Theos-Talk Archives (July 2002 Message tt00276)

In 1998, I wrote Dallas:

"Read my timeline [about the writing of Volume III of the SD] and 
look for Ariadne's thread. *It is there* from 1885 through
1897."

Furthermore, I would suggest that the KEY to understanding SD Volume 
III as published in 1897 is found in Bertram Keightley's words about 
what happened to the SD manuscripts when HPB came to London in 1887. 
He wrote:

". . . instead of making the first volume to consist, as she had 
intended, of the history of some great Occultists, we advised her to 
follow the natural order of exposition, and begin with the Evolution 
of Cosmos, to pass from that to the Evolution of Man, then to deal 
with the historical part in a third volume treating of the lives of 
some great Occultists; and finally, to speak of Practical Occultism 
in a fourth volume should she ever be able to write it."

"This plan was laid before H.P.B., and it was duly sanctioned by her."

Please note that BEFORE this rearrangement was done in 1887, the 
three existing volumes consisted of the following:

Volume I: History of Some Great Occultists
Volume II: Evolution of Cosmos
Volume III: Evolution of Man

This initial arrangement is FULLY CONFIRMED in the extant Wurzburg 
Manuscript preserved in the Adyar Archives. See a listing of what is 
in Volume I of the Wurzburg Manuscript of the SD at:

http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/sdiiitab.htm

So as Bertram Keightley tells us, the order of the volumes of The 
Secret Doctrine was rearranged in 1887. Volume I became Volume III.

AFTER the rearrangement in 1887, the volumes would have been listed 
as follows:

Volume I: Evolution of Cosmos
Volume II: Evolution of Man
Volume III: History of Some Great Occultists

In 1888 Volumes I and II were published.

Bertram's above account is fully confirmed in the Theosophist, July 
1891, pp. 586-7 where Bertram's 1890 lecture at TS Adyar was reported 
on as follows:

"H.P.B. handed over to him [B. Keightley] the manuscript of 
the "Secret Doctrine," with a request that he should read it through. 
He read through the substance of the two volumes published [in 1888], 
and the third still unpublished [in 1890] .... what would now be the 
3rd volume of the history of Occultism was to have been the first 
volume, while the treatises on Cosmogony and the Genesis of Man were 
to form a later series.... He then drafted a scheme with the natural 
and obvious order, namely. the Evolution of the Universe and the 
Evolution of man, &c. &c. The next thing...was to REARRANGE...the 
manuscript according to the [new] scheme." Bold added.

Now COMPARE the above with what Archibald Keightley said in an 
interview in the New York Times, April 29, 1889, p. 5:

"The third volume of 'The Secret Doctrine' is in manuscript ready to 
be given to the printers. It will consist mainly of a series of 
sketches of the great occultists of all ages, and is a most wonderful 
and fascinating work. The fourth volume, which is to be largely hints 
on the subject of practical occultism, has been outlined, but not yet 
written...."

Now COMPARE the material as found in Volume I (1886) of the Wurzburg 
Manuscript of the SD with the material in Volume III of the SD as 
published in 1897. See the following table for a comparison of this 
material:

http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/sdiiitab.htm

In summary, most of the material in this extant Volume I of the 
Wurzburg Manuscript is ALSO to be found in Volume III of 1897. Please 
consider this observation IN LIGHT OF what Bertram wrote about the 
rearrangement of the volumes in 1887. 

I have asked Dallas for years to comment on this PARTICULAR POINT & 
KEY but AFAIK he has never made any specific comments on this issue.

Daniel H. Caldwell
BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://blavatskyarchives.com/introduction.htm