Theos-Talk Archives (July 2001 Message tt00282)

Thursday, July 26, 2001


Re: The VOICE OF THE SILENCE (HPB)

There are in existence (that I have seen in the THEOSOPHY COMPANY
library):

1st Printing (edition) H.P.Blavatsky was alive (1889
& 1890)
2nd Printing (edition) H. P. Blavatsky was alive
(1892, London)
3rd, A Printing in New York supervised by Mr. Judge
(1893, 1899)
issued after H.P.Blavatsky’s death by THE
PATH
1931 THEOSOPHY COMPANY issued a reprint of the 1893
New York printing. And has used it ever
since.


Dear Daniel:

Perhaps you might like to reproduce some of the information that
you have received direct from THEOSOPHY COMPANY on this matter ?
I am sure you must have addressed them?

I do not believe that their explanations were referred to in your
comments. If you desire to be fair, then I think you ought to
offer them to our readership, along with your restatements. That
is a more balanced situation if adopted, I think.

Let me note that between H.P.Blavatsky’s 1st and 2nd issuing in
London of the: The VOICE OF THE SILENCE, there are a number of
physical and “printer’s changes” -- in style, paper size, type,
paragraphing, etc. Are we not going to say that H P B must have
authorized them? Similarly, Mr. Judge ACTING As Her Agent in
New York, in 1893 issued the 1st American printing of The VOICE
OF THE SILENCE . I can see that he introduced a large number of
“changes” of type setting and pagination for the purpose of
making it easier for students to refer to the Glossary Notes, as
they read and studied He did not alter H.P.Blavatsky’s TEXT, as
I can determine by proof reading.

The “changes” you mention (without explanation or qualifications)
were originally noted in an article by Dr. Stokes in O.E.LIBRARY
CRITIC. I do not think that he observed that there had been any
change in the text or its meaning Have you observed something
different?

Most of those changes made by Mr. Judge, viewed, from the
perspective of the present time, were the result of repagination
and the bringing of Glossary material from the rear of the book,
and placing them into footnotes, thus installing them at the foot
of those pages in the TEXT to which they were relevant.

Yes there were changes in type setting and the moving of the
Glossary Notes and the installing of them as Footnotes. But as
far as I can ascertain (apart from a few corrections in actual
facts relative to the Bhagavad Gita) no vast or important changes
were made by Mr. Judge. I am sure that Dr. Stokes would have
made special note of those. But I do not find anything so stated
by him. However I would observe: What you have omitted to say,
I think, would have helped our readership to understand the
matter better. It would have supplied the balance needed to your
statements.

The THEOSOPHY COMPANY edition (1931) copies that printing of the:
The VOICE OF THE SILENCE (HPB) that was made in 1893 by the PATH
owned by Mr. W. Q. Judge in New York.

I am thoroughly mystified by the seemingly one sided reanimation
of your observations How can our readership determine the
accuracy and value of your statements without those facts being
also supplied? I am afraid that literalism, if used, unexplained
and alone, fails. I believe that a more balanced statement would
help us all, if possible, don’t you think so? I have stated all
that I have been able to find out. And I hope that this needed
balance is now reestablished.

Best wishes, as always,


Dallas

=====================================


-----Original Message-----
From: D. Caldwell
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 6:58 AM
To:
Cc:
Subject: Katinka's Questions about Verbatim Editions of HPB's
Writings


Daniel says:

Katinka, you wrote:

> Is the article on practical occultism, as published in the
Collected
> Writings, verbatim? Same question with the Adyar The Voice of
the Silence
> version that was published with de Zirkoff's historical
introduction. Or
> are the changes only in the spelling of sanskriet and other
foreign words?

Katinka, concerning the edition of the Voice of the Silence
published with Mr. de Zirkoff's historical edition, this appears
to be a verbatim reproduction of the original 1889 ed. In other
words, there has been no attempt to "correct" any of the text.
The publisher has tried to reproduce the text exactly as it
appeared in the first ed. No "correction" of spelling, etc. But
it has been re-typeset and a few changes may have inadvertently
been introducted.

In contrast, the Theosophy Company's edition of the Voice has
some 500 + changes/corrections including rewording of some of the
text. Unfortunately, the Theosophy Co. which is the publisher
does NOT alert the reader that any changes at all are in this
edition. Most ULT associates I've corresponded with initially
assumed there were no textual changes when compared with HPB's
original and were therefore usually quite surprised when I
informed them that numerous corrections had been made to the
text.

The article on Practical Occultism in the Collected Writings
probably has corrections since Mr. de Zirkoff was not trying to
reproduce the text verbatim. In other words, Mr. de Zirkoff
probably "corrected" the spelling of Sanskrit words, etc. To be
sure, one would have to do a detailed comparision with the
original article as found in Lucifer.

Theosophical University Press has published "verbatim editions"
of ISIS, the KEY and the VOICE. They are not facsimiles of the
originals but are re-typeset editions. The publisher has NOT
tried to correct anything in the text but has simply tried to
reproduce verbatim the text from the original editions. A few
typos may have inadvertently crept in during this process of
re-typesetting.

The moral of this story is that one should carefully examine all
editions of HPB's writings REGARDLESS of the publisher and try to
ascertain if they are facsimiles of the originals and if not
facsimiles, then are they truly verbatim with HPB's
originals,etc.

Hope this helps.

Daniel