Theos-Talk Archives (February 2006 Message tt00137)

I wrote:

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

Leon replied:

"Could you list exactly what these 'hundreds of changes' are?" 

SOME of these changes can be found listed in the following
postings:

http://theos-talk.com/archives/199810/tt00044.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/11902

For the probable source for these changes, see:

http://theos-talk.com/archives/200310/tt00153.html

I am currently working on an uptodate article that will
give all the significant details similar to the article I 
wrote on "Reprint of A Modern Panarion by the Theosophy Company"
which can be read at:

http://blavatskyarchives.com/modernpanarion.htm

If one looks at the publisher's preface to the Thesophy
Company's facsimile reprint of the SD, one can find certain
VALID criticisms of various questioned editions of the SD.

See:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/29572

These criticisms are right on the mark .... 

and can ALSO be applied to the Theosophy Co.'s edition of the 
VOICE.  

I rephrase the criticisms to apply to the TC edition of the VOICE:

The TC edition "is marred" by many hundreds of "alterations", "some
of them trivial, some actual mutilations of the original text."

The TC edition has "gratuitous 'corrections' of the author's 
[Blavatsky's]Sanskrit scholarship."

The "exact authenticity" of the TC edition "cannot be determined 
without laborious comparison with the original" 1889 edition.

The publisher's preface to the Theosophy Company's edition of the SD 
has this notable statement:

"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."

In contrast, ....

with the printing of THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE, The Theosophy Company 
did NOT continue its function of providing students and inquirers 
with UNALTERED editions of the ORIGINAL literature.  The TC edition 
of the VOICE is NOT a perfect fasimile of the original 1889 edition 
and CANNOT be relied upon as such.

Furthermore, this TC edition has been in print and sold for more 
than 7 decades and during this time there has been no publisher's 
note in said edition indicating that the text is edited, changed and 
corrected.  Therefore many students have assumed that the reprint is 
an unaltered reproduction of HPB's original text.  

When I first published the above findings years ago on Theos-Talk, I 
had many ULT students writing to me and basically saying that I was 
mistaken or even lying when I said there were any changes.  They 
insisted that the Theosophy Company would never publish an edited 
and altered version of HPB's classic.  I remember sending to a few 
of them photocopies of HPB's original VOICE.  One associate upon 
receiving the photocopies wrote me that he was disillusioned with 
the ULT for this and said he planned to drop his associateship in 
the ULT.  Another one wrote me when he received the photocopies and 
told me he was cutting off all future communications with me.  

Unfortunately, these unacknowledged changes in the VOICE cast
serious doubt on what Dallas wrote some years ago on Theos-Talk:

"In U.L.T. I don't have t[o] worry -- the originals are
available on a reliable basis. . . . "

Dallas also stated at the same time:

"Personally I would rather deal with H.P.Blavatsky's 'mistakes' than 
with those created by others who have had the temerity to believe 
they knew better than she did, and had the audacity to introduce 
changes which she did not authorize. Strong language, but true if it 
is applicable."

But for reasons I still cannot fathom Dallas still seems to prefer 
the altered edition of the VOICE by the Theosophy Company and 
continues to recommend this edition instead of, for example, the 
facsimile of the 1889 edition published by Kessinger.

See the Kessinger edition at Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0766102025/blavatskystud-20/

Finally, from the two statements to be found AT THE BOTTOM of the 
posting at:

http://theos-talk.com/archives/200310/tt00153.html

it would appear that not only Judge made some of these changes, but 
also G.R.S. Mead and Annie Besant!

As far as I know the only ULT associate that has dealt with this 
issue in a straightforward and frank manner has been Wes Amerman:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/12064

Hope this helps.

Daniel
http://hpb.cc