CHAPTER XII

LATER THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY

While Madame Blavatsky in Europe was explaining the cosmos and acquainting mankind with its own origin, nature, and destiny, Theosophic affairs in America were moving forward under the steady guidance of Mr. Judge; but there was also a series of disturbances which culminated in the "Sun Libel Suit" in 1890.1 This latter event had its remote beginnings in a situation arising out of the question of the inspired authorship of Light on the Path, The Idyll of the White Lotus, The Blossom and the Fruit, and Through the Gates of Gold, four small volumes given out by Miss Mabel Collins in England after 1884. Miss Collins had herself declared them dictated to her by a mysterious Master, though later she said that she had merely "written them down" from their astral inscription on a wall in the mystical "Hall of Learning" described in one of the four books. Aspiring eagerly for leadership in the Theosophical Society in America at the time was Prof. Elliott F. Coues, a man of talent and ability, somewhat versed in the field of science and anthropology, who had been led through his interest in psychic phenomena to affiliate with the Theosophical Society. He seems to have resented Mr. Judge's preferment over him in the esoteric counsels and leadership and urged himself upon Madame Blavatsky as the logical choice for the supreme office in the United States. Rebuffed by H.P.B., he became embittered. In the Religio-Philosophical Journal, of Chicago, he published his correspondence with Miss
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1 The material of this chapter has been drawn largely from the anonymous work, The Theosophical Movement, the statements in which are fortified throughout with an abundance of documentary data, and from the Theosophic periodical literature of the years covered by the narrative, as well as in a number of instances from the author's first-hand acquaintance with the events narrated.

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Collins relative to the mooted authorship of the brochures. This magazine, an organ of spiritistic-psychic interests, had given an airing to Mr. W. Emmette Coleman's attacks upon the authenticity of Madame Blavatsky's classical scholarship in Isis. Prof. Coues now used its columns to discredit Madame Blavatsky's theories of Mahatmaship by presenting some of Miss Collins' statements which virtually cast the charge of intellectual dishonesty at H.P.B.'s door. Miss Collins had stated to Prof. Coues in the first of her letters to him that she had made her declaration as to the Mahatma-inspired authorship of her Idyll of the White Lotus only because Madame Blavatsky had "implored and begged her to do so." This was as much as to say that she had lied about the inspirational nature of the writings because Madame Blavatsky urged her to do so.2 When H.P.B. came to London in 1887 she associated Miss Collins with herself as a sub-editor of her magazine Lucifer. This relation subsisted for two years, when Miss Collins' name was dropped from the editorial staff and her connection with the publication ended. No reason for the breach was given out publicly, but a letter of Madame Blavatsky's later charged that her protégé had proved unreliable and untrustworthy in her occult pledges.

Prof. Coues became more openly hostile to the Blavatsky-Judge hegemony in America and finally, upon preferment of formal charges of untheosophical conduct lodged against him by Mr. Arthur B. Griggs, of Boston, he was expelled from the Theosophical Society in June, 1889. Now fighting in the open, Prof. Coues, early in the next year, 1890, gave interviews to a correspondent of the New York Sun in Washington D.C., and painted his former cult-associates with the black hue of out-and-out imposture. In its Sunday issue,
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2 Evidence arrived at by comparison of dates and known facts as to Madame Blavatsky's slight acquaintance with Miss Collins before 1887, and the testimony of prefatory remarks in each of the four books in question, leads to the definite conclusion that Miss Collins did herself ascribe the source of her books to Mahatmic or other high dictation, and that she had taken this position without any influence whatever from H.P.B. The whole matter is set forth in elaborate detail in The Theosophical Movement, pp. 195-210.

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June 1, 1890, the Sun gave a half-column to a general statement of Theosophic and Blavatskian charlatanry. Tasting blood, Prof. Coues gave to the Sun representative an extended article detailing the whole alleged career of Madame Blavatsky and her dupes. It made a seven-column finely printed article in the Sun of Sunday, July 20. It included open declarations that Madame Blavatsky had in several instances been a member of the demi-monde in Paris and the mistress of two Russians mentioned by name, by one of whom she had given birth to a deformed child that died at Kieff in 1868. Every untoward incident in the life of his subject was revamped and given a plausible rôle in a vast scheme of deceptive posing, with the Russian spy motive once more doing service. This was considered going too far, and Mr. Judge at once filed suit in New York against the Sun for libel. The case was delayed by congestion in the courts, and before it ever came to trial Madame Blavatsky passed from the stormy scene. Her death left the newspaper free from further legal responsibility. But its efforts to procure material evidence to defend its position revealed that Prof. Coues had overreached himself and that the allegations were for the greater part, if not entirely, unjust to the deceased leader. Finally, in its issue of Sept. 26, 1892, the Sun voluntarily retracted its offensive articles of 1891, repudiated the Coues interview, and gave Mr. Judge space to write a devoted tribute to his late co-worker.

"We were misled," the Sun observes, "into admitting into the Sun's columns an article by Dr. E. F. Coues, of Washington, in which allegations were made against Madame Blavatsky's character, and also against her followers, which appear to have been without solid foundation . . . we desire to say that his allegations respecting the Theosophical Society and Mr. Judge personally are not sustained by evidence, and should not have been printed."

The failure of so well-equipped an agency as the New York Sun to secure incriminating evidence on any of the many charges lodged by Prof. Coues against Madame Blavatsky is pointed to by Theosophists as a complete vindication of her name.

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Charges to much the same general effect were launched in a renewed attack on the good faith of H.P.B. by V. S. Solovyoff in his volume, A Modern Priestess of Isis, after her death. Solovyoff, a Russian of good family, had met Madame Blavatsky in Paris in 1884, had been fascinated by her personality and her intriguing philosophy and occult powers and had joined her Society. He manifested every desire to be admitted to the inner mysteries of occultism, and it is the opinion of impartial students of the data of this controversy that Madame Blavatsky's knowledge of his spiritual unpreparedness for acceptance as a chela under her Master and her refusal to have him admitted to this exalted relationship turned his worship of her into feelings of another kind.3 His own letters during the years of his acquaintance with Madame Blavatsky and her sister Madame Jelihowsky discloses his enthusiastic interest in the esoteric program, and his own description of a number of psychic experiences which occurred to him in person through the agency of his compatriot and her Adept aides is noteworthy. He recounts the personal appearance to him one night of the Master Morya himself, and gives the gist of the conversation he had with the exalted personage who stood before him in his astral (materialized) form. M. Solovyoff's testimony was considerably weakened later when he repudiated the reality of this phenomenon and endeavored to explain it away with the statement that he was at the time suffering from overwrought nerves. The current of his entire narrative in the Modern Priestess thinly disguises a general inconsistency between the attitude his letters show at the time of his close association with H.P.B. (and her sister) and that which he assumed when he came to write his books after her death. Madame Jelihowsky's letters to him and her rebuttal of many of his specific charges, which are appended to his book as a supplement, indicate that the foundation of his accusations is erected on very shifty sands. M. Solovyoff
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3 See statement of A. Trevor Barker, in his Introduction to Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett, p. vii, as follows: "Much fresh light is thrown on . . . her relation with the notorious Solovyoff, who in his rage and resentment at being refused the privilege of chelaship, did so much to injure her reputation."

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shows the capabilities of a good novelist, and Theosophists are persuaded, after painstaking analysis of the entire situation, that he drew largely for the material of his book upon the romantic inventiveness of his literary genius. In any case, his book is added testimony to H.P.B.'s powerful personality, whatever inferences one draws from it regarding her methods.

In 1888 the General Convention in India adopted the policy of reorganizing the Theosophical Society on the plan of autonomous sections. The Society was thus changed from a quasi-autocracy to a constitutional federation, each part independent as to its internal and local affairs, but responsible to every other part for its loyal support of the movement, and to the headship which bound the sections together.

As Col. Olcott and his partner were driving each in his own direction--the one for an exoteric goal and the other toward an esoteric one--the history of the Society in the years antedating Madame Blavatsky's death reflects a struggle between the aims and interests of the two. Col. Olcott was cool to the establishment of the Esoteric Section. He frequently resented H.P.B.'s arbitrary overriding of his authority. It was in miniature the clash between church and state, the spiritual and the temporal power, all over again. While the priestess lived she left no doubts as to which had supremacy. And hardly less than in her day, the later developments of Theosophic history can be understood only in the light of the reverence given the Masters. A word dropped from their lips is the highest law in the Theosophic kingdom. Material interest or temporal expediency must bend before its authority.

Curiously also the attitudes taken toward their common enterprise by the two Founders reflect the views of two opposing schools of thought. Col. Olcott looked upon the growth of the movement as a development, not a teleological unfoldment. It had no determinate purpose in the beginning, no definite lines of direction, but was largely the product of unintended and unexpected events. Even its declared objects were a "development." His views on these matters were reflected in an article, "The Theosophical Society,"

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signed by "F.T.S." (thought to have been Mr. Richard Harte, one of the Colonel's lieutenants at Adyar), published in Theosophist for Jan, 1889. But at least one gesture of assent to the contrary view is made in the article when it says:

"This variation in the declared objects of the Society must not be taken as indicating any real change in the intentions of the Founders. There is abundant evidence in their writings and speeches that from the first their purposes were to stimulate the spiritual development of the individual and to awaken in the race the sentiment of Brotherhood."

Nevertheless, the Theosophist, during 1889, and thereafter, kept printing articles from Mr. Harte's pen, emphasizing the need of the Society's standing before the world divested of secret and mystical connection with, or at any rate vital dependence upon, the mysterious wire-pullers behind the scenes, the Mahatmas. Olcott's party, including Mr. Sinnett, Mr. Hume, and other prominent members, desired to avoid the inevitable storm of worldly contumely which adherence to the legend of the Masters provoked. They claimed that the organization rested on high scientific, philosophical, and ethical principles that stood on their own merits without adventitious supernatural aid. They wished it thus to take on the colors of anthroposophism and humanism. They desired first of all that the Theosophical Society should appear eminently respectable in the sight of intelligent people and not expose the questionable Masters to public view. To the Masters, on the other hand, H.P.B. and Mr. Judge were irretrievably committed. From the standpoint of these two the danger to be guarded against was that the exoteric leaders might make of the Society a worldly success, at the risk of occult failure. They feared that Theosophy might gain the whole world but lose its own soul. This division of aims explains most of the internal troubles which have arisen on board the ship of Theosophy.

In one of the Harte articles mention was made of Madame Blavatsky's "loyalty to Adyar," i.e., to Col. Olcott's outer headship and authority. She replied by saying that:

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"H.P.B. is loyal to death to the Theosophic Cause, and those great Teachers whose philosophy alone can bind the whole of humanity into one Brotherhood."

She would be loyal to Olcott and the Theosophic officialdom only so long as they held true to the Masters and their Cause. Her loyalty to the Colonel was based on his tireless labors for that Cause. If he deserted it her nexus of loyalty to him was broken.

Events moved on from year to year, with "crises" and storms every few years, yet with rapid increase in membership. In 1886 there were 8 Lodges in the United States; in 1887, 12; in 1888, 19; in 1889, 26; in 1890, 45; in 1891, 57; and in 1892, 69. The American Section worked for the ethical ideals of Theosophy. In Europe and India the interests of Fellows were largely centered upon the second and third objects, comparative religion and psychism.

In 1889 the Esoteric Section was changed to the "Eastern School of Theosophy," and about the same time the European branches and unattached Fellows were incorporated in a separate autonomous organization known as the Theosophical Society in Europe, of which Madame Blavatsky was constituted President.

In 1888 a most notable event in the life of Theosophy occurred in England, soon to be followed by momentous consequences for the movement everywhere. This was the accession to the ranks of Mrs. Annie Besant, the noted and eloquent radical leader in England. Her life is now so well known4 that it is needless here to recount the events of her long and notable public career in her native country. A child of deep religious feeling and almost Catholic devotion, she passed through the stages of doubt and unbelief to atheism; threw herself ardently into such movements as the Fabian Society, Socialism, and the Secular Society; worked for birth control and slum amelioration and education; and finally found her destiny and her spiritual refuge when in 1888 she was asked by Mr. W. T. Stead to write for his
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4 See her Autobiography, and a recent work by Jeoffrey West, The Life of Annie Besant (Gerald Howe, Limited, London, 1929).

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magazine a review of the new publication--The Secret Doctrine. She testifies that here, in the great scheme of cosmogony and wedded science and faith, she saw the light that she had so earnestly been seeking. She instantly adopted the new teaching, met H.P.B., and threw her great abilities for service at her feet. She was accepted, and soon became the very right hand of the aging messenger. One of the most eloquent orators of her sex in history, she brought the message of Theosophy to crowded halls in most convincing terms. Her advocacy gave to Theosophy a vigorous stimulus. She had attended the American General Convention in 1890, and her second visit to this country was made in 1891. Her name and standing made her lecture tour in that year a great success.

Mrs. Besant again visited America in 1892, her speaking tour of leading cities lasting from her arrival in November of that year until February of 1893. The largest halls were packed, and a new wave of public interest surged forward.

She and Mr. Judge had been made the two heads of the Esoteric Section, to carry on the functions of that body after Madame Blavatsky should have passed from earth. H.P.B. had in writing (1888) constituted Mr. Judge as her "only representative for said Section in America"; and she had appointed Mrs. Besant as "Chief Secretary of the Inner Group and Recorder of the Teachings" given in the organization. After Judge's death (Saturday, March 21, 1896) she was left as the sole guardian of the inner society, and through it she wielded for the years to come a potent sway over the destinies of the whole Theosophic body.

On May 8, 1891, not quite sixty years of age, Madame Blavatsky ceased her earthy labors for Theosophy. There was for a brief time a feeling of disorganization and helpless bewilderment when her leadership and strong guardian hand were withdrawn; but her death at the same time served to unite Theosophists everywhere, at least temporarily, in a glow of fraternal good will and renewed loyalty to her message. The leader gone, the message became the thing of paramount importance. She had held no office save that of Re-

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cording Secretary, which was declared unique and abolished with her death. So she could properly have no successor. But innumerable mystics, mediums, and psychics the world over sprang forth with assertions that they had had commissions from her spirit to step into her earthly place. Probably most prominent among these was Mr. Henry B. Foulke, of Philadelphia, who declared that H.P.B.'s spirit had appeared to him, reproduced her portrait to identify herself, and given him her mantle of leadership. His claims were officially repudiated by Mr. Judge.

In 1892 Col. Olcott presented his resignation as President of the whole Society, alleging ill-health as the reason. He was requested by the American Section to withdraw his action and later in the year did so, after a vacation in the Nilgiri Hills. The American Section had gone so far, however, as to vote for the election of Mr. Judge as his successor in office, and this choice was endorsed by similar action on the part of the European Section a little later. Mr. Judge was Vice-President of the Theosophical Society as well as head of the General Council in America.

In March, 1892, Col. Olcott began the serial publication of Old Diary Leaves, with the sub-title, "The True History of the Theosophical Society," in his magazine The Theosophist. He represented Madame Blavatsky as a very human person, with great weaknesses and foibles. He apparently wished to combat a natural disposition on the part of members to erect a "worship" of H.P.B., and to accept her writings as Theosophic "dogma." The Diary ran on for many years, and its effect was to weaken her prestige to an extent hardly less than the open attack of the Society for Psychical Research had done in 1885. There is reason to believe that the Colonel's representation of her in this narrative is an uncritical account. His estimate of her does not accord with several other statements he had at times made as to her greatness. Even to those who had associated most closely with her she remained an enigma, an insoluble mystery. One of Koot Hoomi's letters had intimated that she was a great soul (Mahatma) in her own right, a far greater Adept

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in the spiritual hierarchy than her outward personality seemed to indicate. This, at any rate, is the Blavatsky legend in some quarters of the movement. But the Colonel reduced the emphasis on this note in his reminiscences. He had always felt that the Theosophical Society could succeed, even without her and her invisible Sages.

In 1895 occurred the next momentous episode in American Theosophical history--the "Judge Case." It is a long story. It arose out of the elements of the situation already noted, viz., the emphasis of Col. Olcott and his party on the exoteric work of the Society, and the opposing attitude of Mr. Judge, consistently supported at first by Mrs. Besant, who emphasized Madame Blavatsky's esoteric teachings. The actual bone of contention was found in the articles put forth by Mr. T. Subba Row (Rao), eminent Hindu Theosophist and high chela, as far back at 1886, questioning Mr. Sinnett's transcriptions of the Master's teachings regarding the sevenfold constitution of man in Esoteric Buddhism, and the debate involving the status of Mars and Mercury in the solar chain. Madame Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine had reversed the earlier cosmological teaching of K.H. as given out through Sinnett. The situation, of course, threw doubt on the trustworthy character of Mahatmic instruction and, by inference, on Madame Blavatsky's rôle as the agent of higher Sages. From this point discussion was carried further into the domain of Mahatmic messages in general, and the spurious or genuine nature of their reception by individuals. This question was thrown into more violent agitation about 1892 when Mr. Judge, together with his editorial assistant on The Path, Julia Campbell-Ver Planck (the "Jasper Niemand" of editorial prominence), and Mrs. Annie Besant, the latter most startlingly in her farewell address to her former Secularist associates, all publicly declared that they had had bona fide messages from the living Mahatmas. The significance of these declarations--H.P.B., the accused agent of all Mahatmic communication while she lived, being now not on the scene--was hardly to be exaggerated. But in the eyes of the Olcott-Sinnett faction

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they tended to lengthen the shadow of H.P.B., where its shortening was to be desired in furtherance of their partisan interests. They fell in opposition, too, to the hosts of psychic and mediumistic messages received by numerous members of the Society at séances and circles. Mr. Judge stood out for the authenticity of these messages, some of which he stated came to him, though he refused to submit, in corroboration of their genuineness, the "seal," handwriting or the other usual outward marks of the Master's letters. His opponents began more and more to allege forgery or invention on his part. The leading articles in the Theosophist, Lucifer, and The Path at this epoch dealt with phases of this debate. The insistent charges emanating from the exoteric party were that Judge and Mrs. Besant were trying to erect, in the matter of Mahatmic messages, a Theosophic dogmatism or orthodoxy. They reasserted the right of every Theosophist to accept or reject messages, and reiterated the cardinal principle of Theosophic free-thought. In fine, it was Judge's firm adherence to the fundamental thesis of Blavatskian hierarchical deputyship that made him more and more a thorn in the flesh of the other group. As long as Mrs. Besant stood with him it was difficult to weaken his position. The "anti-Blavatsky conspirators" then sought to wean her away from his support, and this was accomplished in 1893 through a series of circumstances.

In the fall of that year the notable Congress of Religions was held at Chicago in connection with the Columbian Exposition, and Mrs. Besant was the representative of Theosophy. Through Theosophical influence and financial assistance, the delegate chosen to represent Brahmanism in the Congress was one Prof. Gyanendra Nath Chakravarti, instructor in India and a member of the Theosophical Society. He and Mrs. Besant became almost the leading sensations of the convention, she through her eloquence and power, he through his dignity, suavity, and show of erudition. Interesting as they proved to be to outsiders, they shortly became far more so to each other. It was the delight of

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Chakravarti to keep watch and ward over the brilliant Western champion of his country's traditions, and on Mrs. Besant's part his reputed possession of great psychic abilities was a lure which, with her mental and spiritual leanings, became well nigh irresistible. It is said that Chakravarti slept outside her room door at the hotel to guard her from intrusion.5 A close association began between the two which lasted for some ten or twelve years, when Chakravarti's place of foremost psychic interest in her regard was usurped by Mr. C. W. Leadbeater. It appears beyond question that the Brahmin's influence upon the mind of Mrs. Besant was profound, and in directions which the future course of Theosophical history readily reveals.

In the late fall of 1893 Mrs. Besant went for the first time to India, her tours there veritably "trailing clouds of glory" for herself and the cause of Theosophy. At the annual General Convention, always held near Christmas, Col. Olcott announced in his presidential address that a complete accord had been reached between his office and the renowned leader, and that the latter would shortly measure up to the spiritual status of H.P.B. herself. This accord indicated, among other things, that Mrs. Besant had admitted into her mind some of the animus against the purely esoteric view of Theosophy, as upheld by H.P.B. and Judge. She had begun to look upon the latter with suspicion. Chakravarti's influence in her "conversion" brought into view the conflicting ethics of Brahmanism and Buddhism. Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy adhered to the Tibetan Buddhistic, or Mahayana, theory of the sacrifice by the Nirmanakayas of their Nirvanic bliss for a service in behalf of humanity. The Brahmanical philosophy, on the other hand, held before its followers the acceptance, rather than the renunciation, of the higher blessedness. The latter taught individual salvation, the former the "Great Renunciation." Madame Bla-
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5 See statement made in The Theosophical Movement, p. 453. The author has been informed by several veteran Theosophists that this is not likely, that perhaps Chakravarti deputed others to guard her in this way. She regarded him at this time as actually her Master, and he could not with dignity have assumed a rôle of such condescension.

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vatsky's principle of Brotherhood rather than mystical isolation and exaltation, would be undermined by the Brahmanical hypothesis. Hence Chakravarti's influence tended to reduce the high status of H.P.B. in the eyes of Mrs. Besant, and to increase her animus toward Judge.

The specific charges brought by Mrs. Besant (founded on "complaints" of members, so it was stated) against Judge were "alleged misuse of the Mahatmas' names and handwriting." Mrs. Besant became the mouthpiece of the "demand for an investigation." Mr. Judge denied the charges as absolutely false, and demurred to the trial as illegal under the Constitution of the Theosophical Society because it would involve a decision by the President of the Society as to the existence or non-existence of the Mahatmas, which would of itself establish at least one dogma of Theosophy, a thing forbidden. The Society must remain neutral on this as on all other questions of belief, save Brotherhood.

"Letters from Mahatmas," he says in his answer, "prove nothing at all except to the recipient, and then only when in his inner nature is the standard of proof and the power of judgment. Precipitation does not prove Mahatmas. . . . By one's soul alone can this matter be judged. . . . By following the course prescribed in all ages the inner faculties may be awakened so as to furnish the true confirmatory evidence."6

He reasserted that he had received letters from Masters, both during and since the life of Madame Blavatsky.

Before the charges had even been formulated or his accuser named to him, Mr. Judge received an ultimatum from Col. Olcott, giving him the choice of resigning or of being investigated. Judge, instead of accepting either alternative, denied his guilt. At the ensuing Convention of the Theosophical Society in America, the Section unanimously upheld Judge, and urged that if he could be tried for allegations of having received Mahatmic letters, so, in fairness, could Mr. Sinnett, Col. Olcott, Mrs. Besant, and the others who had stated publicly that they had been favored with such letters.
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6 The Theosophical Movement, p. 479.

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The Secretaries of both the European and the Indian Sections issued letters to the membership condemning the President's unconstitutional methods of attacking Mr. Judge. Col. Olcott, thus thrown unexpectedly on the defensive, was aided by a new National Section, the Australian, which Mrs. Besant founded at that time and which voted on his side; and on the advice of Chakravarti and other lawyers at Adyar he appointed a Judicial Committee, to meet in London on June 27, 1894, to try the charges against the accused. He himself, contrary to his earlier intentions, found it imperative to attend the "trial" in person. The General Council did not meet in London until July 7. Its first act was to pass the motion that Mr. Judge could not be tried as an official of the Society, his guilt, if any, being that of an individual and hence not litigable.

The Special Judicial Committee met on July 10. Col. Olcott's party was in control. Mr. Judge was represented by his friends, Mr. Oliver Firth and Mr. E. T. Hargrove. Some of the eleven members of the Committee were convinced of the guilt of Judge beforehand; three or four were impartial, rather feeling he could not be tried; four others were convinced of his innocence. Probably half of them felt that the whole proceeding was a stupid business. Under the circumstances it was not surprising that the accusers saw the shabby nature of their accusation, and, with what grace they could muster, practically backed out of the transaction. Mr. Judge's dignity, frankness, and discretion turned the tables against his accusers. He denied the truth of the charges, protested that he could not be officially tried for his acts as an individual, but averred his readiness to produce actual proofs of his intercourse with Mahatmas. The opposition was forced to admit the legality of his position, and was naturally inclined to refrain from letting him produce his evidence on the last point. The Judicial Committee of July 10 adjourned after arriving at the decision that it had no jurisdiction to inquire into the charges. Col. Olcott reinstated Mr. Judge in his office of Vice-President of the Society.

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Two days thereafter Mrs. Besant, stung by the failure of the procedure against Judge, read a full statement of her side of the case before the British-European Sections' Convention (the "trial" having been set to antedate the annual meeting by a few days). She said in one place, after telling how messages may be received in a variety of ways from invisible Intelligences,

"Any good medium may be used for precipitating messages by any of the varied entities in the occult world; and the outcome of these proceedings will be, I hope, to put an end to the craze for receiving letters and messages, which are more likely to be sublunary or human in their origin than superhuman, and to throw people back on the evolution of their own spiritual nature, by which alone they can be safely guided through the mazes of the superphysical world."

Nowhere, perhaps, is she truer to the cause of Blavatskian Spiritualism, or the true occult and sacred science of the Ancient Wisdom, than in this utterance; and nowhere are the contrasting aims of Theosophy and Spiritism so clearly delineated. She ended by asking Judge's pardon for any pain she may have given him in trying to do her duty.

A plan had been agreed upon that both accuser and accused should issue statements elucidating their positions. Mr. Judge gave his review of the case. He repeated his denial of having forged the names or writing of the Masters; he readmitted having received what he regarded as genuine letters from them; he declared himself to be an agent of the said Masters, but repudiated the claim that he was their only channel--that communication with them was "open to any human being who, by endeavoring to serve mankind, affords the necessary conditions." He agreed that there were diverse methods of receiving messages from higher intelligences, but that the genuineness of such communications must be tested by the inner subjective evidences in each case. He ended by admitting his human fallibility and forgiving "anyone who may be thought to have injured or tried to injure me."

The questions raised in the "Judge Case" are of great

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significance, for they are the key to most of the controversial history of the Theosophical movement. The question of alleged messages from the High Ones has been the opening wedge of most of the schisms of the cult. This should be kept in mind during the remaining sections of the history.

It is of interest to note that in her editorial in Lucifer following the dismissal of the case, Mrs. Besant ends with the statement that the disturbance caused by her bringing the charges against Mr. Judge will have been of value to the Society in having aired and settled the point at issue, that the precipitation of a letter gives it no authoritative character; and she adds that the Society would now be freer from "credulity and superstition, two of the deadliest foes of a true spiritual movement." Her critics have reminded her since that those were precisely the things that H.P.B. and Judge had tried to impress on Theosophic students from time to time. The episode did not clear the air of one persistent obsession for which Madame Blavatsky might, on Theosophic reasoning, be held karmically responsible to some extent. It was now understood, in theory at least, that "occult" phenomena, genuine or false, mediumistic or adept, formed no part of the legitimate pursuit of the Theosophical Society. Madame Blavatsky had insisted upon this fact, yet the very weight of interest aroused by her own performances in that line exerted its natural gravitational force.

Another outgrowth of the case was the realization

"that occult phenomena cannot in the present state of human evolution be proved . . . in the same sense and to the same extent that physical phenomena can be proved."7

They must continue to rest on subjective evidence. The trial threw the whole case for the Mahatmas, their superior teachings, their hierarchical position, back into the locale of faith and inner sanction. Here such ideas had always been kept in antiquity. The West, true to mechanistic instinct, tried to "prove" them empirically.

At any rate, Madame Blavatsky had, in the Preliminary
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7 Ibid., p. 559.

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Memorandum sent out at the time of the formation of the Esoteric Section, expressly declared that in the higher section "the student will not be taught how to produce physical phenomena, nor will any magical powers be allowed to develop in him,"--that a mastery of self, ethically and psychologically, was the antecedent condition. If Judge or any other already had phenomenal abilities, their use must be subordinated to the needs of morality and unselfishness. One of the ethical prescriptions of the Esoteric Section itself was that no member should attack another. One was forbidden to bring charges against a fellow member or to hold suspicious or malevolent feelings towards him. Mrs. Besant in opposing Judge was charged with violating these rules though her opposition was not, strictly speaking, personal.

But the storm, temporarily lulled, was to rage again. Some wounded feelings and sullen resentments were not fully allayed. In October, 1894, the London Westminster Gazette commenced a series of articles by Edmund Garrett entitled "Isis Very Much Unveiled: The Story of the Great Mahatmic Hoax." It was an attempt to expose Madame Blavatsky's and Mr. Judge's alleged invention of the whole Mahatmic structure. His material had been furnished him by Mr. W. R. Old, one of Col. Olcott's sub-editors on the Theosophist, who was nursing a grudge for having been suspended from the Esoteric Section by Mrs. Besant for violation of his pledge of secrecy. With a mass of authentic data in his hand, Mr. Garrett made a vicious assault upon Theosophy and its Society. The attack stimulated the anti-Judge faction into renewed hostility, and they rushed again to the fray. On his part Judge, believing Mrs. Besant had violated her pledges to the Esoteric Section, by virtue of his authority as H.P.B.'s American representative in that organization, summarily deposed Mrs. Besant from her joint-headship with him. In his written notice to that effect, he stated that Mrs. Besant had fallen under the influence of minds hostile to the "tradition clustering around the work of H.P.B.," and named Chakravarti as the chief culprit. Judge in this connection reminded all concerned of the "Prayag

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Letter" (one sent to Mr. Sinnett in 1881 by Master K.H.) in which the Master himself had warned the Allahabad Lodge (the branch in which Sinnett, Hume, and Chakravarti were leading members), of the false occultism in the Brahmanical teachings. Judge set forth the conflict of two views in the Theosophical Society regarding the movement itself. The first one, implanted by H.P.B. herself, was that Theosophy is a body of eternal knowledge, unchanging, known of old, held in custody by Adept Guardians, of whom H.P.B. was the responsible and accredited agent in the world for her century. The other was that the whole teaching was itself a growth, a development, and as such had taken gradual shape as changing circumstances had led Madame Blavatsky onward to new vistas. He, Judge, was the official upholder of the first view, and would use his proxy from Madame Blavatsky to maintain her tradition. If his mentor could be proven false in one matter, doubt would be thrown upon all her work. Either Theosophy and its promulgator were what she said they were, or the Society might as well close its doors.

Mrs. Besant saw the order dismissing her from the Esoteric Section office, but refused to heed it. Instead of resigning she called upon loyal members to follow her. Her action thus split the Esoteric Section organization. She sent out a circular stating that not only had Madame Blavatsky made her the Chief Secretary of the Inner Group and Recorder of the Teachings, but had named her as her "Successor." She thus stood out against Judge's authority and proceeded to lay plans to drive him out of the Society. She made a journey to Australia and thence to India in the fall of 1894, and at the annual holiday Convention in India she and Olcott managed to swing the whole body of delegates against Judge, on the old charge of sending out forged Mahatma messages. He was vilified openly by a dozen orators, and a resolution was carried upon Col. Olcott to demand his resignation from the Vice-Presidency or his expulsion from the Society. Judge's first response was a statement that he could not reply to the charges because they had never

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been given to him. He refused to resign from the Vice-Presidency.

In April of 1895 the Convention of the American Section was held at Boston. With practical unanimity it upheld Mr. Judge. It went further. A resolution presented by Mr. C. A. Griscom, Jr., urged that the American Section declare its autonomy and take a new name, The Theosophical Society in America. The resolution was carried by a vote of nine to one and a new organization effected. A fraternal greeting, with a pledge of solidarity in the movement, was drawn up and sent to the Convention of the European Section then meeting. Judge was elected President. This act placed the Movement as paramount in importance to the Society. (A minority faction remained true to the old organization, and this became later the nucleus of the restored American Section of the Theosophical Society, now the largest numerical body.)

In London the overtures of the new American autonomous body were coldly received by the European Convention, dominated by Mrs. Besant. Olcott declared the greeting out of order, but it was read and "laid on the table." It amounted to an actual rejection of the overtures. The step taken by the American Section was spoken of as "secession."

The new organization in the United States got quietly to work, but Mr. Judge had been broken in health by the long struggle and his death came on March 21, 1896. He had conducted himself, all the while he was the target of the heavy attacks against his integrity, with a dignity, a lack of rancor, and a poise which in the light of later developments stand out in marked contrast to the fury and venom exhibited by his assailants. Whatever the merit or demerit of his position in the Theosophic movement, the fact is that he adhered with firm loyalty to his avowed principles of belief and conduct. He was at least free from that inconstancy to program or to theory which has since been so conspicuous a characteristic of Theosophic leadership. It is of record that Mr. Sinnett later "forgave" him, and that Mrs. Besant and

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Col. Olcott repented of having persecuted him on personal charges to the detriment of Theosophical practice.

His death plunged Theosophy in America into its darkest days. It precipitated a period marked not so much by attacks from outside as by increasing dissensions and divergences within the ranks. Although Mrs. Katherine Tingley came forward almost immediately as Outer Head and successor to Judge, she did not long command the support and esteem of American Theosophists which he had enjoyed. One after another, small groups refused to follow her and established themselves as independent organizations, until the ranks were decimated by separate societies, each claiming to be the embodiment of true Theosophy, and each tracing its lineage to Madame Blavatsky. From this condition Theosophy in America has not yet recovered; consequently, it remains for us to describe the origins and aims of these various groups, leaving it to the reason of the reader and to the logic of history to decide the issues involved. The records of the time are none too clear, and the literature highly controversial. Since many of the documents of the Esoteric Section are necessarily secret, and since many of the issues are centered in personalities, it is impossible to get a clear picture of the events without an intimate acquaintance with the temperaments, the incidental circumstances, and the petty details which gave color and direction to the theoretical issues debated on paper and platform.

Immediately upon Judge's death a group of leading Theosophists in New York City, with Mr. E. T. Hargrove as an active spirit, called meetings as early as March 29 to consider a course of action. Mr. Hargrove read a statement to the effect that Mr. Judge had not left his followers without guidance; that among his private papers directions had been found as to successorship and future leadership; and that the form of assistance which Judge had enjoyed from the Hierarchy would be continued to them. This announcement was signed by E. T. Hargrove, James M. Pryse, Joseph H. Fussell, H. T. Patterson, Claude Falls Wright, Genevieve L. Griscom, C. A. Griscom, Jr., and E. Aug. Neresheimer,

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all people of character and prominence. Circulars and announcements were repeatedly issued to the membership from this group in New York, intimating that Mr. Judge's wishes concerning his successor were known and would be carried out.8 It was also announced that the Masters had imposed a condition, namely, that the name of the new head must be withheld for a year. Presumably this was to be a trial period during which the new leader was to test his abilities and readiness to assume the heavy responsibilities borne by Judge. Veiled references were made to him under the name of "Promise." It was stated that "a new light had gone out from the Lodge," and that this "Promise" was a person of psychic gifts and the recipient of messages from the Masters. From a speech made by Mrs. Tingley at this time we quote:

"Today the needs of humanity are embodied in one great call: 'Oh God, my God, is there no help for us?' All people should heed the call of the Master and help to belt the world within the compass of the 'cable-tow' of the crusaders, for in their force is the quality of the 'golden promise'--the Light of the Lodge. It will radiate throughout the world, and with the aid of the widow's mite will make perfect the Master's plan."

At the end of April, 1896, the Annual Convention of the Theosophical Society in America met in New York City. Mr. Hargrove was elected President of the organization. The Path was changed to Theosophy. Mrs. Tingley was present and spoke. She announced plans for founding a "School for the Revival of the Lost Mysteries of Antiquity." Money was contributed liberally, and the leaders went ahead with their plans for the expansion of the movement.

Suddenly, on May 17, Mrs. Tingley announced to her associates that she had been informed that the New York
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8 Mr. Judge's papers concerning Theosophy were turned over to the Theosophical Society in the presence of Mrs. Judge and are now in the possession of the International Headquarters at Point Loma, California. As most of them pertained to the Esoteric Section, their contents have naturally been kept secret. Consequently the evidence on which the claims that Mr. Judge had made his wishes known are based is still unavailable.

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press had discovered that she was the person referred to as the new Outer Head, and that they would publish the news the next day. To avoid such a "leak," Mr. Hargrove, as President of the Society, that morning anticipated the newspapers and made a public announcement to the effect that Mrs. Tingley had been designated as Judge's successor. On the following morning, May 18, 1896, a long article appeared in the New York Tribune on the subject. Thus the safeguard of anonymity, originally prescribed as a condition of Mrs. Tingley's appointment, was abrogated.

Meanwhile the leaders had announced their plans for a "Crusade" to carry the message of Theosophy around the world and more especially to vindicate the strength and authenticity of Judge's American Society before the eyes of Theosophists in Europe and India. Accordingly in June Mrs. Tingley, Mr. Hargrove, Mr. and Mrs. Claude F. Wright, Mr. Pierce, and two or three others, set sail for a trip around the world. They made numerous addresses at various points en route defending their cause. They also completed plans for the establishment of the School for the Revival of the Lost Mysteries of Antiquity at Point Loma, California, and on the return voyage Mrs. Tingley laid the corner-stone of the school. Returning to New York early in 1897, they began the task of consolidating and organizing "The Universal Brotherhood."

But dissension arose almost immediately after their return from the "Crusade." A group of the leaders became increasingly suspicious that Mrs. Tingley's policies and practices were not in line with those established by Judge. The forces of ambition and jealousy also entered into the scene. Whatever the deeper issues were, the external friction came to a head in the dispute between Mrs. Keightley and Mr. Neresheimer over the control of the publishing business and the editorial policy of the magazine, Theosophy. Mr. Neresheimer was supported by Mrs. Tingley, whereas Mrs. Keightley, Mr. Hargrove, and their friends, took a firm stand against him. As a result of this disagreement, Mr. Hargrove resigned the presidency of the Theosophical

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Society in America, and Dr. Keightley resigned the presidency of the affiliated Theosophical Society in England. In January, 1898, Mrs. Tingley called representatives of the Theosophical Society from different parts of the United States to her home, and they drew up and adopted the Constitution of The Universal Brotherhood Organization. Meanwhile some of the friends of Mr. Hargrove proposed a rival plan calling for the election of Mr. Hargrove as President and Mrs. Tingley as "Corresponding Secretary" (H.P.B.'s former title). But Mrs. Tingley repudiated this scheme and in return Mr. Hargrove and his friends rejected Mrs. Tingley's leadership.

At the Annual Convention in Chicago, February, 1898, the whole issue was decided. Mrs. Tingley proceeded aggressively with her plans for The Universal Brotherhood, which she wished to absorb the Theosophic Society in America. Mr. Hargrove and his friends, on the other hand, refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new organization. When the issue was put to a vote, over ninety per cent of the delegates followed Mrs. Tingley.

Thereupon Mr. Hargrove and his associates withdrew with a few dozen delegates to another hall, declared the action of the majority to be illegal, and agreed to maintain the Theosophical Society as a distinct body. A month later they formally announced Mrs. Tingley's removal as Outer Head on the grounds that by slandering fellow members she had violated her vows and conducted her organization on policies unworthy of Theosophy.9 Several E.S.T. pamphlets were issued explaining the causes of their repudiation of Mrs. Tingley and incidentally throwing additional light on the circumstances of Mrs. Tingley's coming into power. This body then published The Theosophical Forum, in which it further defined its stand and claimed to be the legitimate continuation of Judge's work and organization. Legal proceedings were begun to recover the membership lists and archives of the Society from The Universal Brother-
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9 See signed statement by E. T. Hargrove in the New York Sun of March 13, 1898.

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hood, but this move was unsuccessful. During the next few months several hundred Theosophists expressed their adherence to this Society. This group, now known simply as The Theosophical Society, with headquarters in the New York Branch, continues to carry on its work through local branches. It publishes The Theosophic Quarterly, to which Mrs. Charles Johnston has contributed extensively. It naturally has its own Esoteric Section and has made many scholarly contributions to Theosophic research and literature. True to the spirit of Judge, it has emphasized Western rather than Oriental esoteric traditions, emphasizing the mystic elements in Christianity. It venerates the wisdom of the Master, Jesus, and some of the Christian Saints, but it has no ecclesiastical tendencies. It refuses to commit its members to any Theosophic creed, to any official pronouncements on the subject of "phenomena," or in general to any matters which concern personalities and personal beliefs. Its meetings are devoted largely to study, discussion, and meditation upon the writings of H.P.B. and other Theosophic classics. It remains a small but distinguished group.

After the Chicago Convention of 1898, the vast majority of American Theosophists followed Mrs. Tingley in The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, with headquarters at Point Loma. Its official organ, The Searchlight, conducted a vigorous campaign and under the leadership of Mrs. Tingley, the organization flourished for several years. Through Mr. A. G. Spalding, of baseball fame, Ex-Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Gage, and others, sufficient funds were secured to establish permanent headquarters at Point Loma, a beautiful site overlooking the Pacific. The place became a colony, where new ventures in the education of children according to Theosophic ideas were embarked on, with results said to be exceptional. In 1900 the Râja-Yoga School was founded which was later expanded into the Theosophical University. An Aryan Memorial Temple was erected, now known as the Temple of Peace; and a Greek theatre was built, the first in the country, where Greek and Shakespearean dramas have

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been performed. The Headquarters are now conducted under the direction of Dr. Gottfried de Purucker and Mr. J. H. Fussell, both of whom were associated with Mrs. Tingley from 1898.

Mrs. Tingley lived until July 11, 1929, when her death was announced from Visingso, Sweden, where she had gone to a Theosophic community to recover from an automobile accident suffered in Germany.10 She had done much work of a humanitarian nature. Besides the School of Antiquity at Point Loma she had founded an International Brotherhood League, a summer home for children at Spring Valley, New York, and a home for orphan children at Buffalo. She had opened three schools in Cuba.

Another group of Theosophists in 1899 drifted into "The Temple of the People," sponsored by Dr. W. H. Dower and Frances J. Meyers, of Syracuse, New York. Messages coming through a Mrs. Francia A. La Due, known mediumistically as "Blue Star," were its inspiration until her death in 1923. A remnant of this group is established in a colony at Halcyon, California.

In 1899 another offshoot came to growth in "The Theosophical Society of New York," which is to be distinguished from "The New York Branch of the Theosophical Society" mentioned above. Dr. H. H. Salisbury, long a friend of Mr. Judge, Mr. Donald Nicholson, editor of the New York Tribune, also a friend of Judge and H.P.B., and Mr. Harold W. Percival, headed a group which numbered Dr. Alexander Wilder and Mrs. Laura Langford among its adherents. Mr. Percival for years edited a successful magazine, The Word.

Dr. J. D. Buck, of Cincinnati, an early member of the American Section and devoted supporter of Judge, later
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10 The career of the Theosophic leader was beset with at least three law-suits instituted against her by relatives of wealthy followers contesting the disposition of funds allotted to her under the terms of wills. Both the Thurston and the Spalding suits were settled with compromise agreements. In still another sensational case Mrs. Tingley was sued by Irene M. Mohn for damages in the amount of $200,000 for alienation of the affections of her husband, George F. Mohn, a follower of Theosophy. Mrs. Mohn was awarded $100,000 by a California jury, but Mrs. Tingley won a reversal of the judgment before the California Supreme Court.

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threw his strong influence on the side of the claims of a Mr. Richardson--known as "T.K."--and Mrs. Florence Huntley, to represent the Masters. Some of his friends went with him in this allegiance, but the exposure of "T.K." undermined his movement and he died shortly afterward.

Mrs. Alice L. Cleather, one of the inner group of students around Madame Blavatsky during the years preceding her death, formed a "Blavatsky Association," organized to combat the successorship of Mrs. Besant in particular. It was declared that Mr. Judge had fallen under the deception of Mrs. Tingley. Mrs. Cleather wrote three or four books upholding the esoteric character of Madame Blavatsky's mission.

In England Mr. G. R. S. Mead, long co-editor with Mrs. Besant of Lucifer, parted from her after 1907 and founded "The Quest Society," which until recently published The Quest. His Society has a highly respectable membership and devotes its energies to comparative religion and psychical research. Mr. Mead is most active in the scholarly activities of the Society.

In California, home of many cults, Mr. Max Heindel, originally a Theosophist, launched later a Rosicrucian Society, and published a valuable work, Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception. His association maintains headquarters at Oceanside, California, and following his death his wife has continued the direction of its activities.

Likewise in California Mr. Robert Crosbie established the parent United Lodge of Theosophists at Los Angeles in 1909. Mr. Crosbie adhered to the conviction that Mr. Judge alone worked in the true direction of H.P.B.'s movement, and he gave to his organization the task of perpetuating the original teaching of Blavatskian Theosophy, as promulgated by Judge. He founded the periodical Theosophy, a revival of The Path. He labored to restore the unique status of H.P.B. and Judge as esoteric teachers, and his society thus became a "drift back to source." As H.P.B. herself had looked after the spiritual side of the movement, regarding that as more important than its outward organization, so the United

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Lodge of Theosophists has discounted the value of organization and of personalities in it. The names of the speakers are usually not attached to lecture announcements, nor those of authors to books and articles. The interests of the association are primarily in Theosophy and the movement, not in any Society; in Theosophic truth, not in any individual expression of it. A spirit of accord binds together various Lodges, isolated groups and scattered associates throughout the United States, and in recent years there has been marked growth, as the disturbances in the larger "Besant" section drove many of its old adherents into the U.L.T. The defection of Mr. P. B. Wadia, eloquent Hindu Theosophist, from the Besant fold and his affiliation with the United Lodge in 1922, furnished no small impetus to the latter's increased power. Mr. John Garrigues, of Los Angeles, has devoted indefatigable energy to the work of this body, and few persons have a wider acquaintance with the facts of Theosophic history than he. Residing in New York until 1930, he exerted a pronounced influence in the councils of the U.L.T. throughout the country.

In Washington, D.C., there has been published for many years by Mr. H. N. Stokes, a leaflet called The Oriental Esoteric Library Critic. Mr. Stokes conducts a circulating library of occult and Theosophic books, but finds time in addition to edit his diminutive sheet, which has been a veritable thorn in the flesh of the Besant leadership for many years. He seizes upon every inconsistency in the statements or policies of the Besant-Leadbeater-Wedgewood hegemony and subjects it to critical analysis. Many Theosophists tolerate his belligerent spirit and strong language for the sake of the facts he adduces, which have usually great pertinence to Theosophic affairs. He is particularly hostile to the developments of Neo-Theosophy under the Besant and Leadbeater régime, and above all to the institution of the Liberal Catholic Church as a Theosophic appanage.

As a result of the great impetus given by the Theosophical movement, scores of organizations with aims mystic, occult, divine, spiritual, Oriental, astrological, fraternal, and

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inspirational, have sprung up on all sides, to emphasize one or another aspect of the teaching, real or fancied. A reference to Hartmann's Who's Who in Occult, Psychic, and Spiritual Realms will astonish one with the number and diversified character of these bodies. Their existence marks one of the surprising phenomena of our contemporary religious life.

It remains to sketch with the greatest brevity the history since 1896 of the large international body of the Theosophical Society over which Mrs. Annie Besant has presided since 1907.

It will be recalled that when in Boston in 1895 the American Section, out of loyalty to its leader, Judge, "seceded" from the parent organization and became autonomous, a minority dissented from the action of the Convention and remained in adherence to Col. Olcott's Society. Prominent in this party were Dr. Mary Weeks Burnett, Mr. Alexander Fullerton, Dr. La Pierre, and others. This faction became the nucleus around which, as the larger Judge group disintegrated, gradual accretions of strength materialized. This was in part due to the prestige which officialdom and regularity carries with it, and in part to the position and prominence of Col. Olcott and the great influence wielded by Mrs. Besant. In a few years it became numerically far the strongest group, and today includes some ninety per cent of American Theosophical membership.

After Judge passed from the scene, Col. Olcott and Mrs. Besant could devote their undivided energies to Theosophic propaganda, both in the Society at large and in the Esoteric Section, so that the movement expanded rapidly in all parts of the world. Charters were given to National Sections in most of the countries on the map. The Society flourished outwardly and organically. The question as to whether it held true to its original spirit and purpose is of course a debatable one. It was at this time that the beginnings of the drift toward those later presentations of Theosophical teaching which have come to be known as Neo-Theosophy were be-

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coming manifest. Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater stood out unrivalled as the literary exponents and formulators of Theosophy. Their statements were hailed with as much respect and authority as those of Madame Blavatsky in the earlier days. Both of them wrote assiduously and lectured with great frequency, and their publications rapidly began to supplant all other works on the Theosophic shelves. With The Ancient Wisdom, A Study in Consciousness, and Esoteric Christianity Mrs. Besant began a literary output which has been rarely matched in volume. Some eighty or more works now stand in her name. Mr. Leadbeater's total may reach twenty, but they are mostly of a more pretentious character than Mrs. Besant's, being accounts of his clairvoyant investigations into the nature and history of the world and man. His works had to do mostly with subjects connected with the Third Object of the Society, the psychic powers latent in man. Mrs. Besant touched alike on all three of the objects, not neglecting the ethical aspects of Theosophy, which she emphasized in such works as The Path of Discipleship and In The Outer Court. Predominantly under the influence of these two leaders the power of Theosophy spread widely in the world.

Mr. Leadbeater was one of the participants with Mr. Sinnett and others in occult investigations carried on in the London Lodge, an autonomous group not fully in sympathy with some phases of Madame Blavatsky's work. He developed, as was reported, great psychic abilities, as the result of which, notwithstanding his frequent disclaiming of occult authority, he exercised great influence over the thought of a large number of members of the Society. His studies and his books reflected the attitude of "scientific common sense." He claims to have brought the phenomena of the superphysical realms of life, of the astral and the mental plane, of the future disembodied life, and of the past and future of this and other spheres, under his direct clairvoyant gaze. He wrote elaborate descriptions of these things in a style of simplicity and clearness. He asserted that such powers enabled one to review any event in the

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past history of the race, inasmuch as all that ever happened is imprinted indelibly on the substance of the Astral Light or the Akasha, and the psychic faculties of trained occultists permit them to bring these pictures under observation. With the same faculties he asserted his ability to investigate the facts of nature in both her realms of the infinite and the infinitesimal. Hence he explored the nature of the atom, its electrons and its whorls, and in collaboration with Mrs. Besant, who was alleged also to possess high psychic powers, published a work entitled Occult Chemistry. For years he stood as perhaps the world's greatest "seer," and in books dealing with Clairvoyance, Dreams, The Astral Plane, Some Glimpses of Occultism, The Inner Life, The Hidden Side of Things, Man: Whence, How and Whither, he labored to particularize and complement Madame Blavatsky's sweeping outline of cosmic evolution and human character, as given in The Secret Doctrine. Certain schools of his critics assert flatly that he has only succeeded in vitiating her original presentation. Two years ago The Canadian Theosophist, a magazine published under the editorship of Mr. Albert Smythe at Toronto, published a series of articles in which parallel passages from the writings of Madame Blavatsky and the Mahatma Letters on one side, and from the books of Mrs. Besant, Mr. Leadbeater, Mr. C. Jinarajadasa, on the other, give specific evidence bearing on the claims of perversion of the original theories by those whom they call Neo-Theosophists. The articles indicate wide deviations, in some cases complete reversal, made by the later interpreters from the fundamental statements of the Russian Messenger and her Overlords. The differences concern such matters as the personality of God, the historicity of Jesus, his identity as an individual or a principle, the desirability of churches, priestcraft and religious ceremonial, the genuineness of an apostolic succession, and a vicarious atonement, the authority of Sacraments, the nature and nomenclature of the seven planes of man's constitution, the planetary chains, the monad, the course of evolution, and many other important phases of Theosophic doctrine. This exhaustive research

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has made it apparent that the later exponents have allowed themselves to depart in many important points from the teachings of H.P.B.11

Whatever may be the causes operating to influence their intellectual developments, they have succeeded in giving Theosophy a somewhat different direction which, on the whole, has emphasized the religious temper and content of its doctrines. It should be added that these criticisms are not representative of the great majority of followers of the movement, who regard the later elaborations from fundamentals as both logical and desirable.

For years Mr. Leadbeater was looked upon as the genuine link between the Society and its Mahatmic Wardens, and his utterances were received as law and authority by members of the organization from the President downward. But at the height of his influence in 1906 came charges of privately teaching to boys under his care sexual practices similar to some of those practiced in certain Hindu temple rites. They cleft through the ranks of the Society like a bolt of lightning. Mrs. Besant, horrified, asked for his resignation. Mr. Leadbeater admitted the charges, explained his occult and hygienic reasons for his instruction, and resigned. But not many months had passed before Mrs. Besant reversed her position and began a campaign to restore Mr. Leadbeater to fellowship and good repute, she having received from him a promise to discontinue such teaching.

Col. Olcott had conducted an inquiry at London, and the disclosure probably hastened the aging President's death, though the main contributing cause was an accident on board ship. He died early in 1907, and the event caused a conflict over the matter of succession. It was noised about Adyar, Madras, where his death occurred, that there had been a visitation of a number of the Masters at the bedside of the
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11 The work of an independent Theosophist, Mr. Roy Mitchell, lecturing in New York and Toronto, has also emphasized the extent of these variations. He lays particular emphasis on the Blavatskian doctrine of the descent of angelic hosts into the Adamic races of humanity to perform the work of redeeming them from a fallen estate, by means of the gift of Promethean fire or wisdom.

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dying President-Founder and that the succession had there been indicated. The extraordinary occurrence was said to have been witnessed by those present in the death chamber, who were Mrs. Besant, Mrs. Marie Russak Hotchener, and two or three others. As the matter is one of considerable moment in the history of the Theosophical Society, I take the liberty to quote several sentences from a personal letter which Mrs. Hotchener wrote me from Los Angeles under date of August 3, 1915, relative to the event:

"I was present when the Masters came to Col. Olcott. There was no possibility of hallucination, for too many things occurred physically which could be proven. I did some writing even, and did two or three things I was told to do, and besides the whole visit of the Masters to Colonel Olcott was to help him and to better the future of the Society. I also saw the Master lift Colonel from the floor where he had prostrated himself as HIS feet, and put him on the bed as though the Colonel were a baby. Master M. (Morya) did it, who is seven feet tall. When the Doctor came a few minutes later (when the Masters had gone) he scolded the nurse and myself for the fact that Colonel had been out of bed--his heart and condition of the body showed it and the terrible excitement. We were told of things which were afterwards proven and which none of us knew at the time; whole sentences were quoted from the Master's letters to H.P.B. which none of us had seen, and objects mentioned the existence of which none of us knew, and many other things. Then, too, the Colonel had seen the Masters with H.P.B. and there was no possibility of his being deceived. Their coming saved the Society from going into an era of the 'letter of the law' dominating completely the spirit, and both Mr. Leadbeater and Mrs. Besant have confirmed their coming and in their physical bodies. There is sufficient proof, but I could not write it all now."

The witnesses affirmed that the Masters had designated Mrs. Besant as the successor of Col. Olcott, as she was already that of H.P.B. This demonstration of the living interest of the Masters in the affairs of the Society12 vitally enhanced Mrs. Besant's prestige, and as she was already in control of the
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12 The occurrence came to be known among the Theosophists as "the Adyar Manifestations."

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"throbbing heart of the Theosophical Society," viz., the Esoteric Section, the ensuing world-wide election of a new President, held in 1907, could have but one result. She had practically no opposition, and has been re-elected at intervals since that time. Mr. Leadbeater was restored soon after these events, and the exposition of the major phases of the Neo-Theosophy began in earnest. Many old and loyal members were forced out by the advent of one disagreeable situation or utterance after another, as they saw the old teachings warped or strangely reinterpreted; but the new interest brought in others in larger numbers. Perhaps the most spectacular of all Mrs. Besant's enterprises was inaugurated in 1909--the formation of The Order of the Star in the East, for spreading the idea, which she and Mr. Leadbeater had promulgated, of the approaching manifestation of the Lord Maitreya as the World Teacher. The basis of her grandiose scheme was Mr. Leadbeater's psychic discovery that the very body which the Lord was to occupy during the years of His coming earthly sojourn was already among them in the person of one Jiddu Krishnamurti, a fine young Brahmin, then in his early 'teens. Mrs. Besant forthwith legally adopted the youth, aided with his education, part of which was gained in England, and successfully resisted a law-suit of the boy's father to regain control of him. She then exploited him before the world as the "vehicle" of the coming World Teacher. An abundance of effective publicity was gained, if nothing more substantial. Several times the lad's body seemed to have been obsessed by an overshadowing presence, and his lips at such times spoke unwonted words of wisdom. The young man was elevated to the headship of the Order of the Star in the East; a neat magazine, The Herald of the Star, was established for propaganda purposes, and the thousands of Theosophists and some outsiders who followed Mrs. Besant in this new field were worked up to a high pitch of hushed expectancy of the dénouement. Krishnamurti's sponsors had originally stated that the spirit of the Great Lord could be expected to use the body of the young Hindu fully in some fifteen or

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twenty-five years, but on the occasion of the visit of Mrs. Besant and the youth to America in August of 1926, the announcement was made that the consummation of the divine event was certain to be delayed no longer than Christmas of that year. The affable young man bravely carried the mantle of near-divinity during all the intervening years; but finally in the course of the year 1929, speaking at a meeting of the followers of his cult at their European headquarters at Ommen, in Holland, he rather suddenly executed what he had intimated to some of his friends, who had noted his utterances against organizations for spiritual purposes, by dissolving the Order of the Star, by refusing to be regarded as an authority, and retaining for himself only the humble rôle of spiritual teacher. In spite of the exalted position gratuitously foisted upon him, he had evidently grown restive under Mrs. Besant's dominance. His action has been generally interpreted as a courageous assertion of his independence of mind and spirit. By it he has apparently gained rather than lost prestige. His public appearances continue to draw large audiences which express sympathy with his aims and react kindly to the appeal of his personality and spiritual cast of mind. Mrs. Besant was left to find devices of her own to explain the twenty-year-long fiasco. She has explained that Mr. Krishnamurti is a teacher in his own right.

In the early days of the Krishnamurti agitation, probably about 1912, Mr. Leadbeater published in serial form the results of a pretentious clairvoyant investigation, being no less than an account in much detail of the last forty reincarnations of the Indian lad in various nations including the Atlantean countries, with the concurrent lives of some score or more of individuals, nearly all prominent then in the Theosophical Society, who had been keeping in the same group life after life down through the ages. His work was styled The Lives of Alcyone, the latter appellation having been given to Krishnamurti as his true or cosmic name.13
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13 Persons who have lived at the Theosophical headquarters at Adyar at the period of the publication of The Lives of Alcyone, have intimated to the author that certain residents of the colony who were not "put in" the early "Lives" went to

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About 1914 Mrs. Marie Russak was commissioned to introduce a ritualistic order within the Theosophic Society and in the course of the next two or three years she installed some twenty or more chapters of an organization given the name of "The Temple of the Rosy Cross." An elaborate regalia was required and a ceremonial was devised which a member of the Masonic body told the author equalled in beauty and dignity anything he was conversant with in the higher degrees of Masonry. The initiates took a solemn pledge to do nothing contrary to the interests of their Higher Selves and the ceremonies were said to have been attended with elevated types of spiritual experience. Great emphasis was laid on the "magnetic purity" of everything handled by the officiants. Powerful sublimations of spiritual forces were thought to be operative through the instrumentality of the ritual. Mrs. Russak had proved to be an efficient organizer and the "Temple" had apparently done much to spiritualize the appeal of Theosophy. But suddenly after an existence of about three years the organization was declared at an end, for reasons never given out frankly to the membership.

Coincident with the "Alcyone" campaign a movement within the Theosophical Society was launched, again actuated by Mr. Leadbeater's mystic observations, that went in direct contradiction to Madame Blavatsky's warnings and prognostications on the subject of religious sectarianism. This was the establishment of "The Old Catholic Church" (later changed to "The Liberal Catholic Church") as carrying the true apostolic succession from the original non-Roman Catholic Church, the primitive Christian Church. The link of succession brought down from the early Middle Ages was picked up in Holland in the remnants of the Old Catholic Church still lingering there, and the first Bishop
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Mr. Leadbeater and requested that he look into their past and if possible bring them into the story, with the result that he did as requested in certain instances. About 1925 also there was published in England, by Mr. W. Loftus Hare, in The Occult Review, an exposé of the whole "Alcyone" proceeding, the alleged sources of Mr. Leadbeater's material being divulged in the shape of some articles in old encyclopedias.

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consecrated from the old line was Mr. James I. Wedgewood, English Theosophist. He in turn anointed Mr. Leadbeater, who thus received the title of Bishop, by which he is now known. It was declared that the true unction of the original consecration was thus transmitted down to the present and reawakened to new virility in Theosophic hands. Mr. Leadbeater wrote The Science of the Sacraments to give a new and living potency to ritual through occult science, and the new Church was declared to be the felicitous channel of expression for such Theosophists as needed the uplifting virtue of a dynamic ceremonial. The teachings of Theosophy might be intellectually satisfying; the Liberal Catholic Church would round out the Theosophic life by providing for the nourishment of the aesthetic and emotional nature, through means of white-magical potency. Mr. Leadbeater was more Catholic than any Roman in his claims of marvelous efficacy in the performance of the rituals. His pictures of the congregational thought-forms, the aggregate vibrational energies set in motion by devotion, which he says take definite shapes and hover over the edifice during a service, are daring and original.14

Agitation over Mr. Leadbeater's sex ideas cropped out at intervals, and in 1922 there was a renewed stir over this subject when a Mr. Martyn, of Sydney, Australia, a Theosophist of high standing, gave out a letter in which he recounted certain incidents which he alleged took place while Mr. Leadbeater was a guest in his home some time before.
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14 Brief mention should here be made of an incident arising out of the general situation occasioned by the founding of this Church, in view of the principles involved. Dr. William L. Robins, of Washington, D.C., long an honored member of the Theosophical Society, looked with disfavor upon the establishment of an ecclesiastical order in connection with Theosophy, and went so far as to adduce considerable evidence to show that the Liberal Catholic Church was not free from subserviency to the Roman Catholic Church. He resented the movement as an attempt to saddle religionism upon Theosophy, and endeavored to show the hand of Roman machination in the whole business. His statements and letters, coming to the notice of Mrs. Besant, were taken as an open attack upon the religion of members of the Theosophical Society, and as such constituted a breach of Theosophic conduct. Mrs. Besant straightway asked Dr. Robins to resign from the Esoteric Section, with a statement to the effect that no member ought to attack the religious affiliations of any member of the Theosophical Society.

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There were charges and denials; and it should in fairness be said that Mr. Leadbeater had confided to personal friends that through his clairvoyant vision he was enabled to discern that much suffering could be saved the boys later on in their lives if some of the pent-up sexual energies could be given vent in the way he prescribed. He asserted that the "bad Karma" of such sex expression would be confined to the boys themselves and easily lived down, whereas otherwise they would be led to actions which would involve them in the sex Karma of others. Some Theosophists, including one or two medical men and women, have gone on record as declaring that the principles underlying Mr. Leadbeater's sexual philosophy in this particular might well save the world some of the misery and evil that arises from improper understanding of the issues involved. Mrs. Besant herself may have seen some such saving grace in the situation, which would account for her sudden and definite swing to Mr. Leadbeater's support following her first outraged sensibilities. The issue is not at present a live one. Certainly Mr. Leadbeater's ideas on sex, though tolerated by some, are to be regarded as generally repudiated by the vast majority of Theosophists.

Later Theosophical leadership in America passed successively through the hands of Dr. Weller Van Hook, of Chicago, Mr. A. P. Warrington, an attorney from Virginia and Mr. L. W. Rogers, a capable business executive, who is now the President of the large American Section. It was in Mr. Warrington's régime that the Theosophical settlement, under the name of Krotona, was located in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. This settlement was the outcome of a plan conceived by Mr. Warrington quite apart from any Theosophical connection, and it was not until after the leaders of the movement learned of the plan that it was determined to carry it out in the interest of Theosophists. After an exhaustive search of the South and the West for a suitable site, covering a period of five years or more,15 it was
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15 It was his intention first to locate the colony somewhere in the James River region in Virginia, and it was thought for a time that some of the pirate gold of

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finally decided to locate in California; acreage was secured in the Hollywood hills, some beautiful buildings erected, and the Theosophical Headquarters was transferred from Chicago. The Headquarters has since been transferred to Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, for the advantage of a centralized location; and the Krotona settlement has been removed to a beautiful site in Ojai Valley where it now flourishes and is known as Krotona, as before. Here institute courses in Theosophy and related subjects are given and headquarters are maintained for the E.S. in the Western Hemisphere.16

When Mrs. Besant's "Karma" (as Theosophists phrase it) took her to India, she saw India moving towards the fulfilment of her vision and (as has been recently publicly asserted) the wish of the Himalayan Adepts, in the constituting of India as a Dominion of the British Commonwealth. The Theosophical headquarters at Adyar, in Madras, has long been recognized as a center of educational reform in India, and of propaganda for the modern revival of Hindu painting in the oriental manner.

Dr. Besant, still a prominent figure, is advancing into the eighties, and Mr. Leadbeater, too, is aging. What direction the course of future Theosophic activity will take when these two dominant figures have been withdrawn, is matter for current speculation. Their policies have alienated some of the staunchest early adherents of Madame Blavatsky and Judge. Already certain trends are discernible which indicate the setting in of a back-to-Blavatsky movement within the ranks of the Theosophical Society. There is already in full swing in the West a tendency to turn to a study of oriental spiritual science, and the contributions of Madame Blavatsky to this field are hardly likely to diminish in importance during the coming decades. She herself prophesied that her
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Captain Kidd could be discovered--by clairvoyant means--and utilized to finance the undertaking. A rusty key was actually found in the hands of a skeleton discovered where the clairvoyant described it as lying buried, but evidently the treasure chests were not unearthed. This item was given to the author by one of the group meeting with the clairvoyant at the time.

16 In 1929 an order was issued from Adyar by Dr. Besant suspending the Esoteric Section. A later order revived it in 1930.

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The Secret Doctrine would be accepted as a text-book on modern science in the twentieth century. Whether that prophecy be fulfilled or not, it is of note that the list of students who are dragging it down from dusty shelves is rapidly increasing at the present writing. Through the efforts mainly of the United Lodge of Theosophists reprints of the original plates of the two (First and Second) volumes have been made, and the book made more readily available to the public. Announcement has also been made from Adyar that H. P. Blavatsky's first draft of volume one of The Secret Doctrine will be published in 1931.17

Some statistics as to book circulation are indicative of the spread of this stream of philosophic thought. Officials at the United Lodge of Theosophists, New York City, supplied data on this score. As the U.L.T. is one of the lesser bodies propagating Theosophy, the figures here given would
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17 Although Dr. Besant and her friends deny any substantial significance in the claims made, yet the two Keightleys, who typed the manuscript of H.P.B.'s The Secret Doctrine for the press, stated that Madame Blavatsky had completed not only a third volume which dealt with the lives of outstanding occultists down the ages, but practically a fourth volume, also; and Mrs. Alice L. Cleather has been quoted as saying that she herself saw literally hundreds of changes made in Madame Blavatsky's manuscripts in the handwriting of Mrs. Besant and Mr. Mead. As to these changes, Mr. C. Jinarajadasa, when Vice-President of the Theosophical Society, made a statement which will be found on page 110 of The Golden Book of The Theosophical Society:

"The facts are that H.P.B. always recognized that her English was often defective. . . . When The Secret Doctrine was published, she realized that there were many emendations necessary in a subsequent edition. . . . This very heavy task of checking and revising was largely the work of G. R. S. Mead, who devoted a great deal of his time to carrying out H.P.B.'s wishes in the matter. . . .

"After H.P.B.'s death, all her remaining manuscript material was published as a third volume of The Secret Doctrine. She was under the impression that the material she had slowly collected during many years would make five volumes in all of The Secret Doctrine. But steadily as she wrote the first two volumes of The Secret Doctrine more and more of her material was incorporated into the first two volumes, and the remaining manuscript material made only one more volume."

The Keightleys insisted, however, that they had carefully revised the language of the first edition, working with H.P.B. through the various stages of proof, and that the extensive revisions in the second edition were uncalled for. They also stated that they had seen the manuscript of the third volume "ready to be given to the printers," and Alice Cleather pointed out that H.P.B. had made several direct references to it in the first edition which were deleted in the second. Because so little of the data has been made public, the issue is still too much beclouded for judgment.

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cover but a minor fraction of the actual circulation of Theosophic literature. In recent years the United Lodge organization has sold:

Ocean of Theosophy, W. Q. Judge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	50,000
Translation of the Bhagavad Gita, W. Q. Judge . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	40,000
The Voice of the Silence, H. P. Blavatsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	30,000
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, W. Q. Judge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	25,000
Key to Theosophy, H. P. Blavatsky (Original Text). . . . . . . . . . . . .	10,000
Conversations on Theosophy: Pamphlet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	150,000

In addition, there are constantly increasing calls for the two ponderous Blavatskian works, Isis and The Secret Doctrine. These figures may be indicative of the strength of the back-to-Blavatsky movement in Theosophic ranks.

Theosophy is now organized in more than forty countries of the world, with an active enrolled membership of more than fifty thousand. There are said to be some ten thousand members in America with over two hundred forty branches or lodges. Many more thousands have come in and gone out of the Society. Various reasons account for these desertions, but in few cases does relinquishment of formal membership indicate a rejection of Theosophical fundamentals of doctrine. "Once a Theosophist always a Theosophist," is approximately true, pointing to the profound influence which the sweeping cosmology and anthropology of the system exercises over a mind that has once absorbed it. It may then be said that there are several millions of people who have assimilated organically the teachings of Theosophy, and who yield a degree of assent to those formulations.

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