Theos-Talk Archives (August 2002 Message tt00181)

August 19th 2002

Re THIRD VOLUME OF The SECRET DOCTRINE

Dear Daniel:


Thanks for your observations and questions.

Let me observe that I tell you exactly what my thinking is,
and of course I may be wrong, but I try not to make any
assumptions.

Of course the list of articles included in the copy of the
1st Vol. of The SECRET DOCTRINE as prepared in 1886 and sent
to Adyar is proven acceptable. No argument.

Is their content as found in VOLUME III ( 1897) verbatim ?
Has it been in any way altered or changed. I have had no
opportunity to proof these. But I can raise the question
for the sake of accuracy. If there are changes, then those,
regardless of importance, deserve to be indicated to
students. Let such students draw their own conclusions.

One think I am quite certain of is that H P B might not have
issued the THIRD VOLUME of The SECRET DOCTRINE without
further editing by her. We do not know that she either did
or did not do this, and we do not know how much of a hand A.
B. may have in such work. This is why I demur.

We are both seeking the same thing: what degree of
authenticity can we place on the volume A B edited and
published in 1897 as VOLUME THREE OF The SECRET DOCTRINE

But see my notes below, copy to Wesley, of course

Best wishes,

Dallas.

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

-----Original Message-----
From: danielhcaldwell
[mailto:comments@blavatskyarchives.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2002 10:15 AM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Theos-World More on SD Volume III

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

Dallas,

Thanks for your latest posting at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/7701



Dallas, I wrote to you the following:
------------------------------------------------------------
--

"Madame Blavatsky may have added and modified the material
found in the 1886-1887 manuscripts of the SD."

"But before going into that issue, do you agree that in the
summer of 1887 Volume I became
Volume III as reported by Bertram Keightley and also
verified by comparing the SD manuscript at Adyar with what
was published in 1888?"
------------------------------------------------------------
--------



Dallas, you then replied to my comments as follows:

"For the reason that I am unsure of the contents of the
MSS as defined, I would hesitate to agree sight unseen.
That is to me, assuming too much."

"Within the context you define, it seems to me that this
sounds correct. But, was it CORRECT ? I do not know and am
therefore uncertain in terms of exactitude. I have to agree
that the contents listed as "Vol. I" seem to have been
displaced by the Keightleys to a third volume, never
published under H P B."

"The THIRD VOLUME was the result of Mrs. a. Besant's editing
and apparently includes those articles listed and said to
have formed originally part of Vol. I , as copied by
Countess Wachmeister and sent to Adyar for Subba Row in
1886, to review. . . . "
------------------------------------------------------------
------



Dallas, let me first focus on two of your sentences which
read:

(1) "I have to agree that the contents listed as 'Vol. I'
seem to
have been displaced by the Keightleys to a third volume. . .
."

(2) "The THIRD VOLUME [as published in 1897] . . .
apparently includes those articles listed and said to
have formed originally part of Vol. I , as copied by
Countess Wachmeister and sent to Adyar for Subba Row in
1886, to review. . . . "

Let's think all of this through again.

First of all, there should be no reasonable doubt that the
following
articles were in Vol. I of the SD manuscript as of 1886.
The
manuscript at Adyar is good, physical evidence of this.
This was the
volume received by Olcott in early Dec. 1886. Here is the
list of the
relevant articles from that volume I manuscript:



* White and Black Magic in Theory and Practice
* Hermes and the 32 Ways of Wisdom
* Mathematics and Geometry--- The Keys to the Universal
Problems
* The Key of the Absolute in Magic-- the Hexagon with the
Central Point -- or the Seventh Key
* Who Was the Adept of Tyana?
* The Roman Church Dreads the Publication of the Real Life
of Apollonius
* Confession and Property in Common
* What the Occultists and Kabalists Have to Say
* The Souls of the Star -- Universal Heliolatry
* The Mystery "Sun of Initiation" The Trial of the
Sun-lnitiate



Several months later in 1887, when HPB went to London,
based on Bertram's direct eyewitness testimony, this Volume
I
containing the above articles became Volume III.

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

DTB	This is an assumption we make without any verification,
and it is normal to do so, but it is not 100% verifiable.

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


There is no reason and no evidence to suggest otherwise.
>From HPB's own letters of the last 6 months of 1886 and
the first six months of 1887, she was occupied in writing
Volume II of the SD manuscript which was the volume
containing the Cosmogonic Stanzas of Dzyan (i.e. on
Cosmogenesis) and Volume III of the SD manuscript
which was the volume containing the Anthropogonic
Stanzas of Dzyan (i.e. Anthopogenesis.)

To cite only one of many primary source documents that
illustrate
this point:

Sometime around Feb. 23, 1887, HPB writes to Sinnett about
how
her SD is progressing:

"I am on the 4th Race. I have done with the Hermaphrodite
Third
Race." (Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to A.P. Sinnett, p. 230.)

Here we see HPB writing on the Third Volume SD Manuscript
dealing with Anthropogenesis.

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

DTB	I am in accord with your reasoning but with the same
proviso that we do not have any details of possible changes
in writing or editing H P B may have or may not have made.
We cannot assume that there were none and that throughout
there were NO CHANGES form the brief descriptions and titles
we are given. This makes me cautious. And for this reason I
make my statements.

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


Archibald Keightley gives us a fascinating glimpse into this
time
period in his article "From Ostende to London" (The Path,
New York,
November 1892, pp. 245-248)which can now be read at:
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/keightleyafromostende.htm


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

DTB	I am familiar with this. But the general statements are
still general and nonspecific. He was not aware whether H P
B made changes or not. Neither am I. So I am cautious
again.

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


To summarize my point, during this time period under
discussion,
HPB was not rearranging or revising Volume I of the SD
manuscript.
She was trying to simply finish Volume II and Volume III.

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

DTB	Then, you see, that is an assumption I am not prepared
to make as the possibility of it being otherwise is not
known to us. We know she did what Masters ordered her to
do. Neither you nor I at this distance in time can say with
100% positive assurance WE KNOW that H P B made no changes
whatsoever. I am therefore very cautious.

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



So when Bertram testifies that Volume I became Volume III,
we can be fairly certain that the following articles were
transferred
to Volume III. Therefore as of the summer of 1887, the
manuscript of
Volume III of the SD would have included the following
articles:

* White and Black Magic in Theory and Practice
* Hermes and the 32 Ways of Wisdom
* Mathematics and Geometry--- The Keys to the Universal
Problems
* The Key of the Absolute in Magic-- the Hexagon with the
Central Point -- or the Seventh Key
* Who Was the Adept of Tyana?
* The Roman Church Dreads the Publication of the Real Life
of Apollonius
* Confession and Property in Common
* What the Occultists and Kabalists Have to Say
* The Souls of the Star -- Universal Heliolatry
* The Mystery "Sun of Initiation" The Trial of the
Sun-lnitiate

Pausing and absorbing all of the above, I ask:

Is it therefore not highly significant that all of the above
material
is ALSO to be found in the 1897 Volume III of the SD?

HPB wrote the above articles for Volume I of the SD
manuscript.
The Adyar manuscript is good evidence of this.

These articles were transferred to Volume III in mid-1887.

And these articles were finally published in the 1897 Volume
III.

In light of that, I find it hard to understand why certain
Blavatsky
students look on this material as "spurious"?

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

DTB Here are the point that occur to me:

1.	We do not know how H P B would have finally edited or
arranged this material. I hesitate to make assumptions on
that, and cannot think we ought to accept without due
caution the material offered as being ENTIRELY as H P B
WOULD HAVE EDITED IT. For our own protection as
commentators and historians (for me, would not claim such a
designation) I would not claim to be any kind of an
authority. Like you, I can quote what I find in
contemporary documents, and like you, I have to assume that
everyone is speaking of the same, identical and unchanged
material. But this is where I say WE DO NOT KNOW for a 100%
certainty. So I state that. And it does not bother me one
bit to be so obviously uncertain.

2.	Annie Besant edited the final MSS material for this THIRD
VOLUME. She claims sole responsibility.

3.	She does not say, when she placed it there, that it was
verbatim, unaltered H P B -- in what she called Vol. III of
The SECRET DOCTRINE (and as we can see it contains articles
with the same titles that H P B used. Can we say A B did
nothing to them but transcribe them faithfully and verbatim
? Have the articles in Vol. II (1897) been proof read to
the copies of the articles sent to Adyar in 1886 ? I have
not done that -- no time. Still, I believe my questions to
be valid.

4.	A. B. was in the habit of altering things to suit
herself. In this case H P B had no hand in the final
version offered to the public. [ She says as much in the
Mullies interview -- following these observations.]

5.	In this case she added material. From where? How much?
Why ? How did she know H P B wanted this to be included in
the THIRD VOLUME ? Does H P B say so anywhere ? Not to my
knowledge.

6.	In an interview with Mr. W. Mullies (?) ( Oct. 6th 1926)
she says she had never seen the MSS of the THIRD or FOURTH
volumes of The SECRET DOCTRINE . It is true, that of this
interview we have only an unsigned typescript. It may have
been published in the Los Angeles EXAMINER. This is being
investigated so as to discover some or any corroborating
authenticity.

Here is the text of this paper:

-----------------------------------------------

MULLIES MEMORANDUM

Copied from a carbon at the archives of the U L T, Los
Angeles. D TB, August 11, 2002

------------------------------------

MEMORANDUM OF INTERVIEW WITH DR ANNIE BESANT.

October 6, 1926
by
William Mullies ( or Mulliss ?)

When I arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday morning last I had
no idea that Mrs. Besant was also in the city, and having
occasion to call on Mr. George Young, the Publisher and
Editor of the Los Angeles EXAMINER on Monday afternoon, it
occurred to me that the time might be opportune to arrange
for a meeting with Mrs. Besant. Mr. Young was quite ready
to fall into the suggestion that I interview Mrs. Besant as
a representative of the Los Angeles EXAMINER, and he gave
instructions to his Managing Editor to arrange the interview
if possible. After some preliminary difficulties a meeting
was arranged for 9:30 Wednesday morning at the home of a
person identified to me as the Rev. John Ingleman, 2154
Beachwood Blvd., Hollywood.

When I arrived Mrs. Besant was already occupied with
visitors. She received me very graciously and in her
private room. I explained to Mrs. Besant that I was a
newspaper man representing both Canadian and American
newspapers; that I was not unfamiliar with the subject of
Theosophy and in that respect she would not be meeting the
usual type of interviewer who had no special knowledge of
the subject under discussion and criticism. She seemed to be
interested in the fact that I was a Canadian for she
observed she had lectured in Vancouver and that she later on
expected to visit Toronto, and, in an aside, she expressed
her regrets that she would not be able to visit Ottawa where
a family, whose name I caught as Weddington, were living,
this family having been with her for some time at Madras.

The first paragraph in my memorandum set forth that in my
examination and research into the history of the
Theosophical Movement the situation, as I found it to-day,
was that there were several sincere and important groups of
students, each proclaiming themselves as the believers and
exponents of true Theosophy and to be promulgating the same
doctrine and teachings as were given out by H. P. Blavatsky.

In an incisive and commanding way she almost demanded to see
my memorandum. With regard to the first observation her
comment was that she had no fault to find, no criticism to
offer, of any Society or group of students who were
studying, teaching or preaching Theosophy. She, however,
reverted to the adjective with which I prefaced the word
Theosophy and in so doing apparently reserved the right to
classify as she thought best just which was the true
Theosophy.

My next question was: 'Do you believe H. P. Blavatsky was
an accredited Agent of those exalted Intelligences which are
known to Theosophists as Mahatmas?" There was no
hesitancy in answering this question. She said: "I
unreservedly do. I know that H P B was the direct and only
direct Agent of the Masters during her lifetime. I have
never stated anything differently and can never believe
otherwise. I came into contact with that wonderful woman
through the medium of the late W. T. Stead, who put into my
hands a book called THE SECRET DOCTRINE, written down by H.
P. Blavatsky. From the very moment that I glanced into that
book I knew I had found what I had been seeing, and never
for a moment have I thought of departing from, or denying,
the fundamental teachings of that great work. Mme. Blavatsky
lived in my house for sometime before her death, and while
the time was limited that I spent actually in her presence
and her guidance and instruction, for my other appointments
kept me busy travelling in various parts of the country, I
still absorbed enough to do what she urgently instructed me
to do and ordered me to do, that is, to go out into the
world and to popularize Theosophy, which I have made my
life's work."

Relative to H.P.Blavatsky I enquired still further: "Do you
believe that one of the Mahatmas in 1888 defined the status
of H P B to Col. Olcott as being their best available Agent
and the chief Agent since 1858?"

"As I have already said," Mrs. Besant commented, "I am
wholly convinced of H P B's bona fides and status, for I
have been informed on higher authority that the body of
H.P.Blavatsky was the greatest psychic instrument that the
Masters had discovered in the western world for two hundred
years.:

"How do you interpret the following statement made in that
same letter to Olcott: "there is no likelihood of our
finding a better one for years to come and you Theosophists
should be made to understand it." There are many statements
made, Mrs. Besant, in that letter which was published in a
volume issued from the Theosophical Publishing House at
Adyar in 1919, which seemed to be in conflict with
statements that have been made and recorded in various books
and writings since the passing of H P B in 1891. For
instance, it is clearly stated in that letter by the Master
K. H. that THE SECRET DOCTRINE corrected by Him or
corrected under His instructions, yet in the face of the
Master's statement - 'it is a more valuable work than its
predecessor: an epitome of occult truths that will make it
a source of information and instruction for the earnest
student for long years to come' - the charge has been made
by students of H P B that thousands of unnecessary and
unwarranted alterations, mutilations and deletions have been
made in that work whose first edition carries the seal and
sanction of approval of one of its inspirers, the Master K.
H. Is there any truth in such charges and allegations?

Mrs. B: What is this letter to which you refer ? Where is
it published?

Mr. M:	The letter which I have quoted was published, as I
have started by your Publishing House at Adyar in 1919. It
was compiled and annotated by Mr. Jinarajadasa and carried
with it a forward from yourself."

Mrs. B:	"Well, it was annotated and authorized by Mr.
Jinarajadasa, it was certainly accurate. With regard to THE
SECRET DOCTRINE, I do not necessarily regard it as an
infallible book. You will note that the statement is made
that THE SECRET DOCTRINE had been corrected by the Master K.
H., or under His instructions. I take this to mean that
this refers to the fundamental teachings and explanations
and Commentaries on the Stanzas, rather than to the mass of
general information with which the book deals. For
instance, take the Second Volume: Much of that deals with a
mass of details affecting scientific and other matters which
we surely cannot accept as being absolutely correct and
infallible. With regard to the changes and alterations, I
am aware that much is preposterous and unjust to me has been
circulated by my enemies and critics. I have long since
passed the stage where I think it necessary to reply to such
malicious and ill-natured out-pourings against me and my
activities."

Mr. M.:	"I believe I have read somewhere - I think it was
one of Mrs. Alice Cleather's books - that she claims that
she and her students have checked up actually thirty
thousand alterations."

Mrs. B.:	"I am sure I do not know and I am not interested in
the number, but this I will say: H P Blavatsky did not
claim to be an accomplished English linguist or grammarian.
She scarcely knew English at all when ISIS UNVEILED was
written in New York in 1877, and in London she many times
had to appeal to G R S Mead and to others, myself included,
for protection against errors in grammar and composition.
She was not as proficient in English as I was and did not
pretend to write with the same clarity and correctness. The
alterations that were made I am satisfied were not changes
in teachings or fundamentals, they were honestly made with
the object of bringing about a clearer understanding of the
writings."

Mr. M.:	"Your critics have insisted that somebody or other
has deliberately suppressed the Third and Fourth Volumes of
THE SECRET DOCTRINE to which H P B makes reference in the
First Volume of THE SECRET DOCTRINE. What have you to say
of this? Do you regard the Third Volume of your edition of
THE SECRET DOCTRINE entitled "Occultism" as containing any
of the matter intended for the Third and Fourth Volumes ?"

Mrs. B.:	"I was appointed H P B's literary executor, and the
matter from which I compiled the Third Volume of
"Occultism" in THE SECRET DOCTRINE, published under my
direction was compiled from a mass of miscellaneous writings
found in her desk after her death. These I took under my
own charge."

Mr. M.:	"Did Mead help you in the compilation of these
articles?"

Mrs. B.:	"No. The papers came absolutely under my own hand
and Mead had nothing to do with them."

Mr. M.:	"Well what about the material for the Third and
Fourth Volumes?"

Mrs. B.:	"I never saw them and do to know what has become of
them."

Pursuing further the question of the accuracy of THE SECRET
DOCTRINE Mrs. Besant made some illusions [allusions ?] to
H P B from which one might surmise that she still regarded H
P B as an embodied entity - as a living Master in the flesh
in fact, for she said: "I have suggested to him the
importance of coming out to the world again and doing what
he could for the people, but" - and she shrugged her
shoulders in a highly significant way - "He is very
comfortable where He is in the North, and why should He? I
want you to understand that we have had further
illumination, especially on the subject of the World
Teacher. This is a matter which I have taken up with Him as
far back as 1912."

Mr. M.:	"Do I understand that you have, since the passing of
H P B, received instructions and illumination that would
correct or contradict the teachings as laid down in THE
SECRET DOCTRINE?"

Mrs. B.:	"No, not to correct or to alter, or deny. We have
simply received further illumination."

Mr. M.:	"I had the pleasure of meeting both Mr. Wadia and
Mr. Ernest Wood who were under your instruction at Adyar for
many years."

Mrs. B.:	"I regard Mr. Wadia as being an exceptionally able
platform speaker."

Mr. M.:	"I understood from Mr. Wood that he had been
Secretary for Mr. Leadbeater for a period of seven or eight
years at Adyar. Mr. Wood spoke to me in the very highest
terms of Mr. Leadbeater."

Mrs. B.:	"Mr. Leadbeater is a man of great personal purity
of life and a most wonderful clairvoyant."

Mr. M.:	"His enemies seem to have made considerable capital
out of his alleged perverted sexual proclivities. Mr. Wood
was most indignant in his denial of such charges and in his
denunciation of those who made them. He also told me that
he too regarded Mr. Leadbeater as a great clairvoyant: in
fact he said that he knew that Mr. Leadbeater could project
his consciousness as far as the planet Mars; further, that
he could describe the appearance and apparel of a man the
other side of a brick wall.

Mrs. B:	"Yes, Mr. Leadbeater is a great clairvoyant. I have
collaborated with him in many works: our "Occult Chemistry"
written under his clairvoyant direction several years ago
has been justified in later days by the discoveries of
science which has had to acknowledge the truth of the
propositions there propounded. With regard to Mr.
Leadbeater and his purity of life, I have had many instances
of his immaculateness on the question of sex. I have heard
men of the world making flippant and improper remarks
pertaining to sex matters which Mr. Leadbeater was wholly
unable to understand, for his mind is not directed towards
such subjects. He is a clean and brilliant character whose
mind is an open book and the door of whose room is never
locked."

Mr. M.:	"For a man to whom you so generously give so clean a
reputation he seems to have fallen under a tremendous amount
of misrepresentation and persecution."

Mrs. B.:	"So do we all. We all come under the lash of
criticism of the ignorant and credulous. We all make
mistakes in judgment. In my younger days I have been guilty
of the same things."

Mr. M.:	"Mr. Judge whom I persuaded was the greatest of the
Teachers after H P B came similarly under this persecution
by biased and prejudiced minds, yet I find you in later
years - within the last four or five years - referring to
him as "that incomparable man, Judge," using a cabinet photo
of him in your magazine."

Mrs. B.:	"I pay no longer any attention to slanders. A I
said, I too have made many mistakes, and that in regard to
Judge, I was young in the Movement then, impetuous, and in
my zeal did things that I would not think of doing to-day.
Judge did a great work in the West and although I still
believe that some of his claims are untenable, he did
splendid work for Masters and for Theosophy in America. The
Society will survive ruthless destructive criticism. It was
nearly wrecked in 1885 by ambitions and personalities. I am
convinced after long experience that our sole consideration
should be principles - not personalities."


At this point in the interview, Mrs. Besant becoming
restive, and evidently having other appointments, I
suggested that I leave with her the memorandum containing
all the questions which I had submitted to her, and further
suggested that at her leisure and when she was no improperly
crowded with extraneous affairs
that she might take time to answer the queries therein
contained. This was very readily agreed to. She said she
could not possibly do it while she was lecturing here but
she would have time when traveling, and would forward her
observations to my permanent address which I left with her.


The Complete memorandum left with Mrs. Besant was as
follows:

In my examination and research into the history of the
Theosophical Movement the situation, as I found it to-day is
that there are several sincere and important groups of
students, each proclaiming themselves as the believers and
exponents of true Theosophy and to be promulgating the same
doctrine and teachings as were given out by H. P. Blavatsky.

Do you believe H. P. Blavatsky was an accredited agent of
those exalted intelligences which are known to Theosophists
as Mahatmas?"

Do you believe that one of the Mahatmas in 1888 defined the
status of H P B to Col. Olcott as being their best available
agent and the chief agent since 1858?"

"How do you interpret the following statement made in that
same letter to Olcott: "...There is no likelihood of our
finding a better one for years to come and you theosophists
should be made to understand it." There are many statements
made, in that letter which was published in a volume issued
from the Theosophical Publishing House at Adyar in 1919
which seem to be in conflict with statements that have been
made and recorded in various books and writings since the
passing of H P B in 1891. For instance, it is clearly
stated in that letter by the Master K. H. that THE SECRET
DOCTRINE had been corrected by him or corrected under his
instructions. Yet in the face of the Master's statement, 'it
is a more valuable work than its predecessor, an epitome of
occult truths that will make it a source of information and
instruction for the earnest student for long years to come'
the charge has been made by students of H P B hat thousands
of unnecessary and unwarranted alterations, mutilations and
deletions have been made in that work whose first edition
carries the seal and sanction of approval of one of its
inspirers, the Master K. H. Is there any truth in such
charges and allegations?

Do you regard the volume first published in 1923 by T.
Fisher Unwin, Ltd., London, entitled "THE MAHATMA LETTERS TO
A. P. SINNETT" from the Mahatmas M. and K.H. As being
authentic? Criticism has been general that no reference
whatever has been made in your magazine THE THEOSOPHIST to
this publication. Is that criticism correct? Would you
care to explain, if this is in accord with the first, why
you have ignored any reference to this important
contribution to Theosophic literature, providing, of course,
that you regard it as genuine?

On page 203, MAHATMA LETTERS, referring to H P B, K.H.
observes "After nearly a century of fruitless search, our
chiefs had to avail themselves of the only opportunity to
send out a European body upon European soil to serve as a
connecting link between that country and our own." If it
was so desperately difficult to find only one person
available as an agent for the Mahatmas after a century of
search how do you account for the flock of self-labeled
Mahatmic agents and instruments that have come to light
since the passing of H P B?

Those who adhere strictly to the teachings and writings of H
P B and the Mahatmas complain that later writers have set up
an anthropomorphic conception of deity and have also
instituted the necessity of a clergy and a church, which is
familiarly known as the Liberal Catholic Church, and that
while you made it clear that the Liberal Catholic Church is
no part of the Theosophical Society of which you are the
head, you have not discouraged members of the society from
becoming adherents of that church and of accepting the
ritual, the creedal and sacramental rites which that church
observes. In the face of that how do you explain the
following statement made by the Master K.H. ".....we know
there is in our system no such thing as God, either personal
or impersonal....The word 'god' was invented to designate
the unknown cause of those effects which man has either
admired or dreaded without understanding them, and since we
claim and that we are to prove what we claim - i.e., the
knowledge of that cause and causes we are in a position to
maintain there is no God or Gods behind them...The idea of
God is not an innate but an acquired notion..." "The real
evil proceeds from human intelligence and its origin rests
entirely with reasoning man who dissociates himself from
Nature. Humanity then alone is the true source of evil.
Evil is the exaggeration of good, the progeny of human
selfishness and greediness..."I will point out the greatest,
the chief cause of nearly two-thirds of the evils that
pursue humanity ever since that cause became a power. It is
religion under whatever form and in whatever nation. It is
the sacerdotal caste, the priesthood and the churches. It is
in those illusions that man looks upon as sacred, that he
has to search out the source of that multitude of evils
which is the great curse of humanity and that almost
overwhelms mankind. Ignorance created Gods and cunning took
advantage of opportunity. Look at India and look at
Christendom and Islam, at Judaism, and Fetishes. It is
priestly imposture that rendered these Gods so terrible to
man: it is religion that makes of him the selfish bigot,
the fanatic that hates all mankind out of his own sect
without rendering him any better or more moral for it. It
is belief in God and Gods that makes two-thirds of humanity
the slaves of a handful of those who deceive them under the
false pretense of saving them."


Oct. 25, 1926


ADDMEMO OF INTERVIEW WITH DR. ANNIE BESANT


Among various obiter dicta in the interview, Mrs. Besant
took occasion to express her opinion with regard to the
publication of THE LETTERS OF H P BLAVATSKY TO A. P.
Sinnett. She said: - "I regard this as a most scandalous
outrage which should never have been published. If it had
been advisable to do so, Sinnett would have done it, but he
never did."

Referring to her degree of doctor of laws, she explained
with some pleasurable pride, that hers was degree number
two, the Prince of Wales being No. 1, having received the
honor from the same University in India on the previous day.

She asked if I had ever met Jinarajadasa, and also, if I had
yet received a copy of "THE GOLDEN BOOK OF THE THEOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY ." She regards this Golden Book as being accurate
and authentic and fair in every way. she said "The whole
story of the movement is told in it. Nothing of consequence
is left out but has been most frankly revealed and most
carefully collected and edited by Mr. Jinarajadasa. The
truth will be found therein."

Two statements, more or less significant, were also made by
her. One was that she had been a Yogi for thirty years.
The other was that the original objects of the Society had
been changed some time ago..

----------------

Copied by DTB Aug. 11 2002.

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



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


Dallas, later in your same posting, you also write:

"I also observe H P B did not leave us, either in 1886 or
1888 a list of the chapters she would include in Vol. 3,
(and/or 4) in spite of the list and the MSS sent by her to
Adyar in 1886, modifications were still in her hands up to
the time when she died. . . ."

Dallas, I fail to understand the import and significance of
this
statement in light of all the documentary evidence I have
given
previously and also in the above material. The Volume I
manuscript
at Adyar serves as a very good list as to the contents of
the SD
manuscript.

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

DTB	See my notes above -- I am for covering all bases and
not saying anything more than what I have seen or read. Let
those "primary sources" take the responsibility. And let any
one make what assumptions they please, I cannot alter those.
Not do I intend to change my position. As you quote below:
let those who know speak, and or "judge," and let us rely on
their statements to the extent that they are reasonable, and
not in any way insisting on making authoritarian claims.]


Best wishes as always,

Dallas

cc: Mr. W. Amerman

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


Dallas, I welcome your further comments. And I hope others
like Ian
and Wes may share their thoughts on these particular issues
under
discussion.

In the near future, I will advance my thesis to another
step.

Daniel

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


"...Contrast alone can enable us to appreciate things at
their right value; and unless a judge compares notes and
hears both sides he can hardly come to a correct decision."
H.P. Blavatsky. The Theosophist, July, 1881, p. 218.