Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00109)

Dec 31 2002

Dear Friend:

As the year winds down to a close, let us draw some valued lessons
from H P B

I think you will find some interesting ideas here.

Best wishes for 2003

Dal

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

1.

(Written after the first year's work in India 18979-80.)


A YEAR OF THEOSOPHY

by H. P. Blavatsky


THE dial of Time marks off another of the world's Hours. . . . And, as
the Old Year passes into Eternity, like a rain-drop falling into the
ocean, its vacant place on the calendar is occupied by a successor
which--if one may credit the ancient prophetic warnings of Mother
Shipton and other seers--is to bring woe and disaster to some portions
of the world. Let it go, with its joys and triumphs, its badness and
bitterness, if it but leave behind for our instruction the memory of
our experience and the lesson of our mistakes.

Wise is he who lets "the dead Past bury its dead," and turns with
courage to meet the fresher duties of the New Year; only the weak and
foolish bemoan the irrevocable. It will be well to take a brief
retrospect of those incidents of the year 1880 (A.D.) which possess an
interest for members of the Theosophical Society. The more so since,
in consequence of the absence from Bombay of the President and
Corresponding Secretary, the anniversary day of the Society was not
publicly celebrated.

It will not be necessary to enter minutely into those details of
administration which, however important in themselves as links, weak
or strong, in the general chain of progress, and however they may have
taxed the patience, nerve, or other resources of the chief officers.
do not at all interest the public.

It is not so much explanation as results that are demanded, and these,
in our case, abound. Even our worst enemy would be forced to admit,
were he to look closely into our transactions, that the Society is
immeasurably stronger morally, numerically, and as regards a capacity
for future usefulness, than it was a year ago. Its name has become
most widely known; its fellowship has been enriched by the accession
of some very distinguished men; it has planted new branch societies in
India, Ceylon and elsewhere; applications are now pending for the
organization of still other branches, in New South Wales, Sydney,
California. India, Australia; its magazine [the THEOSOPHIST] has
successfully entered the second volume; its local issues with the
government of India have been finally and creditably settled; a
mischievous attempt by a handful of malcontents at Bombay to disrupt
it has miserably failed. It has made official alliances with the
Sanskrit Samaj of Benares, that is to say, with the most distinguished
body of orthodox Sanskrit pandits in the world, with the other Sabha
of which Pandit Rama Misra Shastri is Manager, and with the Hindu
Sabha, of Cochin State; while, at the same time, strengthening its
fraternal relations with the Arya Samajas of the Punjab and
North-Western Provinces.

Besides all this, we can point with joy and pride to the results of
the late mission to Ceylon, where, within the space of fifty-seven
days, seven branch societies of Buddhist laymen, one Ecclesiastical
Council of Buddhist priests, and one scientific society were
organized, and some hundreds of new fellows were added to our list.

All this work could not be accomplished without great labour, mental
anxiety and physical discomfort. If to this be added the burden of a
correspondence with many different countries, and the time required
for making two journeys to Northern India and one to Ceylon, our
friends at a distance will see that whatever other blame may properly
attach to the Founders, who have never claimed infallibility of any
sort, that of laziness is assuredly not to be cast in their teeth. ...

The trip to Ceylon occupied seventy-seven days in all, the second one
to Northern India one hundred and twenty-five days. Thus the Founders
have been absent from Bombay on duty twenty-nine weeks out of the
fifty-two; their travels extending through twenty-five degrees of
latitude, from Lahore at the extreme north of India, to Matara, the
southernmost point of ancient Lanka.

Each of the Indian Presidencies has contributed a quota of new
members; and at the former capital of the late lion-hearted Runjeet
Singh, a branch was recently organized by Sikhs and Punjabis, under
the title of the "Punjab Theosophical Society." During the
twelvemonth, President Olcott delivered seventy-nine lectures and
addresses, a majority of which were interpreted in the Hindi, Urdu,
Guzerati and Sinhalese languages.

Many misconceptions prevail as to the nature and objects of the
Theosophical Society. Some--Sir Richard Temple in the number--fancy it
is a religious sect; many believe it is composed of atheists; a third
party are convinced that its sole object is the study of occult
science and the initiation of green hands into the Sacred Mysteries.

If we have had one we certainly have had a hundred intimations from
strangers that they were ready to join at once if they could be sure
that they would shortly be endowed with siddhis, or the power to work
occult phenomena. The beginning of a new year is a suitable time to
make one more attempt--we wish it could be the last--to set these
errors right. So then, let us say again:

(1) The Theosophical Society teaches no new religion, aims to destroy
no old one, promulgates no creed of its own, follows no religious
leader, and, distinctly and emphatically, is not a sect, nor ever was
one. It admits worthy people of any religion to membership, on the
condition of mutual tolerance and mutual help to discover truth. The
Founders have never consented to be taken as religious leaders, they
repudiate any such idea, and they have not taken and will not take
disciples.

(2) The Society is not composed of atheists, nor is it any more
conducted in the interest of atheism than in that of deism or
polytheism. It has members of almost every religion, and is on equally
fraternal terms with each and all.

(3) Not a majority, nor even a respectable minority, numerically
speaking, of its fellows are students of occult science or ever expect
to become adepts. All who cared for the information have been told
what sacrifices are necessary in order to gain the higher knowledge,
and few are in a position to make one tenth of them. He who joins our
Society gains no siddhis by that act, nor is there any certainty that
he will even see the phenomena, let alone meet with an adept. Some
have enjoyed both these opportunities, and so the possibility of the
phenomena and the existence of "Siddhas" do not rest upon our
unverified assertions. Those who have seen things have perhaps been
allowed to do so on account of some personal merit detected by those
who showed them the siddhis, or for other reasons known to themselves
and over which we have no control.

For thousands of years these things have, whether rightly or wrongly,
been guarded as sacred mysteries, and Asiatics at least need not be
reminded that often even after months or years of the most faithful
and assiduous personal service, the disciples of a Yogi have not been
shown "miracles" or endowed with powers. What folly, therefore, to
imagine that by entering any society one might make a short cut to
adeptship! The weary traveller along a strange road is grateful even
to find a guide-post that shows him his way to his place of
destination. Our Society, if it does naught else, performs this kindly
office for the searcher after truth. And it is much.

Before closing, one word must be said in correction of an unfortunate
impression that has got abroad.

Because our pamphlet of Rules mentions a relationship between our
Society and certain proficients in Occult Science, or "Mahatmas " many
persons fancy that these great men are personally engaged in the
practical direction of its affairs; and that, in such a case, being
primarily responsible for the several mistakes that have occurred in
the admission of unworthy members and in other matters, they can
neither be so wise, so prudent, or so far-seeing as is claimed for
them. It is also imagined that the President and Corresponding
Secretary (especially the latter) are, if not actually Yogis and
Mahatmas themselves, at least persons of ascetic habits, who assume
superior moral excellence.

Neither of these suppositions is correct, and both are positively
absurd. The administration of the Society is, unless in exceptionally
important crises, left to the recognized officials, and they are
wholly responsible for all the errors that are made. Many may
doubtless have been made, and our management may be very faulty, but
the wonder is that no more have occurred, if the multiplicity of
duties necessarily imposed upon the two chief officers and the
world-wide range of activity be taken into account.

Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky do not pretend to asceticism, nor
would it be possible for them to practise it while in the thick of the
struggle to win a permanent foothold for the Society in the face of
every possible obstacle that a selfish, sensuality-loving world puts
in the way. What either of them has heretofore been, or either or both
may in the future become, is quite a different affair.

At present they only claim to be trying honestly and earnestly, so far
as their natural infirmities of character permit, to enforce by
example and precept the ideas which are embodied in the platform and
Rules of the Theosophical Society.

Once or twice ill-wishers have publicly taunted us with not having
given practical proofs of our alleged affection for India. Our final
vindication must be left to posterity, which always renders that
justice that the present too often denies. But even now--if we may
judge by the tone of our correspondence, as well as by the enthusiasm
which has everywhere greeted us in the course of our journeyings--a
palpably good effect has been produced by our appeals to the educated
Indian public. The moral regeneration of India and the revival of her
ancient spiritual glories must exclusively be the work of her own
sons. All we can do is to apply the match to the train, to fan the
smouldering embers into a genial warmth. And this we are trying to do.
One step in the right direction, it will doubtless be conceded, is the
alliance effected with the Benares pandits and attested in the
subjoined document:

[Here are printed the Articles of the Union formed by the T. S. and
the Sanskrit Sabha of Benares, agreeing to cooperation and brotherly
union between the two societies, in the interests of the promotion of
Sanskrit Literature and Vedic Philosophy and Science...H.P.B.'s
concluding comment follows:]

These custodians of Sanskrit learning have promised to put in writing
the precious treasures of Aryan philosophy, and to cooperate with us
to give the facts a worldwide circulation.

The London SPIRITUALIST remarked, the other day, that we were doing
much for Spiritualism in India. It might rather be said we are doing
much to make known the importance of mesmeric science, for wherever we
have been we have spared no pains to show the close and intimate
relationship that exists between our modern discoveries in mesmerism,
psychometry, and odic force, and the ancient Indian science of Yoga
Vidya. We look forward with confidence to a day when the thorough
demonstration of this connection will give to both Asia and Europe the
basis for a perfect, because experimentally demonstrable, science of
Psychology.

THEOSOPHIST, January, 1881


2.

(written almost 10 years later in England -- 1889)


THE YEAR IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE YEAR!

by H. P. Blavatsky

DECEMBER, 1888, AND JANUARY, 1889


LUCIFER sends the best compliments of the season to his friends and
subscribers, and wishes them a happy New Year and many returns of the
same.

In the January issue of 1888, LUCIFER said: "Let no one imagine that
it is a mere fancy, the attaching of importance to the birth of the
year. The astral life of the earth is young and strong between
Christmas and Easter. Those who form their wishes now, will have added
strength to fulfill them consistently."

He now repeats what was said and adds: Let no one mistake the
importance and potency of numbers--as symbols. Everything in the
Universe was framed according to the eternal proportions and
combinations of numbers. "God geometrizes," and numbers and numerals
are the fundamental basis of all systems of mysticism, philosophy, and
religion.

The respective festivals of the year and their dates were all fixed
according to the Sun--the "father of all calendars" and of the Zodiac,
or the Sun-god and the twelve great, but still minor gods; and they
became subsequently sacred in the cycle of national and tribal
religions.

A year ago, it was stated by the editors that 1888 was a dark
combination of numbers: it has proved so since. Earthquakes and
terrible volcanic irruptions, tidal waves and landslips, cyclones and
fires, railway and maritime disasters followed each other in quick
succession. Even in point of weather the whole of the past year was an
insane year, an unhealthy and uncanny year, which shifted its seasons,
played ducks and drakes with the calendar and laughed at the wiseacres
who preside over the meteorological stations of the globe.

Almost every nation was visited by some dire calamity. Prominent among
other countries was Germany. It was in 1888 that the Empire reached,
virtually, the 18th year of its unification. It was during the fatal
combination of the four numbers 8 that it lost two of its Emperors,
and planted the seeds of many dire Karmic results.

What has the year 1889 in store for nations, men and theosophy, and
what for LUCIFER? But it may be wiser to forbear looking into
Futurity; still better to pray to the now ruling Hosts of Numbers on
high, asking them to be lenient to us, poor terrene ciphers. Which
shall we choose?

With the Jews and the Christian Kabalists, the number of their
deity--the God of Abraham and Jacob--is 10, the number of perfection,
the ONE in space, or the Sun, astronomically, and the ten Sephiroth,
Kabalistically. But the Gods are many; and every December, according
to the Japanese, is the month of the arrival, or descent of the Gods;
therefore there must be a considerable number of deities lurking
around us mortals in astral space.

The 3rd of January, a day which was, before the time of Clovis,
consecrated to the worship of Isis--the goddess-patroness of Paris who
has now changed her name and become St. Geneviève, "she who generates
life"--was also set apart as the day on which the deities of Olympus
visited their worshippers.

The third day of every month was sacred to Pallas Athene, the goddess
of Wisdom; and January the 4th is the day of Mercury (Hermes, Budha),
who is credited with adding brains to the heads of those who are civil
to him. December and January are the two months most connected with
gods and numbers. Which shall we choose?--we ask again. "This is the
question."

We are in the Winter Solstice, the period at which the Sun entering
the sign of Capricornus has already, since December 21st, ceased to
advance in the Southern Hemisphere, and, cancer or crab-like, begins
to move back. It is at this particular time that, every year, he is
born, and December 25th was the day of the birth of the Sun for those
who inhabited the Northern Hemisphere. It is also on December the
25th, Christmas, the day with the Christians on which the "Saviour of
the World" was born, that were born, ages before him, the Persian
Mithra, the Egyptian Osiris, the Greek Bacchus, the Phœnician Adonis,
the Phrygian Athis. And, while at Memphis the people were shown the
image of the god Day, taken out of his cradle, the Romans marked
December 25th in their calendar as the day natalis solis invicti.

Sad derision of human destiny. So many Saviours of the world born unto
it, so much and so often propitiated, and yet the world is as
miserable--nay, far more wretched now than ever before as though none
of these had ever been born!

January--the Januarius dedicated to Janus the God of Time, the ever
revolving cycle, the double-faced God--has one face turned to the
East, the other to the West; the Past and the Future! Shall we
propitiate and pray to him? Why not? His statue had 12 altars at its
feet, symbolizing the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the twelve great
gods, the twelve months of the solar year and--the twelve Apostles of
the Sun-Christ.

Dominus was the title given to the Sun by the ancients; whence dies
domini, dies solis, the "Sun-days." Puer nobis nascitur dominus
dominorum, sing the Roman Catholics on Christmas day.

The statue of Janus-January carried engraved on his right hand the
number 300, and on his left, 65, the number of the days in the Solar
year; in one hand a sceptre, in the other a key, whence his name
Janitor, the door-keeper of the Heavens, who opened the gates of the
year at its beginning. Old Roman coins represent Janus bifrons on one
side, and a ship on the other.

Have we not the right to see in him the prototype of Peter, the
fisherman of the celestial ship, the Janitor of Paradise, to the gates
of which he alone holds the keys? Janus presided over the four
seasons. Peter presides over the four Evangelists. In Occultism the
potency and significance of Numbers and Numerals lie in their right
application and permutation. If we have to propitiate any mysterious
number at all, we have most decidedly to address Janus-Peter, in his
relation to the ONE--the Sun. Now what would be the best thing for
LUCIFER and his staff to ask from the latter for 1889? Our joint
wishes are many, for our course as that of true love, does not run
altogether smooth.

Thus addressing the bright luminary in perpetual abscondito beyond the
eternal fogs of the great city, we might ask him for a little more
light and warmth in the coming year than he gave us in the year 1888.
We might entreat him at the same time to pour a little light into the
no less befogged heads of those who insist on boycotting LUCIFER under
the extraordinary notion that he and Satan are one.

Shine more on us, O, Helios, Son of Hyperion! Those on whom thou
beamest thy greatest radiance must be, as in the legend of Apollo,
good and kind men. Alas, for us. The British isle will never be
transformed, in this our cycle, into the isle of Æa, the habitat of
Helios, as of the children of that god and the Oceanide Perseis. Is
this the occult reason why our hearts become, with every year, colder
and more indifferent to the woes of mankind, and that the very souls
of the multitudes seem turning into icicles? We ask thee to shed thy
radiance on these poor shivering souls.

Such is LUCIFER'S, our Light-bearer's fervently expressed desire. What
may be that of the Theosophical Society in general, and its working
members in particular? We would suggest a supplication. Let us ask,
Brethren, the Lord on High, the One and the SOLE (or Sol), that he
should save us from the impudent distortion of our theosophical
teachings. That he should deliver us in 1889 from his pretended
priests, the "Solar Adepts" as they dub themselves, and their
sun-struck followers, as he delivered us once before; for verily "man
is born unto trouble," and our patience is well-nigh exhausted!

But, "wrath killeth the foolish man"; and as we know that "envy
slayeth the silly one," for years no attention was paid to our ever
increasing parodists. They plagiarized from our books, set up sham
schools of magic, waylaid seekers after truth by deceiving them with
holy names, misused and desecrated the sacred science by using it to
get money by various means, such as selling as "magic mirrors" for
£15, articles made by common cabinet makers for £1 at most. With them,
as with all charlatans, fortune-tellers, and self-styled "Adepts," the
sacred science of Theosophia had become when kabalistically
read--Dollar-Sophia. To crown all, they ended by offering, in a most
generous manner, to furnish all those "awakened" who were
"disappointed in Theosophical Mahatmas," with the genuine article in
the matter of adeptship. Unfortunately the said article was traced in
its turn to a poor, irresponsible medium, and something worse; and so
that branch of the brood finally disappeared. It vanished one fine
morning into thin air leaving its disconsolate disciples thoroughly
"awakened" this time, and fully alive to the sad fact, that if they
had acquired less than no occult wisdom, their pockets, on the other
hand, had been considerably relieved of their weight in pounds and
shillings. After their Exodus came a short lull. But now the same is
repeated elsewhere.

The long metaphysical articles borrowed from "Isis Unveiled," and the
Theosophist ceased suddenly to appear in certain Scotch papers. But if
they disappeared from Europe, they reappeared in America. In August
1887 the New York PATH laid its hand heavily on "The Hidden Way Across
the Threshold" printed in Boston, and proceeded to speedily squelch
it, as "stolen goods." As that Journal expresses itself about this
pretentious volume, copied not written by its authors--"whatever in it
is new is not true, and whatever true, is not new; scattered through
its 600 pages, are wholesale thefts from 'Paracelsus,' 'Isis
Unveiled,' the Path etc. etc." This unceremonious appropriation of
long paragraphs and entire pages "either verbatim or with unimportant
changes,"--from various, mostly theosophical authors--a list of which
is given in the PATH (Vide August 1887, P. 159-160), might be left to
its fate, but for the usual trick of our wretched imitators. In the
words of the same editor, of the PATH: "the claim is made that it (the
book) is inspired by great adepts both living and dead, who have
condescended to relent and give out these 600 pages, with certain
restrictions which prevent their going into any detail or explanation
beyond those given by the unfortunate or unprogressed (theosophical)
authors from whose writings they (the adepts) have either allowed or
directed their humble disciple . . . to steal."

Before the appearance of modern Theosophical literature it was
"Spirits" and "Controls" that were ever in the mouths of these folk;
now the living "adepts" are served up with every sauce. It is ever and
always Adepts here, Hierophants there. And this only since the revival
of Theosophy and its spread in America in 1884, note well; after the
great soap-bubble conspiracy between Madras and Cambridge against the
Theosophical Society, had given a new impetus to the movement. Up to
that year, Spiritualists, and professional mediums especially, with
their "controls" and "guides," could hardly find words of vituperation
strong enough to brand the "adepts" and deride their "supposed
powers."

But since the Herodic "slaughter of the Innocents," when the S.P.R.
turned from the Theosophical to the Spirtualistic phenomena, most of
the "dear departed" ones took to their heels. The angels from the
"Summer Land" are going out of fashion just now, for Spiritualists
begin to know better and to discriminate. But because the "adept"
idea, or rather their philosophy, begins to gain ground, this is no
reason why pretenders of every description should travesty in their
ungrammatical productions the teachings, phraseology, and Sanskrit
terms out of theosophical books; or why, again, they should turn round
and make people believe that these were given them by other
"Hierophants," in their opinion, far higher, nobler and grander than
our teachers.

The great evil of the whole thing is, not that the truths of Theosophy
are adopted by these blind teachers, for we should gladly welcome any
spread, by whatever means, of ideals so powerful to wean the world
from its dire materialism--but that they are so interwoven with
mis-statements and absurdities that the wheat cannot be winnowed from
the chaff, and ridicule, if not worse, is brought to bear upon a
movement which is beginning to exercise an influence, incalculable in
its promise of good, upon the tendency of modern thought. How shall
men discern good from evil, when they find it in its close embrace?
The very words, "Arhat," "Karma," "Maya," "Nirvana," must turn
enquirers from our threshold when they have been taught to associate
them with such a teeming mass of ignorance and presumption. But a few
years ago, all these Sanskrit terms were unknown to them, and even now
they repeat them phonetically, parrot-like, and without any
understanding. And yet they will cram them into their silly books and
pamphlets, and fill these with denunciations against great men, the
soles of whose feet they are unworthy to gaze upon!

Though false coin is the best proof of the existence of genuine gold,
yet, the false deceives the unwary. Were the "pretentions" of the T.S.
in this direction founded on mere hypothesis and sentimental gush,
like the identification of many a materialized spirit, the
theosophical "Mahatmas" and their society would have dissolved long
ago like smoke in space under the desperate attacks of the holy
alliance of Missionaries and pseudo-Scientists, helped by the
half-hearted and misinformed public. That the Society has not only
survived but become thrice stronger in numbers and power, is a good
proof again of its own intrinsic merit. Moreover, it has gained also
in wisdom; that practical, matter-of-fact wisdom which teaches,
through the mouth of the great Christian "Mahatma," not to scatter
pearls before swine, nor to attempt to put new wine into old bottles.
]
Therefore, let us, in our turn, recite a heartfelt conjuration (the
ancient name for prayer), and invoke the help of the powers that be,
to deliver us from the painful necessity of exposing these sorry
"make-believes" in LUCIFER once again. Let us ring the theosophical
Angelus thrice for the convocation of our theosophical friends and
readers. If we would draw on us the attention of Sol on High, we must
repeat that which the ancients did and which was the origin of the
R.C. Angelus.

The first stroke of the bell announced the coming of Day; the
appearance of Gabriel, the morning messenger with the early
Christians, of Lucifer, the morning star, with their predecessors.

The second bell, at noon, saluted the glory and exalted position of
the Sun, King of Heavens; and the third bell announced the approach of
Night, the Mother of Day the Virgin, Isis-Mary, or the Moon.

Having accomplished the prescribed duty, we pour our complaint and
say: "Turn thy flaming eye, O SOL, thou, golden-haired God, on certain
trans-atlantic mediums, who play at being thine Hierophants! Behold,
they whose brain is not fit to drink of the cup of wisdom, but who,
mounting the quack's platform, and offering for sale bottled-up
wisdom, and the homunculi of Paracelsus, assure those of the gaping
mouths that it is the true Elixir of Amrita, the water of immortal
life! Oh, bright Lord, is not thine eye upon those barefaced robbers
and iconoclasts of the systems of the land whence thou risest? Hear
their proud boasting: "We teach men the science to make man"(!). The
lucrative trade of vendors of Japanese amulets and Taro cards, with
indecent double bottoms, having been cut off in its full blossom in
Europe, the Eastern Wisdom of the Ages is now abandoned. According to
their declarations, China, Japan, old India and even the Swedenborgian
"land of the Lost Word" have suddenly become barren; they yield no
more their crop of true adepts; it is America, they say, the land of
the Almighty Dollar, which has suddenly opened her bowels and given
birth to full-blown Hierophants, who now beckon to the "Awakened."
Mirabile dictu! But if so, why should thy self-styled priests, O great
SUN, still offer as a bait a mysterious Dwija, a "twice born," who can
only be the product of the land of Manu? And why should those
pretended and bumptious servants of thine, oh Surya-Vikarthana, whose
rich crop of national adepts, if "home-made," must rejoice as a
natural rule in purely Anglo-Saxon and Celto-German names, still
change their Irish patronymics for those of a country which, they say,
is effete and sterile, and whose nations are "dying out"? Has another
Hindu name and names been discovered in the Great Hub, as a peg and
pegs whereon to hang the modest pretensions of the Solar Magi? Yea,
they belie truth, O Lord, and they bend their tongues like quill pens
for lies. But--"the false prophets shall become wind for the word is
not in them."

TO DARE, TO WILL, TO ACHIEVE AND KEEP SILENT is the motto of the true
Occultist, from the first adept of our fifth Race down to the last
Rosecroix. True Occultism, i.e., genuine Raj-Yoga powers, are not
pompously boasted of, and advertised in "Dailies" and monthlies, like
Beecham's pills or Pears' soap. "Woe unto them that are wise in their
own eyes; for the wise man feareth and keeps silent, but the fool
layeth open his folly."

Let us close by expressing a hope that our Theosophist brothers and
sisters in America will pause and think before they risk going into a
"Solar" fire. Above all, let them bear in mind that true occult
knowledge can never be bought. He who has anything to teach, unless
like Peter to Simon he says to him who offers him money for his
knowledge--"Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that
the gift of (our inner) God may be purchased with money"--is either a
black magician or an IMPOSTOR. Such is the first lesson taught by
LUCIFER to his readers in 1889.

Lucifer, January, 1889


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

After reading this and the recently reprinted KARMIC VISIONS, how it
is possible to accuse H P B of charlatanship, of wholesale copying, --
her remarkable style alone, and her evident scholarship earns her a
noble place in the annals of literature.

Dal

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

-----Original Message-----

From: THOMAS
Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2002 10:33 AM
To:
Subject: VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR: to all