Theos-Talk Archives (February 2006 Message tt00088)

Over the years, The Theosophy Company has prided itself on
providing photographic reprints of HPB's original works.
Notice what this publisher writes in their 1947 edition
of THE SECRET DOCTRINE:

"With the present printing of THE SECRET DOCTRINE, The Theosophy
Company continues its function of providing students and inquirers
with unaltered editions of the original literature of the 
Theosophical Movement. . . . this edition is a perfect facsimile of 
the original edition and can be relied upon as such."

And earlier in the same "Publishers' Preface", pains were taken to
point out:

"Besides the original edition of 1888---the only one authorized
by Madame Blavatsky---several other editions of this work have
appeared.  One of these, the so-called 'Third and Revised
Edition' of 1893, is marred by many thousands of alterations, some
of them trivial, some actual mutilations of the original text."

And this preface went on to say the following about another edition
of the SD:

"Except for gratuitous 'corrections' of the author's [Blavatsky's]
Sanskrit scholarship. . . . this edition is virtually an accurate
reproduction of the original text.  Its exact authenticity, however,
cannot be determined without laborious comparison with the original."

How much of this (Theosophy Company's) "Publishers' Preface" could be
equally applied to their own edition of THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE??!!

Why are there hundreds of changes in this Theosophy Company's 
edition of HPB's THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE?  

And nowhere in this edition (that has been available for more than 7 
decades!) is there a notice indicating that HPB's original text has 
been edited or modified or changed or corrected in anyway.

In the final analysis, the Theosophy Company's edition of HPB's 
mystical classic can be aptly described as follows using the very 
words that the TC publishers used to describe one of the questioned 
editions of the SD:

"Its exact authenticity, however, cannot be determined without 
laborious comparison with the original."