciousness to remain awake, and therefore it was really the
individuality, the " Spirit " that communicated) — has derived
much benefit from the return of the spirit into the objective
plane is another question. The spirit is dazed after death
and falls very soon into what we call " pre-devachanic uncon-
sciousness." The second exception is found in the Nirmana-
hayas.

Enq. What about them ? And what does the name mean for you ?

Theo. It is the name given to those who, though they have won
the right to Nirvana and cyclic rest — (not " Devachan," as the
latter is an illusion of our consciousness, a happy dream, and
as those who are fit for Nirvana must have lost entirely every
desire or possibility of the world's illusions) — have out of pity
for mankind and those they left on earth renounced the
Nirvanic state. Such an adept, or Saint, or whatever you may
call him, believing it a selfish act to rest in bliss while mankind
groans under the burden of misery produced by ignorance,
renounces Nirvana, and determines to remain invisible in spirit
on this earth. They have no material body, as they have
left it behind ; but otherwise they remain with all their
principles even in astral life in our sphere. And such can and
do communicate with a few elect ones, only surely not with
ordinary mediums.

152 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

Enq. I have put you the question about Nirmanahayas because I read
in some German and other works that it was the name given to
the terrestrial appearances or bodies assumed by Buddhas in the
Northern Buddhistic teachings.

Theo. So they are, only the Orientalists have confused this terres-
trial body by understanding it to be objective and physical
instead of purely astral and subjective.

Enq. And what good can they do on earth?

Theo. Not much, as regards individuals, as they have no right to
interfere with Karma, and can only advise and inspire mortals
for the general good. Yet they do more beneficent actions than
you imagine.

Enq. To this Science would never subscribe, not even modern psychology.
Eor them, no portion of intelligence can survive the physical brain.
What would you answer them ?

Theo. I would not even go to the trouble of answering, but would
simply say, in the words given to " M.A. Oxon," " Intelli-
gence is perpetuated after the body is dead. Though it is
not a question of the brain only. . . . It is reasonable to
propound the indestructibility of the human sjDirit from what
we know " {Spirit Identity, p. 69).

Enq. But " M.A. Oxon " is a Spiritualist?

Theo. Quite so, and the only true Spiritualist I know of, though we
may still disagree with him on many a minor question. Apart
from this, no Spiritualist comes nearer to the occult truths
than he does. Like any one of us he speaks incessantly " of
the surface dangers that beset the ill-equipped, feather-headed
muddler with the occult, who crosses the threshold without

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 153

counting the cost." * Our only disagreement rests in the ques-
tion of "Spirit Identity." Otherwise, I, for one, coincide
almost entirely with him, and accept the three propositions
be embodied in his address of July, 1884. It is this eminent
Spiritualist, rather, who disagrees with us, not we with him.
Enq. What are these propositions ?
Thec. " 1. That there is a life coincident with, and independent of

the physical life of the body."
" 2. That, as a necessary corollary, this life extends beyond

the life of the body " (we say it extends throughout

Devachan).
" 3. That there is communication between the denizens of

that state of existence and tliose of the world in which

we now live."
All depend, you see, on the minor and secondary aspects of
these fundamental propositions. Everything depends on the
views we take of Spirit and Soul, or Individuality and Per-
sonality. Spiritualists confuse the two " into one " ; we separate
them, and say that, with the exceptions above enumerated, no
Spirit will revisit the earth, though the animal Soul may.
But let us return once more to our direct subject, the
Skandhas.

Enq. I begin to understand better now. It is the Spirit, so to say, of
those Skandhas which are the most ennobhng, which, attaching them-
selves to the incarnating Ego, survive, and are added to the stock
of its angehc experiences. And it is the attributes connected with
the material Skandhas, with selfish and personal motives, which,

" Some things that I do know of Spiritualism and some that I do not,"

154 7-HE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

disappearing from the field of action between two incarnations,
reappear at the subsequent incarnation as Karmic results to be
atoned for ; and therefore the Spirit will not leave Devachan. Is
it so?
Theo. Very nearly so. If you add to this that the law of retribution,
or Karma, rewarding the highest and most spiritual in Deva-
chan, never fails to reward them again on earth by giving them
a further development, and furnishing the Ego with a body
fitted for it, then you will be quite correct.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE SKANDHAS.

Enq. What becomes of the other, the lower Skandhas of the personality,
after the death of the body ? Are they quite destroyed ?

Theo. They are and yet they are not — a fresh metaphysical and
occult mystery for you. They are destroyed as the working
stock in hand of the personality ; they remain as Karmic effects,
as germs, hanging in the atmosphere of the terrestrial plane,
ready to come to life, as so many avenging fiends, to attach
themselves to the new personality of the Ego when it reincar-
nates.

Enq. This really passes my comprehension, and is very difficult to
understand.

Theo. Not once that you have assimilated all the details. For then
you wiU see that for logic, consistency, profound philosophy,
divine mercy and equity, this doctrine ofEeincarnation has not
its equal on earth. It is a belief in a perpetual progress for

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 155

each incarnating Ego, or divine soul, in an evolution from the
outward into the inward, from the material to the Spiritual,
arriving at the end of each stage at absolute unity with the
divine Principle. From strength to strength, from the beauty
and perfection of one plane to the greater beauty and per-
fection of another, with accessions of new glory, of fresh
knowledge and power in each cycle, such is the destiny of
every Ego, which thus becomes its own Saviour in each world
and incarnation.

Enq. But Christianity teaches the same. It also preaches progression.

Theo. Yes, only with the addition of something else. It tells us
of the impossibility of attaining Salvation without the aid of a
miraculous Saviour, and therefore dooms to perdition all those
who will not accept the dogma. This is just the difference
between Christian theology and Theosophy. The former en-
forces belief in the Descent of the Spiritual Ego into the Loiver
Self; the latter inculcates the necessity of endeavouring to
elevate oneself to the Christos, or Buddhi state.

Enq. By teaching the annihilation of consciousness in case of failure,
however, don't you think that it amounts to the annihilation of Self,
in the opinion of the non-metaphysical ?

Theo. From the standpoint of those who believe in the resurrection
of the body literally, and insist that every bone, every artery
and atom of flesh will be raised bodily on the Judgment Day —
of course it does. If you still insist that it is the perishable
form and finite qualities that make up immortal man, then we
shall hardly understand each other. And if you do not under-
stand that, by limiting the existence of every Ego to one life

156 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

on eartli, you make of Deity an ever-drunken Indra of the
Puranic dead letter, a cruel Moloch, a god who makes an
inextricable mess on Earth, and yet claims thanks for it, then
the sooner we drop the conversation the better.

Enq. But let us return, nowthatthe subject of the Skandhas is disposed
of, to the question of the consciousness which survives death.
This is the point which interests most people. Do we possess
more knowledge in Devachan than we do in Earth life?

Theo. In one sense, we can acquire more knowledge ; that is, we
can develop further any faculty which we loved and strove
after during life, provided it is concerned with abstract and
ideal things, such as music, painting, poetry, etc., since
Devachan is merely an idealized and subjective continuation
of earth-life.

Enq. But if in Devachan the Spirit is free from matter, why should it
not possess all knowledge ?

Theo. Because, as I told you, the Ego is, so to say, wedded to the
memory of its last incarnation. Thus, if you think over what
I have said, and string all the facts together, you will reahze
that the Devachanic state is not one of omniscience, but a
transcendental continuation of the personal life just terminated.
It is the rest of the soul from the toils of life.

Enq. But the scientific materiahsts assert that after the death of man
nothing remains ; that the human body simply disintegrates into
its component elements ; and that what we call soul is merely a
temporary self-consciousness produced as a bye-product of organic
action, which will evaporate hke steam. Is not theirs a strange
state of mind ?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 157

Tqeo. Not strange at all, that I see. If they say that self-conscious-
ness ceases with the body, then in their case they simply utter
an unconscious prophecy, for once they are firmly convinced
of what they assert, no conscious after-life is possible for them.
For there are exceptions to every rule.

ON POST-MORTEM AND POST-NATAL CONSCIOUSNESS.'

Enq. But if human self-consciousness survives death as a rule, why
should there be exceptions ?

Theo. In the fundamental principles of the spiritual world no
exception is possible. But there are rules for those who see,
and rules for those who prefer to remain blind.

Enq. Quite so, I understand. This is but an aberration of the blind
man, who denies the existence of the sun because he does not see it.
But after death his spiritual eyes will certainly compel him to see.
Is this what you mean ?

Theo. He will not be compelled, nor wiU he see anything. Having
persistently denied during life the continuance of existence
after death, he wiU be unable to see it, because his spiritual
capacity having been stunted in life, it cannot develop after
death, and he wiU remain blind. By insisting that he must
see it, you evidently mean one thing and I another. You

• A few portions of this chapter and of the preceding were published in Lucifer in the
shape of a " Dialogue on the Mysteries of After Life," in the January number,
1889. The article was unsigned, as if it were written by the editor, but it came
from the pen of the author of the present volume .

158 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

speak of the spirit from the spirit, or the flame from the flame
— ^of Atma, in short — and you confuse it with the human soul
— Manas. . . . You do not understand me ; let me try to
make it clear. The whole gist of your question is to know
whether, in the case of a downright materialist, the complete
loss of self-consciousness and self-perception after death is
possible ? Isn't it so ? I answer, It is possible. Because,
believing firmly in our Esoteric Doctrine, which refers to the
post-mortem period, or the interval between two lives or births,
as merely a transitory state, I say, whether that interval
between two acts of the iUusionary drama of life lasts one year
or a million, that post-mortem state may, without any breach
of the fundamental law, prove to be just the same state as
that of a man who is in a dead faint.

Enq. But since you have just said that the fundamental laws of the
after death state admit of no exceptions, how can this be ?

Theo. Nor do I say that it does admit of an exception. But the
spiritual law of continuity applies only to things which are
truly real. To one who has read and understood Mundakya
Upanishad and Vedanta-Sara all this becomes very clear. I
will say more : it is sufficient to understand what we mean
by Buddhi and the duality of Manas to gain a clear per-
ception why the materialist may fail to have a self-conscious
survival after death. Since Manas, in its lower aspect, is
the seat of the terrestrial mind, it can, therefore, give
only that perception of the Universe which is based on the
evidence of that mind; it cannot give spiritual vision. It is
said in the Eastern school, that between Buddhi and Manas

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 159

(the Ego), or Iswara and Pragna* there is in reality no more
difference than between a forest and its trees, a lake and its
waters, as the Mundakya teaches. One or hundreds of trees
dead from loss of vitality, or uprooted, are yet incapable of
preventing the forest from being still a forest.

ExQ. But, as I understand it, Buddhi represents iu this simile the
forest, and Manas-taijasit the trees. And if Buddha is immortal,
how can that which is similar to it, i.e., Manas-taijasi, entirely lose
its consciousness till the day of its new incarnation ? I cannot
understand it.

Theo. You cannot, because you will mix up an abstract represen-
tation of the whole with its casual changes of form. Eemember
that if it can be said of Buddhi-Manas that it is unconditionally
immortal, the same cannot be said of the lower Manas, still
less of Taijasi, which is merely an attribute. Neither of these,
neither Manas nor Taijasi, can exist apart from Buddhi, the
divine soul, because the first [Manas) is, in its lower aspect, a
qualificative attribute of the terrestrial personality, and the
second [Taijasi) is identical with the first, because it is the
same Manas only with the light of Buddhi reflected on it. In
its turn, Buddhi would remain only an impersonal spirit with-

* Iswara is the collective consciousness of the manifested deity, BrahmS, i.e., the
collective consciousness of the Host of Dhyan Chohans (vide Secret
Dootkine) ; and Pragna is their individual wisdom.

t Taijasi means the radiant in consequence of its union with Buddhi; i.e., Manas,
the human soul, illuminated by the radiance of the divine soul. Therefore,
Manas-taijasi may be described as radiant mind ; the human reason lit by the
light of the spirit ; and Buddhi-Manas is the revelation of the divine jilua human
intellect and self-consciousness.

i6o THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

out this element which it borrows from the human soul, which
conditions and makes of it, in this illusive Universe, as it were
something separate from the universal soul for the whole period
of the cycle of incarnation. Say rather that Buddhi-Manas
can neither die nor lose its compound self-consciousness in
Eternity, nor the recollection of its previous incarnations in
which the two — i.e., the spiritual and the human soul — had
been closely linked together. But it is not so in the case of a
materialist, whose human soul not only receives nothing from
the divine soul, but even refuses to recognise its existence.
You can hardly apply this axiom to the attributes and qualifi-
cations of the human soul, for it would be like saying that
because your divine soul is immortal, therefore the bloom on
your cheek must also be immortal ; whereas this bloom, like
Taijasi, is simply a transitory phenomenon.

Enq. Do I understand you to say that we must not mix in our minds
the noumenon with the phenomenon, the cause with its effect ?

Theo. I do say so, and repeat that, limited to Manas or the human
soul alone, the radiance of Taijasi itself becomes a mere ques-
tion of time ; because both immortality and consciousness after
death become, for the terrestrial personaUty of man, simply
conditioned attributes, as they depend entirely on conditions
and behefs created by the human soul itself during the life of
its body. Karma acts incessantly : we reap in our after-life
only the fruit of that which we have ourselves sown in this.

Enq. But if my Ego can, after the destruction of my body, become
plunged in a state of entire unconsciousness, then where can be the
punishment for the sins of my past life ?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. i6i

Theo. Our philosophy teaches that Karmic punishment reaches the
Ego only in its next incarnation. After death it receives only
the reward for the unmerited sufferings endured during its past
incarnation.* The whole punishment after death, even for
the materiaUst, consists, therefore, in the absence of any
reward, and the utter loss of the consciousness of one's bliss
and rest. Karma is the child of the terrestrial Ego, the fruit
of the actions of the tree which is the objective personality
visible to all, as much as the fruit of all the thoughts and even
motives of the spiritual " I " ; but Karma is also the tender
mother, who heals the wounds inflicted by her during the
preceding life, before she will begin to torture this Ego by
inflicting upon him new ones. If it may be said that there is
not a mental or physical suffering in the hfe of a mortal which
is not the direct fruit and consequence of some sin in a pre-
ceding existence ; on the other hand, since he does not preserve
the slightest recollection of it in his actual life, and feels him-
self not deserving of such punishment, and therefore thinks he
suffers for no guilt of his own, this alone is sufficient to entitle
the human soul to the fullest consolation, rest, and bliss in his
post-mortem existence. Death comes to our spiritual selves
ever as a deliverer and friend. For the materialist, who, not-

* Some Theosophists have taken exception to this phrase, but the words are those of
Master, and the meaning attached to the word " unmerited " is that given above.
In the T.P.S. pamphlet No. 0, a phrase, criticised subsequently in Lucifer,
was used which was intended to convey the same idea. In form, however, it
was awkward and open to the criticism directed against it ; but the essential
idea was that men often suffer from the effects of the actions done by others,
effects which thus do not strictly belong to their own Karma — and for these
sufferings they of course deserve compensation.

1 62 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

withstanding his materialism, was not a bad man, the interval
between the two lives will be like the unbroken and placid
sleep of a child, either entirely dreamless, or filled with pictures
of which he will have no definite perception ; while for the
average mortal it will be a dream as vivid as life, and full of
realistic bliss and visions.

Enq. Then the personal man must always go on suffering bUndlij the
Karmic penalties which the Ego has incurred ?

Theo. Not quite so. At the solemn moment of death every man,
even when death is sudden, sees the whole of his past life
marshalled before him, in its minutest details. For one short
instant the personal becomes one with the individual and all-
knowing Ego. But this instant is enough to show to him the
whole chain of causes which have been at work during his
life. He sees and now understands himself as he is, unadorned
by flattery or self-deception. He reads his life, remaining as
a spectator looking down into the arena he is quitting ; he
feels and knows the justice of aU the suffering that has over-
taken him.

Enq. Does this happen to everyone ?

Theo. Without any exception. Very good and holy men see, we
are taught, not only the life they are leaving, but even several
preceding lives in which were produced the causes that made
them what they were in the life just closing. They recognise
the law of Karma in all its majesty and justice.

Enq. Is there anything corresponding to this before re-birth ?

Theo. There is. As the man at the moment of death has a

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 163

retrospective insight into the Hfe he has led, so, at the moment
he is reborn on to earth, the Ego, awaking from the state of
Devachan, has a prospective vision of the hfe which awaits him,
and reahzes all the causes that have led to it. He realizes them
and sees futurity, because it is between Devachan and re-birth
that the Ego regains his full manasic consciousness, and
rebecomes for a short time the god he was, before, in com-
pliance with Karmic law, he first descended into matter and
incarnated in the first man of flesh. The " golden thread "
sees all its " pearls " and misses not one of them.

WHAT IS BE ALLY MEANT BY ANNIHILATION.

Enq. I have heard some Theosophists speak of a golden thread on which
their lives were strung. What do they mean by this ?

Theo. In the Hindu Sacred books it is said that that which
undergoes periodical incarnation is the Sutratma, which means
literally the " Thread Soul." It is a synonym of the reincar-
nating Ego — Manas conjoined with Buddhi — which absorbs
the Manasic recollections of aU our preceding lives. It is so
called, because, like the pearls on a thread, so is the long
series of human lives strung together on that one thread. In
some Upanishad these recurrent re-births are likened to the life
of a mortal which oscillates periodicaUy between sleep and
waking.

Enq. This, I must say, does not seem very clear, and I will tell you
why. Eor the man who awakes, another day commences, but that
man is the same in soul and body as he was the day before ;

1 64 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

whereas at every incarnation a full change takes place not only of
the external envelope, sex, and personality, but even of the mental
and psychic capacities. The simile does not seem to me quite
correct. The man who arises from sleep remembers quite clearly
what he has done yesterday, the day before, and even months and
years ago. But none of us has the slightest recollection of a
preceding life or of any fact or event concerning it. ... I may
forget in the morning what I have dreamt dm'ing the night, still I
know that I have slept and have the certainty that I lived during
sleep ; but what recollection can I have of my past incarnation until
the moment of death ? How do you reconcile this ?

Theo. Some people do recollect their past incarnations during life ;
but these are Buddhas and Initiates. This is what the Yogis
call Samma-Sambuddha, or the knowledge of the whole series
of one's past incarnations.

Enq. But we ordinary mortals who have not reached Samma-Sam-
buddha, how are we to understand this simile ?

Theo. By studying it and trying to understand more correctly the
characteristics and the three kinds of sleep. Sleep is a general
and immutable law for man as for beast, but there are different
kinds of sleep and still more different dreams and visions.

Enq. But this takes us to another subject. Let us return to the
materialist who, while not denying dreams, which he could hardly
do, yet denies immortality in general and the survival of his own
individuality.

Theo. And the materialist, without knowing it, is right. One who
has no inner perception of, and faith in, the immortality of his
soul, in that man the soul can never become Buddhi-taijasi, but
will remain simply Manas, and for Manas alone there is no

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 165

immortality possible. In order to live in the world to come
a conscious life, one has to believe first of all in that life
during the terrestrial existence. On these two aphorisms of
the Secret Science all the philosophy about the post-mortem
consciousness and the immortality of the soul is built. The
Ego receives always according to its deserts. After the disso-
lution of the body, there commences for it a period of fuU
awakened consciousness, or a state of chaotic dreams, or an
utterly dreamless sleep undistinguishable from annihilation,
and these are the three kinds of sleep. If our physiologists
find the cause of dreams and visions in an unconscious pre-
paration for them during the waking hours, why cannot the
same be admitted for the post-mortem dreams ? I repeat it :
death is sleep. After death, before the spiritual eyes of
the soul, begins a performance according to a programme
learnt and very often unconsciously composed by ourselves :
the practical carrying out of correct beliefs or of illusions
which have been created by ourselves. The Methodist will be
Methodist, the Mussulman a Mussulman, at least for some time
— in a perfect fool's paradise of each man's creation and
making. These are the post-mortem fruits of the tree of life.
Naturally, our belief or unbelief in the fact of conscious
immortality is unable to influence the unconditioned reality
of the fact itself, once that it exists ; but the belief or unbelief
in that immortality as the property of independent or separate
entities, cannot fail to give colour to that fact in its application
to each of these entities. Now do you begin to understand it ?

Enq. I think I do. The materialist, disbelieving in everything that

M

i66 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

cannot be proven to him by his five senses, or by scientific reasoning,
based exclusively on the data furnished by these senses in spite of their
inadequacy, and rejecting every spiritual manifestation, accepts life
as the only conscious existence. Therefore according to their behefs
so will it be unto them. They will lose their personal Ego, and
wiU plunge into a dreamless sleep until a new awakening. Is it so ?

Theo. Almost so. Eemember the practically universal teaching of
the two kinds of conscious existence : the terrestial and the
spiritual. The latter must be considered real from the very
fact that it is inhabited by the eternal, changeless and immortal
Monad ; whereas the incarnating Ego dresses itself up in new
garments entirely different from those of its previous incarna-
tions, and in which all except its spiritual prototype is doomed
to a change so radical as to leave no trace behind.

Enq. How so? Can my conscious terrestrial " I " perish not only for
a time, like the consciousness of the materialist, but so entirely as
to leave no trace behind ?

Theo. According to the teaching, it must so perish and in its
fulness, all except the principle which, having united itself
with the Monad, has thereby become a purely spiritual and
indestructible essence, one with it in the Eternity. But in the
case of an out-and-out materialist, in whose personal " I " no
Buddhi has ever reflected itself, how can the latter carry away
into the Eternity one particle of that terrestrial personality ?
Your spiritual " I " is immortal ; but from your present self it
can carry away into Eternity that only which has become
worthy of immortality, namely, the aroma alone of the flower
that has been mown by death.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 167

ExQ. "Well, and the flower, the terrestrial " I " ?

Theo. The flower, as all past and future flowers which have
blossomed aud will have to blossom oa the mother bough, tlie
SiUratma, all children of one root or Buddhi — will return to
dust. Your present "I," as you yourself know, is not the
body now sitting before me, nor yet is it what I would call
ilanas-Sutratma, but Sutratma-Buddhi.

ExQ. But this does not explain to me, at aU, why you call life after
death immortal, infinite and real, and the terrestrial life a simple
phantom or illusion; since even that post-mortem hie has limits,
however much wider they may be than those of terrestrial life.

Theo. No doubt. The spiritual Ego of man moves in eternity like
a pendulum between the hours of birth and death. But if these
hours, marking the periods of life terrestrial and life sj^iritual,
are limited in their duration, and if the very number of such
stages in Eternity between sleep and awakening, Ulusion and
reality, has its beginning and its end, on the other hand, the
spiritual pilgrim is eternal. Therefore are the hours of his
post-mortem life, when, disembodied, he stands face to face with
truth and not the mirages of his transitory earthly existences,
during the period of that pilgrimage which we call "the cycle
of re-births" — the only reality in our conception. Such
intervals, their limitation notwithstanding, do not prevent the
Ego, while ever perfecting itself, from following undeviatingly,
though gradually and slowly, the path to its last transforma-
tion, when that Ego, having reached its goal, becomes a divine
being. These intervals and stages help towards this final
result instead of hindering it ; and without such limited

1 68 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

intervals the divine Ego could never reach its ultimate goal.
I have given you once already a familiar illustration by com-
paring the Ego, or the individuality, to an actor, and its
numerous and various incarnations to the parts it plays. Will
you call these parts or their costumes the individuahty of the
actor himself? Like that actor, the Ego is forced to play
during the cycle of necessity, up to the very threshold of
Paranirvana, many parts such as may be unpleasant to it.
But as the bee collects its honey from every flower, leaving
the rest as food for the earthly worms, so does our spiritual
individuality, whether we call it Sutratma or Ego. Collecting
from every terrestrial personality, into which Karma forces it
to incarnate, the nectar alone of the spiritual qualities and
self-consciousness, it unites all these into one whole and
emerges from its chrysalis as the glorified Dhyan Ohohan. So
much the worse for those terrestrial personahties from whicli
it could collect nothing. Such personalities cannot assuredly
outlive consciously their terrestrial existence.

Enq. Thus, then, it seems that, for the terrestrial personality, im-
mortality is still conditional. Is, then, immortality itself not
unconditional ?

Theo. Not at all. But immortality cannot touch the non-existent :
for all that which exists as Sat, or emanates from Sat,
immortality and Eternity are absolute. Matter is the opposite
pole of spirit, and yet the two are one. The essence of all
this, i.e.. Spirit, Force and Matter, or the three in one, is as
endless as it is beginningless ; but the form acquired by this
triple unity during its incarnations, its externality, is certainly

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 169

only the illusion of our personal conceptions. Therefore do
we call Nirvana and the Universal life alone a reality, while
relegating the terrestrial life, its terrestrial personality in-
cluded, and even its Devachanic existence, to the phantom
realm of illusion.

Enq. But why in such a case call sleep the reality, and waking the
illusion ?

Theo. It is simply a comparison made to facilitate the grasping of
the subject, and from the standpoint of terrestrial conceptions
it is a very correct one.

Enq. And still I cannot understand, if the life to come is based on
justice and the merited retribution for all our terrestrial suffering,
how in the case of materialists, many of whom are really honest and
charitable men, there should remain of their personality nothing
but the refuse of a faded flower.

Theo. No one ever said such a thing. No materialist, however
unbelieving, can die for ever in the fulness of his spiritual
individuality. What was said is that consciousness can dis-
appear either fully or partially in the case of a materialist, so
that no conscious remains of his personality survive.

Enq. But surely this is annihilation ?

Theo. Certainly not. One can sleep a dead sleep and miss several
stations during a long railway journey, without the slightest
recollection or consciousness, and awake at another station
and continue the journey past innumerable other halting-places
till the end of the journey or the goal is reached. Three
kinds of sleep were mentioned to you : the dreamless, the
chaotic, and the one which is so real, that to the sleeping man

170 THE KEY JO THEOSOPHY.

his dreams become full realities. If j-ou believe in the latter
why can't you believe in the former ; according to tlie after life
a man has believed in and expected, such is the life he will
have. He who expected no life to come will have an absolute
blank, amounting to annihilation, in the interval between the
two re-births. This is just the carr}dng out of the programme
we spoke of, a programme created by the materialists them-
selves. But there are various kinds of materialists, as you say.
A selfish, wicked Egoist, one who never shed a tear for anyone
but himself, thus adding entire indifference to the whole world
to his unbelief, must, at the threshold of death, drop his person-
ality for ever. This personality having no tendrils of sympathy
for the world around and hence nothing to hook on to Sutrat-
ma, it follows that with the last breath every connection
between the two is broken. There being no Devaclian for
such a materialist, the Sutratma wiU re-incarnate almost
immediately. But those materialists who erred in nothing
but their disbelief will oversleep but one station. And the time
wiU come when that ex-materialist will perceive himself in the
Eternity and perhaps repent that he lost even one day, one
station, from the life eternal.

Enq. Still, would it not be more correct to say that death is birth into
a new life, or a return once more into eternity ?

Theo. You may if you like. Only remember that births differ,
and that there are births of " stiU-born " beings, which are
failures of nature. Moreover, with your Western fixed ideas
about material life, the words " living " and " being " are quite
inapplicable to the pure subjective state of post-mortem

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 171

existence. It is just because, save in a few philosophers who
are not read by the many, and who themselves are too confused
to present a distinct picture of it, it is just because your Western
ideas of life and death have finally became so narrow, that
on the one hand they have led to crass materialism, and on the
other, to the stiU more material conception of the other life,
which the spiritualists have formulated in their Summer-land.
There the souls of men eat, drink, marry, and live in a paradise
quite as sensual as that of Mohammed, but even less philoso-
phical. Nor are the average conceptions ot the uneducated
Christians any better, being if possible stiU more material.
What between truncated angels, brass trumpets, golden harps,
and material hell-fires, the Christian heaven seems like a fairy
scene at a Christmas pantomine.

It is because of these narrow conceptions that you find such
difficulty in understanding. It is just because the life of the dis-
embodied soul, while possessing aU the vividness of reality, as in
certain dreams, is devoid of every grossly objective form of
terrestrial life, that the Eastern philosophers have compared
it with visions during sleep.

DEFINITE W0BV8 FOB DEFINITE THINGS.

Enq. Don't you think it is because there are no definite and fixed
terms to indicate each "Principle" in man, that such a confusion
of ideas arises in our minds with respect to the respective functions
of these " Principles " ?

Theo. I have thought of it myself. The whole trouble has arisen

172 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

from this : we have started our expositions of, and discussion
about, the " Principles," using their Sanslcrit names instead of
coining immediately, for the use of Theosophists, their equiva-
lents in English. We must try and remedy this now.

Enq. You will do well, as it may avoid further confusion ; no two
theosophical writers, it seems to me, have hitherto agreed to call
the same " Principle " by the same name.

Theo. The confusion is more apparent than real, however. I have
heard some of our Theosophists express surprise at, and
criticize several essays speaking of these " principles " ; but,
when examined, there was no worse mistake in them than that
of using the word " Soul " to cover the three principles without
specifying the distinctions. The first, as positively the
clearest of our Theosophical writers, Mr. A. P. Sinnett, has some
comprehensive and admirably-written passages on the " Higher
Self." * His real idea has also been misconceived by some,
owing to his using the word " Soul " in a general sense. Yet
here are a few passages which will show to you how clear and
comprehensive is all that he writes on the subject : —

..." The human soul, once launched on the streams of evolution as a
human individuality,! passes through alternate periods of physical and
relatively spiritual existence. It passes from the one plane, or stratum,
or condition of nature to the other under the guidance of its Karmic
affinities ; living in incarnations the life which its Karma has pre-ordained ;
modifying its progress within the limitations of circumstances, and, —
developing fresh Karma by its use or abuse of opportunities,— it returns

* Vide Transactions of the " London Lodge of the Theos. Soc," No. 7, Oct., 1885.
t The " re-incarnating Ego," or " Human Soul," as he called it, the Causal Body
with the Hindus,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 173

to spiritual existence (Devachan) after each physical life, — through the
intervening region of Kamaloca — for rest and refreshment and for the
gradual absorption into its essence, as so much cosmic progress, of the
life's experience gained " on earth " or during physical existence. This
view of the matter will, moreover, have suggested many collateral
inferences to anyone thinking over the subject ; for instance, that the
transfer of consciousness from the Kamaloka to the Devachanic stage of
this progression would necessarily be gradual * ; that in truth, no hard-
and-fast line separates the varieties of spiritual conditions, that even the
spiritual and physical planes, as psychic faculties in living people show,
are not so hopelessly walled off from one another as materialistic theories
would suggest ; that all states of nature are all around ua simultaneously,
and appeal to different perceptive faculties ; and so on. . . . It is clear
that during physical existence people who possess psychic faculties remain
in connection with the planes of superphysioal consciousness ; and
although most people may not be endowed with such faculties, we all, as
the phenomena of sleep, even, and especially . . . those of somnambulism
or mesmerism, show, are capable of entering into conditions of conscious-
ness that the five physical senses have nothing to do with. We — the
souls within us — are not as it were altogether adrift in the ocean of
matter. We clearly retain some surviving interest or rights in the shore
from which, for a time, we have floated off. The process of incarnation,
therefore, is not fully described when we speak of an alternate existence
on the physical and spiritual planes, and thus picture the soul as a com-
plete entity slipping entirely from the one state of existence to the other.
The more correct definitions of the process would probably represent
incarnation as taking place on this physical plane of nature by reason of an
efflux emanating from the soul . The Spiritual realm would all the while
be the proper habitat of the Soul, which would never entirely quit it ; and

The length of this " transfer " depends, however, on the degree of spirituality in
the ex-personality of the disembodied Ego. For those whose lives were very
spiritual this transfer, though gradual, is very rapid. The time becomes longer
with the materialistically inclined,

174 THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY.

tJiat non-materializable portion of the Said which abides permanently on
the spiritital plane may fitly, perhaps, be spoken of as the Hi&hbr Self."

This "Higher Self" is Atma, and of course it is "non-
materializable," as Mr. Sinnett says. Even more, it can
never be " objective " under any circumstances, even to the
highest sphitual perception. For ^.toanorthe " Higher Self"
is really Brahma, tlie Absolute, and indistinguishable from it.
In hours of Samadhi, the higher spiritual consciousness of the
Initiate is entirely absorbed in the one essence, which is Atman,
and therefore, being one with the whole, there can be nothing
objective for it. Now some of our Theosophists have got
into the habit of using the words "Self" and "Ego" as
synonjTnous, of associating the term " Self " with only man's
higher individual or even personal "Self" or Ego, whereas
this term ought never to be applied except to the One universal
Self. Hence the confusion. Speaking of Manas, the " causal
body," we may call it— when connecting it with the Buddhic
radiance — the " Higher Ego," never the " Higher Self." For
even Buddhi, the " Spiritual Soul," is not the Self, but the
vehicle only of Self. All the other " Selves " — such as the
" Individual " self and " personal " self — ought never to be
spoken or written of without their qualifying and characteristic
adjectives.

Thus in this most excellent essay on the " Higher Self," this
terra is applied to the sixth principle or Buddhi (of course in
conjunction with Manas, as without such union there would
be no thinking principle or element in the spiritual soul) ; and
has in consequence given rise to just such misunderstandings.
The statement that " a child does not acquire its sixth principle

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY. 175

— or become a morally res2)onsible being capable of generating
Karma — until seven years old," proves what is meant therein
by the Higher Self. Therefore, the able author is quite
justified in explaining that after the "Higher Self" has passed
into the human being and saturated the personality — in some
of the finer organizations only — with its consciousness " people
with psychic faculties may indeed perceive this Higher Self
through their finer senses from time to time." But so are
those, who Hmit the term " Higher Self" to the Universal
Divine Principle, "justified" in misunderstanding him. For,
when we read, without being prepared for this shifting of
metaphysical terms,* that while "fully manifesting on the
physical plane . . . the Higher Self still remains a conscious
spiritual Ego on the corresponding plane of Nature " — we are
apt to see in the "Higher Self" of this sentence, " Atma," and
in the spiritual Ego, " Manas," or rather Buddhi-Manas, and
forthwith to criticise the whole thing as incorrect.

To avoid henceforth such misapprehensions, I propose to
translate hterally from the Occult Eastern terms their equiva-
lents in Enghsh, and offer these for future use.

Atma, the inseparable ray of the Universal
The Higher and One Self. It is the God above, more
Self is than within, us. Happy the man who suc-

^ ceeds in saturating his inner Ego with it !

" Shifting of Metaphysical terms " applies here only to the shifting of their trans-
lated equivalents from the Eastern expressions ; for to this day there never
existed any such terms in English, every Theosophist having to coin his own
terms to render his thought. It is nigh time, then, to settle on some definite
nomenclature,

176

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

The Inner, or
Higher "Ego"-

IS

r the Spiritual soul or Buddhi, in close union with
. .4 Manas, the mind-principle, without which it

[_ is no Ego at all, but only the Atmic Vehicle.
Manas, the " Eifth " Principle, so called,
independently of Buddhi. The Mind-Prin-
ciple is only the Spiritual Ego when merged
into one with Buddhi, — no materialist being
supposed to have in him such an Ego, how-
ever great his intellectual capacities. It is
the permanent Individuality or the "Ee-
incarnating Ego."

the physical man in conjunction with his lower
Self, i.e., animal instincts, passions, desires,
etc. It is called the " false personality," and
consists of the lower Manas combined with
Kama-rupa, and operating through the
Physical body and its phantom or " double."
The remaining " Principle " " Prand," or " Life," is, strictly
speaking, the radiating force or Energy of Atma — as the
Universal Life and the One Sele, — Its lower or rather (in its
effects) more physical, because manifesting, aspect. Prana or
Life permeates the whole being of the objective Universe ;
and is called a " principle " only because it is an indispensable
factor and the deus ex machind of the living man.

Enq. This division being so much simplified in its combinations will
answer better, I believe. The other is much too metaphysical.

Theo. If outsiders as weU as Theosophists would agree to it, it
would certainly make matters much more comprehensible.

The Lower,

or Personal

" Ego " is

X.

ON THE NATUEE OP OUE THINKING PEINOIPLE.

TEE MYSTEBY OF TEE EGO.

Enq. I perceive in the quotation you brought forward a little while
ago from the Btiddhist Catechism a discrepancy that I would like
to hear explained. It is there stated that the Skandhas — memory
included — change with every new incarnation. And yet, it is asserted
that the reflection of the past lives, which, we are told, are entirely
made up of Skandhas, " must survive." At the present moment I
am not quite clear in my mind as to what it is precisely that
survives, and I would like to have it explained. What is it ? Is it
only that "reflection," or those Skandhas, or always that same
Ego, the Manas ?

Theo. I have just explained that the re-incarnating Principle, or that
which we call the divine man, is indestructible throughout the
life cycle : indestructible as a thinking Entity, and even as an
ethereal form. The " reflection " is only the spiritualised
remembrance, during the Devachanic period, of the ex-perso-
nality, Mr. A. or Mrs. B. — with which the Ego identifies itself
during that period. Since the latter is but the continuation of
the earth-life, so to say, the very acme and pitch, in an un-
broken series, of the few happy moments in that now past

1 78 THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY.

existence, the Ego has to identify itself with the personal
consciousness of that Hfe, if anj'thing shall remain of it.
Enq. This means that the Ego, notwithstanding its divine nature,
passes every such period between two incarnations in a state of
mental obscuration, or temporary insanity.

Theo. You may regard it as you like. Believing that, outside the
One ReaUty, nothing is better than a passing illusion — the
whole Universe included — we do not view it as insanity, but
as a very natural sequence or development of the terrestrial
life. What is life ? A bundle of the most varied experiences,
of daily changing ideas, emotions, and opinions. In our youth
we are often enthusiastically devoted to an ideal, to some hero
or heroine whom we try to follow and revive ; a few years
later, when the freshness of our youthful feelings has faded out
and sobered down, we are the first to laugh at our fancies.
And yet there was a day when we had so thoroughly identified
our own personaUty with that of the ideal in our mind —
especially if it was that of a living being — that the former was
entirely merged and lost in the latter. Can it be said of a man
of fifty that he is the same being that he was at twenty ? The
inner man is the same ; the outward living personality is com-
pletely transformed and changed. Would you also call these
changes in the human mental states insanity ?

Enq. How would you name them, and especially how would you
explain the permanence of one and the evanescence of the other ?

Theo. We have our own doctrine ready, and to us it offers no
difficulty. The clue Ues in the double consciousness of our
mind, and also, in the dual nature of the mental " principle."

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 179

There is a spiritual consciousness, the Manasic mind illumined
by the Hght of Buddhi, that which subjectively perceives
abstractions ; and the sentient consciousness (the lower
Manasic light), inseparable from our physical brain and senses.
This latter consciousness is held in subjection by the brain
and physical senses, and, being in its turn equally dependent
on them, must of course fade out and finally die with the
disappearance of the brain and physical senses. It is only
the former kind of consciousness, whose root hes in eternity,
which survives and lives for ever, and may, therefore, be
regarded as immortal. Everything else belongs to passing
illusions.
Enq. What do you really understand by illusion in this case ?
Theo. It is very well described in the just-mentioned essay on " The
Higher Self." Says its author :

" The theory we are considering (the interchange of ideas
between the Higher Ego and the lower self) harmonizes very
weU with the treatment of this world in which we live as a
phenomenal world of illusion, the spiritual plans of nature
being on the other hand the noumenal world or plane of
reahty. That region of nature in which, so to speak, the
permanent soul is rooted is more real than that in which its
transitory blossoms appf-ar for a brief space to wither and
fall to pieces, while the plant recovers energy for sending forth
a fresh flower. Supposing flowers only were perceptible to
ordinary senses, and their roots existed in a state of Nature
intangible and invisible to us, philosophers in such a world
who divined that there were such things as roots in another

i8o THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

plane of existence would be apt to say of the flowers, These
are not the real plants ; they are of no relative importance,
merely illusive phenomena of the moment."

This is what I mean. The world in which blossom the
transitory and evanescent flowers of personal lives is not
the real permanent world ; but that one in which we find the
root of consciousness, that root which is beyond illusion and
dwells in the eternity.

Enq. What do you mean by the root dweUing in eternity?

Theo. I mean by this root the thinking entity, the Ego which
incarnates, whether we regard it as an " Angel," " Spirit," or a
Force. Of that which falls under our sensuous perceptions
only what grows directly from, or is attached to this invisible
root above, can partake of its immortal life. Hence every
noble thought, idea and aspiration of the personahty it informs,
proceeding from and fed by this root, must become permanent.
As to the physical consciousness, as it is a quality of the
sentient but lower " principle," (Kama-rupa or animal instinct,
illuminated by the lower manasic reflection), or the human
Soul — it must disappear. That which displays activity, while
the body is asleep or paralysed, is the higher consciousness,
our memory registering but feebly and inaccurately — because
automatically — such experiences, and often faiUng to be even
slightly impressed by them.

Enq. But how is it that Manas, although you call it Nous, a " God," is
so weak during its incarnations, as to be actually conquered and
fettered by its body ?

Theo. I might retort with the same question and ask : " How is it

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. i8i

that he, whom you regard as ' the God of Gods ' and the
One living God, is so weak as to allow evil (or the Devil) to
have the best of Jiim as much as of all his creatures, whether
while he remains in Heaven, or during the time he was
incarnated on this earth ? " You are sure to reply again :
" Tliis is a Mystery ; and we are forbidden to pry into the
mysteries of God." Not being forbidden to do so by our
religious philosophy, I answer your question that, unless a
God descends as an Avatar, no divine principle can be other-
wise than cramped and paralysed by turbulent, animal matter.
Heterogeneitj'- will always have the upper hand over homo-
geneity, on this plane of illusions, and the nearer an essence
is to its root-principle. Primordial Homogeneity, the more
difficult it is for the latter to assert itself on earth. Spiritual
and divine powers lie dormant in every human Being ; and
the wider the sweep of his spiritual vision the mightier wiU
be the God within him. But as few men can feel that God,
and since, as an average rule, deity is always bound and
limited in our thought by earlier conceptions, those ideas that
are inculcated in us from childhood, therefore, it is so difficult
for you to understand our philosophy.

Enq. And is it this Ego of ours which is our God ?

TnEO. Not at all ; " 4 God " is not the universal deity, but only a
spark from the one ocean of Divine Fire. Our God within us,
or " our Father in Secret " is what we call the " Higher Self,"
Atma. Our incarnating Ego was a God in its origin, as were
all the primeval emanations of the One Unknown Principle.
But since its " fall into Matter," having to incarnate throughout

i82 THE KEY TO TEEOSOPHY.

the cycle, in succession, from first to last, it is no longer
a free and happy god, but a poor pilgrim on his way to regain
that which he has lost. I can answer you more fully by
repeating what is said of the Innee Man in Isis Unveiled
(Vol. II. 593) :—

" From the remotest antiquity tnanhind as a whole have always been
convinced of tlie existence of a 'personal spiriUuil entity within the personal
physical man. This inner entity was more or less divine, according to
its proximity to the crown. The closer the miion the more serene man's
destiny, the less dangerous the external conditions. This belief is neither
bigotry nor superstition, only an ever-present, instinctive feeling of the
proximity of another spiritual and invisible world, which, though it be
subjective to the senses of the outward man, is perfectly objective to the
inner ego. Furthermore, they believed that there are external and inter-
nal conditions which affect the determination of our will upon our actions.
They rejected fatalism, for fatalism implies a blind course of some still
blinder power. But they believed in destiny or Karma, which from birth
to death every man is weaving thread by thread around himself, as a
spider does his cobweb ; and this destiny is guided by that presence
termed by some the guardian angel, or our more intimate astral inner
man, who is but too often the evil genius of the man of flesh or the
personality. Both these lead on Man, but one of them must prevail ;
and from the very beginning of the invisible affray the stern and impla-
cable law of compensation and retribution steps in and takes its course,
following faithfully the fluctuating of the conflict. When the last strand
is woven, and man is seemingly enwrapped in the net-work of his own
doing, then he finds himself completely under the empire of this self-made
destiny. It then either fixes him like the inert shell against the immo-
vable rock, or like a feather carries him away in whirlwind raised by
his own actions."

Such is the destiny of the Man — the true Ego, not the
Automaton, the shell that goes by that name. It is for him
to become the conqueror over matter.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 183

THE COMPLEX NATURE OF MANAS.

Enq. But you wanted to tell me something of the essential nature of
Manas, and of the relation in which the Skandhas of physical man
stand to it ?

Theo. It is this nature, mysterious, Protean, beyond any grasp,
and almost shadowy in its correlations with the other principles,
that is most difficult to realise, and still more so to explain.
Manas is a " principle," and yet it is an " Entity " and indivi-
duality or Ego. He is a " God," and yet he is doomed to an
endless cycle of incarnations, for each of which he is made
responsible, and for each of which he has to suffer. All this
seems as contradictory as it is puzzling ; nevertheless, there
are hundreds of people, even in Europe, who realise all this
perfectly, for they comprehend the Ego not only in its integrity
but in its many aspects. Finally, if I would make myself
comprehensible, I must begin by the beginning and give you
the genealogy of this Ego in a few lines.

Enq. Say on.

Theo. Try to imagine a " Spirit," a celestial Being, whether we
call it by one name or another, divine in its essential nature,
yet not pure enough to be one with the All, and having, in
order to achieve this, to so purify its nature as to finally gain
that goal. It can do so only by passing individually and
personally, i.e., spiritually and physically, through every ex-
perience and feeling that exists in the manifold or differen-
tiated Universe. It has, therefore, after having gained such

1 84 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

experience in the lower kingdoms, and having ascended higher
and still higher with every rung on the ladder of being, to pass
through every experience on the human planes. In its very
essence it is thought, and is, therefore, caUed in its plurality
Manasa putra, "the Sons of the (Universal) mind." "This
individualised " Thought " is what we Theosophists call the
real human Ego, the thinking Entity imprisoned in a case of
flesh and bones. This is surely a Spiritual Entity, not Hatter,
and such Entities are the incarnating Egos that inform the
bundle of animal matter called mankind, and whose names
are Manasa or " Minds." But once imprisoned, or incarnate,
their essence becomes dual : that is to say, the rays of the
eternal divine Mind, considered as individual entities, assume
a two-fold attribute wliich is (a) their essential inherent charac-
teristic, heaven - aspiring mind (higher Manas), and [b) the
human quality of thinking, or animal cogitation, rationalised
OAving to the superiority of the human brain, the /(Tama-tending
or lower Manas. One gravitates toward Buddhi, the other,
tending downward, to the seat of passions and animal desires.
The latter have no room in Devachan, nor can they associate
with the divine triad which ascends as one into mental bliss.
Yet it is the Ego, the Manasic Entity, which is held responsible
for all the sins of the lower attributes, just as a parent is
answerable for the transgressions of his child, so long as the
latter remains irresponsible.

Enq. Is this " child " the " personality " ?

Theo. It is. When, therefore, it is stated that the " personality "
dies with the body it does not state all. The body, which was

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 185

only the objective symbol of Mr. A. or Mrs. B., fades away
with all its material Skandhas, which are the visible expres-
sions thereof. But all that which constituted during Ufe the
spiritual bundle of experiences, the noblest aspirations,
undying affections, and unselfish nature of Mr. A. or Mrs. B.
clings for the time of the Devachanic period to the Ego, which
is identified with the spiritual portion of that terrestrial Entity,
now passed away out of sight. The Actor is so imbued
with the role just played by him that he dreams of it during
the whole Devachanic night, which vision continues till the
hour strikes for him to return to the stage of life to enact
another part.

Enq. But how is it that this doctrine, which you say is as old as think-
ing men, has found no room, say, in Christian theology ?

Theo. You are mistaken, it has ; only theology has disfigured it
out of all recognition, as it has many other doctrines.
Theology calls the Ego the Angel that God gives us at the
moment of our birth, to take care of our Soul. Instead of
holding that " Angel " responsible for the transgressions of the
poor helpless " Soul," it is the latter which, according to
theological logic, is punished for all the sins of both flesh and
mind ! It is the Soul, the immaterial breath of God and his
alleged creation, which, by some most amazing intellectual
jugglery, is doomed to burn in a material hell without ever
being consumed,* while the " Angel " escapes scot free,
after folding his white pinions and wetting them with a few

* Being of " an aabesto8-]ike nature," according to the eloquent and fiery expression of
a modem English Tertullian.

i86 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

tears. Aye, these are our " ministering Spirits," the " mes-
sengers of mercy " who are sent. Bishop Mant tells us —

" to fulfil

Good for Salvation's heirs, for us they still
Grieve when we sin, rejoice when we repent ; "

Yet it becomes evident that if all the Bishops the world over
were asked to define once for all what they mean by Soul and
its functions, they would be as unable to do so as to show us
any shadow of logic in the orthodox belief!

THE DOCTRINE IS TAUGHT IN ST JOHN'S GOSPEL.

Enq. To this the adherents to this belief might answer, that if even the
orthodox dogma does promise the impenitent sinner and materialist
a bad time of it in a rather too realistic Inferno, it gives them, on
the other hand, a chance for repentance to the last minute. Nor
do they teach annihilation, or loss of personality, which is all the
same.

Theo. If the Church teaches nothing of the kind, on the other
hand, Jesus does ; and that is something to those, at least,
who place Christ higher than Christianity.

Enq. Does Christ teach anything of the sort ?

Theo. He does; and every well-informed Occultist and even
Kabalist will tell you so. Christ, or the fourth Gospel at any
rate, teaches re-incarnation as also the annihilation of the
personahty, if you but forget the dead letter and hold to the
esoteric Spirit. Eemember verses 1 and 2 in chapter xv. of
St, John. What does the parable speak about if not of the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 187

upper triad in man ? Atma is the Husbandman— the Spiritual
Ego or Buddhi (Christos) the Vine, while the animal and vital
Soul, the personality, is the " branch." " I am the true vine,
and my Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in me that
beareth not fruit he taketh away ... As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine ; no more can
ye, except ye abide in me. I am the Vine — ye are the
branches. If a man abide not in me lie is cast forth as a
branch, and is withered and cast into the fire and burned."

Now we explain it in this way. DisbeHeving in the hell-
fires which theology discovers as underlying the threat to the
branches, we say that the " Husbandman " means Atma, the
Symbol for the infinite, impersonal Principle,* while the
Vine stands for the Spiritual Soul, Christos, and each "branch"
represents a new incarnation.

Enq. But what proofs have you to support such an arbitrary inter-
pretation ?

Theo. Universal symbology is a warrant for its correctness and
that it is not arbitrary. Hermas says of " God " that he
"planted the Vineyard," i.e., he created mankind. In the
Kabala, it is shown that the Aged of the Aged, or the " Long
Face," plants a vineyard, the latter typifying mankind ; and a
vine, meaning Life. The Spirit of " King Messiah " is, there-
fore, shown as washing his garments in the wine from above,
from the creation of the world.f And King Messiah is the

• During the Mysteries, it ia the Hierophant, the " Father," who planted the Vine.

Every symbol has Seven Keys to it. The disoloser of the Pleroma was always

called "Father."
t ZoJiar XL., 10.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

Ego purified by washing his garments {i.e., his personalities in
re-birth), in the wine from above, or Buddhi. Adam, or
A-Dam, is " blood." The Life of the flesh is in the blood
(nephesh — soul), Leviticus xvii. And Adam-Kadmon is the
Only-Begotten. Noah also plants a vineyard — the allegorical
hot-bed of future humanity. As a consequence of the adop-
tion of the same allegory, we find it reproduced in the
Nazarene Codex. Seven vines are procreated — which seven
vines are our Seven Eaces with their seven Saviours or
Buddhas — which spring from lukabar Zivo, and Ferho (or
Parcha) Eaba waters them.* When the blessed will ascend
among the creatures of Light, they shall see lavar-Xivo, Lord
of Lite, and the First VrtfB.f These kabalistic metaphors
are thus naturally repeated in the Gospel according to St. John
(XV., 1).

Let us not forget that in the human system — even according
to those philosophies which ignore our septenary division —
the Ego or thinking man is called the Logos, or the Son of

Soul and Spirit. " Manas is the adopted Son of King

and Queen " (esoteric equivalents for Atma and Buddhi),

says an occult work. He is the " man-god " of Plato, who
crucifies himself in Space (or the duration of the life cycle) for
the redemption of Mattek. This he does by incarnating
over and over again, thus leading mankind onward to perfec-
tion, and making thereby room for lower forms to develop
into higher. Not for one life does he cease progressing

• Codex Nasarceus, Vol. HI., pp. 60, 01.
1 Ibid, Vol. II., p. 281.

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY. 189

himself and helping all physical nature to progress ; even the
occasional, very rare event of his losing one of his personalities,
in the case of the latter being entirely devoid of even a spark
of spirituahty, helps toward his individual progress.

Enq. But surely, if the Ego is held responsible for the transgressions of
its personahties, it has to answer also for the loss, or rather the
complete annihilation, of one of such.

Theo. Not at all, unless it has done nothing to avert this dire fate.
But if, aU its efforts notwithstanding, its voice, that of our
conscience, was unable to penetrate through the wall of matter,
then the obtuseness of the latter proceeding from the im-
perfect nature of the material is classed with other failures of
nature. The Ego is sufficiently punished by the loss of
Devachan, and especially by having to incarnate almost
immediately.

Enq. This doctrine of the possibility of losing one's soul — or personahty,
do you call it ? — militates against the ideal theories of both
Christians and Spirituahsts, though Swedenborg adopts it to a
certain extent, in what he calls Spiritual death. They will never
accept it.

Theo. This can in no way alter a fact in nature, if it be a fact, or
prevent such a thing occasionally taking place. The universe
and everything in it, moral, mental, physical, psychic, or
Spiritual, is built on a perfect law of equUibrium and harmony.
As said before {;vide Isis Unveiled), the centripetal force could not
manifest itself without the centrifugal in the harmonious
revolutions of the spheres, and all forms and their progress
are the products of this dual force in nature. Now the Spirit

I go THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

(or Buddhi) is the centrifugal and the soul (Manas) the centri-
petal spiritual energy ; and to produce one result they have
to be in perfect union and harmony. Break or damage the
centripetal motion of the earthly soul tending toward the
centre which attracts it ; arrest its progress by clogging it with
a heavier weight of matter than it can bear, or than is fit for the
Devachanic state, and the harmony of the whole will be
destroyed. Personal Ufe, or perhaps rather its ideal reflection,
can only be continued if sustained by the two-fold force, that
is by the close union of Buddhi and Manas in every re-birth or
personal Ufe. The least deviation from harmony damages it ;
and when it is destroyed beyond redemption the two forces
separate at the moment of death. During a brief interval the
personal form (called indifferently Kama rupa and Mayavi rupa),
the spiritual efflorescence of which, attaching itself to the Ego,
follows it into Devachan and gives to the permanent individuality
its personal colouring {pro tern., so to speak), is carried off to
remain in Kamaloka and to be gradually annihilated. For it is
after the death of the utterly depraved, the unspiritual and the
wicked beyond redemption, that arrives the critical and supreme
moment. If during life the ultimate and desperate effort
of the Inner Self [Manas), to unite something of the personality
with itself and the high ghmmering ray of the divine Buddhi,
is thwarted ; if this ray is allowed to be more and more shut
out from the ever-thickening crust of physical brain, the
Spiritual Ego or Manas, once freed from the body, remains
severed entirely from the ethereal relic of the personality ; and
the latter, or Kama rupa, following its earthly attractions,
is drawn into and remains in Hades, which we call the Kama-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 191

loha. These are " the withered branches " mentioned by
Jesus as being cut off from the Vine. Annihilation, however,
is never instantaneous, and may require centuries sometimes
for its accomplishment. But there the personality remains
along with the remnants of other more fortunate personal Egos,
and becomes with them a shell and an Elementary. As said in
Isis, it is these two classes of " Spirits," the shells and the
Elementaries, which are the leading " Stars " on the great
spiritual stage of " materialisations." And you may be sure of
it, it is not they who incarnate ; and, therefore, so few of these
" dear departed ones " know anything of re-incarnation, mis-
leading thereby the Spiritualists.

Enq. But does not the author of "Isis Unveiled" stand accused of
having preached against re-incarnation ?

Theo. By those who have misunderstood what was said, yes. At
the time that work was written, re-incarnation was not believed
in by any Spiritualists, either Enghsh or American, and what
is said there of re-incarnation was directed against the French
Spiritists, whose theory is as unphilosophical and absurd as
the Eastern teaching is logical and self-evident in its truth.
The Ee-incarnationists of the AUan Kardec School beheve in
an arbitrary and immediate re-incarnation. With them, the
dead father can incarnate in his own unborn daughter, and so on.
They have neither Devachan, Karma, nor any philosophy that
would warrant or prove the necessity of consecutive re-births.
But how can the author of " Isis " argue against Karmic re-
incarnation, at long intervals varying between 1,000 and 1,500

192 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

years, when it is the fundamental belief of both Buddhists and
Hindus ?

Enq. Then you reject the theories of both the Spiritists and the
Spirituahsts, in their entirety?

Theo. Not in their entirety, but only with regard to their respective
fundamental beliefs. Both rely on what their " Spirits " tell
them ; and both disagree as much with each other as we
Theosophists disagree with both. Truth is one ; and when
we hear the French spooks preaching re-incarnation, and the
English spooks denying and denouncing the doctrine, we say
that either the French or the English "Spirits " do not know
what they are talking about. We beUeve with the Spiritualists
and the Spiritists in the existence of " Spirits," or invisible
Beings endowed with more or less intelligence. But, while in
our teachings their kinds and genera are legion, our opponents
admit of no other than human disembodied " Spirits," which,
to our knowledge, are mostly Kamalokic Shells.

Enq. You seem very bitter against Spirits. As you have given me
your views and your reasons for disbelieving in the materialization
of, and direct communication in semices, with the disembodied
spirits — or the " spirits of the dead" — would you mind enlightening
me as to one more fact ? Why are some Theosophists never tired
of saying how dangerous is intercourse with spirits, and mediumship ?
Have they any particular reason for this ?

Theo. We must suppose so. I know / have. Owing to my
familiarity for over half a century with these invisible, yet but
too tangible and undeniable " influences," from the conscious
Elementals, semi-conscious shells, down to the utterly senseless

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 193

and nondescript spooks of all kinds, I claim a certain right to
my views.

Bnq. Can you give an instance or instances to show why these
practices should he regarded as dangerous ?

Theo. This would require more time than I caa give you. Every
cause must be judged by the effects it produces. Go over the
history of Spiritualism for the last fifty years, ever since its
reappearance in this century in America — and judge for your-
self whether it has done its votaries more good or harm. Pray
understand me. I do not speak against real Spiritualism, but
against the modern movement which goes under that name,
and the so-called philosophy invented to explain its phe-
nomena.

Enq. Don't you beheve in their phenomena at all ?

Theo. It is because I believe in them with too good reason, and
(save some cases of deliberate fraud) know them to be as true
as that you and I live, that aU my being revolts against them.
Once more I speak only of physical, not mental or even psychic
phenomena. Like attracts Uke. There are several high-
minded, pure, good men and women, known to me personally,
who have passed years of their lives under the direct guidance
and even protection of high " Spirits," whether disembodied or
planetary. But these Intelhgences are not of the type of the
John Kings and the Ernests who figure in seance rooms.
These Intelhgences guide and control mortals only in rare and
exceptional cases to which they are attracted and magnetically
drawn by the Karmic past of the individual. It is not enough
to sit " for development " in order to attract them. That only

194 7-fl"£ KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

opens the door to a swarm of " spooks," good, bad and in-
different, to which the medium becomes a slave for life. It is
against such promiscuous mediumship and intercourse with
goblins that I raise my voice, not against spiritual mysticism.
The latter is ennobling and holy ; the former is of just the same
nature as the phenomena of two centuries ago, for which so
many witches and wizards have been made to suffer. Eead
Glanvil and other authors on the subject of witchcraft, and
you will find recorded there the parallels of most, if not all, of
the physical phenomena of nineteenth century " Spiritualism."

Enq. Do you mean to suggest that it is all witchcraft and nothing
more?

Theo. What I mean is that, whether conscious or unconscious, all
this dealing with the dead is necromancy, and a most dangerous
practice. For ages before Moses such raising of the dead was
regarded by all the intelligent nations as sinful and cruel,
inasmuch as it disturbs the rest of the souls and interferes
with their evolutionary development into higher states. The
collective wisdom of all past centuries has ever been loud in
denouncing such practices. Finally, I say, what I have never
ceased repeating oraUy and in print for fifteen years : While some
of the so-called " spirits " do not know what they are talking
about, repeating merely — Uke poll-parrots — what they find in
the mediums' and other people's brains, others are most
dangerous, and can only lead one to evil. These are two self-
evident facts. Go into spirituaUstic circles of the Allan
Kardec school, and you find " spirits " asserting re-incarnation
and speaking Uke Eoman Catholics born. Turn to the " dear

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 195

departed ones " in England and America, and you will hear
them denying re-incarnation through thick and thin, denouncing
those who teach it, and holding to Protestant views. Your
best, your most powerful mediums, have all suffered in health
of body and mind. Think of the sad end of Charles Foster,
who died in an asylum, a raving lunatic ; of Slade, an epileptic ;
of EgHnton — the best medium now in England — subject to the
same. Look back over the life of D. D. Home, a man whose
mind was steeped in gall and bitterness, who never had a good
word to say of anyone whom he suspected of possessing
psychic powers, and who slandered every other medium to the
bitter end. This Calvin of Spirituahsm suffered for years from
a terrible spinal disease, brought on by his intercourse with
the "spirits," and died a perfect wreck. Think again of the
sad fate of poor Washington Irving Bishop. I knew him in
New York, when he was fourteen, and he was undeniably a
medium. It is true that the poor man stole a march on his
" spirits," and baptised them " unconscious muscular action,"
to the great gaudium of all the corporations of highly learned
and scientific fools, and to the replenishment of his own
pocket. But de mortuis nil nisi honum ; his end was a sad
one. He had strenuously concealed his epileptic fits — the first
and strongest symptom of genuine mediumship — and who
knows whether he was dead or in a trance when the post-
mortem examination was performed ? His relatives insist that
he was alive, if we are to believe Eeuter's telegrams. Finally,
behold the veteran mediums, the founders and prime movers of
modern spiritualism — the Fox sisters. After more than forty
years of intercourse with the " Angels," the latter have led

ig6 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

them to become incurable sots, who are now denouncing, in
public lectures, their own life-long work and philosophy as a
fraud. What kind of spirits must they be who prompted
them, I ask you ?

Enq. But is your inference a correct one ?

Theo. What would you infer if the best pupils of a particular
school of singing broke down from overstrained sore throats ?
That the method followed was a bad one. So I think the
inference is equally fair with regard to Spiritualism when we
see their best mediums fall a prey to such a fate. We can
only say : — Let those who are interested in the question judge
the tree of Spiritualism by its fruits, and ponder over the
lesson. We Theosophists have always regarded the Spiritualists
as brothers having the same mystic tendency as ourselves, but
they have always regarded us as enemies. We, being in
possession of an older philosophy, have tried to help and
warn them ; but they have repaid us by reviling and traducing
us and our motives in every possible way. Nevertheless, the
best English Spiritualists say just as we do, wherever they
treat of their behef seriously. Hear " M.A. Oxon. " confessing
this truth : " Spiritualists are too much inclined to dwell
exclusively on the intervention of external spirits in this world
of ours, and to ignore the powers of the incarnate Spirit."*
Why vilify and abuse us, then, for saying precisely the same ?
Henceforward, we wiU have nothing more to do with
Spiritualism. And now let us return to Ee-incarnation.

' Second Sight, "Introduction,"

XI.
ON THE MYSTERIES OF RE-INCARNATION.

PEBIODICAL BE-BIBTHS.

Enq. You mean, then, that we have all lived on earth before, in many
past incarnations, and shall go on so living ?

TiiEO. I do. The life-cycle, or rather the cycle of conscious life,
begins with the separation of the mortal animal-man into
sexes, and will end with the close of the last generation of
men, in the seventh round and seventh race of mankind.
Considering we are only in the fourth round and fifth race, its
duration is more easily imagined than expressed.

Enq. And we keep on incarnating in new personalities all the time ?

Theo. Most assuredly so ; because this life-cycle or period of
incarnation may be best compared to human life. As each
such life is composed of days of activity separated by nights
of sleep or of inaction, so, in the incarnation-cycle, an active
life is followed by a Devachanic rest.

Enq. And it is this succession of births that is generally defined as
re-incarnation ?

Theo. Just so. It is only through these births that the perpetual

1 98 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

progress of the countless millions of Egos toward final per-
fection and final rest (as long as was the period of activity)
can be achieved.

Enq. And what is it that regulates the duration, or special quahties of
these incarnations ?

Theo. Karma, the universal law of retributive justice.

Enq. Is it an intelligent law ?

Theo. For the Materialist, who calls the law of periodicity which
regulates the marshalling of the several bodies, and all the
other laws in nature, blind forces and mechanical lav/s, no
doubt Karma would be a law of chance and no more. For
us, no adjective or qualification could describe that which is
impersonal and no entity, but a universal operative law. If
you question me about the causative inteUigence in it, I must
answer you I do not know. But if you ask me to define its
effects and tell you what these are in our belief, I may say
that the experience of thousands of ages has shown us that
they are absolute and unerring equity, tvisdom, and intelligence.
For Karma in its effects is an unfailing redresser of human
injustice, and of all the failures of nature ; a stern adjuster of
wrongs ; a retributive law which rewards and punishes with
equal impartiality. It is, in the strictest sense, " no respecter
of persons," though, on the other hand, it can neither be
propitiated, nor turned aside by prayer. This is a belief
common to Hindus and Buddhists, who both believe in Karma.

Enq. In this Christian dogmas contradict both, and I doubt whether
any Christian will accept the teaching.

Theo. No ; and Inman gave the reason for it many years ago.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 199

As he puts it, while " the Christians will accept any nonsense,
if promulgated by the Church as a matter of faith . . .
the Buddhists hold that nothing which is contradicted by
sound reason can be a true doctrine of Buddha." They do
not believe in any pardon for their sins, except after an
adequate and just punishment for each evil deed or thought in
a future incarnation, and a proportionate compensation to the
parties injured.

Enq. Where is it so stated ?

Theo. In most of their sacred works. In the " Wheel of the Law"
(p. 57) you may find the following Theosophical tenet : —
" Buddhists believe that every act, word or thought has its
consequence, which will appear sooner or later in the present
or in the future state. Evil acts will produce evil con-
sequences, good acts will produce good consequences : pros-
perity in this world, or birth in heaven (Devachan) . . .
in the future state."

ExQ. Christians believe the same thing, don't they?

Theo. Oh, no ; they believe in the pardon and the remission of all
sins. They are promised that if they only believe in the blood
of Christ (an innocent victim !), in the blood offered by Him for
the expiation of the sins of the whole of mankind, it will atone
for every mortal sin. And we believe neither in vicarious
atonement, nor in the possibility of the remission of the
smallest sin by any god, not even by a '^ personal Ahsolute" or
" Infinite," if such a thing could have any existence. What
we believe in, is strict and impartial justice. Our idea of
the unknown Universal Deity, represented by Karma, is that

200 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

it is a Power which cannot fail, and can, therefore, have neither
wrath nor mercy, only absolute Equity, which leaves every
cause, great or small, to work out its inevitable effects. The
saying of Jesus : " With what measure you mete it shall be
measured to you again " (Matth. vii., 2), neither by expression
nor imphcation points to any hope of future mercy or. salvation
by proxy. This is why, recognising as we do in our philosophy
the justice of this statement, we cannot recommend too
strongly mercy, charity, and forgiveness of mutual offences.
Resist not evil, and render good for evil, are Buddhist precepts,
and were first preached in view of the implacability of Karmic
law. For man to take the law into his own hands is anyhow
a sacrilegious presumption. Human Law may use restrictive
not punitive measures ; but a man who, believing in Karma,
still revenges himself and refuses to forgive every injury,
thereby rendering good for evil, is a criminal and only hurts
himself. As Karma is sure to punish the man who wronged
him, by seeking to inflict an additional punishment on his
enemy, he, who instead of leaving that punishment to the great
Law adds to it his own mite, only begets thereby a cause for
the future reward of his own enemy and a future punishment
for himself The unfailing Eegulator affects in each incarnation
the quality of its successor ; and the sum of the merit or
demerit in preceding ones determines it.

Enq. Are we then to infer a man's past from his present ?

Theo. Only so far as to believe that his present life is what it
justly should be, to atone for the sins of the past life. Of
course — seers and great adepts excepted — we cannot as

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 201

average mortals know what those sins were. From our
paucity of data, it is impossible for us even to determine what
an old man's youth must have been ; neither can we, for like
reasons, draw final conclusions merely from what we see in
the life of some man, as to what his past life may have been.

WHAT IS KARMA!

Enq. But what is Karma ?

Theo. As I have said, we consider it as the Ultimate Law of the
Universe, the source, origin and fount of all other laws which
exist throughout Nature. Karma is the unerring law which
adjusts effect to cause, on the physical, mental and spiritual
planes of being. As no cause remains without its due effect
from greatest to least, from a cosmic disturbance do'vvTi to the
movement of your hand, and as like produces like. Karma is
that unseen and unknown law which adjusts wisely, intelligently
and equitably each effect to its cause, tracing the latter back
to its producer. Though itself unknowable, its action is per-
ceivable.

Enq. Then it is the " Absolute," the " Unknowable " again, and is not
of much value as an explanation of the problems of life ?

TiiEO. On the contrary. For, though we do not know what Karma
is per se, and in its essence, we do know how it works, and we
can define and describe its mode of action with accuracy.
We only do not know its ultimate Cause, just as modern
philosophy universally admits that the ultimate Cause of any-
thing is " unknowable."

202 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

Enq. And what has Theosophy to say in regard to the solution of the
more practical needs of humanity ? What is the explanation which
it offers in reference to the awful suffering and dire necessity pre-
valent among the so-called " lower classes."

Theo. To be pointed, according to our teaching all these great
social evils, the distinction of classes in Society, and of the
sexes in the affairs of life, the unequal distribution of capital
and of labour — all are due to what we tersely but truly
denominate Kaema.

Enq. But, surely, all these evils which seem to fall upon the masses
somewhat indiscriminately are not actual merited and individual
Karma ?

Theo. No, they cannot be so strictly defined in their effects as to
show that each individual environment, and the particular
conditions of life in which each person finds himself, are nothing
more than the retributive Karma which the individual generated
in a previous life. We must not lose sight of the fact that
every atom is subject to the general law governing the whole
body to which it belongs, and here we come upon the wider
track of the Karmic law. Do you not perceive that the
aggregate of individual Karma becomes that of the nation to
which those individuals belong, and further, that the sum total
of National Karma is that of the World ? The evils that you
speak of are not peculiar to the individual or even to the
Nation, they are more or less universal ; and it is upon this
broad line of Human interdependence that the law of Karma
finds its legitimate and equable issue.

Enq. Do I, then, understand that the law of Karma is not necessarily
an individual law ?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 203

Theo. That is just what I mean. It is impossible that Karma
could readjust the balance of power in the world's life and
progress, unless it had a broad and general line of action. It
is held as a truth among Theosophists that the interdependence
of Humanity is the cause of what is called Distributive Karma,
and it is this law which affords the solution to the great
question of collective suffering and its relief. It is an occult
law, moreover, that no man can rise superior to his individual
failings, without lifting, be it ever so little, the whole body
of which he is an integral part. In the same way, no one
can sin, nor suffer the effects of sin, alone. In reality, there is
no such thing as " Separateness " ; and the nearest approach to
that selfish state, which the laws of life permit, is in the intent
or motive.

Enq. And are there no means by which the distributive or national
Karma might be concentred or collected, so to speak, and brought
to its natural and legitimate fulfilment without all this protracted
suffering ?

Theo. As a general rule, and within certain limits which define the
age to which we belong, the law of Karma cannot be hastened
or retarded in its fulfilment. But of this I am certain, the
point of possibility in either of these directions has never yet
been touched. Listen to the following recital of one phase of
national suffering, and then ask yourself whether, admitting
the working power of individual, relative, and distributive
Karma, these evils are not capable of extensive modification
and general relief. What I am about to read to you is from
the pen of a National Saviour, one who, having overcome Self,
and being free to choose, has elected to serve Humanity, in

204 r^-S; KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

bearing at least as mucli as a woman's shoulders can possibly
bear of National Karma. This is what she says : —

"Yes, Nature always does speak, don't you think? only sometimes
we make so much noise that we drown her voice. That is why it is so
restful to go out of the town and nestle awhile in the Mother's arms.
I am thinking of the evening on Hampstead Heath when we watched
the sun go down ; but oh ! upon what suffering and misery that sun had
set ! A lady brought me yesterday a big hamper of wild flowers. I
thought some of my East-end family had a better right to it than I, and
so I took it down to a very poor school in Whitechapel this morning.
You should have seen the pallid little faces brighten ! Thence I went
to pay for some dinners at a little cookshop for some children. It was
in a back street, narrow, full of jostling people; stench indescribable,
from fish, meat, and other comestibles, all reeking in a sun that, in
Whitechapel, festers instead of purifying. The cookshop was the quint-
essence of all the smells. Indescribable meat-pies at Id., loathsome
lumps of ' food ' and swarms of flies, a very altar of Beelzebub ! All
about, babies on the prowl for scraps, one, with the face of an angel,
gathering up cherrystones as a light and nutritious form of diet. I came
westward with every nerve shuddering and jarred, wondering whether
anything can be done with some parts of London save swallowing them
up in an earthquake and starting their inhabitants afresh, after a plunge
into some purifying Lethe, out of which not a memory might emerge !
And then I thought of Hampstead Heath, and— pondered. If by any
sacrifice one could win the power to save these people, the cost would
not be worth counting ; but, you see, they must be changed — and how
can that be wrought ? In the condition they now are, they would not
profit by any environment in which they might be placed ; and yet, in
their present surroundings they must continue to putrefy. It breaks my
heart, this endless, hopeless misery, and the brutish degradation that is
at once its outgrowth and its root. It is like the banyan tree ; every
branch roots itself and sends out new shoots. What a difference between
these feelings and the peaceful scene at Hampstead ! and yet we.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 205

who are the brothers and sisters of these poor creatures, have only a
right to use Hampstead Heaths to gain strength to save Whitechapels."
{Signed, iy a ivxme. too respected and too well hwiun to be given to scoffers.)

Enq. That is a sad but beautiful letter, and I think it presents with
painful conspicuity the terrible workings of what you have called
" Relative and Distributive Karma." But alas ! there seems no
immediate hope of any relief short of an earthquake, or some such
general ingulfment !

Theo. What right have we to think so while one-half of humanity
is in a position to effect an immediate relief of the privations
which are suffered by their fellows ? When every individual
has contributed to the general good what he can of money,
of labour, and of ennobling thought, then, and only then,
will the balance of National Karma be struck, and until then
we have no right nor any reasons for saying that there is
more life on the earth than Nature can support. It is reserved
for the heroic souls, the Saviours of our Eace and Nation, to
find out the cause of this unequal pressure of retributive
Karma, and by a supreme effort to re-adjust the balance of
2)ower, and save the people from a moral ingulfment a thou-
sand times more disastrous and more permanently evil than
the like physical catastrophe, in which you seem to see the
only possible outlet for this accumulated misery.

Enq. Well, then, tell me generally how you describe this law of
Karma?

Theo. We describe Karma as that Law of re-adjustment which
ever tends to restore disturbed equilibrium in the physical,
and broken harmony in the moral world. We say that Karma
does not act in this or that particular way always ; but that

2o6 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

it alwaj'S does act so as to restore Harmony and preserve the
balance of equilibrium, in virtue of which the Universe exists.

Enq. Give me an illustration.

Theo. Later on I will give you a full illustration. Think now of
a pond. A stone falls into the water and creates disturbing
waves. These waves oscillate backwards and forwards till at
last, owing to the operation of what physicists call the law of
the dissipation of energy, they are brought to rest, and the
water returns to its condition of calm tranquillitj'. Similarly
all action, on every plane, produces disturbance in the
balanced harmony of the Universe, and the vibrations so pro-
duced will continue to roll backwards and forwaitls, if its area
is hmited, till equilibrium is restored. But since each such
disturbance starts from some particular point, it is clear that
equilibrium and harmony can only be restored by the recon-
verging to that same point of all the forces which were set in
motion from it. And here you have proof that the con-
sequences of a man's deeds, thoughts, etc. must all react upon
himself with the sanae force with which they were set in
motion.

Enq. But I see nothing of a moral character about this law. It looks
to me like the simple physical law that action and re-action are
equal and opposite.

Theo. I am not surprised to hear you say that. Europeans have
got so much into the ingrained habit of considering right and
wrong, good and evil, as matters of an arbitrary code of law
laid down either by men, or imposed upon them by a Personal
God. We Theosophists, however, say that " Good " and

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 207

" Harmony," and " Evil " and " Dis-harmony," are synonymous.
Further we maintain that all pain and. suffering are results of
want of Harmony, and that the one terrible and only cause of
the disturbance of Harmony is selfishness in some form or
another. Hence Karma gives back to every man the actual
consequences of his own actions, without any regard to their
moral character ; but since he receives his due for all, it is
obvious that he will be made to atone for all sufferings which
he has caused, just as he will reap in joy and gladness the
fruits of all the happiness and harmony he had helped to
produce. I can do no better than quote for your benefit certain
passages from books and articles written by our Theosophists —
those who have a correct idea of Karma.

Enq. I wish you would, as your literature seems to be very sparing on
this subject ?

Theo. Because it is the most difficult of all our tenets. Some
short time ago there appeared the following objection from a
Christian pen : —

" Granting that the teaching in regard to Theosophy is correct, aad
that ' man must be his own saviour, must overcome self and conquer the
evil that is in his dual nature, to obtain the emancipation of his soul,'
what is man to do after he has been awakened and converted to a
certain extent from evil or wickedness ? How is he to get emancipation,
or pardon, or the blotting out of the evil or wickedness he has already
done ? "

To this Mr. J. H. Conelly replies very pertinently that no one
can hope to " make the theosophical engine run on the
theological track." As he has it : —

"The possibility of shirking individual responsibility is not among the

2o8 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

concepts of Theosophy. In this faith there is no such thing as pardoning,
or ' blotting out of evil or wickedness already done,' otherwise than by
the adequate punishment therefor of the wrong-doer and the restoration
of the harmony in the universe that had been disturbed by his wrongful
act. The evil has been his own, and while others must suffer its
consequences, atonement can be made by nobody but himself.

" The condition contemplated .... in which a man shall have been
' awakened and converted to a certain extent from evil or wickedness,' is
that in which a man shall have realized that his deeds are evil and
deserving of punishment. In that realization a sense of personal
responsibility is inevitable, and just in proportion to the extent of his
awakening or 'converting' must be the sense of that awful responsibility.
While it is strong upon him is the time when he is urged to accept the
doctrine of vicarious atonement.

" He is told that he must also repent, but not'ning is easier than that.
It is an amiable weakness of human nature that we are quite prone to
regret the evil we have done when our attention is called, and we have
either suffered from it ourselves or enjoyed its fruits. Possibly, close
analysis of the feeling would show us that that wliioli we regret is
rather the necessity that seemed to require the evil as a means of
attainment of our selfish ends than the evil itself."

" Attractive as this prospect of casting our burden of sins ' at the foot
of the cross ' may be to the ordinary mind, it does not commend itself to
the Theosophio student. He does not apprehend why the sinner by
attaining knowledge of his evil can thereby merit any pardon for or the
blotting out of his past wickedness ; or why repentance and future right
living entitle him to a suspension in his favour of the universal law of
relation between cause and effect. The results of his evil deeds continue to
exist ; the suffering caused to others by his wickedness is not blotted
out. The Theosophical student takes the result of wickedness upon the
innocent into his problem. He considers not only the guilty person,
but his victims.

" Evil is an infraction of the laws of harmony governing the universe,
and the penalty thereof must fall upon the violator of that law himself.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 209

Christ uttered the warning, ' Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon
thee,' and St. Paul said, ' Work out your own salvation. Whatsoever a
man soweth, that shaU he also reap.' That, by the way, is a fine
metaphoric rendering of the sentence of the Puranas far antedating him —
that ' every man reaps the consequences of his own acts.'

"This is the principle of the law of Karma which is taught by
Theosophy. Sinnett, in his ' Esoteric Buddhism,' rendered Karma as
' the law of ethical causation.' ' The law of retribution,' as Mdme.
Blavatsky translates its meaning, is better. It is the power which

Just though mysterious, leads us on unerring
Through ways unmarked £rom guilt to punishment.

" But it is more. It rewards merit as unerringly and amply as it
punishes demerit. It is the outcome of every act, of thought, word and
deed, and by it men mould themselves, their lives and happenings.
Eastern philosophy rejects the idea of a newly created soul for every
baby born. It believes in a hmited number of monads, evolving and
growing more and more perfect through their assimilation of many
successive personaUties. Those personalties are the product of Karma
and it is by Karma and re-incarnation that the human monad in time
returns to its source — absolute deity."

E. D. Walker, in his " Ee-incarnation," offers the following

explanation : —

" Briefly, the doctrine of Karma is that we have made ourselves what
we are by former actions, and are building our future eternity by present
actions. There is no destiny but what we ourselves determine. There is
no salvation or condemnation except what we ourselves bring
about. . . . Because it offers no shelter for culpable actions and
necessitates a sterling manliness, it is less welcome to weak natures than
the easy religious tenets of vicarious atonement, intercession, forgiveness
and death-bed conversions. ... In the domain of eternal justice the
offence and the punishment are inseparably connected as the same event,
because there is no real distinction between the action and its
outcome. ... It is Karma, or our old acts, that draws us back into

2IO THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

earthly life. The spirit's abode changes acco.-ding to its Karma, and
this Karma forbids any long continuance in one condition, because it, is
always changing. So long as action is governed by material and
Eelfish motives, just so long must the effect of that action be manifested
in physical re-births. Only the perfectly selfless man can elude the
gr-avitation of material life. Few have attained this, but it is the goal of
mankind."

And then the writer quotes from the Secret Doctrine :

" Those who believe in Karma have to believe in destiny, which, from
birth to death, every man is weaving, thread by thread, around himself,
as a spider does his cobweb, and this destiny is guided either by the
heavenly voice of the invisible prototype outside of us, or by our more
intimate astral or inner man, who is but too often the evil genius of the
embodied entity called man. Both these lead on the outward man, but
one of them must prevail ; and from the very beginning of the invisible
affray the stern and implacable law of compensation steps in and takes
its course, faithfully following the fluctuations. When the last strand is
woven, and man is seemingly enwrapped in the network of his own doing,
then he finds himself completely under the empire of this self-made
destiny. . . . An Occultist or a philosopher will not speak of the goodness
or cruelty of Providence ; but, identifying it with Karma-Nemesis, he
will teach that, nevertheless, it guards the good and watches over them
in this as in future lives ; and that it punishes the evil-doer — aye, even
to his seventh re-birth — so long, in short, as the effect of his having
thrown into perturbation even the smallest atom in the infinite world of
harmony has not been finally re-adjusted. For the only decree of
Karma — an eternal and immutable decree — is absolute harmony in the
world of matter as it is in the world of spirit. It is not, therefore.
Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we who reward or punish
ourselves according to whether we work with, through and along with
nature, abiding by the laws on which that harmony depends, or — break
them. Nor would the ways of Karma be inscrutable were men to work
in union and harmony, instead of disunion and strife. For our ignorance

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 211

of those ways — which one portion of mankind calls the ways of
Providence, dark and intricate ; while another sees in them the action
of bUnd fatalism ; and a third simple chance, with neither gods nor devils
to guide them — would surely disappear if we would but attribute all
these to their correct cause. . . . We stand bewildered before the
mystery of our own making and the riddles of life that we will not
solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx of devouring us. But verily
there is not an accident of our lives, not a misshapen day, or a misfortune,
that could not be traced back to our own doings in this or in another

life The law of Karma is inextricably interwoven with that

of reincarnation It is only this doctrine that can explain to

us the mysterious problem of good and evil, and reconcile man to the
terrible and apparent injustice of life. Nothing but such certainty can
quiet our revolted sense of justice. For, when one unacquainted with
the noble doctrine looks around him and observes the inequalities of
birth and fortune, of intellect and capacities ; when one sees honour paid
to fools and profligates, on whom fortune has heaped her favours by
mere privilege of birth, and their nearest neighbour, with all his intellect
and noble virtues — far more deserving in every way — perishing for want
and for lack of sympathy — when one sees all this and has to turn away,
helpless to relieve the undeserved suffering, one's ears ringing and heart
aching with the cries of pain around him — that blessed knowledge of
Karma alone prevents him from cursing life and men as well as their
supposed Creator This law, whether conscious or un-
conscious, predestines nothing and no one. It exists from and in
eternity truly, for it is eternity itself ; and as such, since no act can be
coequal with eternity, it cannot be said to act, for it is action itself. It
is not the wave which drowns the man, but the personal action of the
wretch who goes deliberately and places himself under the unpersonal
action of the laws that govern the ocean's motion. Karma creates
nothing, nor does it design. It is man who plants and creates causes,
and Karmic law adjusts the effects, which adjustment is not an act but
universal harmony, tending ever to resume its original position, like a
bough, which, bent down too forcibly, rebounds with corresponding

212 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

vigour. If it happen to dislocate the arm that tried to bend it out of its
natural position, shall we say it is the bough which broke our arm or
that our own folly has brought us to grief? Karma has never sought to
destroy intellectual and individual hberty, like the god invented by the
Monotheists. It has not involved its decrees in darkness purposely to
perplex man, nor shall it punish him who dares to scrutinize its
mysteries. On the contrary, he who unveils through study and
meditation its intricate paths, and throws light on those dark ways, in
the windings of which so many men perish owing to their ignorance of
the labyrinth of life, is working for the good of his fellow-men. Karma
is an absolute and eternal law in the world of manifestation ; and
as there can only be one Absolute, as one Eternal, ever-present
Cause, believers in Karma cannot be regarded as atheists or materialists,
still less as fatalists, for Karma is one with the Unknowable, of which
it is an aspect, in its effects in the phenomenal world."

Another able Theosophic writer says [Purpose of Theosophy,
by Mrs. P. Siimett) : —

" Every individual is making Karma either good or bad in each action
and thought of his daily round, and is at the same time working out in
this life the Karma brought about by the acts and desires of the last.
When we see people afflicted by congenital ailments it may be safely
assumed that these ailments are the inevitable results of causes started
by themselves in a previous birth. It may be argued that, as these
afflictions are hereditary, they can have nothing to do with a past
incarnation ; but it must be remembered that the Ego, the real man, the
individuality, has no spiritual origin in the parentage by which it is
re-embodied, but it is drawn by the affinities which its previous mode of
life attracted round it into the current that carries it, when the time
comes for re-birth, to the home best fitted for the development of

those tendencies This doctrine of Karma, when properly

understood, is well calculated to guide and assist those who realize its
truth to a higher and batter mode of life, for it must not be forgotten
that not only our actions but our thoughts also are most assuredly

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 213

followed by a crowd of circumstances that will influence for good or for
evil our own future, and, what is still more important, the future of
many of our fellow-creatures. If sins of omission and commission could
in any case be only self-regarding, the fact on the sinner's Karma
would be a matter of minor consequence. The effect that every thought
and act through life carries with it for good or evil a corresponding
influence on other members of the human family renders a strict sense of
justice, morality, and unselfishness so necessary to future happiness or
progress. A crune once committed, an evil thought sent out from the
mind, are past recall — no amount of repentance can wipe out their
results in the future. Eepentance, if sincere, will deter a man from
repeating errors ; it cannot save him or others from the effects of those
already produced, which will most unerringly overtake him either in this
life or in the next re-birth."

Mr. J. H. Conelly proceeds —

" The believers in a religion based upon such doctrine are willing it
should be compared with one in which man's destiny for eternity is
determined by the accidents of a single, brief earthly existence, during
which he is cheered by the promise that ' as the tree falls so shall it
lie ' ; in which his brightest hope, when he wakes up to a knowledge
of his wickedness, is the doctrine of vicarious atonement, and in which
even that is handicapped, according to the Presbyterian Confession
of Faith.

" By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men
and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life and others foreordained
to everlasting death.

"These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained are
particularly and unchangeably designed ; and their number is so certain

and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished

As God hath appointed the elect unto glory Neither are

any other redeemed by Christ effectually called, justified, adopted,
sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.

P

214 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

" The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable
counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy
as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to
pass by and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their sin to the
praise of his glorious justice."

This is what the able defender says. Nor can we do any
better than wind up the subject as he does, by a quotation from
a magnificent poem. As he says : —

" The exquisite beauty of Edwin Arnold's exposition of Karma in
' The Light of Asia ' tempts to its reproduction here, but it is too long
for quotation in full. Here is a portion of it : —

Karma — all that total oi a soul

"Which is the things it did, the thoughts it had,

The ' self ' it wove with woof of viewless time
Crossed on the warp invisible of acts.
« • « * #

Before beginning and without an end,

As space eternal and as surety sure.
Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good,

Only its laws endure.

It will not be contemned of anyone ;

Who thwarts it loses, and who serves it gains ;
The hidden good it pays with peace and bliss,

The hidden ill with pains.

It seeth everywhere and marketh all ;

Do right — it recompenseth I Do one wrong —
The equal retribution must be made.

Though Dharma tarry long.

It knows not wrath nor pardon ; utter-true.
Its measures mete, its faultless balance weighs ;

Times are as naught, to-morrow it will judge
Or after many days.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY 215

Such is the law which moves to righteousness,

Which none at last can tui'n aside or stay ;
The heart of it is love, the end of it

Is peace and consummation sweet. Obey."

And now I advise you to compare our Theosophic views
upon Karma, the law of Eetribution, and say whether
they are not both more philosophical and just than this cruel
and idiotic dogma which makes of "God" a senseless fiend ;
the tenet, namely, that the " elect only" will be saved, and the
rest doomed to eternal perdition !

Enq. Yes, I see what you mean generally ; but I wish you could give
some concrete example of the action of Karma ?

Theo. That I cannot do. We can only feel sure, as I said before,
that our present lives and circumstances are the direct results
of our own deeds and thoughts in lives that are past. But
we, who are not Seers or Initiates, cannot know anything about
the details of the working of the law of Karma.

Enq. Can anyone, even an Adept or Seer, follow out this Karmic
process of re-adjustment in detail ?

Theo. Certainly : " Those who know " can do so by the exercise of
powers which are latent even in aU men.

WHO ABE THOSE WHO ENOW?

Enq. Does this hold equally of ourselves as of others ?

Theo. Equally. As just said, the same limited vision exists for all,
save those who have reached in the present incarnation the
acme of spiritual vision and clairvoyance. We can only per-

2i6 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

ceive that, if things with us ought to have been different, they
would have been different ; that we are what we have made
ourselves, and have only what we have earned for ourselves.

Enq. I am afraid such a conception would only embitter us.

Theo. I believe it is precisely the reverse. It is disbelief in the
just law of retribution that is more hkely to awaken every
combative feeling in man. A child, as much as a man, resents
a punishment, or even a reproof he believes to be unmerited,
far more than he does a severer punishment, if he feels that
it is merited. Belief in Karma is the highest reason for
reconcilement to one's lot in this life, and the very strongest
incentive towards effort to better the succeeding re-birth.
Both of these, indeed, would be destroyed if we supposed that
our lot was the result of anything but strict Laiv, or that
destiny was in any other hands than our own.

Enq. You have just asserted that this system of Ee-incarnation under
Karmic law commended itself to reason, justice, and the moral
sense. But, if so, is it not at some sacrifice of the gentler qualities
of sympathy and pity, and thus a hardening of the finer instincts
of human nature ?

Theo. Only apparently, not really. No man can receive more or
less than his deserts without a corresponding injustice or
partiality to others ; and a law which could be averted through
compassion would bring about more misery than it saved,
more irritation and curses than thanks. Eemember also, that
we do not administer the law, if we do create causes for its
effects ; it administers itself; and again, that the most copious

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 217

provision for the manifestation of just compassion and mercy
is shown in the state of Devachan.

Enq. You speak of Adepts as being an exception to the rule of our
general ignorance. Do they really know more than we do of
Ee-incamation and after states ?

Theo. They do, indeed. By the training of faculties we all possess,
but which they alone have developed to perfection, they have
entered in spirit these various planes and states we have been
discussing. For long ages, one generation of Adepts after
another has studied the mysteries of being, of life, death, and
re-birth, and all have taught in their turn some of the facts
so learned.

Enq. And is the production of Adepts the aim of Theosophy ?

Theo. Theosophy considers humanity as an emanation from
divinity on its return path thereto. At an advanced point
upon the path, Adeptship is reached by those who have
devoted several incarnations to its achievement. For,
remember well, no man has ever reached Adeptship in the
Secret Sciences in one life ; but many incarnations are
necessary for it after the formation of a conscious purpose
and the beginning of the needful training. Many may be the
men and women in the very midst of our Society who have
begun this uphiU work toward illumination several incarna-
tions ago, and who yet, owing to the personal illusions of the
present life, are either ignorant of the fact, or on the road to
losing every chance in this existence of progressing any
farther. They feel an irresistible attraction toward occultism
and the Higher Life, and yet are too personal and self-

2i8 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

opinionated, too much in love with the deceptive allurements

of mundane Ufe and the world's ephemeral pleasures, to give

them up ; and so lose their chance in their present birth.

But, for ordinary men, for the practical duties of daily Hfe,

such a far-off result is inappropriate as an aim and (|uite

ineffective as a motive.
Enq. What, then, may be their object or distinct purpose in joining

the Theosophical Society?
Theo. Many are interested in our doctrines and feel instinctively

that they are truer than those of any dogmatic religion.

Others have formed a fixed resolve to attain the highest ideal

of man's duty.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE ; OB,
BLIND AND REASONED FAITH.

Enq. You say that they accept and believe in the doctrines of
Theosophy. But, as they do not belong to those Adepts you have
just mentioned, then they must accept your teachings on blind
faith. In what does this differ from that of conventional
religions ?

Theo. As it differs on almost all the other points, so it differs on this
one. Wliat you call " faith," and that which is blind faith, in
reality, and with regard to the dogmas of the Christian
religions, becomes with us " knowledge," the logical sequence
of things we know, about facts in nature. Your Doctrines are
based upon interpretation, therefore, upon the second-hand
testimony of Seers ; ours upon the invariable and unvarying

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 219

testimony of Seers. The ordinary Christian theology,
for instance, holds that man is a creature of God, of three
component parts — body, soul, and spirit — all essential to his
integrity, and all, either in the gross form of physical earthly
existence or in the etherealized form of post-resurrection ex-
perience, needed to so constitute him for ever, each man having
thus a permanent existence separate from other men, and from
the Divine. Tlieosophy, on the other hand, holds that man,
being an emanation from the Unknown, yet ever present and
infinite Divine Essence, his body and everything else is imper-
manent, hence an illusion ; Spirit alone in him being the one
enduring substance, and even that losing its separated indivi-
duality at the moment of its complete re-union with the
Universal Spirit.

Enq. If we lose even our individuality, then it becomes simply anni-
hilation.

Theo. I say it does not, since I speak of separate, not of universal
individuality. The latter becomes as a part transformed into
the whole ; the dewdrop is not evaporated, but becomes the sea.
Is physical man annihilated, when from a foetus he becomes an
old man ? What kind of Satanic pride must be ours if we
place our infinitesimaUy small consciousness and individuaUty
higher than the universal and infinite consciousness !

Enq. It follows, then, that there is, de facto, no man, but all is Spirit ?

Theo. You are mistaken. It thus follows that the union of Spirit with

matter is but temporary; or, to put it more clearly, since

Spirit and matter are one, being the two opposite poles of the

universal manifested substance — that Spirit loses its right to

220 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

the name so long as the smallest particle and atoin of its
manifesting substance still clings to any form, the result of
differentiation. To believe otherwise is blind faith.

Enq. Thus it is on knowledge, not on faith, that you assert that the
permanent principle, the Spirit, simply makes a transit through
matter ?

Theo. I would put it otherwise and say — we assert that the
appearance of the permanent and one principle, Spirit, as
matter is transient, and, therefore, no better than an illusion.

Enq. Very well ; and this, given out on knowledge not faith ?

Theo. Just so. But as I see very well what you are driving at, I
may just as well tell you that we hold faith, such as j^ou
advocate, to be a mental disease, and real faith, i.e., the jnstis
of the Greeks, as " belief based on hioidedge," whether supplied
by the evidence of phj^sical or spiritual senses.

Enq. What do you mean?

Theo. I mean, if it is the differeirce l:)etween the two that you want
to know, then I can tell you that between faith on authority and
faith on one's spiritual intuition, there is a very great difference.

Enq. What is it ?

Theo. One is human credulity and superstition, the other human
behef and intuition. As Professor Alexander Wilder says in
his " Introduction to the Eleusinian Mysteries," " It is ignor-
ance which leads to profanation. Men ridicule what they do
not properly understand .... The undercurrent of
this world is set towards one goal; and inside of human
credulity . . is a power almost infinite, a holy faith capable

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 221

of apprehending the supremest truths of all existence." Those
who limit that " credulity " to human authoritative dogmas
alone, will never fathom that power nor even perceive it in their
natures. It is stuck fast to the external plane and is unable
to bring forth into play the essence that rules it ; for to do
this they have to claim their right of private judgment, and
this they never dare to do.

Enq. And is it that " intuition " which forces you to reject God as a
personal Father, Euler and Governor of the Universe ?

Theo. Precisely. We believe in an ever unknowable Principle,
because blind aberration alone can make one maintain that the
Universe, thinking man, and all the marvels contained even in
the world of matter, could have grown without some intelligent
powers to bring about the extraordiirarily wise arrangement of all
its parts. Nature may err, and often does, in its details and
the external manifestations of its materials, never in its inner
causes and results. Ancient pagans held on this question far
more philosophical views than modern philosophers, whether
Agnostics, Materialists or Christians ; and no pagan writer has
ever yet advanced the proposition that cruelty and mercy are
not finite feelings, and can therefore be made the attributes of
an infinite god. Their gods, therefore, were aU finite. The
Siamese author of the Wheel of the Law, expresses the same
idea about your personal god as we do ; he says (p. 25) —

" A Buddhist might believe in the existence of a god, sublime above
all human qualities and attributes — a perfect god, above love, and hatred,
and jealousy, calmly resting in a quietude that nothing could disturb,
and of such a god he would speak no disparagement, not from a desire
to please him or fear to offend him, but from natural veneration ; but he

222 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

cannot understand a god with the attributes and qualities of men, a god
who loves and hates, and shows anger ; a Deity who, whether described
as by Christian Missionaries or by Mahometans or Brahmins,* or
Jews, falls below his standard of even an ordinary good man."

Enq. Faith for faith, is not the faith of the Christian who believes,
in his human helplessness and humility, that there is a merciful
Father in Heaven who will protect him from temptation, help
him in life, and forgive him his transgressions, better than the cold
and proud, almost fatalistic faith of the Buddhists, Vedantins, and
Theosophists ?

Theo. Persist in calling our belief " faith " if you will. But once
we are again on this ever-recurring questioii, I ask in my
turn : faith for faith, is not the one based on strict logic and
reason better than the one which is based simply on human
authority or — hero-worship ? Our " faith " has all the logical
force of the arithmetical truism that 2 and 2 will produce 4.
Your faith is like the logic of some emotional women, of whom
TourgenyefF said that for tlienti 2 and 2 were generally 5, and
a tallow candle into the bargain. Yours is a faith, moreover,
which clashes not only with every conceivable view of justice
and logic, but which, if analysed, leads man to his moral perdi-
tion, checks the progress of mankind, and positively making of
might, right — transforms every second man into a Cain to his
brother Abel.

Enq. What do you allude to ?

* Sectarian Brahniins are here meant. The Parabrahm of the Vedantins is the
Deity we accept and beheve in.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 223

HAS GOD THE EIGHT TO FORGIVE!

TiiEO. To the Doctrine of Atonement ; I allude to that dangei-ous dogma
in -wliich you believe, and which teaches us that no matter how
enormous our crimes against the laws of God and of man, we
have but to believe in the self-sacrifice of Jesus for the
salvation of mankind, and his blood will wash out every stain.
It is twenty years that I preach against it, and I may now draw
your attention to a paragraph from Isis Unveiled, written in
1875. This is what Christianity teaches, and what we combat : —
" God's mercy is boundless and unfathomable. It is impossible
to conceive of a human sin so damnable that the price paid in
advance for the redemption of the sinner would not wipe it
out if a thousandfold worse. And furthermore, it is never too
late to repent. Though the offender wait until the last
minute of the last hour of the last day of his mortal life, before
his blanched lips utter the confession of faith, he may go to
Paradise ; the dying thief did it, and so may all others as vile.
These are the assumptions of the Church, and of the
Clergy ; assumptions banged at the heads of your country-
men by England's favourite preachers, right in the ' light of
the XlXth century,' " this most paradoxical age of ah. Now
to what does it lead ?

Enq. Does it not make the Christian happier than the Buddhist or
Brahmin ?

Theo. No ; not the educated man, at any rate, since the majority of
these have long since virtually lost all belief in this cruel

224 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

dogma. But it leads those who still believe in it more easily
to the threshold of every conceivable crime, than any other I
know of. Let me quote to you from Isis once more [vide
Vol. II. pp. 542 and 543)—

" If we step outside the little circle of creed and consider the universe
as a whole balanced by the exquisite adjustment of parts, how all sound
logic, how the faintest glimmering sense of Justice, revolts against this
Vicarious Atonement ! If the criminal sinned only against himself, and
wronged no one but himself ; if by sincere repentance he could cause the
obhteration of past events, not only from the memory of man, but also
from that imperishable record, which no deity — not even the Supremes
of the Supreme — can cause to disappear, then this dogma might not be
incomprehensible. But to maintain that one may wrong his fellow-man,
kill, disturb the equilibrium of society and the natural order of things,
and then — through cowardice, hope, or compulsion, it matters not — be
forgiven by believing that the spilling of one blood washes out the other
blood spilt — this is preposterous ! Can the results of a crime be obhterated
even though the crime itself should be pardoned ? The effects of a cause
are never limited to the boundaries of the cause, nor can the results of
crime be confined to the offender and his victim. Every good as well as
evil action has its effects, as palpably as the stone flung into calm water.
The simile is trite, but it is the best ever conceived, so let us use it. The
eddying circles are greater and swifter as the disturbing object is greater
or smaller, but the smallest pebble, nay, the tiniest speck, makes its
ripples. And this disturbance is not alone visible and on the surface.
Below, unseen, in every direction — outward and downward — drop pushes
drop until the sides and bottom are touched by the force. More, the
air above the water is agitated, and this disturbance passes, as the
physicists tell us, from stratum to stratum out into space forever and
ever ; an impulse has been given to matter, and that is never lost, can
never be recalled I . . .

" So with crime, and so with its opposite. The action may be instanta-
neous, the effects are eternal. When, after the stone is once flung into

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 225

the pond, we can recall it to the hand, roll back the ripples, obliterate
the force expended, restore the etheric waves to their previous state of
non-being, and wipe out every trace of the act of throwing the missile, so
that Time's record shall not show that it ever happened, then, then we
may patiently hear Christians argue for the efficacy of this Atonement,"

and — cease to believe in Karmic Lav?. As it now stands, we
call upon the whole world to decide, which of our two
doctrines is the most appreciative of deific justice, and which
is more reasonable, even on simple human evidence and logic.

Enq. Yet millions believe in the Christian dogma and are happy.

TiiEO. Pure sentimentalism overpowering their thinking faculties,
which no true philanthropist or Altruist will ever accept. It is
not even a dream of selfishness, but a nightmare of the human
intellect. Look where it leads to, and tell me the name of that
pagan country where crimes are more easily committed or
more numerous than in Christian lands. Look at the long
and ghastly annual records of crimes committed in European
countries ; and behold Protestant and Biblical America.
There, conversions effected in prisons are more numerous than
those made by public revivals and preaching. See how the
ledger-balance of Christian justice (!) stands : Ked-handed
murderers, urged on by the demons of lust, revenge, cupidity,
fanaticism, or mere brutal thirst for blood, who kiU their
victims, in most cases, without giving them time to repent or
call on Jesus. These, perhaps, died sinful, and, of course —
consistently with theological logic — met the reward of their
greater or lesser offences. But the murderer, overtaken by
human justice, is imprisoned, wept over by sentimentalists,
prayed with and at, pronounces the charmed words of conver-

226 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

sion, and goes to the scaffold a redeemed child of Jesus !
Except for the murder, he would not have been prayed with,
redeemed, pardoned. Clearly this man did well to murder,
for thus he gained eternal happiness ! And how about the
victim, and his, or her family, relatives, dependants, social
relations; has justice no recompense for them? Must they
suffer in this world and the next, while he who wronged them
sits beside the "holy thief" of Calvary, and is for ever
blessed ? On this question the clergy keep a prudent silence.
(Isis Unveiled. ) And now you know why Theosophists — whose
fundamental belief and hope is justice for all, in Heaven as on
earth, and in Karma — reject this dogma.

Enq. The ultimate destiny of man, then, is not a Heaven presided over
by God, but the gradual transformation of matter into its primordial
element, Spirit?

Theo. It is to that final goal to which all tends in nature.

Enq. Do not some of you regard this association or " fall of spirit into
matter " as evil, and re-birth as a sorrow ?

Theo. Some do, and therefore strive to shorten their period of
probation on earth. It is not an unmixed evil, however, since
it ensures the experience upon which we mount to knowledge
and wisdom. I mean that experience which teaches that the
needs of our spiritual nature can never be met by other than
spiritual happiness. As long as we are in the body, we are
subjected to pain, suffering and all the disappointing incidents
occurring during life. Therefore, and to palliate this, we
finally acquire knowledge which alone can afford us relief
and hope of a better future.

XII.

WHAT IS PEACTICAL THEOSOPHY ?

DVTY.

Enq. Why, then, the need for re-births, since all alike fail to secure a
permanent peace ?

Theo. Because the final goal cannot be reached in any way but
through life experiences, and because the bulk of these consist
in pain and suffering. It is only through the latter that we
can learn. Joys and jjleasures teach us nothing ; they are
evanescent, and can only bring in the long run satiety. More-
over, our constant failure to find any permanent satisfaction
in life wliich would meet the wants of our higher nature,
shows us plainly that those vrants can be met only on their
own plane, to wit — the spiritual.

Enq. Is the natural result of this a desire to quit life by one means
or another ?

Theo. If you mean by such desire "suicide," then I say, most
decidedly not. Such a result can never be a " natural " one,
but is ever due to a morbid brain disease, or to most decided
and strong materialistic views. It is the worst of crimes and

228 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

dire in its results. But if by desire, you mean simply aspira-
tion to reacli spiritual existence, not a wish to quit the earth,
then I would call it a very natural desire indeed. Otherwise
voluntary death would be an abandonment of our present
post and of the duties incumbent on us, as well as an attempt
to shirk Karmic responsibilities, and thus involve the creation
of new Karma.

Enq. But if actions on the material plane are unsatisfying, why should
duties, which are such actions, be imperative?

TiiEO. First of all, because our philosophy teaches us that the
object of doing our duties to all men and to ourselves the last,
is not the attainment of personal happiness, but of the happi-
ness of others ; the fulfilment of right for the sake of right,
not for what it may bring us. Happiness, or rather content-
ment, may indeed foUow the performance of duty, but is not
and must not be the motive for it.

Enq. What do you understand precisely by "duty "in Theosophy?
It cannot be the Christian duties preached by Jesus and his
Apostles, since you recognise neither ?

Theo. You are once more mistaken. What you caU " Christian
duties " were inculcated by every great moral and religious
Keformer ages before the Christian era. All that was great,
generous, heroic, was, in days of old, not only talked about
and preached from pulpits as in our own time, but acted upon
sometimes by whole nations. The history of the Buddhist
reform is full of the most noble and most heroically unselfish
acts. "Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of
another ; love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous ; not ren-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 229

dering evil for evil, or railing for railing ; but contrariwise,
blessing" -^vas practically carried out by tlie followers of
Buddha, several centuries before Peter. The Ethics of Chris-
tianity are gi'and, no doubt ; biit as undeniably they are not
new, and have originated as " Pagan " duties.

ExQ. And how would you define these duties, or " duty,-" in general,
as you understand the term ?

Theo. Duty is that which is due to Humanity, to our fellow-men,
neighbours, family, and especially that which we owe to aU
those who are poorer and more helpless than we are ourselves.
This is a debt which, if left unpaid during hfe, leaves us
spiritually insolvent and moral bankrupts in our next iircar-
nation. Theosophy is the quintessence of duty.

ExQ. So is Christianity when rightly understood and carried out.

Tkeo. Xo doubt it is ; but then, were it not a lip-religion in prac-
tice, Theosophy would have Uttle to do amidst Christians.
Unfortunately it is but such hp-ethics. Those who practise
their duty towards all, and for duty's own sake, are few ; and
fewer stLU are those who perform that duty, remaining content
with the satisfaction of then- own secret consciousness. It is —

" the public voice

Of praise that honours virtue and rewards it,"

which is ever uppermost in the minds of the " world re-
nowned " philanthropists. Modern ethics are beautiful to read
about and hear discussed ; but what are words unless converted
into actions ? Finally: if you ask me how we understand Theo-
sophical duty practically and in view of Karma, I may answer
you that our duty is to drink without a murmur to the last

Q

230 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

drop, whatever contents tlie cup of life may have in store for
us, to pluck the roses of life only for the fragrance they may
shed on others, and to be ourselves content but with the thorns,
if that fragrance cannot be enjoyed without depriving some
one else of it.

Enq. All this is very vague. What do you do more than Christians
do?

Theo. It is not what we members of the Theosophical Society do
— though some of us try our best — but how much farther
Theosophy leads to good than modern Christianitj' does. I
say — action, enforced action, instead of mere intention and
talk. A man may be what he likes, the most worldly, selfish
and hard-hearted of men, even a deep-dyed rascal, and it will
not prevent him from calling himself a Christian, or others
from so regarding him. But no Theosophist has the right to
this name, unless he is thoroughly imbued with the correctness
of Carlyle's truism : ' The end of man is an action and not a
thought, though it were the noblest " — and unless he sets and
models his daily life upon this truth. The profession of a
truth is not yet the enactment of it , and the more beautiful
and grand it sounds, the more loudly virtue or duty is talked
al)out instead of being acted upon, the more forcibly it will
always remind one of the Dead Sea fruit. Cant is the most
loathsome of all vices ; and cant is the most prominent feature
of the greatest Protestant country of this century — England.

Enq. What do you consider as due to humanity at large?

Theo. Full recognition of equal rights and privileges for all, and
without distinction of race, colour, social position, or birth.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 231

Enq. When would you consider such due not given ?

Theo. When there is the shghtest invasion of another's right — be
that other a man or a nation ; vi^hen there is any failure to
show him the same justice, kindness, consideration or mercy
which we desire for ourselves. The whole present system of
politics is built on the oblivion of such rights, and the most
fierce assertion of national selfishness. The French say :
"Like master, like man"; they ought to add, " Like national
policy, like citizen."

Enq. Do you take any part in politics ?

Theo. As a Society, we carefully avoid them, for the reasons given
below. To seek to achieve political reforms before we have effected
a reform in human nature, is like putting new wine into old bottles.
Make men feel and recognise in their innermost hearts what is
their real, true duty to all men, and every old abuse of power,
every iniquitous law in the national policy, based on human,
social or political selfishness, will disappear of itself. Foolish
is the gardener who seeks to weed his flower-bed of poisonous
plants by cutting them off from the surface of the soil, instead
of tearing them out by the roots. No lasting political
reform can be ever achieved with the same selfish men at the
head of affairs as of old.

TBE BELATIONS OF THE T.S. TO POLITICAL EEFOBMS.

Enq. The Theosophical Society is not, then, a political organization ?
Theo. Certainly not. It is international in the highest sense in
that its members comprise men and women of all races, creeds,

232 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

and forms of thought, who work together for one object, the
improvement of humanity; but as a society it takes absolutely
no part in any national or party politics.

Enq. Why is this?

Theo. Just for the reasons I have mentioned. Moreover, political
action must necessarily vary with the circumstances of the
time and with the idiosyncracies of individuals. While from
the very nature of their position as Theosophists the members
of the T.S. are agreed on the principles of Theosophy, or they
would not belong to the societj'^ at all, it does not thereby
follow that they agree on every other subject. As a society
they can only act together in matters which are common to
all — that is, in Theosophy itself ; as individuals, each is left
perfectly free to follow out his or her particular line of
political thought and action, so long as this does not conflict
with Theosophical principles or hurt the Theosophical Society.

Enq. But surely the T.S. does not stand altogether aloof from the
social questions which are now so fast coming to the front ?

Theo. The very principles of the T.S. are a proof that it does not
— or, rather, that most of its members do not — so stand aloof.
If humanity can only be developed mentally and spiritually by
the enforcement, first of all, of the soundest and most scientific
physiological laws, it is the bounden duty of all who strive for
this development to do their utmost to see that those laws
shall be generally carried out. AU Theosophists are only too
sadly aware that, in Occidental countries especially, the social
condition of large masses of the people renders it impossible
for either their bodies or their spirits to be properly trained,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 233

SO that the development of both is thereby arrested. As this
training and development is one of the express objects of
Theosophy, the T.S. is in thorough sympathy and harmony
with all true efforts in this direction.

Enq. But what do you mean by " true efforts " ? Each social reformer
has his own panacea, and each beheves his to be the one and
only thing which can improve and save humanity ?

Theo. Perfectly true, and this is the real reason why so little
satisfactory social work is accomplished. In most of these
panaceas there is no really guiding principle, a,nd there is
certainly no one principle which connects them all. Valuable
time and energy are thus wasted ; for men, instead of co-
operating, strive one against the other, often, it is to be feared,
for the sake of fame and reward rather than for the great
cause which they profess to have at heart, and which should
be supreme in their lives.

Enq. How, then, should Theosophical principles be applied so that
social co-operation may be promoted and true efforts for social
amelioration be carried on ?

Theo. Let me briefly remind you what these principles are —
universal Unity and Causation ; Human Sohdarity ; the Law
of Karma ; Ee-incarnation. These are the four links of the
golden chain which should bind humanity into one family,
one universal Brotherhood.

Enq. How?

Theo. In the present state of society, especially in so-called civiUzed
countries, we are continually brought face to face with the
fact that large numbers of people are suffering from misery.

234 T^^^ ^-^^ ^0 THEOSOPHY.

poverty and disease. Their physical condition is wretched,
and their mental and spiritual faculties are often almost
dormant. On the other hand, many persons at the opposite
end of the social scale are leading lives of careless indifference,
material luxury, and selfish indulgence. Neither of these
forms of existence is mere chance. Both are the effects of
the conditions which surround those who are subject to them,
and the neglect of social duty on the one side is most closely
connected with the stunted and arrested development on the
other. In sociology, as in all branches of true science, the
law of universal causation holds good. But this causation
necessarily implies, as its logical outcome, that human
solidarity on which Theosophy so strongly insists. If the
action of one reacts on the Uves of all, and this is the true
scientific idea, then it is only by all men becoming brothers and
all women sisters, and by all practising in their daily lives true
brotherhood and true sisterhood, that the real human
solidarity, which lies at the root of the elevation of the race,
can ever be attained. It is this action and interaction,
this true brotherhood and sisterhood, in which each shall live
for all and all for each, which is one of the fundamental
Theosophical principles that every Theosophist should be bound,
not only to teach, but to carry out in his or her individual life.

Enq. All this is very well as a general principle, but how would you
apply it in a concrete way ?

Theo. Look for a moment at what you would call the concrete
facts of human society. Contrast the hves not onh' of the
masses of the people, but of many of those who are called the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 235

middle and upper classes, with what they might be under
healthier and nobler conditions, where justice, kindness, and
love were paramount, instead of the selfishness, indifference,
and brutality which iiow too often seem to reign supreme.
All good and evil things in humanity have their roots in
human character, and this character is, and has been, condi-
tioned by the endless chain of cause and effect. But this
conditioning apphes to the future as well as to the present and
the past. Selfishness, indifference, and brutality can never be
the normal state of the race — to believe so would be to despair
of humanity — and that no Theosophist can do. Progress can
be attained, and only attained, by the development of the
nobler qualities. Now, true evolution teaches us that by
altering the surroundings of the organism we can alter and
improve the organism ; and in the strictest sense this is true
with regard to man. Every Theosophist, therefore, is bound
to do his utmost to help on, by all the means in his power,
every wise and well-considered social effort which has for its
object the amelioration of the condition of the poor. Such
efforts should be made with a view to their ultimate social
emancipation, or the development of the sense of duty in those
who now so often neglect it in nearly every relation of life.

Enq. Agreed. But who is to decide whether social efforts are wise or
unwise ?

Theo. No one person and no society can lay down a hard-and-fast
rule in this respect. Much must necessarily be left to the
individual judgment. One general test may, however, be
given. Will the proposed action tend to promote that true

236 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

brotherhood which it is the aim of Theosophy to bring about ?
No real Theosophist will have much difficulty in applying such
a test ; once he is satisfied of this, his duty will lie in the
direction of forming public opinion. And this can be attained
only by inculcating those higher and nobler conceptions of
public nnd private duties which lie at the root of all spiritual
and material improvement. In every conceivable case he
himself must be a centre of spiritual action, and from him and
his own daily individual life must radiate those higher spiritual
forces which alone can regenerate his fellow-men.

Enq. But why should he do this ? Are not he and all, as you teach,
conditioned by their Karma, and must not Karma necessarily work
itself out on certain lines ?

Theo. It is this very law of Karma which gives strength to all that
I have said. The individual cannot separate himself from the
race, nor the race from the individual. The law of Karma
applies equally to all, although all are not equally developed.
In helping on the development of others, the Theosophist
believes that he is not only helping them to fulfil their Karma,
but that he is also, in the strictest sense, fulfilling his own. It
is the development of humanity, of which both he and they
are integral parts, that he has always in view, and he knows
that any failure on his part to respond to the highest within
him retards not only himself but all, in their progressive
march. By his actions, he can make it either more difficult
or more easy for humanity to attain the next higher plane of
being.

Enq. How does this bear on the fourth of the principles you
mentioned, viz., Ee-incarnation ?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 237

Theo. The connection is most intimate. If our present lives
depend upon the development of certain principles which are
a growth from the germs left by a previous existence, the law
holds good as regards the future. Once grasp the idea that
universal causation is not merely present, but past, present
and future, and every action on our present plane falls natu-
rally and easily into its true place, and is seen in its true
relation to ourselves and to others. Every mean and selfish
action sends us backward and not forward, while every
noble thought and every unselfish deed are stepping-
stones to the higher and more glorious planes of being. If
this life were all, then in many respects it would indeed be poor
and mean ; but regarded as a preparation for the next sphere
of existence, it may be used as the golden gate through which
we may pass, not selfishly and alone, but in company with our
fellows, to the palaces which lie beyond.

ON SELF-SACBIFICE.

Enq. Is equal justice to all and love to every creature the highest
standard of Theosophy ?

Theo. No ; there is an even far higher one.

Enq. What can it be ?

Theo. The giving to others more than to oneself — self-sacrifice.
Such was the standard and abounding measure which marked
so pre-eminently the greatest Teachers and Masters of
Humanity — e.g., Gautama Buddha in History, and Jesus of
Nazareth as in the Gospels. This trait alone was enough to

238 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

secure to them the perpetual reverence and gratitude of the
generations of men that come after them. We say, however,
that self-sacrifice has to be performed with discrimination ;
and such a self-abandonment, if niade without justice, or blindly,
regardless of subsequent results, may often prove not only
made in vain, but harmful. One of the fundamental rules of
Theosophy is, justice to oneself — viewed as a unit of collective
humanity, not as a personal self-justice, not more but not less
than to others ; unless, indeed, by the sacrifice of the one self
we can benefit the many.

Enq. Could you make your idea clearer by giving an instance?

Theo. There are many instances to illustrate it in history. Self-
sacrifice for practical good to save many, or several people,
Tlieosophy holds as far higher than self-abnegation for a
sectarian idea, such as that of " saving the heathen from
damnation" for instance. In our opinion, Father Damien, the
young man of thirty who offered his whole life in sacrifice for
the benefit and alleviation of the sufferings of the lepers at
Molokai, and who went to live for eighteen years alone with
them, to finally catch the loathsome disease and die, has not
died in vain. He has given relief and relative happiness to
thousands of miserable wretches. He has brought to them
consolation, mental and physical. He threw a streak of light
into the black and dreary night of an existence, the hopeless-
ness of M^iich is unparalleled in the records of human suffering.
He was a true Theosophist, and his memory will live for ever
in our annals. In our sight this poor Belgian priest stands
immeasurably higher than — for instance — all thdse sincere but

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 239

vain-glorious fools, the Missionaries who have sacrificed their
lives in the South Sea Islands or China. What good have
they done ? They went in one case to those who are not yet
ripe for any truth ; and in the other to a nation whose systems
of religious philosophy are as grand as any, if only the men
who have them would live up to the standard of Confucius
and their other sages. And they died victims of irresponsible
cannibals and savages, and of popular fanaticism and hatred.
Whereas, by going to the slums of Whitechapel or some other
such locality of those that stagnate right under the blazing
sun of our civilization, full of Christian savages and mental
leprosy, they might have done real good, and preserved their
lives for a better and worthier cause.

Enq. But the Christians do not think so?

Theo. Of course not, because they act on an erroneous belief.
They think that by baptising the body of an irresponsible
savage they save his soul from damnation. One church forgets
her martjTS, the other beatifies and raises statues to such
men as Labro, who sacrificed his body for forty years only to
benefit the vermin which it bred. Had we the means to do
so, we would raise a statue to Father Damien, the true,
practical saint, and perpetuate his memory for ever as a living
exemplar of Theosophical heroism and of Buddha- and Christ-
Uke mercy and self-sacrifice.

Enq. Then you regard self-sacrifice as a duty?

Theo. We do ; and explain it by showing that altruism is an integral
part of self-development. But we have to discriminate. A
man has no right to starve himself to death that another

240 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

man may have food, unless the Hfe of that man is obviously-
more useful to the many than is his own life. But it is his
duty to sacrifice his own comfort, and to work for others if
they are unable to work for themselves. It is his duty to give
all that which is wholly his own and can benefit no one but
himself if he selfishly keeps it from others. Theosophy teaches
self-abnegation, but does not teach rash and useless self-
sacrifice, nor does it justify fanaticism.

Enq. But how are we to reach such an elevated status ?

Theo. By the enlightened application of our precepts to practice.
By the use of our higher reason, spiritual intuition and moral
sense, and by following the dictates of what we call " the still
small voice " of our conscience, which is that of our Ego, and
which speaks louder in us than the earthquakes and the
thunders of Jehovah, wherein " the Lord is not."

Enq. If such are our duties to humanity at large, what do you under-
stand by our duties to our immediate surroundings ?

Theo. Just the same, phis those that arise from special obligations
with regard to family ties.

Enq. Then it is not true, as it is said, that no sooner does a man enter
into the Theosophical Society than he begins to be gra,dually
severed from his wife, children, and family duties ?

Theo. It is a groundless calumny, like so many others. The first
of the Theosopliical duties is to do one's duty by all men, and
especially by those to whom one's specific responsibilities are
due, because one has either voluntarily undertaken them, such
as marriage ties, or because one's destiny has allied one to
them ; I mean those we owe to parents or next of kin.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 241

Enq. And what may be the duty of a Theosophist to himself ?

Theo. To control and conquer, through the Higher, the lower self.
To purify himself inwardly and morally ; to fear no one, and
nought, save the tribunal of his own conscience. Never to do
a thing by halves; i.e., if he thinks it the right thing to do,
let him do it openly and boldly, and if wrong, never touch it
at aU. It is the duty of a Theosophist to lighten his burden
by thinking of the wise aphorism of Epictetus, who says : " Be
not diverted from your duty by any idle reflection the silly world
may make upon you, for their censures are not in your power,
and consequently should not be any part of your concern."

Enq. But suppose a member of your Society should plead inability to
practise altruism by other people, on the ground that " charity begins
at home "; urging that he is too busy, or too poor, to benefit mankind
or even any of its units — what are your rules in such a case ?

Theo. No man has a right to say that he can do nothing for others,
on any pretext whatever. " By doing the proper duty in the
proper place, a man may make the world his debtor," says an
English writer. A cup of cold water given in time to a thirsty
wayfarer is a nobler duty and more worth, than a dozen of
dinners given away, out of season, to men who can afford to
pay for them. No man who has not got it in him will ever
become a Theosophist ; but he may remain a member of our
Society all the same. We have no rules by which we could
force any man to become a practical Theosophist, if he does
not desire to be one.

Enq. Then why does he enter the Society at all ?

Theo. That is best known to him who does so. For, here again,

242 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

we have no right to pre-judge a person, not even if the voice
of a whole community should be against him, and I may tell
you why. In our day, vox populi (so far as regards the voice
of the educated, at any rate) is no longer vox dei, but ever
that of prejudice, of selfish motives, and often simply that
of unpopularity. Our duty is to sow seeds broadcast for the
future, and see they are good ; not to stop to enquire why we
should do so, and how and wherefore we are obliged to lose
our time, since those who will reap the harvest in days to come
will never be ourselves.

ON CHABITY.

Enq. How do you Theosophists regard the Christian duty of charity ?

Theo. What charity do you mean ? Charity of mind, or practical
charity in the physical plane ?

Enq. I mean practical charity, as your idea of Universal brotherhood
would include, of course, charity of mind.

Theo. Then you have in your mind the practical carrying out of
the commandments given by Jesus in the Sermon on the
Mount ?

Enq. Precisely so.

Theo. Then why call them " Christian " ? Because, although your
Saviour preached and practised them, the last thing the
Christians of to-day think of is to carry them out in their
lives.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 243

Enq. And yet many are those who pass their lives in dispensing
charity ?

Theo. Yes, out of the surplus of their great fortunes. But point
out to me that Christian, among the most philanthropic, who
would give to the shivering and starving thief, who would
steal his coat, his cloak also ; or offer his right cheek to him
who smote him on the left, and never think of resenting it ?

Enq. Ah, but you must remember that these precepts have not to be
taken literally. Times and circumstances have changed since
Christ's day. Moreover, He spoke in Parables.

Theo. Then why don't your Churches teach that the doctrine of
damnation and heU-fire is to be understood as a parable too ?
Why do some of your most popular preachers, while virtually
allowing these " parables " to be understood as you take them,
insist on the literal meaning of the fires of Hell and the physical
tortures of an " Asbestos-like " soul ? If one is a " parable,"
then the other is. If HeU-fire is a literal truth, then Christ's
commandments in the Sermon on the Mount have to be obeyed
to the very letter. And I tell you that many who do not
believe in the Divinity of Christ — like Count Leo Tolstoi and
more than one Theosophist — do carry out these noble, because
universal, precepts literally ; and many more good men and
women would do so, were they not more than certain that
such a walk in life would very probably land them in a
lunatic asylum — so Christian are your laws !

Enq. But surely every one knows that millions and millions are
spent annually on private and public charities ?

Theo. Oh, yes ; half of which sticks to the hands it passes through

244 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

before getting to the needy ; -while a good portion or remainder
gets into the hands of professional beggars, those who are
too lazy to work, thus doing no good whatever to those who
are really in misery and suffering. Haven't you heard that
the first result of the great outflow of charity towards the East-
end of London was to raise the rents in Whitechapel by some
20 per cent. ?

Enq. What would you do, then?

Theo. Act individually and not collectively ; follow the Northern
Buddhist precepts : " Never put food into the mouth of
the hungry by the hand of another " ; " Never let the
shadow of thy neighbour {a third person) come between
thyself and the object of thy bounty"; "Never give
to the Sun time to dry a tear before thou hast wiped it."
Again " Never give money to the needy, or food to the priest,
who begs at thy door, through thy servants, lest thy money
should diminish gratitude, and thy food turn to gall."

Enq. But how can this be applied practically?

Theo. The Theosophical ideas of charity mean personal exertion
for others ; personal mercy and kindness ; personal interest in
the welfare of those who suffer ; personal sympathy, fore-
thought and assistance in their troubles or needs. We
Theosophists do not believe in giving money (N.B., if we had
it) through other people's hands or organizations. We believe
in giving to the money a thousandfold greater power and
effectiveness by our personal contact and sjonpathy with those
who need it. We believe in relieving the starvation of the soul, as
much if not more than the emptiness of the stomach ; for gratitude

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 245

does more good to the man who feels it, than to him for whom it
is felt. Wliere's the gratitude which your " millions of pounds "
should have called forth, or the good feelings provoked by
them ? Is it shown in the hatred of the East-End poor for the
rich ? in the growth of the party of anarchy and disorder ? or
by those thousands of unfortunate wen-king giids, victims to
the " sweating " system, driven daily to eke out a living by
going on the streets ? Do your helpless old men and women
thank you for the workhouses ; or your poor for the poison-
ously unhealthy dwellings in which they are allowed to breed
new generations of diseased, scrofulous and rickety children,
only to put money into the pockets of the insatiable Shylocks
who own houses ? Therefore it is that every sovereign of all
those "millions," contributed by good and would-be charitable
people, falls like a burning curse instead of a blessing on the
poor whom it should relieve. We call this generating national
Karma, and terrible will be its results on the day of
reckoning.

THEOSOPHY FOB THE MASSES.

Enq. And you think that Theosophy would, by stepping in, help to
remove these evils, under the practical and adverse conditions of
our modern life ?

Theo. Had we more money, and had not most of the Theosophists
to work for their daily bread, I firmly beheve we could.

Enq. How ? Do you expect that your doctrines could ever take bold

B

246 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

of the uneducated masses, when they are so abstruse and difficult
that well-educated people can hardly understand them ?

Theo. You forget one thing, which is that your much-boasted
modern education is precisely that which makes it difficult for
you to understand Theosophy. Your mind is so full of in-
tellectual subtleties and preconceptions that your natural
intuition and perception of the truth cannot act. It does not
require metaphysics or education to make a man understand the
broad truths of Karma and Reincarnation. Look at the millions
of poor and uneducated Buddhists and Hindoos, to whom Karma
and re-incarnation are solid realities, simply because their
minds have never been cramped and distorted by being forced
into an unnatural groove. They have never had the innate
human sense of justice perverted in them by being told to
believe that their sins would be forgiven because another man
had been put to death for their sakes. And the Buddhists,
note well, live up to their beliefs without a murmur against
Karma, or what they regard as a just punislunent ; whereas
the Christian populace neither lives up to its moral ideal, nor
accepts its lot contentedly. Hence murmuring and dissatis-
faction, and the intensity of the struggle for existence in
Western lands.

Enq. But this contentedness, which you praise so much, would do
away with allmotive for exertion and bring progi'css to a stand-still.

Theo. And we, Tlieosophists, say that your vaunted progress and
civilization are no better than a host of will-o'-the-wisps, flicker-
ing over a marsh which exhales a poisonous and deadly
miasma. This, because we see selfishness, crime, immorality,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 247

and all the evils imaginable, pouncing upon unfortunate man-
kind from this Pandora's box which you call an age of
progress, and increasing pari passu with the growth of your
material civilization. At such a price, better the inertia and
inactivity of Buddhist countries, which have arisen only as a
consequence of ages of political slavery.

Enq. Then is all this metaphysics and mysticism with which you
occupy yourself so much, of no importance ?

Theo. To the masses, who need only practical guidance and
support, they are not of much consequence ; but for the
educated, the natural leaders of the masses, those whose modes
of thought and action will sooner or later be adopted by those
masses, they are of the greatest importance. It is only by
means of the philosophy that an intelligent and educated man
can avoid the intellectual suicide of believing on blind faith ;
and it is only by assimilating the strict continuity and logical
coherence of the Eastern, if not esoteric, doctrines, that he can
realize their truth. Conviction breeds enthusiasm, and
" Enthusiasm," says Bulwer Lytton, " is the genius of sincerity,
and truth accomplishes no victories without it " ; while
Emerson most truly remarks that " every great and command-
ing movement in the annals of the world is the triumph of
enthusiasm." And what is more calculated to produce such a
feeling than a philosophy so grand, so consistent, so logical,
and so all-embracing as our Eastern Doctrines ?

Enq. And yet its enemies are very numerous, and every day Theosophy
acquires new opponents.

Theo. And this is precisely that which proves its intrinsic excel-

248 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

lence and value. People hate only tlie things they fear, and
no one goes out of his way to overthrow that which neither
threatens nor rises beyond mediocrity.

Enq. Do you hope to impart this enthusiasm, one day, to the masses ?

Theo. Why not ? since history tells us that the masses adopted
Buddhism with enthusiasm, while, as said before, the practical
effect upon them of this philosophy of ethics is still shown by
the smallness of the percentage of crime amongst Buddhist
populations as compared with every other religion. The chief
point is, to uproot that most fertile source of aU crime and
immorahty — the belief that it is possible for them to escape
the consequences of their own actions. Once teach them that
greatest of all laws, Karma and Re-incarnation, and besides
feeling in themselves the true dignity of human nature, they
wiU turn from evil and eschew it as they would a physical
danger.

BOW MEMBERS CAN HELP THE SOCIETY.

Enq. How do you expect the Fellows of your Society to help in the
work?

Theo. First by studying and comprehending the theosophical
doctrines, so that they may teach others, especially the young
people. Secondly, by taking every opportunity of talking to
others and explaining to them what Theosophy is, and what
it is not ; by removing misconceptions and spreading an
interest in the subject. Thirdly, by assisting in circulating
our literature, by buying books when they have the means, by

THE KEY TO THEO.SOPHY. 249

lending and giving them and by inducing their friends to do
so. Fourthly, by defending the Society from the unjust
aspersions cast upon it, by every legitimate device in their
power. Fifth, and most important of all, by the example of
their own lives.

Enq. But all this literature, to the spread of which you attach so
much importance, does not seem to me of much practical use in
helping mankind. This is not practical charity.

Theo. "We think otherwise. We hold that a good book which
gives people food for thought, which strengthens and clears
their minds, and enables them to grasp truths which they liave
dimly felt but could not formulate — we hold that such a book
does a real, substantial good. As to what you call practical
deeds of charity, to benefit the bodies of our fellow-men, we
do what little we can ; but, as I have already told you, most
of us are poor, whilst the Society itself has not even the money
to pay a staff of workers. All of us who toil for it, give our
labour gratis, and in most cases money as well. The few who
have the means of doing what are usually called charitable
actions, follow the Buddhist precepts and do their work
themselves, not by proxy or by subscribing publicly to cha-
ritable funds. What the Theosophist has to do above all is
to forget his personality.

WHAT A THEOSOPHIST OUGHT NOT TO DO.

Enq. Have you any prohibitory laws or clauses for Theosophists in
your Society?

250 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

Theo. Many, but, alas ! none of them are enforced. They express
the ideal of our organization, — but the practical application
of such things we are compelled to leave to the discretion of
the Fellows themselves. Unfortunately, the state of men's
minds in the present century is such that, unless we allow
these clauses to remain, so to speak, obsolete, no man or
woman would dare to risk joining the Theosophical Society.
This is precisely why I feel forced to lay such a stress on the
difference between true Theosophy and its hard-struggling and
well-intentioned, but still unworthy vehicle, the Theosophical
Society.

Enq. May I be told what are these perilous reefs in the open sea of
Theosophy ?

Theo. Well may you call them reefs, as more than one otherwise
sincere and well-meaning F.T.S. has had his Theosophical canoe
shattered into splinters on them ! And yet to avoid certain
things seems the easiest thing in the world to do. For
instance, here is a series of such negatives, screening positive
Theosophical duties : —

No Theosophist should be silent when he hears evil reports
or slanders spread about the Society, or innocent persons,
whether they be his colleagues or outsiders.

Enq. But suppose what one hears is the truth, or may be true
without one knowing it ?

Theo. Then you must demand good proofs of the assertion, and
hear both sides impartially before you permit the accusation
to go uncontradicted. You have no right to believe in evil,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 251

until you get undeniable proof of the correctness of the
statement.

Enq. And what should you do then ?

Theo. Pity and forbearance, charity and long-suffering, ought to be
always there to prompt us to excuse our sinning brethren, and
to pass the gentlest sentence possible upon those who err. A
Theosophist ought never to forget what is due to the short-
comings and infirmities of human nature.

Enq. Ought he to forgive entirely in such cases ?

Theo. In every case, especially he who is sinned against.

Enq. But if by so doing, he risks to injure, or allow others to be
injm-ed ? What ought he to do then ?

Theo. His duty ; that which his conscience and higher nature
suggests to him ; but only after mature deliberation. Justice
consists in doing no injury to any living being ; but justice
commands us also never to allow injury to be done to the
many, or even to one innocent person, by allowing the guilty
one to go unchecked.

Enq. What are the other negative clauses ?

Tnzo. No Theosophist ought to be contented with an idle or
frivolous life, doing no real good to himself and still less to
others. He should work for the benefit of the few who need
his help if he is unable to toil for Humanity, and thus work
for the advancement of the Theosophical cause.

Enq. This demands an exceptional nature, and would come rather hard
upon some persons.

Theo, Then they had better remain outside the T. S. instead of

252 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

sailing under false colours. No one is asked to give more
than lie can afford, whetlier in devotion, time, work or money.

Enq. What comes next ?

Theo. No working member should set too great value on his per-
sonal progress or proficiency in Theosophic studies ; but must
be prepared rather to do as much altruistic work as lies in his
power. He should not leave the whole of the heavy burden
and responsibility of the Theosophical movement on the
shoulders of the few devoted workers. Each member ought
to feel it his duty to take what share he can in the common
work, and help it by every means in his power.

Enq. This is but just. What comes next ?

Theo. No Theosophist should place his personal vanity, or feelings,
above those of his Society as a body. He who sacrifices the
latter, or other people's reputations on the altar of his
personal vanity, worldly benefit, or pride, ought not to be
allowed to remain a member. One cancerous limb diseases
the whole body.

Enq. Is it the duty of every member to teach others and preach
Theosophy ?

Theo. It is indeed. No fellow has a right to remain idle, on the
excuse that he knows too little to teach. For he may always
be sure that he wiU find others who know still less than him-
self. And also it is not until a man begins to try to teach
others, that he discovers his own ignorance and tries to remove
it. But this is a minor clause.

Enq. What do you consider, then, to be the chief of these negative
Theosophical duties?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 253

Theo. To be ever prepared to recognize and confess one's faults.
To rather sin through exaggerated praise than through too
Httle appreciation of one's neighbour's efforts. Never to back-
bite or slander another person. Always to say openly and
direct to his face anything you have against him. Never to
make yourself the echo of anything you may hear against
another, nor harbour revenge against those who happen to
injure you.

Enq. But it is often dangerous to tell people the truth to their faces.
Don't you think so ? I know of one of your members who was
bitterly offended, left the Society, and became its greatest enemy,
only because he was told some unpleasant truths to his face, and
was blamed for them.

Theo. Of such we have had many. No member, whether promi-
nent or insignificant, has ever left us without becoming our
bitter enemy.

Enq. How do you account for it ?

Theo. It is simply this. Having been, in most cases, intensely
devoted to the Society at first, and having lavished upon it the
most exaggerated praises, the only possible excuse such a
backslider can make for his subsequent behaviour and past
short-sightedness, is to pose as an innocent and deceived victim,
thus casting the blame from his own shoulders on to those of
the Society in general, and its leaders especially. Such
persons remind one of the old fable about the man with a
distorted face, who broke his looking-glass on the ground that
it reflected his countenance crookedly.

Enq. But what makes these people turn against the Society?

254 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

Theo. Wounded vanity in some form or other, almost in every case.
Generally, because their dicta and advice are not taken as final
and authoritative ; or else, because they are of those who would
rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Because, in short,
they cannot bear to stand second to anybody in anj'^thing.
So, for instance, one member — a true " Sir Oracle " — criticized,
and ahnost defamed every member in the T. S. to outsiders as
much as to Theosophists, under the pretext that they were all
untheosophical, blaming them precisely for what he was him-
self doing all the time. Finally, he left the Society, giving as
his reason a profound conviction that we were all (the
Founders especially) — Frauds ! Another one, after intriguing
in every possible way to be placed at the head of a large
Section of the Society, finding that the members would not
have him, turned against the Founders of the T. S., and
became their bitterest enemy, denouncing one of them when-
ever he could, simply because the latter could not, and would
wot, force him upon the Members. This was simply a case of
an outrageous wounded vanity. Still another wanted to, and
virtually did, practise black-magic — i.e., undue personal psycho-
logical influence on certain Fellows, while pretending devotion
and every Theosophical virtue. When this was put a stop to,
the Member broke with Theosophy, and now slanders and Hes
against the same hapless leaders in the most virulent manner,
endeavouring to break up the society by blackening the
reputation of those whom that worthy " Fellow " was unable
to deceive.

Enq. What would you do with such characters ?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 255

Theo. Leave them to their Karma. Because one person does evil
that is no reason for others to do so.

Enq. But, to return to slander, where is the line of demarcation
between backbiting and just criticism to be drawn ? Is it not one's
duty to warn one's h-iends and neighbours against those whom one
knows to be dangerous associates ?

Theo. If by allowing them to go on unchecked other persons may
be thereby injured, it is certainly our duty to obviate the
danger by warning them privately. But true or false, no
accusation against another person should ever be spread
abroad. If true, and the fault hurts no one but the sinner,
then leave him to his Karma. If false, then you will have
avoided adding to the injustice in the world. Therefore, keep
silent about such things with every one not directly concerned.
But if your discretion and silence are likely to hurt or
endanger others, then I add : Speak the truth at all costs, and
say, with Annesly, " Consult duty, not events." There are
cases when one is forced to exclaim, " Perish discretion, rather
than allow it to interfere with duty."

Enq. Methinks, if you carry out these maxims, you are likely to reap
a nice crop of troubles !

Theo. And so we do. We have to admit that we are now open to
the same taunt as the early Christians were. " See, how these
Theosophists love one another ! " may now be said of us with-
out a shadow of injustice.

Enq. Admitting yourself that there is at least as much, if not more,
backbiting, slandering, and quarrelling in the T. S. as in the

256 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

Christian Churches, let alone Scientific Societies — What kind of
Brotherhood is this ? I may ask.
Theo. a very poor specimen, indeed, as at present, and, until
carefully sifted and reorganized, no better than all others.
Eemember, however, that human nature is the same in the
Theosophical Society as out of it. Its members are no saints :
they are at best sinners trying to do better, and liable to fall back
owing to personal weakness. Add to this that our " Brother-
hood" is no "recognised" or established body, and stands, so to
speak, outside of the pale of jurisdiction. Besides which, it is in
a chaotic condition, and as unjustly unpopular as is no other body.
What wonder, then, that those members who fail to carry out
its ideal should turn, after leaviaig the Society, for sympathetic
protection to our enemies, and pour all their gall and bitter-
ness into their too willing ears ! Knowing that they will find
support, sympathy, and ready credence for every accusation,
however absurd, that it may please them to launch against the
Theosophical Society, they hasten to do so, and vent their
wrath on the innocent looking-glass, which reflected too
faithfully their faces. People never forgive those whom they
have wronged. The sense of kindness received, and repaid by
them with ingratitude, drives them into a madness of self-
justification before the world and their own consciences. The
former is but too ready to believe in anything said against a
society it hates. The latter — but I will say no more, fearing
I have already said too much.

Enq. Your position does not seem to me a very enviable one.

Theo. It is not. But don't you think that there must be

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 257

something very noble, very exalted, very true, behind the
Society and its philosophy, when the leaders and the founders
of the movement stUl continue to vrork for it with all their
strength ? They sacrifice to it all comfort, all worldly prosperity,
and success, even to their good name and reputation — aye,
even to their honour — to receive in return incessant and
ceaseless obloquy, relentless persecution, untiring slander,
constant ingratitude, and misunderstanding of their best
efforts, blows, and buffets from all sides — when by simply
dropping their work they would find themselves immediately
released from every responsibiUty, shielded from every further
attack.

Enq. I confess, such a perseverance seems to me very astounding, and
I wondered why you did all this.

TiiEO. Believe me for no self-gratification ; only in the hope of training
a few individuals to carry on our work for humanity by its
original programme when the Founders are dead and gone.
They have already found a few such noble and devoted souls
to replace them. The coming generations, thanks to these
few, will find the path to peace a little less thorny, and the
way a little widened, and thus all this suffering wiU have
produced good results, and their self-sacrifice will not have
been in vain. At present, the main, fundamental object of the
Society is to sow germs in the hearts of men, which may in
time sprout, and under more propitious circumstances lead to
a healthy reform, conducive of more happiness to the masses
than they have hitherto enjoyed.

XIII.

ON THE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE THEOSOPHICAL

SOCIETY.

THEOSOPHY AND ASCETICISM.

Enq. I have heard people say that your rules require all members to
be vegetarians, celibates, and rigid ascetics ; but you have not told
me anything of the sort yet. Can you tell me the truth once for all
about this?

Theo. The truth is that our rules require nothing of the kind.
The Theosophical Society does not even expect, far less require
of any of its members that they should be ascetics in any
way, except — if you call that asceticism — that they should
try and benefit other people and be unselfish in their own
lives.

Enq. But still many of your members are strict vegetarians, and
openly avow their intention of remaining unmarried. This, too,
is most often the case with those who take a prominent part in
connection with the work of your Society.

Theo. That is only natural, because most of our really earnest
workers are members of the Inner Section of the Society, which
I told you about before.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 259

Enq. Oh ! then you do require ascetic practices in that Inner Section ?

Theo. No ; we do not require or enjoin tliem even there ; but I see
that I had better give you an explanation of our views on the
subject of asceticism in general, and then you will understand
about vegetarianism and so on.

Enq. Please proceed.

Theo. As I have already told you, most people who become really
earnest students of Theosophy, and active workers in our
Society, wish to do more than study theoretically the truths
we teach. They wish to know the truth by their own direct
personal experience, and to study Occultism with the object of
acquiring the wisdom and power, which they feel that they
need in order to help others, effectually and judiciousty,
instead of blindly and at haphazard. Therefore, sooner or later,
they join the Inner Section.

Enq. But you said that "ascetic practices" are not obligatory even
in that Inner Section ?

Theo. No more they are ; but the first thing which the members
learn there is a true conception of the relation of the body, or
physical sheath, to the inner, the true man. The relation and
mutual interaction between these two aspects of human
nature are explained and demonstrated to them, so that they
soon become imbued with the supreme importance of the inner
man over the outer case or body. They are taught that blind
unintelligent asceticism is mere folly ; that such conduct as
that of St. Labro which I spoke of before, or that of the Indian
Fakirs and jungle ascetics, who cut, burn and macerate their
bodies in the most cruel and horrible manner, is simply self-

26o THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

torture for selfish ends, i.e., to develop will-power, but is
perfectly useless for the purpose of assisting true spiritual, or
Tlieosopliic, development.

Ekq. I see, you regard only moral asceticism as necessary. It is as a
means to an end, that end being the perfect equilibrium of the inner
nature of man, and the attainment of complete mastery over the
body with all its passions and desires ?

Theo. Just so. But these means must be used intelligently and
wisely, not blindly and foolishly ; like an athlete who is train-
ing and preparing for a great contest, not like the miser who
starves himself into illness that he may gratify his passion
for gold.

Enq. I understand now your general idea ; but let us see how you
apply it in practice. How about vegetarianism, for instance?

Theo. One of the great German scientists has shown that every
kind of animal tissue, however you may cook it, still retains
certain marked characteristics of the animal which it belonged
to, which characteristics can be recognised. And apart from
that, every one knows by the taste what meat he is eating. We
go a step farther, and prove that when the flesh of animals is
assimilated by man as food, it imparts to him, physiologically,
some of the characteristics of the animal it came from. More-
over, occult science teaches and proves this to its students by
ocular demonstration, showing also that this " coarsening " or
" animalizing " efiect on man is greatest from the flesh of the
larger animals, less for birds, still less for fish and other cold-
blooded animals, and least of aU when he eats only vegetables.

Enq. Then he had better not eat at all ?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 261

Theo. If he could live without eating, of course it would. But as
the matter stands, he must eat to live, and so we advise really
earnest students to eat such food as will least clog and weight
their brains and bodies, and will have the smallest effect in
hampering and retarding the development of their intuition,
their inner faculties and powers.

Enq. Then you do not adopt all the arguments which vegetarians in
general are in the habit of using ?

Theo. Certainly not. Some of their arguments are very weak, and
often based on assumptions which are quite false. But, on the
other hand, many of the things they say are quite true. For
instance, we believe that much disease, and especially the great
predisposition to disease which is becoming so marked a feature
in our time, is very largely due to the eating of meat, and
especially of tinned meats. But it would take too long to go
thoroughly into this question of vegetarianism on its merits ; so
please pass on to something else.

Enq. One question more. What are your members of the Inner
Section to do with regard to their food when they are ill ?

Theo. Follow the best practical advice they can get, of course.
Don't you grasp yet that we never impose any hard-and-fast
obligations in this respect? Eemember once for aU that in all
such questions we take a rational, and never a fanatical, view
of things. If from iUness or long habit a man cannot go
without meat, why, by all means let him eat it. It is no
crime ; it will only retard his progress a little ; for after all is
said and done, the purely bodily actions and functions are of
far less importance than what a man thinks and feeh, what

262 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

desires lie encourages in his mind, and allows to take root and
grow there.
Enq. Then with regard to the use of wine and spirits, I suppose
you do not advise people to drink them ?

Thko. They are worse for his moral and spiritual growth than meat,
for alcohol in all its forms has a direct, marked, and very
deleterious influence on man's psychic condition. Wine and
spirit drinking is only less destructive to the development of
the inner powers, than the habitual use of hashish, opium,
and similar drugs.

THEOSOPHY AND MAIililAGE.

Enq. Now to another question ; must a man marry or remain a
celibate ?

Theo. It depends on the kind of man you mean. If j'ou refer to
one who intends to live in the world, one who, even though a
good, earnest Theosophist, and an ardent worker for our cause,
still has ties and wishes which bind him to the world, who, in
short, does not feel that he has done for ever with what men
call life, and that he desires one thing and one thing only — to
know the truth, and to be able to help others — then for such
a one I saj'^ there is no reason why he should not marry, if he
likes to take the risks of that lottery where there are so many
more blanks than prizes. Surely you cannot believe us so
absurd and fanatical as to preach against marriage altogether ?
On the contrary, save in a few exceptional cases of practical
Occultism, marriage is the only remedy against immorality.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 263

Enq. But why cannot one acquire this knowledge and power when
living a married life ?

Theo. My clear sii-, I cannot go into physiological quegtions with
you ; but I can give you an obvious and, I think, a sufficient
answer, which will explain to you the moral reasons we give
for it. Can a man serve two masters ? No ! Then it is
equally impossible for him to divide his attention between the
pursuit of Occultism and a wife. If he tries to, he will
assuredly fail in doing either properly ; and, let me remind
you, practical Occultism is far too serious and dangerous a
study for a man to take up, unless he is in the most deadly
earnest, and ready to sacrifice all, himself first of all, to gain
his end. But this does not apply to the members of our Inner
Section. I am only referring to those who are determined to
tread that path of discipleship which leads to the highest goal.
Most, if not all of those who join our Inner Section, are only
beginners, preparing themselves in this life to enter in reality
upon that path in lives to come.

THEOSOPHY AND EDUCATION.

Enq. One of your strongest arguments for the inadequacy of the
existing forms of religion in the West, as also to some extent
the materialistic philosophy which is now so popular, but which
you seem to consider as an abomination of desolation, is the large
amount of misery and wretchedness which undeniably exists,
especially in our great cities. But surely you must recognise how
much has been, and is being done to remedy this state of things by
the spread of education and the diffusion of intelligence.

264 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

Theo. The future generations will hardly thank you for such
a " diffusion of intelligence," nor will your present education do
much good to the poor starving masses.

Enq. Ah ! but you must give us time. It is only a few years since we
began to educate the people.

Theo. And what, pray, has your Christian religion been doing ever
since the fifteenth century, once you acknowledge that the
education of the masses has not been attempted tiU now — the
very work, if ever there could be one, which a Christian, i.e.,
a Christ-following church and people, ought to perform ?
Enq. Well, you may be right ; but now —

Theo. Just let us consider this question of education from a
broad standpoint, and I wiU prove to you that you are doing
harm not good, with many of your boasted improvements.
Tlie schools for the poorer children, though far less useful than
they ought to be, are good in contrast with the vile surround-
ings to which they are doomed by your modern Society. The
infusion of a little practical Theosophy would help a hundred
times more in life the poor suffering masses than all this
infusion of (useless) intelligence.

Enq. But, really

Theo. Let me finish, please. You have opened a subject on which
we Theosophists feel deeply, and I must have my say. I
quite agree that there is a great advantage to a small child
bred in the slums, having the gutter for playground, and living
amid continued coarseness of gesture and word, in being
placed daily in a bright, clean school-room hung with pictures,
and often gay with flowers. There it is taught to be clean, gentle,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 265

orderly ; there it learns to sing and to play ; has toys that
awaken its intelligence ; learns to use its fingers deftly ; is
spoken to with a smile instead of a frown ; is gently rebuked
or coaxed instead of cursed. All this humanises the children,
arouses their brains, and renders them susceptible to
intellectual and moral influences. The schools are not all
they might be and ought to be ; but, compared with the
homes, they are paradises ; and they slowly are re-acting on
the homes. But while this is true of many of the Board
schools, your system deserves the worst one can say of it.

Enq. So be it ; go on.

Theo. What is the real object of modern education ? Is it to
cultivate and develop the mind in the right direction ; to teach
the disinherited and hapless people to carry with fortitude the
burden of life (allotted them by Karma) ; to strengthen their
will ; to inculcate hi them the love of one's neighbour and the
feeling of mutual interdependence and brotherhood ; and thus
to train and form the character for practical life ? Not a bit
of it. And yet, these are undeniably the objects of aU true
education. No one denies it ; all your educationalists admit
it, and talk very big indeed on the subject. Bat what is the
practical result of their action ? Every young man and boy,
nay, every one of the younger generation of schoolmasters will
answer : " The object of modern education is to pass examina-
tions," a system not to develop right emulation, but to generate
and breed jealousy, envy, hatred almost, in young people for
one another, and thus train them for a life of ferocious selfish-

266 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

ness and struggle for honours and emoluments instead of kindly
feeling.
Enq. I must admit you are right there.

Theo. And what are these examinations — the terror of modern boy-
hood and youth ? They are simply a method of classification
by which the results of your school teaching are tabulated.
In other words, they form the practical application of the
modern science method to the genus homo, qua intellection.
Now " science " teaches that intellect is a result of the
mechanical interaction of the brain-stuff ; therefore it is only
logical that modern education should be almost entirely
mechanical — a sort of automatic machine for the fabrication
of intellect by the ton. Very little experience of examinations
is enough to show that the education they produce is simply a
training of the physical memory, and, sooner or later, all your
schools will sink to this level. As to any real, sound cultivation
of the thinking and reasoning power, it is simply impossible
while everything has to be judged by the results as tested by
competitive examinations. Again, school training is of the
very greatest importance in forming character, especially in
its moral bearing. Now, from first to last, your modern
system is based on the so-called scientific revelations : " The
struggle for existence " and the " survival of the fittest." All
through his early life, every man has these driven into him by
practical example and experience, as well as by direct teach-
ing, till it is impossible to eradicate from his mind the idea
that " self," the lower, personal, animal self, is the end-aU, and
be-all, of hfe. Here you get the great source of all the after-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 267

misery, crime, and heartless selfishness, which you admit as
much as I do. Selfishness, as said over and over agahi, is the
curse of humanity, and the prolific parent of all the evils and
crimes in this life ; and it is your schools which are the hot-
beds of such selfishness.

Enq. That is all very fine as generalities, but I should hke a few facts,
and to learn also how this can be remedied.

Theo. Very well, I will try and satisfy you. There are three great
divisions of scholastic establishments, board, middle-class and
public schools, running up the scale from the most grossly
commercial to the idealistic classical, with many permutations
and combinations. The practical commercial begets the
modern side, and the ancient and orthodox classical reflects
its heavy respectability even as far as the School Board pupil
teacher's establishments. Here we plainly see the scientific
and material commercial supplanting the effete orthodox and
classical. Neither is the reason very far to seek. The objects
of this branch of education are, then, pounds, shillings, and
pence, the summum bonum of tlie XlXth century. Thus, the
energies generated by the brain molecules of its adherents are
all concentrated on one point, and are, therefore, to some
extent, an organized army of educated and speculative intellects
of the minority of men, trained against the hosts of the
ignorant, simple-minded masses doomed to be vampirised, lived
and sat upon by their intellectually stronger brethren.
Such training is not only untheosophical, it is simply
UNCHRISTIAN. Eesult : The direct outcome of this branch of
education is an overflooding of the market with money-

268 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

making machines, with heartless selfish men — animals — who
have been most carefully trained to prey on their fellows and
take advantage of the ignorance of their weaker brethren !

Enq. Well, but you cannot assert that of our great public schools, at
any rate ?

Theo. Not exactly, it is true. But though the form is different, the
animating spirit is the same : untheosophical and unchristian,
whether Eton and Harrow turn out scientists or divines and
theologians.

Enq. Surely you don't mean to call Eton and Harrow " commercial " ?

Theo. No. Of course the Classical system is above all things
respectable, and in the present day is productive of some good.
It does still remain the favourite at our great public schools,
where not only an intellectual, but also a social education is
obtainable. It is, therefore, of prime importance that the dull
boys of aristocratic and wealthy parents should go to such
schools to meet the rest of the young life of the " blood " and
money classes. But unfortunately there is a huge competition
even for entrance ; for the moneyed classes are increasing, and
poor but clever boys seek to enter the public schools by
the rich scholarships, both at the schools themselves and from
them to the Universities.

Enq. According to this view, the wealthier " dullards " have to work
even harder than their poorer fellows ?

Theo. It is so. But, strange to say, the faithful of the cult of the
" Survival of the fittest " do not practice their creed ; for their
whole exertion is to make the naturally unfit supplant the fit.
Thus, by bribes of large sums of money, they allure the best

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 269

teachers from their natural pupils to meclianicalise their
naturally unfit progeny into professions which they uselessly
overcrowd.

Enq. And you attribute all this to what ?

Theo. All this is owing to the perniciousness of a system which
turns out goods to order, irrespective of the natural procli-
vities and talents of the youth. The poor little candidate for
this progressive paradise of learning, comes almost straight
from the nursery to the treadmill of a preparatory school for
sous of gentlemen. Here he is immediately seized upon by
the workmen of the materio-intehectual factory, and crammed
with Latin, French and Greek Accidence, Dates and Tables,
so that if he have any natural genius it is rapidly squeezed out
of him by the rollers of what Carlyle has so well-called " dead
vocables."

Enq. But surely he is taught something besides " dead vocables," and
much of that which may lead him direct to TheosopJuj, if not
entirely into the Theosophical Society ?

Theo. Not much. For of history, he will attain only sufficient
knowledge of his own particular nation to fit him with a steel
armour of prejudice against aU other peoples, and be steeped
in the foul cess-pools of chronicled national hate and blood-
thirstiness ; and surely, you would not call that — Theosophy 7

Enq. What are your further objections ?

Theo. Added to this is a smattering of selected, so-called, Biblical
facts, from the study of which all intellect is eliminated. It is
simply a memory lesson, the " Why " of the teacher being a
" Why " of circumstances and not of reason.

1-jc, THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

Ekq. Yes ; but I have heard you congratulate yourself at the ever-
increasing number of the Agnostics and Atheists in our day, so
that it appears that even people trained in the system you abuse so
heartily do learn to think and reason for themselves.

Theo. Yes ; but it is rather owing to a healthy reaction from that
system than due to it. We prefer immeasurably more in our
Society Agnostics, and even rank Atheists, to bigots of what-
ever religion. An Agnostic's mind is ever opened to the
truth ; whereas the latter blinds the bigot like the sun does an
owl. The best — i.e., the most truth-loving, philanthropic, and
honest — of our Fellows were, and are, Agnostics and Atheists
(disbelievers in a personal God). But there are no free-
thinking boys and girls, and generally early training will
leave its mark behind in the shape of a cramped and
distorted mind. A proper and sane system of education should
produce the most vigorous and liberal mind, strictly trained in
logical and accurate thought, and not in blind faith. How
can you ever expect good results, while you pervert the
reasoning faculty of your children by blddhig them believe
in the miracles of the Bible on Sunday, while for the six other
days of the week you teach them that such things are scientifi-
cally impossible ?

Enq. What would you have, then?

Theo. If we had money, we would found schools which would turn
out something else than reading and writing candidates for
starvation. Children should above all be taught self-reliance,
love for all men, altruism, mutual charity, and more than any-
thing else, to think and reason for themselves. We would reduce

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 271

the purelj' meclianical work of the memory to an absolute
minimum, and devote the time to the development and training
of the iimer senses, faculties and latent capacities. We would
endeavour to deal with each child as a unit, and to educate it
so as to produce the most harnionious and equal unfoldment
of its powers, in order that its special aptitudes should find
their full natural development. We should aim at creathig
free men and women, free intellectually, free morally, unpre-
judiced in all respects, and above all things, unselfish. And
we believe that much if not all of this could be obtained by
proper and truly theosophical education.

WHY, THEN, IS THERE SO MUCH PREJUDICE AGAINST THE T.S.?

Enq. If Theosophy is even half of what you say, why should there
exist such a terrible ill-feeling against it ? This is even more of a
problem than anything else.

Theo. It is ; but you must bear in mind how many poM'erful
adversaries we have aroused ever since the formation of our
Society. As I just said, if the Theosophical movement were
one of those numerous modern crazes, as harmless at the end
as they are evanescent, it would be simply laughed at — as it
is now by those who still do not understand its real purport —
and left severely alone. But it is nothing of the kind.
Intrinsically, Theosophy is the most serious movement of this
age ; and one, moreover, which threatens the very life of most
of the time-honoured humbugs, prejudices, and social evils of
the day — those evils which fatten and make happy the upper

272 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

ten and their imitators and sycophants, the wealthy dozens of
the middle classes, while they positively crush and starve out
of existence the milhons of the poor. Think of this, and you
will easily understand the reason of such a relentless
persecution by those others who, more observant and
perspicacious, do see the true nature of Theosophy , and
therefore dread it.

Enq. Do you mean to tell me that it is because a few have understood
what Theosophy leads to, that they try to crush the movement ?
But if Theosophy leads only to good, sm-ely you cannot be prepared
to utter such a terrible accusation of perfidious heartlessness and
treachery even against those few ?

Theo. I am so prepared, on the contrary. I do not call the
enemies we have had to battle with during the first nine or
ten years of the Society's existence either powerful or
" dangerous " ; but only those who have arisen agahist us in
the last three or four years. And these neither speak, write
nor preach against Theosophy, but work in silence and behind
the backs of the foolish puppets who act as their visible
marionnettes. Yet if invisible to most of the members of our
Society, they are well known to the true " Founders " and
the protectors of our Society. But they must remain for
certain reasons unnamed at present.

Enq. And are they known to many of you, or to yourself alone ?

Theo. I never said / knew them. I may or may not know them —
but I know of them, and this is sufficient ; and / defy them to do
their worst. They may achieve great mischief and throw
confusion into our ranks, especially among the faint-hearted,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 273

and those who can judge only by appearances. They will not
crush the Society, do what they may. Apart from these truly
dangerous enemies — " dangerous," however, only to those
Theosophists who are unworthy of the name, and whose place
is rather outside than within the T.S. — the number of our
opponents is more than considerable.

Enq. Can you name these, at least, if you will not speak of the others ?
Theo. Of course I can. We have to contend against (1) the
hatred of the Spiritualists, American, English, and French

(2) the constant opposition of the clergy of all denominations ;

(3) especially the relentless hatred and persecution of the
missionaries in India ; (4) this led to the famous and infamous
attack on our Theosophical Society by the Society for Psychical
Eesearch, an attack which was stirred up by a regular con-
spiracy organized by the missionaries in India. Lastly, we
mtust count the defection of various prominent (?) members, for
reasons I have already explained, all of whom have con-
tributed their utmost to increase the prejudice against us.

Enq. Cannot you give me more details about these, so that I may
know what to answer when asked — a brief history of the Society,
in short ; and why the world believes all this ?

Theo. The reason is simple. Most outsiders knew absolutely
nothing of the Society itself, its motives, objects or beliefs.
From its very beginning the world has seen in Theosophy
nothing but certain marvellous phenomena, in which two-
thirds of the non-spiritualists do not believe. Very soon the
Society came to be regarded as a body pretending to the
possession of " miraculous " powers. The world never realised

274 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

that the Society taught absokite disbelief in miracle or even
the possibility of such ; that in the Society there were only a
few people who possessed such psychic powers and but few
who cared for them. Nor did it understand that the pheno-
mena were never produced publicly, but only privately for
friends, and merely given as an accessory, to prove by direct
demonstration that such things could be produced without
dark rooms, spirits, mediums, or any of the usual para-
phernalia. Unfortunately, this misconception was greatly
strengthened and exaggerated by the first book on the subject
which excited much attention in Europe — Mr. Sinnett's
" Occult World." If this work did much to bring the Society
into prominence, it attracted still more obloquy, derision and
misrepresentation upon the hapless heroes and heroine thereof
Of this the author was more than warned in the Occult World,
but did not pay attention to the prophecy — for such it was,
though half-veiled.

Enq. For what, and since when, do the Spiritualists hate you?

Theo. From the first day of the Society's existence. No sooner the
fact became known that, as a body, the T.S. did not believe in
communications with the spirits of the dead, but regarded the
so-called " spirits " as, for the most part, astral reflections of
disembodied personaUties, shells, etc., than the Spiritualists
conceived a violent hatred to us and especially to the Founders.
This hatred found expression in every kind of slander, uncharit-
able personal remarks, and absurd misrepresentations of the
Theosophical teachings in all the American Spiritualistic
organs. For years we were persecuted, denounced and

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 275

abused. This began in 1875 and continues to the present
day. In 1879, the headquarters of the T.S. were transferred
from New York to Bombay, India, and then permanently to
Madras. When tlie first branch of our Society, the British
T.S., was founded in London, the English Spiritualists came
out in arms against us, as the Americans had done ; and the
French Spiritists followed suit.
Enq. But why should the clergy be hostile to you, when, after all, the
main tendency of the Theosophical doctrines is opposed to
Materialism, the great enemy of all forms of religion in our day ?

Theo. The Clergy opposed us on the general principle that " He
who is not with me is against me." Since Theosophy does not
agree with any one Sect or Creed, it is considered the enemy
of all ahke, because it teaches that they are all, more or less,
mistaken. The missionaries in India hated and tried to crush
us because they saw the flower of the educated Indian youth
and the Bralimins, who are almost inaccessible to them, joining
the Society in large numbers. And yet, apart from this
general class hatred, the T. S. counts in its ranks many clergy-
men, and even one or two bishops.

Enq. And what led the S.P.E. to take the field against you? You were
both pursuing the same line of study, in some respects, and several
of the Psychic Researchers belonged to your society.

Theo. First of all we were very good friends with the leaders of
the S.P.E. ; but when the attack on the phenomena appeared in
the Christian College Magazine, supported by the pretended
revelations of a menial, the S.P.E. found that they had com-
promised themselves by pubUshing in their "Proceedings" too

276 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

many of the phenomena which had occurred in connection
with the T.S. Their ambition is to pose as an authoritative
and strictly scientific body ; so that they had to choose between
retaining that position by throwing overboard the T.S. and
even trying to destroy it, and seeing themselves merged, in
the opinion of the Sadducees of the grand monde, with
the " credulous " Theosophists and Spiritualists. There was no
way for them out of it, no two choices, and they chose to throw
us overboard. It was a matter of dire necessity for them. But
so hard pressed were they to find any apparently reasonable
motive for the life of devotion and ceaseless labour led by the
two Founders, and for the complete absence of any pecuniary
profit or other advantage to them, that our enemies were
obliged to resort to the thrice-absurd, eminent^ ridiculous, and
now famous " Eussian spy theory," to explain this devotion.
But the old saying, " The blood of the martyrs is the seed
of the Church," proved once more correct. After the first
shock of this attack, the T.S. doubled and tripled its numbers,
but the bad impression produced still remains. A French
author was right in saying, " Calomniez, calomniez toujours et
encore, il en restera toujours quelque chose." Therefore it is, that
unjust prejudices are current, and that everything connected
with the T.S., and especially with its Founders, is so falsely
distorted, because based on malicious hearsay alone.

Enq. Yet in the 14 years during which the Society has existed, you
must have had ample time and opportunity to show yourselves and
your work in their true light ?

Theo. How, or when, have we been given such an opportunity ?

THE KEY JO THEOSOPHY. i77

Our most prominent members liad an aversion to anything
that looked like publicly justifying themselves. Their policy
has ever been : " We must live it down ;" and " What does it
matter what the newspapers say, or people think ? " The
Society was too poor to send out public lecturers, and there-
fore the expositions of our views and doctrines were confined
to a few Theosophical works that met with success, but
which people often misunderstood, or only knew of
through hearsay. Our journals were, and still are,
boycotted ; our literary works ignored ; and to this day
no one seems even to feel quite certain whether the
Theosophists are a kind of Serpent- and-Devil worshippers,
or simply " Esoteric Buddhists " — whatever that may mean.
It was useless for us to go on denying, day after day and year
after year, every kind of inconceivable cock-and-buU stories
about us ; for, no sooner was one disposed of, than another, a
stiU more absurd and malicious one, was born out of the
ashes of the first. Unfortunately, human nature is so consti-
tuted that any good said of a person is immediately forgotten
and never repeated. But one has only to utter a calumny, or
to start a story — no matter how absurd, false or incredible it
may be, if only it is connected with some unpopular character
— for it to be successful and forthwith accepted as a historical
fact. Like Don Basilio's " Oalumnia," the rumour springs up,
at first, as a soft gentle breeze hardly stirring the grass under
your feet, and arising no one knows whence ; then, in the
shortest space of time, it is transformed into a strong wind,
begins to blow a gale , and forthwith becomes a roaring storm ! A

278 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

calumny amoug news, is what an octopus is among fishes ; it
sucks into one's mind, fastens upon our memory, which feeds
upon it, leaving indelible marks even after the calumny has
been bodily destroyed. A calumnious lie is the only master-
key that will open any and every brain. It is sure to receive
welcome and hospitality in every human mind, the highest as
the lowest, if only a little prejudiced, and no matter from
however base a quarter and motive it has started.

Enq. Don't you think your assertion altogether too sweeping? The
Bnghshman has never been over-ready to believe in anything said,
and our nation is proverbially known for its love of fair play. A
lie has no legs to stand upon for long, and —

Theo. The Englishman is as ready to believe evil as a man of
any other nation ; for it is human nature, and not a national
feature. As to lies, if they have no legs to stand upon,
according to the proverb, they have exceedingly rapid wings ;
and they can and do fly farther and wider than any other kind
of news, in England as elsewhere. Kemember lies and calumny
are the only kind of literature we can always get gratis, and
without paying any subscription. We can make the experi-
ment if you like. Will you, who are so interested in Theoso-
phical matters, and have heard so much about us, will you put
me questions on as many of tliese rumours and " hearsays "
as you can think of ? I will answer you the truth, and nothing
but the truth, subject to the strictest verification.

En'Q. Before we change the subject, let us have the whole truth on this
one. Now, some writers have called your teachings " immoral and
pernicious " ; others, on the ground that many so-called " authorities "

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 279

aud Orientalists find in the Indian religions nothing but sex- worship
in its many forms, accuse you of teaching nothing better than
Phallic worship. They say that since modern Theosophy is so
closely allied with Eastern, and particularly Indian, thought, it
cannot be free from this taint. Occasionally, even, they go so far
as to accuse Em-opean Theosophists of reviving the practices con-
nected with this cult. How about this ?

Theo. I have heard and read about this before ; and I answer that
no more utterly baseless and lying calumny has ever been in-
vented and circulated. " Silly people can see but silly dreams,"
says a Russian proverb. It makes one's blood boil to hear
such vile accusations made without the slightest foundation,
and on the strength of mere inferences. Ask the hundreds of
honourable English men and women who have been members
of the Theosophical Society for years whether an immoral
precept or a pernicious doctrine was ever taught to them.
Open the Secret Doctrine, and you will find page after page
denouncing the Jews and other nations precisely on account
of this devotion to Phallic rites, due to the dead letter inter-
pretation of nature symbolism, and the grossly materiaUstic
conceptions of her duahsm in all the exoteric creeds. Such
ceaseless and mahcious misrepresentation of our teachings and
beliefs is really disgraceful.

Enq. But you cannot deny that the Phallic element does exist in the
religions of the East ?

Theo. Nor do I deny it ; only I maintain that tliis proves no
more than does its presence in Christianity, the religion of
the West. Eead Hargrave Jenning's Rosicrucians, if you would

28o THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

assure yourself of it. In tlie East, the Phallic symbolism is,
perhaps, more crude, because more true to nature, or, I would
rather say, more naive and sincere than in the West. But it is
not more licentious, nor does it suggest to the Oriental mind
the same gross and coarse ideas as to the Western, with,
perhaps, one or two exceptions, such as the shameful sect
known as the "Maharajah," or Vallabhachdrya sect.

En(j. a writer in the Agnostic journal — one of your accusers — has just
hinted that the followers of this disgraceful sect are Theosophists,
and " claim true Theosophic insight."

TiiEO. He wrote a falsehood, and that's all. There never was,
nor is there at present, one single Vallabhacharya in our
Society. As to their having, or claiming Theosophic insight,
that is another fib, based on crass ignorance about the Indian
Sects. Their " Maharajah " only claims a right to the money,
wives and daughters of his foolish followers and no more.
This sect is despised by aU the other Hindus.

But you will find the whole subject dealt with at length in
the Secret Doctrine, to which I must again refer you for
detailed explanations. To conclude, the very soul of Theo-
sophy is dead against Phallic worship ; and its occult or
esoteric section more so even than the exoteric teachings.
There never was a more lying statement made than the above.
And now ask me some other questions.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 281

IS THE THEOSOPEICAL SOCIETY A MONEY-MAKING CONOEBN?

Enq. Agreed. Well, have either of the Founders, Colonel H. S.
Olcott or H. P. Blavatsky, ever made any money, profit, or derived
any worldly benefit from the T.S., as some papers say?

Theo. Not one penny. The papers lie. On the contrary, they have
both given all they had, and literally beggared themselves. As
for " worldly benefits," think of the calumnies and vilification
they have been subjected to, and then ask the question I

Enq. Yet I have read in a good many missionary organs that the
entrance fees and subscriptions much more than covered all
expenses ; and one said that the Founders were making twenty
thousand pounds a year !

Theo. This is a fib, like many others. In the published accounts
of January, 1889, you will find an exact statement of all the
money ever received from any source since 1879. The total
received from all sources (entrance fees, donations, etc., etc.)
during these ten years is under six thousand pounds, and of
this a large part was contributed by the Founders themselves
from the proceeds of their private resources and their literary
work. All this has been openly and officially admitted, even
by our enemies, the Psychic Eesearch Society. And now both
the Founders are penniless : one, too old and ill to work as she
did before, unable to spare time for outside literary work to
help the Society in money, can only write for the Theosophical
cause ; the other keeps labouring for it as before, and receives
as little thanks for it.

282 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

Enq. But surely thej' need money to live ?

Thbo. Not at all. So long as tliej^ have food and lodging, even

though the)' owe it to the devotion of a few friends, they need

little more.

Enq. But could not Madame Blavatsky, especially, make more than
enough to live upon by her writings ?

Theo. Wlien in India she received on the average some thousand
rupees a j'ear for articles contributed to Eussian and other
papers, but gave it all away to the Society.

Enq. Political articles ?

Theo. Never. Everything she has written throughout the seven
years of her stay in India is all there in print. It deals only
with the religions, ethnology, and customs of India, and with
Theosophy — never with politics, of which she knows nothing
and cares less. Again, two years ago she refused several
contracts amounting together to about 1,200 roubles in gold
per month ; for she could not accept them without abandoning
her work for the Society, which needed all her time and
strength. She has documents to prove it.

Enq. But why could not both she and Colonel Olcott do as others —
notably many Theosophists — do : follow out their respective pro-
fessions and devote the surplus of their time to the work of the
Society ?

Theo. Because by serving two masters, either the professional
or the philanthropic work would have had to suffer. Every
true Theosophist is morally bound to sacrifice the personal to
the impersonal, his own present good to the future benefit of
other people. If the Founders do not set the example, who will?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 283

Enq. And are there many who follow it ?

Theo. I am bound to answer you the truth. In Europe about
half-a-dozen in all, out of more than that number of Branches.

Enq. Then it is not true that the Theosophical Society has a large
capital or endowment o'f its own ?

Theo. It is false, for it has none at all. Now that the entrance fee
of £1 and the small annual due have been abolished, it is even
a doubtful question whether the staff at the head-quarters in
India wiU not soon be starved to death.

Enq. Then why not raise subscriptions?

Theo. We are not the Salvation Army ; we cannot and have never
begged ; nor have we ever followed the example of the
Churches and sects and " taken up collections." That which
is occasionally sent for the support of the Society, the small
sums contributed by some devoted Fellows, are all voluntary
donations.

Enq. But I have heard of large sums of money given to Mdme.
Blavatsky. It was said four years ago that she got ^5,000 from
one rich, young " Fellow," who went out to join them in India,
and ilO.OOO from another wealthy and well-known American
gentleman, one of your members who died in Europe four years ago.

Theo. Say to those who told you this, that they either themselves
utter, or repeat, a gross falsehood. Never has "Madame
Blavatsky " asked or received one penny from the two above-
named gentlemen, nor anything like that from anyone else,
since the Theosophical Society Avas founded. Let any man
living try to substantiate this calumny, and it will be easier
for him to prove that the Bank of England is a bankrupt than

284 ^^^ ^^^' '^'^ THEOSOPHY.

that the said " Founder " has ever made any money out of
Theosophy. These two calumnies have been started by two
high-born ladies, belonging to the London aristocracy, and have
been immediately traced and disproved. They are the dead
bodies, the carcases of two inventions, which, after having
been buried in the sea of oblivion, are once more raised on the
surface of the stagnant waters of slander.

Enq. Then I have been told of several large legacies left to the T.S.
One — some Ji8,000 — was left to it by some eccentric Englishman,
who did not even belong to the Society. The other — £3,000 or
£4,000 — were testated by an Australian F.T.S. Is this true ?

Theo. I heard of the iirst ; and I also know that, whether legally
left or not, the T.S. has never profited by it, nor have the
Founders ever been officially notified of it. For, as our
Society was not then a chartered body, and thus had no
legal existence, the Judge at the Court of Probate, as we were
told, paid no attention to such legacy and turned over the
sum to the heirs. So much for the first. As for the second,
it is quite true. The testator was one of our devoted Fellows,
and willed all he had to the T. S. But when the President,
Colonel Olcott, came to look into the matter, he found that
the testator had children whom he had disinherited for some
family reasons. Therefore, he called a council, and it was
decided that the legacy should be refused, and the moneys
passed to the legal heirs. The Theosophical Society would be
untrue to its name were it to profit by money to which others
are entitled virtually, at any rate on Theosophical principles,
if not legally.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 285

Enq. Again, and I say this on the authority of your own Journal, the
Theosophist, there's a Eajah of India who donated to the Society
25,000 rupees. Have you not thanked him for his great bounty
in the January Theosophist for 1888 ?

Theo. We have, in these words, " That the thanks of the Convention
be conveyed to H. H. the Maharajah . . . for his pronw'serf
munificent gift of Eupees 25,000 to the Society's Fund." The
thanks were duly conveyed, but the money is still a " promise,"
and has never reached the Headquarters.

Enq. But surely, if the Maharajah promised and received thanks for
his gift publicly and in print, he will be as good as his promise ?

Theo. He may, though the promise is 18 months old. I speak of

the present and not of the future.
Enq. Then how do you propose to go on ?
Theo. So long as the T.S. has a few devoted members willing to

work for it without reward and thanks, so long as a few good

Theosophists support it with occasional donations, so long will

it exist, and nothing can crush it.

Enq. I have heard many Theosophists speak of a "power behind the
Society " and of certain " Mahatmas," mentioned also in Mr.
Sinnett's works, that are said to have founded the Society, to watch
over and protect it.

Theo. You may laugh, but it is so.

THE WORKING STAFF OF THE T.S.

Enq. These men, I have heard, are great Adepts, Alchemists, and what
not. If, then, they can change lead into gold and make as much

286 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

money as they like, besides doing all kinds of miracles at will, as
related in Mr. Sinnett's " Occult World," why do not they find you
money, and support the Founders and the Society in comfort ?

Theo. Because they did not found a " miracle club." Because the
Society is intended to help men to develop the powers latent
in them through their own exertions and merit. Because
whatever they may or may not produce in the way of phe-
nomena, they are not false coiners ; nor would they throw an
additional and very strong temptation on the path of members
and candidates : Theosophy is not to he bought. Hitherto, for
the past 14 years, not a single working member has ever
received pay or salary from either the Masters or tlie Society.

Enq. Then are none of your workers paid at all?

Theo. Till now, not one. But as every one has to eat, drink, and
clothe himself, all those who are without any means of their
own, and devote their whole time to the work of the society,
are provided with the necessaries of life at the Head-quarters at
Madras, India, though these "necessaries" are humble enough, in
truth! (See Eules at theend.) But now that the Society's work
has increased so greatly and still goes on increasing (N.B., owing
to slanders) in Europe, we need more working hands. We hope
to have a few members who will henceforth be remunerated —
if the word can be used in the cases in question. For every
one of these Fellows, who are preparing to give all their time
to the Society, are quitting good official situations with excel-
lent prospects, to work for us at less than half their former
salary.

Enq. And who will provide the funds for this ?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 287

Theo. Some of our Fellows who are just a little richer than the
rest. The man who would speculate or make money on
Tlieosophj' would be unworthy to remain in our ranks.

Enq. But you must surely make money by your books, magazines, and
other pubHcations ?

Theo. The Theosophist of Madras, alone among the magazines, pays
a profit, and this has regularly been turned over to the
Society, year by year, as the published accounts show.
Lucifer is slowly but steadily ingulfing money, never 3'et having
paid its expenses — thanks to its being boycotted by the pious
booksellers and railway stalls. The Lotus, in France — started
on the private and not very large mean.s of a Theosophist, who
has devoted to it his whole time and labour — has ceased to
exist, owing to the same causes, alas ! Nor does the New
York Path pay its way, while the Revue Theosophique of Paris
has onlj'^ just been started, also from the private means of a
lady-member. Moreover, whenever any of the works issued
by the Theosophical Publishing Company in London do
pay, the proceeds will be devoted to the service of the
Society.

Ekq. And now please tell me all you can about the Mahatmas. So
many absurd and contradictory things are said about them, that
one does not know what to believe, and all sorts of ridiculous stories
become current.

Theo. Well may you call them " ridiculous ! "

XTV.
THE " THEOSOPHICAL MAHATMAS.'^

ABE THEY " 8PIBITS OF LIGHT" OB "GOBLINS DAMN'D" ?

Enq. Who are they, finally, those whom you call your "Masters"?
Some say they are " Spirits," or some other kind of supernatural
beings, while others call them " myths."

Theo. They are neither. I once heard one outsider say to another
that they were a sort of male mermaids, whatever such a
creature may be. But if you listen to what people say, you
wiU never have a true conception of them. In the first place
they are Iwing men, born as we are born, and doomed to die
like every other mortal.

Enq. Yes, but it is rumoured that some of them are a thousand years
old. Is this true ?

Theo. As true as the miraculous growth of hair on the head of
Meredith's Shagpat. Truly, like the " Identical," no Theoso-
phical shaving has hitherto been able to crop it. The more
we deny them, the more we try to set people right, the more
absurd do the inventions become. I have heard of Methuselah
being 969 years old ; but, not being forced to believe in it,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 289

have laughed at the statement, for which I was forthwith
regarded by many as a blasphemous heretic.

Enq. Seriously, though, do they outlive the ordinary age of men ?

Theo. What do you call the ordinary age ? I remember reading
in the Lancet of a Mexican who was almost 190 years old ; but
I have never heard of mortal man, layman, or Adept, who
could live even half the years allotted to Methuselah. Some
Adepts do exceed, by a good deal, what you would call the
ordinary age ; yet there is nothing miraculous in it, and very
few of them care to Uve very long.

Enq. But what does the word " Mahatma " really mean?

Theo. Simply a " great soul," great through moral elevation and
intellectual attainment. If the title of great is given to a
drunken soldier like Alexander, why should we not call
those " Great " who have achieved far greater conquests in
Nature's secrets, than Alexander ever did on the field of
battle ? Besides, the term is an Indian and a very old word.

Enq. And why do you call them " Masters " ?

Theo. We call them " Masters " because they are our teachers ;
and because from them we have derived all the Theosophical
truths, however inadequately some of us maj'- have expressed,
and others understood, them. They are men of great learning,
whom we term Initiates, and still greater holiness of life. Tliey
are not ascetics in the ordinary sense, though they certainly
remain apart from the turmoil and strife of your western
world.

Enq. But is it not selfish thus to isolate themselves?

Theo. Where is the selfishness ? Does not the fate of the Theoso-

290 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

phical Society sufficiently prove that the world is neither
ready to recognise them nor to profit by their teaching ? Of
what use would Professor Clerk Maxwell have been to instruct
a class of little boys in their multiplication-table ? Besides,
they isolate themselves only from the West. In their own
country they go about as publicly as other people do.

Enq. Don't you ascribe to them supernatm-al powers ?

Theo. We believe in nothing supernatural, as I have told you
already. Had Edison lived and invented his phonograph two
hundred years ago, he would most probably have been burnt
along with it, and the whole attributed to the devil. The
powers which they exercise are simply the development of
potencies lying latent in every man and woman, and the
existence of which even official science begins to recognise.

Enq. Is it true that these men inspire some of your writers, and that
many, if not all, of your Theosophical works were written under
their dictation ?

Theo. Some have. There are passages entirely dictated by them
and verbatim, but in most cases they only inspire tho ideas
and leave the literary form to the writers.

Enq. But this in itself is miraculous ; is, in fact, a miracle. How can
they do it ?

Theo. My dear Sir, you are labouring under a great mistake, and
it is science itself that will refute your arguments at no distant
day. Why should it be a "miracle," as you call it? A miracle
is supposed to mean some operation which is supernatural,
whereas there is really nothing above or beyond Natuee and
Nature's laws. Among the many forms of the " miracle "

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 291

which have eome under modern scientific recognition, there is
Hypnotism, and one phase of its power is known as " Sug-
gestion," a form of thought transference, which has been
successfully used in combating particular physical diseases,
etc. The time is not far distant when the World of Science
will be forced to acknowledge that there exists as much
interaction between one mind and another, no matter at
what distance, as between one body and another in closest
contact. When two minds are sympathetically related, aiid
the instruments through which they function are tuned to
respond magnetically and electrically to one another, there is
nothing which will prevent the transmission of thoughts from
one to the other, at will ; for since the mind is not of a tangible
nature, that distance can divide it from the subject of its con-
templation, it follows that the only difference that can exist
between two minds is a difference of state. So if this latter
hindrance is overcome, where is ' the " miracle " of tlwugkt
transference, at whatever distance ?

Enq. But you will admit that Hypnotism does nothing so miraculous or
wonderful as that ?

Theo. On the contrary, it is a weU-established fact that a Hyp-
notist can affect the brain of his subject so far as to produce an
expression of his own thoughts, and even his words, through
the organism of his subject; and although the phenomena
attaching to this method of actual thought transference are as
yet few in number, no one, I presume, will undertake to say
how far their action may extend in the future, when the
laws that govern their production are more scientifically

292 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

establislied. And so, if such results can be produced by tlie
knowledge of the mere rudiments of Hypnotism, what can
prevent the Adept in Psychic and Spiritual powers from
producing results which, with your present limited knowledge
of their laws, you are inclined to call " miraculous " ?

Enq. Then why do not our physicians experiment and try if they could
e ould - not do as much ? *

Theo. Because, first of all, they are not Adepts with a thorough
understanding of the secrets and laws of psychic and spiritual
realms, but matez-ialists, afraid to step outside the narrow
groove of matter ; and, secondly, because they nrnst fail at
present, and indeed until they are brought to acknowledge
that such powers are attainable.

Enq. And could they be taught ?

Theo. Not unless they were first of all prepared, by having the
materialistic dross they have accumulated in their brains swept
away to the very last atom.

Enq. This is very interesting. Tell me, have the Adepts thus inspired
or dictated to many of your Theosophists ?

Theo. No, on the contrary, to very few. Such operations require
special conditions. An unscrupulous but skilled Adept of the
Black Brotherhood (" Brotliers of the Shadow," and Dugpas,
we call them) has far less difficulties to labour under. For,

* Such, for instance, as Prof. Bemheim and Dr. C. Lloyd Tuokey, of England ;
Professors Beaunis and Liegeois, of Nancy ; Delbceuf of Li^ge ; Biu'ot and Boumt,
of Eochefort ; Fontain and Sigard, of Bordeaux ; Forel, of Zurich ; and Drs.
Despine, of Marseilles ; Van Eenterghem and Van Eeden, of Amste dam ;
Wetterstrand, of Stockholm ; Schrenok-Notzing, of Leipzig, and many other
physicians and writers of eminence.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 293

having no laws of tlie Spiritual kind to trammel his actions,
such a Dugpa " sorcerer " will most unceremoniously obtain
control over any mind, and subject it entirely to his evil powers.
But our Masters will never do that. They have no right,
excej^t by falling into Black Magic, to obtain full mastery over
anyone's immortal Ego, and can therefore act only on the
physical and psychic nature of the subject, leaving thereby
the free will of the latter wholly undisturbed. Hence, unless
a person has been brought into psychic relationship with the
Masters, and is assisted by virtue of his full faith in, and
devotion to, his Teachers, the latter, whenever transmitting
their thoughts to one with whom these conditions are not
fulfilled, experience great difficulties in penetrating into the
cloudy chaos of that person's sphere. But this is no place
to treat of a subject of this nature. Suffice it to say, that if
the power exists, then there are Intelligences (embodied or
disembodied) which guide this power, and living conscious
instruments through whom it is transmitted and by Avhom it is
received. We have only to beware of Mack magic.

Enq. But what do you really mean by " black magic " ?

Theo. Simply abuse of psychic powers, or of any secret of nature ;
the fact of applying to selfish and sinful ends the powers of
Occultism. A hypnotiser, who, taking advantage of his powers
of " suggestion," forces a subject to steal or murder, would be
called a Made magician by us. The famous " rejuvenating
system " of Dr. Brown-Sequard, of Paris, through a loath-
some animal injection into human blood — a discovery all the
medical papers of Europe are now discussing — if true, is
tinconscious blacJc magic.

294 T^^ ^^^ '^O THEOSOPHY.

Enq. But this is mediaeval belief in witchcraft and sorcery ! Even
Law itself has ceased to believe in such things ?

Theo. So much the worse for law, as it has been led, through such
a lack of discrimination, into committing more than one
judiciary mistake and crime. It is the term alone that
frightens you with its " superstitious " ring in it. Would
not law punish an abuse of hypnotic powers, as I just
mentioned ? Nay, it has so punished it already in France and
Germany ; yet it would indignantly deny that it applied
punishment to a crime of evident sorcery. You cannot
believe in the efficacy and reality of the powers of suggestion
by physicians and mesmerisers (or hypnotisers), and then
refuse to believe in the same powers when used for evil
motives. And if you do, then you believe in Sorcery. You
cannot believe in good and disbelieve in evil, accept genuine
money and refuse to credit such a thing as false coin.
Nothing can exist without its contrast, and no day, no light,
no good could have any representation as such in your
consciousness, were there no night, darkness nor evil to
offset and contrast them.

Enq. Indeed, I have known men, who, while thoroughly beheving
in that which you call great psychic, or magic powers, laughed at
the very mention of Witchcraft and Sorcery.

Theo. What does it prove ? Simply that they are illogical. So
much the worse for them, again. And we, knowing as we do
of the existence of good and holy Adepts, believe as thoroughly
in the existence of bad and unholy Adepts, or — Dug-pas.

Enq. But if the Masters exist, why don't they come out before all men

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 295

and refate once for all the many charges which are made against
Mdme. Blavatsky and the Society?

Theo. What charges ?

Enq. That they do not exist, and that she has invented them. That
they are men of straw, " Mahatmas of musHn and bladders."
Does not all this injure her reputation ?

Theo. In what way can such an accusation injure her in reality?
Did she ever make money on their presumed existence, or
derive benefit, or fame, therefrom ? I answer that she has
gained only insults, abuse, and calumnies, which would have
been very painful had she not learned long ago to remain
perfectly indifferent to such false charges. For what does it
amount to, after aU ? Why, to an implied compliment, which,
if the fools, her accusers, were not carried away by their blind
hatred, they would have thought twice before uttering. To
say that she has invented the Masters comes to this : She must
have invented every bit of philosophy ^hat has ever been given
out in Theosophical literature. She must be the author of the
letters from which " Esoteric Buddhism " was written ; the
sole inventor of every tenet found in the " Secret Doctrine,"
which, if the world were just, would be recognised as supplying
many of the missing links of science, as will be discovered
a hundred years hence. By saying what they do, they are
also giving her the credit of being far cleverer than the
hundreds of men, (many very clever and not a few scientific men,)
who believe in what she says — inasmuch as she must have
fooled them all ! If they speak the truth, then she must be
several Mahatmas rolled into one like a nest of Chinese boxes ;

296 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

since among the so-called "Mahatma letters" are many in
totally different and distinct styles, all of which her accusers
declare that she has written.

Enq. It is just what they say. But is it not very painful to her to be
publicly denounced as " the most accompUshed impostor of the age,
whose name deserves to pass to posterity," as is done in the Eeport
of the " Society for Psychical Eesearch " ?

Theo. It might be painful if it were true, or came from people less
rabidly materialistic and prejudiced. As it is, personally she
treats the whole matter with contempt, while the Mahatmas
simply laugh at it. In truth, it is the greatest compliment
that could be paid to her. I say so, again.

Enq. But her enemies claim to have proved their case.

Theo. Aye, it is easy enough to make such a claim when you have
constituted yourself judge, jury, and prosecuting counsel at
once, as they did. But who, except their direct followers and
our enemies, believe in it ?

Enq. But they sent a representative to India to investigate the matter,
didn't they ?

Theo. They did, and their final conclusion rests entirely on the
unchecked statements and unverified assertions of this young
gentleman. A lawyer who read through his report told a
friend of mine that in all his experience he had never seen
" such a ridiculous and self-condemnatory document." It was
found to be full of suppositions and " working hypotheses "
which mutually destroyed each other. Is this a serious charge ?

Enq. Yet it has done the Society great harm. Why, then, did she
not vindicate her own character, at least, before a Court of Law?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 297

Theo. Firstly, because as a Theosopliist, it is her duty to leave
unheeded all personal insults. Secondly, because neither the
Society nor Mdme. Blavatsky had any money to waste over
such a law-suit. And lastly, because it would have been
ridiculous for both to be untrue to their principles, because of
an attack made on them by a flock of stupid old British
wethers, who had been led to butt at them by an over frolick-
some lambkin from Australia.

Enq. This is complimentary. But do you not think that it would have
done real good to the cause of Theosophy, if she had authoritatively
disproved the whole thing once for all ?

TiiEO. Perhaps. But do you believe that any English jury or judge
would have ever admitted the reality of psychic phenomena,
even if entirely unprejudiced beforehand ? And when you
remember that they would have been set against us already
by the "Eussian Spy" scare, the charge oi Atheism andin fidelity,
and all the other calumnies that have been circulated against us,
you cannot fail to see that such an attempt to obtain justice
in a Court of Law would have been worse than fruitless ! All
this the Psychic Eesearchers knew well, and they took a base
and mean advantage of their position to raise themselves above
our heads and save thenrselves at our expense.

Enq. The S.P.E. now denies completely the existence of the
Mahatmas. They say that from beginning to end they were a
romance which Madame Blavatsky has woven from her own brain ?

Theo. Well, she might have done many things less clever than
this. At any rate, we have not the slightest objection to this
theory. As she always says noAv, she almost prefers that

298 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

people should not believe in the Masters. She declares
openly that she would rather people should seriously think that
the only Mahatnialand is the grey matter of her brain, and
that, in short, she has evolved them out of the depths of her
own inner consciousness, than that their names and grand
ideal should be so infamously desecrated as they are at present.
At first she used to protest indignantly against any doubts as
to their existence. Now she never goes out of her way to
prove or disprove it. Let people think what they like.

Enq. But, of course, these Masters do exist?

Theo. We affirm they do. Nevertheless, this does not help much.
Many people, even some Theosophists and ex-Theosophists,
say that they have never had any proof of their existence.
Very well ; then Mme. Blavatsky replies with this alternative :
— If she has invented them, then she has also invented their
philosophy and the practical knowledge which some few have
acquired ; and if so, what does it matter whether they do
exist or not, since she herself is here, and her own existence,
at any rate, can hardly be denied ? If the knowledge supposed
to have been imparted by them is good intrinsically, and it is
accepted as such by many persons of more than average
intelligence, why should there be such a hullabaloo made over
that question ? The fact of her being an impostor has never
been proved, and will always remain sub judice ; whereas it is
a certain and undeniable fact that, by whomsoever invented,
the philosophy preached by the " Masters " is one of the
grandest and most beneficent philosophies once it is properly
understood. Thus the slanderers, while moved by the lowest

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 299

and meanest feelings — those of hatred, revenge, maUce,
wounded vanity, or disappointed ambition, — seem quite unaware
that they are paying the greatest tribute to her intellectual
powers. So be it, if the poor fools will have it so. Eeally,
Mme. Blavatsky has not the slightest objection to being
represented by her enemies as a triple Adept, and a "Mahatma"
to boot. It is only her unwillingness to pose in her own
sight as a crow parading in peacock's feathers that compels
her to this day to insist upon the truth.

Enq. But if you have such wise and good men to guide the Society,
how is it that so many mistakes have been made ?

Theo. The Masters do not guide the Society, not even the Founders ;
and no one has ever asserted that they did : they only watch
over, and protect it. This is amply proved by the fact that
no mistakes have been able to cripple it, and no scandals from
within, nor the most damaging attacks from without, have
been able to overthrow it. The Masters look at the future,
not at the present, and every mistake is so much more
accumulated wisdom for days to come. That other " Master "
who sent the man with the five talents did not teU him
how to double them, nor did he prevent the foohsh servant
from burying his one talent in the earth. Each must acquire
wisdom by his own experience and merits. The Christian
Churches, who claim a far higher "Master," the very Holy Ghost
itself, have ever been and are still guilty not only of " mistakes,"
but of a series of bloody crimes throughout the ages. Yet,
no Christian would deny, for aU that, his beUef in that
"Master," I suppose? although his existence is far more

300 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

hypothetical than that of the Mahatmas ; as no one has ever
seen the Holy Ghost, and his guidance of the Church, moreover,
their own ecclesiastical historj^ distinctly contradicts. Errare
humanum est. Let us return to our subject.

THE ABUSE OF SACRED NAMES AND TERMS.

Enq. Then, what I have heard, namely, that many of your Theo-
sophical writers claim to have been inspired by these Masters, or
to have seen and conversed with them, is not true ?

Theo. It may or it may not be true. How can I tell ? The burden
of proof rests with them. Some of them, a few — very few,
indeed — have distinctly either lied or were hallucinated when
boasting of such inspiration ; others were truly inspired by
great Adepts. The tree is known by its fruits ; and as all
Theosophists have to be judged by their deeds and not by
what they write or say, so all Theosophical books must be
accepted on their merits, and not according to any claim to
authority which they may put forward.

Enq. But would Mdme. Blavatsky apply this to her own works — the
Secret Doctrine, for instance ?

Theo. Certainly ; she says expressly in the piieface that she gives
out the doctrines that she has learnt from the Masters, but
claims no inspiration whatever for what she has lately written.
As for our best Theosophists, they would also in this case far
rather that the names of the Masters had never been mixed
up with our books in any way. With few exceptions, most of
such works are not only imperfect, but positively erroneous and

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 301

misleading. Great are the desecrations to which the names of
two of the Masters have been subjected. There is hardly a
medium who has not claimed to have seen them. Every bogus
swindUng Society, for commercial purposes, now claims to be
guided and directed by "Masters," often supposed to be far
higher than ours ! Many and heavy are the sins of those
who advanced these claims, prompted either by desire for lucre,
vanity, or irresponsible mediumship. Many persons have
been plundered of their money by such societies, which offer
to sell the secrets of power, knowledge, and spiritual truth for
worthless gold. Worst of all, the sacred names of Occultism
and the holy keepers thereof have been dragged in this filthy
mire, polluted by being associated with sordid motives and
immoral practices, while thousands of men have been held
back from the path of truth and light through the discredit
and evil report which such shams, swindles, and frauds have
brought upon the whole subject. I say again, every earnest
Theosophist regrets to-day, from the bottom of his heart, that
these sacred names and things have ever been mentioned
before the public, and fervently wishes that they had been kept
secret within a small circle of trusted and devoted friends.

Enq. The names certainly do occur very frequently now-a-days, and I
never remember hearing of such persons as " Masters " till quite
recently.

Thko. It is so ; and had we acted on the wise principle of silence,
instead of rushing into notoriety and pubhshing all we knew
and heard, such desecration would never have occurred.
Behold, only fourteen years ago, before the Theosophical Society

302 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

was founded, all the talk was of " Spirits." They were every-
where, in everyone's mouth ; and no one by any chance even
dreamt of talking about living "Adepts," "Maliatmas," or
"Masters." One hardly heard even the name of the Eosi-
crucians, while the existence of such a thing as " Occultism "
was suspected even but by very few. Now all that is changed.
We Theosophists were, unfortunately, the first to talk of these
things, to make the fact of the existence in the East of
"Adepts" and "Masters" and Occult knowledge known;
and now the name has become common property. It is on us,
now, that the Karma, the consequences of the resulting desecra-
tion of holy names and things, has fallen. All that you now
find about such matters in current literature — and there is not
a little of it — all is to be traced back to the impulse given in
this direction by the Theosophical Society and its Founders.
Our enemies profit to this day by our mistake. The most
recent book directed against our teachings is alleged to have
been written by an Adept of twenty years' standing. Now, it
is a palpable lie. We know the amanuensis and his inspirers
(as he is himself too ignorant to have written anything of the
sort). These " inspirers " are living persons, revengeful
and unscrupulous in proportion to their intellectual powers ;
and these bogus Adepts are not one, but several. The cycle of
" Adepts," used as sledge-hammers to break the theosophical
heads with, began twelve years ago, with Mrs. Emma
Hardinge Britten's "Louis " of Art Magic and Ghost- Land, and
now ends with the " Adept " and " Author " of The Light of
Egtjpt, a work written by Spiritualists against Theosophy and

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 303

its teachings. But it is useless to grieve over what is done,
and we can only suffer in the hope that our indiscretions
may have made it a little easier for others to find the way to
these Masters, whose names are now everywhere taken in vain,
and under cover of which so many iniquities have already
been perpetrated.

Enq. Do you reject " Louis " as an Adept ?

Theo. We denounce no one, leaving this noble task to our enemies.
The spiritualistic author of Art Magic, etc., may or may not
have been acquainted with such an Adept — and saying this, I
say far less than what that lady has said and written about us
and Theosophy for the last several years — that is her own
business. Only when, in a solemn scene of mystic vision, an
alleged " Adept " sees " spirits " presumably at Greenwich,
England, through Lord Eosse's telescope, which was built in, and
never moved from, Parsonstown, Ireland,* I may well be per-
mitted to wonder at the ignorance of that "Adept" in matters of
science. This beats all the mistakes and blunders committed at
times by the chelas of our Teachers ! And it is this " Adept "
that is used now to break the teachings of our Masters !

Enq. I quite understand your feeling in this matter, and think it only
natural. And now, in view of all that you have said and explained
to me, there is one subject on which I should like to ask you a few
questions.

Theo. If I can answer them I wiU. What is that ?

Vide " Ghoat Land," Part 1., p. 133, et seq.

CONCLUSION.

THE FUTURE OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

Enq. Tell me, what do you expect for Theosophy in the future?

Theo. If you speak of Theosophy, I answer that, as it lias existed
eternally througliont the endless cycles upon cycles of the Past,
so it will ever exist throughout the infinitudes of the Future,
because Theosophy is sj-nonymous with everlasting thuth.

Enq. Pardon me ; I meant to ask you rather about the prospects oi
the Theosophical Society.

Theo. Its future will depend almost entirely upon the degree of
selflessness, earnestness, devotion, and last, but not least, on
the amount of knowledge and wisdom possessed by those
members, on whom it will fall to carry on the work, and to
direct the Society after the death of the Founders.

Enq. I quite see the importance of their being selfless and devoted,
but I do not quite grasp how their knowledge can be as vital a
factor in the question as these other qualities. Surely the litera-
ture which already exists, and to which constant additions are still
being made, ought to be sufficient ?

Theo. I do not refer to technical knowledge of the esoteric doctrine,
though that is most important ; I spoke rather of the great

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 305

need which our successors in the guidance of the Society will
have of unbiassed and clear judgment. Every such attempt
as the Theosophical Society has hitherto ended in failure,
because, sooner or later, it has degenerated into a sect, set up
hard-and-fast dogmas ot its own, and so lost by imperceptible
degrees that vitality which living truth alone can impart. You
must remember that all our members have been bred and born
in some creed or religion, that all are more or less of their
generation both physically and mentally, and consequently that
their judgment is but too Ukely to be warped and uncon-
sciously biassed by some or all of these influences. If, then,
they cannot be freed from such inherent bias, or at least
taught to recognise it instantly and so avoid being led away
by it, the result can only be that the Society will drift off on
to some sandbank of thought or another, and there remain a
stranded carcass to moulder and die.

Enq. But if this danger be averted ?

Thko. Then the Society wiU live on into and through the twentieth
century. It will gradually leaven and permeate the great
mass of thinking and intelligent people with its large-minded
and noble ideas of Eeligion, Duty, and Philantliropy. Slowly
but surely it will burst asunder the iron fetters of creeds and
dogmas, of social and caste prejudices ; it will break down
racial and national antipathies and barriers, and will open the
way to the practical realisation of the Brotherhood of all men.
Through its teaching, through the philosophy which it has
rendered accessible and intelligible to the modern mind, the
West wUl learn to understand and appreciate the East at its

3o6 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.

true value. Further, the development of the psychic powers
and faculties, the premonitory symptoms of which are already
visible in America, will proceed healthily and normally.
Mankind will be saved from the terrible dangers, both mental
and bodily, which are inevitable when that unfolding takes
place, as it threatens to do, in a hot-bed of selfishness and all
evil passions. Man's mental and psychic growth will proceed
in harmony with his moral improvement, while his material
surroundings will reflect the peace and fraternal good-will
which will reign in his mind, instead of the discord and strife
which is everywhere apparent around us to-day.

Enq. a truly delightful picture ! But tell me, do you really expect all
this to be accomplished in one short century ?

Theo. Scarcely. But I must tell you that during the last quarter
of every hundred years an attempt is made by those "Masters,"
of whom I have spoken, to help on the spiritual progress of
Humanity in a marked and definite way. Towards the close
of each century you will invariably find that an outpouring or
upheaval of spirituality — or call it mysticism if you prefer —
has taken place. Some one or more persons have appeared in
the world as their agents, and a greater or less amount of
occult knowledge and teaching has been given out. If you
care to do so, you can trace these movements back, century
by century, as far as our detailed historical records extend.

Enq. But how does this bear on the future of the Theosophical Society?

Thbo. If the present attempt, in the form of our Society, succeeds
better than its predecessors have done, then it will be in exis-
tence as an organized, living and healthy body when the time

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 307

comes for the effort of the XXth century. The general condi-
tion of men's minds and hearts wUl have been improved and
purified by the spread of its teachings, and, as I have said, their
prejudices and dogmatic illusions will have been, to some
extent at least, removed. Not only so, but besides a large and
accessible literature ready to men's hands, the next impulse
will find a numerous and united body of people ready to wel-
come the new torch-bearer of Truth. He will find the minds
of men prepared for his message, a language ready for him in
which to clothe the new truths he brings, an organization await-
ing his arrival, which will remove the merely mechanical,
material obstacles and difficulties from his path. Think how
much one, to whom such an opportunity is given, could
accomplish. Measure it by comparison with what the Theoso-
phical Society actually has achieved in the last fourteen years,
without any of these advantages and surrounded by hosts of
hindrances which would not hamper the new leader. Consider
all this, and then tell me whether I am too sanguine when I say
that if the Theosophical Society survives and hves true to its
mission, to its original impulses through the next hundred years
— tell me, I say, if I go too far in asserting that earth will be a
heaven in the twenty-first century in comparison with what it
is now !

FINIS.

APPENDIX.

THE THBOSOPECICAIj SOCIETY.

INFOBMATION FOB ENQUIBERS.

rriHE Theosophical Society was formed at New York, November 17th, 1875. Its founders
X believed that the best interests of Religion and Science would be promoted by the revival of
Sanskrit, Pali, Zend, and other ancient literature, in which the Sages and Initiates had preserved for
the use of mankind truths of the highest value respecting man and nature. A Society of an
absolutely unsectarian charactei, whose work should be amicably prosecuted by the learned of all
races, in a spirit of unselfish dev jtiou to the research of truth, and with the purpose of disseminating
it impai-tially, seemed likely to lo much to check materialism and strengthen the waning religious
spirit. The simplest expressior of the objects of the Society is the following: —

First. — To form the nuclcvs of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of
race, creed, sex, caste or colour.

Second. — To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions and sciences.

Third. — A third object — pursued by a portion only of the members of the Society— is to
investigate unexplained laws of nature and the psychical powers of man.

No person's religious opinions are asked upon his joining, nor is interference with them per-
mittetl, but every one is required, before admission, to promise to show towards his fellow-members
the same tolerance in this respect as he claims for himself.

The head-quarters, otSces and maoaging staff are at Adyar, a suburb of Madras, where the Society
has a property of twenty-seven acres and extensive buildings, including one for the Oriental Library,
and a spacious hall whereiu the General Council meets annually in Convention, on the 27th of
December.

The Society is not yet endowed, but there is a nucleus of a Fund, the income from the invest-
ment of which will go towards defraying the cm-rent expenses ; these have hitherto been met by the
jjroceeds of entrance-fees, donations, and a small annual subscription from each member. But by the
Uevised Rules of 1889, the Society has been placed upon a basis of voluntary contributions, and is
therefore entirely dependent for maintenance upon the generosity of its Fellows and others, as
Entrance Fees and Annual Dues are abolished. No salaries are paid ; all work is done by volunteers,
who receive simple food and necessary clothing, when their private circumstances require such
allowances.

The Official Trustee for all Society property is the President for the time being, and
legacies and bequests shmtld i7ivariahly he viad-e m his name, in the legal phraseology of the
Code of the country where the testator executes his V/ill. If left to the Society by name, the
bequest becomes void in law. The President's full address is Henry Steel Olcott, Adyar,
Madras, India.

The Society, as a body, eschews politics and all subjects outside its declared sphere of work. The
Rules stringently forbid members to compromise its strict neutrality in these matters.

Many Branches of the Society have been formed in various parts of the world, and new ones are
constantly being organized. Each branch frames its own bye-laws and manages its own local business
without interference from Head-quarters; provided only that the fundamental rules of the Society
are not violated. Branches lying within certain territorial Hmits (as for instance, America, British
Islands, Ceylon, kc, have been grouped for purposes of administration in territorial Sections). For
particulars, see the Revised Rules of 1889, where all necessary information with regard to joining the
Society, &c., will also be found.

There have been founded up to date (1889) 173 Branches of the Society. For particulars see the
Rules, &c., of the Theosophical Society, to be had on application to the Recording Secretary of the
Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras; or to the General Secretaries of the Sections.

In England, Dr. A. Keightley, 7, Duke Street, Adelphi, London. In America, William O Tnd?e
P. O. Box 2650, New York. >C- »'" B »

APPENDIX. 309

THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

The folloiuing Official Report, on ivhich was granted a Decree of
Incorporation to the St. Louis Theosophical Society, is an
important document, as putting on record the view taken of the
Theosophical Society— after a careful examination of witnesses
on oath— by an American Court of Law.

First — The petitioner is not a religious body, I report this negative finding for the
reason that the word "Theosophical" contained in petitioners' name conveys a
possible religious implication. The statutary phrase " society formed for religious
purposes " applies, I suppose, only to an organization formed in part for worship,
worship being an individual act involving adoration and perhaps emotional power, both
being of necessity individual acts, or else to an organization formed for a propagation of
a religious faith. Merely to teach a religion as one may teach aJgebra, is not, I think, a
religious work, as the word " religious " is used in the Statute and the Constitution. A
man may occupy a collegiate chair of Professor of Religions and as such teach the
tenets of many religions. These different reUgions being variant and antagonistic, the
Professor could not by any possibility worship under aU. Nay, he might evenbe irreligious.
Hence, merely teaching religions is not a religious work in the statutory sense. It wiD
be noted that in art. 2 of this society's constitution, the word religion is used in the
plural. To teach religions is educational, not rehgious. " To promote the study of
religions " is in part to promote the study of the history of man. I add the aub-
ordmate finding that the society has no rehgious creed and practices no worship.
Second — The petitioner proposes to promote the study of literature and sciences.
These objects are expressly within the terms of the Statute. Third — Cognate with the
last object is that of investigating " unexplained laws of uatui-e and psychical powers
latent in man." These two phrases, taken in their apparent meaning, are unobjection-
able. But there is reason to believe that they form a meaning other than the apparent
one. The court wUl take notice of the commonly accepted meaning of the word
" Theosophy." Though I am ignorant of Theosophy, I think it is supposed to include
among other things manifestations and phenomena, physical and psychical, that are
violative of the laws now known by physicists and metaphysicians, and perhaps not
explsiined or claimed to be explained or understood even by Theosophists themselves.
In this <TOup may be included Spiritualism, mesmerism, clairvoyance, mind-healing,
mind-reading, and the like. I took testimony on this question, and found that while
a belief in any one of these sorts of manifestations and phenomena is not required,
while each member of the society is at liberty to hold his own opinion, yet such
Questions form topics of inquiry and discussion, and the members as a mass are
probably believers mdi^'idually in phenomena that are abnormal and in powers that

3IO APPENDIX.

are superhmnan as far as science now knows. It is undoubtedly the right of
any citizen to hold whatever opinions he pleases on these subjects, and to
endeavour at his pleasure to investigate the unexplained and to display the latent.
But the question here is : Shall the Court grant a franchise in aid of such endeavour ?
Voodooism is a word applied to the practices of guileful men among the ignorant and
superstitious who inflict impostures upon guileless men among the ignorant and
superstitious. No Court would grant a franchise in furtherance of such practices. The
Com-t then will stop to inquire into the practices and perhaps the reputableness of the
enterprize which seeks judicial aid. I am not meaning to make a comparison between
voodooism and this group of phenomena which for convenience (though I know not
whether accurately) I will call occultism. I onl^ take voodooism as a strong case to
show the Court ought to inquire. If we now inquire into occultism we shall find
that it has been occasionally used, as is reported, for the purposes of imposture.
But this goes for nothing against its essential character. Always and everywhere bad
men will make a bad use of anything for selfish ends. The object of this society,
whether attainable or not, is undeniably laudable, assuming that there are physical and
psychical phenomena unexplained, and that Theosophy seeks to explain them. Assuming
that there are hmnan powers yet latent, it seeks to discover them. It may be that
absurdities and impostures are in fact incident to the nascent stage of its development.
As to an understanding lUce that of occultism, which asserts powers commonly thought
superhuman, and phenomena commonly thought supernatural, it seemed to me that the
Court, though not assuming to determine judicially the question of their verity, would,
before granting to occultism a franchise, inquire whether at least it had gained the position
of being reputable or whether its adherents were merely men of narrow intelligence, mean
intellect, and omnivorous credulity. I accordingly took testimony on that point, and
find that a number of gentlemen in different countries of Europe, and also in this
country, eminent in science, are believers in occultism. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, a
writer of large and vai'ied learning, and of soUd intellect, is asserted to have been an
occultist, an assertion countenanced by at least two of his books. The late President
"Wayland, of Brown University, writing of abnormal mental operations as shown in
clairvoyance, says: "The subject seems to me well worthy of the most searching and
candid examination. It is by no means deserving of ridicule, but demands the atten-
tion of the most philosophical inquiry." Sir AVilliam Hamilton, probably the most
acute and, undeniably, the most learned of English metaphysicians that ever lived, said
at least thirty years ago : " However astonishing, it is now proved beyond all rational
doubt that in certain abnormal states of the nervous organism perceptions are possible
through other than the ordinary channels of the senses." By such testimony Theosophy
is at least placed on the footing of respectability. Whether by further labour it can
make partial truths complete truths, whether it can eliminate extravagances and
purge itself of impurities, if there are any, are probably questions upon which the
Court will not feel called upon to pass. I perceive no other feature of the petitioners'
constitution that is obnoxious to legal objection, and accordingly I have the honour to
report that I show no cause why the prayer of the petitioners should not be granted.

AUGUST W. ALBXANDEE,

Amicus Curiffi.

ALLEN, SCOTT, AND CO., PEINTEBS, 30, BODVERIE STBEET, LONDON E.C