Theos-Talk Archives (May 2006 Message tt00019)

>From the primary sources below one can see that HPB had 
finally decided to publish the third volume of "The 
Secret Doctrine" and was, in fact, working on the 
third volume manuscript during the months preceding 
her death.
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February 1890---HPB wrote in a letter to her sister Vera (Path, 
December 1895, 268):

"I must put the third volume of the [Secret] Doctrine in order, and 
the fourth -- hardly begun yet, too."

January 7, 1891---Claude Falls Wright wrote (Path, February 1891, 
354):

"H.P.B. has within the last week or so begun to get together the 
MSS. (long ago written) for the Third Volume of The Secret Doctrine; 
it will however, take a good twelve months to prepare for 
publication."

February 1891---Alice Leighton Cleather wrote (Theosophist, April 
1891, 438):

"H.P.B. has already started on Vol. III."

February 18, 1891---Countess Wachtmeister wrote in a letter to W. Q. 
Judge (cited in Report of Proceedings, Secret Doctrine Centenary, 
October 29-30, 1988, 1989, 86):

"When Volume 3 [of The Secret Doctrine] comes out this summer I 
expect there will be a fresh demand for the earlier [two] volumes."

April 1891---HPB wrote in Lucifer (CW 13: 145-6):

"Two years ago, the writer promised in The Secret Doctrine, Vol. II, 
p. 798, a third and even a fourth volume of that work. This third 
volume (now almost ready) treats of the ancient Mysteries of 
Initiation, gives sketches--from the esoteric standpoint--of many of 
the most famous and historically known philosophers and hierophants 
(everyone of whom is set down by the Scientists as an impostor), 
from the archaic down to the Christian era, and traces the teachings 
of all these sages to one and the same source of all knowledge and 
science--the esoteric doctrine or WISDOM RELIGION. No need our 
saying that from the esoteric and legendary materials used in the 
forthcoming work, its statements and conclusions differ greatly and 
often clash irreconcilably with the data given by almost all the 
English and German Orientalists. . . ."

May 4, 1891---Annie Besant gave testimony in HPB's case against 
Elliott Coues and the New York Sun (Michael Gomes, ed., Witness for 
the Prosecution: Annie Besant's Testimony on Behalf of H. P. 
Blavatsky in the N. Y. Sun/Coues Law Case, 1993, 23):

"There is one other work of hers [HPB's], which I have seen in 
manuscript, still unpublished; a third volume of 'The Secret 
Doctrine' which is now being got ready for the press under my own 
eyes. Madame Blavatsky has also in preparation a glossary of 
Sanscrit and Eastern tongues; those are both in preparation; one of 
them is already in type and the other is nearly ready for type."

May 8, 1891---H. P. Blavatsky died in London.

>From the above 1890-1891 statements (either written by HPB herself 
or by her London students) a reasonable conclusion can be drawn that 
HPB had finally decided to publish the third volume of The Secret 
Doctrine and was, in fact, working on the third volume manuscript 
during the months preceding her death.

For more on this 3rd volume manuscript, see:

http://blavatskyarchives.com/sdiiipt1.htm

Daniel
Blavatsky Study Center
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/blavatskybookstore.htm