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MADAME BLAVATSKY.

INCIDENTS IN

THE LIFE OF

Madame Blavatsky UNVEILED"

Author OF "ISIS

COMPILED FROM INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY HER RELATIVES AND FRIENDS

AND EDITED BY

N N ETT

AUTHOR OF "ESOTERIC RUDDHISM," "THE OCCULT WORLD,"

IV/TH A PORTRAIT

ETC., ETC.

REPRODUCED FROM AN ORIGINAL PAINTING BY HERMANN SCHMIECHEN

NEW YORK W. BOUTON, 706 Broadway LONDON: GEORGE REDWAV 1886

PREFACE.

abnormal occurrences awaiting interpretation

that

The

really did take place.

were like

Vll

drops of the shower

They

unevenly distributed.

not

did

fall,

the rain from Heaven, on th6 just and

unjust alike,

but, nevertheless,,

numbers that any sane person dence of those who

been sure

felt

however

collecting the evi-

they certainly did

was the profession of

time-servers and materialists, and of religion

is,

above

everything

else,

faith

for

all

fall

whom

matter of

The shower grew more

respectability.

such

But incredulity was fashionable, It

silly.

fell

them, should soon have

that, at all events,

here and there.

they

the

plentiful,

but opinions that had no foundations in reason

were naturally inaccessible

The

facts.

party

of psychic discovery gained daily in strength, but the public at large remained the dupes of narrow-

minded and conceited leaders who could not to

admit themselves mistaken.

infatuation of

many people wedded

psychic phenomena, retains them

this

afford

day the

to disbelief in

the

intellec-

tually absurd position of requiring personal experi-

as the

ence,

willing to

They

on which alone they are

work with the observations of

seem to imagine themselves the

sentatives

that

condition

when

of their peculiar ihey

may be

folly,

and

others.

last

repre-

suppase

convinced, the problems at

PREFACE.

VI 11

Stake will have been solved, and no one else be so

unreasonable again as they were If the casual

heralded

in their day.

and sporadic phenomena which have

psychic discovery within

the last thirty

years had been generally examined with the attention they deserved, the startling exhibitions of occult

power which have attended Mme. Blavatsky's career during the latest third of this period, would have

been better understood. offered to the in

it is,

the sibylline books

modern world, though not diminishing

number, are growing

in price, if this

be measured

the retrospective humiliation that must attend their ultimate acceptance.

But, of course,

not san-

guine enough to suppose that the scoffing devotees of the creed which prevails, will see the

choosing

the

They

terms.

wisdom of

present opportunity for coming to will scoff

still,

and

treat the straight-

forward record of the " incidents " to which this

volume

dedicated as

;

but, without cracking

the nut for them, and suggesting treated, tial

would

should be

like to call the attention of impar-

readers to one or two considerations of import-

ance.

any

how

If this narrative

critic to

be disbelieved,

put forward a plausible hypothesis to

explain the concurrence of testimony by which supported.

Mme.

defy

find

the friends and relations of

Blavatsky's youth relating endless experiences

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; PREFACE.

of the psychic wonders attending her childhood. '

find friends of diverse nationahties with

she has come

whom

in contact at different times, in different

parts of the world, bearing testimony to the over-

whelming marvels they have witnessed.

trace

the records of her wonder-working attributes in the

newspapers of Russia,

would be

childish to

concerned are futile to

and

America,

argue that

all

a conspiracy to

lie

India.

the witnesses it

would be

conceive them victims of hallucination or

glamour imposed upon them by the heroine of

book

for that

;

this

would be assigning her abnormal

psychic powers as great in one direction as those the

theory would be employed to discredit

What

in another.

be done about an impasse of

Here

the problem, in the volume before us

the outline of

by a

Mme.

multiplicity

ignore

it,

pass

Blavatsky's

life

guarantees.

by on the other

without a pretence of argument,

this

kind

substantiated Critics

side,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;as

.-'

may

laugh at

they were

magpies of the Australian bush, of the species

known

as the " Laughing Jackass,"

not honestly face

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but

they can-

and escape from admitting that

the limits of Natural possibilities are not coincident

with any code of Nature's laws passed with the

imprimatur of orthodox opinion up to the year 1886.

That

this narrative as a whole,

and making every

PREFACE.

allowance that can be tion, is true,

made

ought, in the

first

place, to force itself

on every competent understanding rest, all

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;when the

and exaggera-

for error

state of the case

;

and

for

recognised,

the

and

the world shall have learned that the psychic

plane of Nature, with

its

wonderful laws and fq^ces,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; then

the

" Laughing Jackass " of that period will laugh

still,

always

grand

with

and

the

stupendous

majority,

reality,

but

will

direct

his

mockery, for a change, at the senseless incredulity of his predecessors.

CONTENTS. PAGE

Introduction

CHAPTER Childhood

CHAPTER

II.

Marriage and Travel

CHAPTER At Home

in Russia, 1858

III.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER Mme. de Jelihowsky's Narrative

CHAPTER

IV.

Mme. de Jelihowsky's Narrative

Mme. de Jelihowsky's

...

—continued

112

VI.

Yi avl^atiive,— continued

135

CONTENTS.

Xll

CHAPTER

VII.

From Apprenticeship to Duty

CHAPTER Residence in America

Visit to

Appendix

Europe

169

•

IX. •

'54

VIII.

CHAPTER A

•

CHAPTER Established in India

PAGE •

218

X. .

.261 323

MADAME BLAVATSKY. INTRODUCTION. Many

embarrassments attend the publication

memoirs of any

life still in

with those of ties of

events

progress are necessarily entangled

many

other such lives.

Susceptibili-

a reasonable and unreasonable kind have to

be consulted at every to be

The

relating to a living person.

turn,

told, that, for the

and passages

in the story

sake of the interests princi-

would wish elucidated with the must sometimes be treated with reserve

pally concerned, one fullest detail,

merely because such and such people who would

have to be brought under notice in connection with them, shrink from publicity, or perhaps claim immunity from the criticism to

be subject

which they would have

the fullest justice were done to the

central figure in the picture. central figure, for

any reason

impressions

if it

Then,

regard to the

be that of a person

who

stands

at all prominently before the world,

of a very antagonistic

already prevalent.

or she

kind

may be

held in high

respect according to one view, and in very different

and under such conditions a biographer can hardly take up the estimation

according to others

;

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

would best correspond with

neutral attitude which his functions.

the other hand,

seems hard that persons

become the subject of public controversy should remain the mark for misrepresentation which

who

thus

course of their

the general

history,

life

fairly

Certainly,

put forward, would abundantly refute.

admitted, as against this consideration, that people who devote themselves to the service of a cause or an idea, whether they are honoured it

may be

during

life

or flouted by public opinion, live for their

know

work, and should be content to

work

them

will survive

who have had

;

Mme.

very forcibly to

and

Blavatsky.

Few

their

people

to play a part before the world,

rested their personal hopes entirely than

that

this reflection applies

have

and aspirations more

on objects with which contem-

she

porary applause has no concern.

But,

on the other

hand, few such persons have ever been the butt of more persevering and malevolent attack than that which,

several

for

And

against her.

has been levelled

though, on a broad survey of the

may be

matter, there

case than

years past,

less necessity in the present

none but worldly considerations were

involved, for attempting thus early in the proceedings the vindication of a remarkable career which

has

left

its

and minds

the hostility

though

on too many hearts be permanently blackened either by

beneficial influence

foolish,

some

detractors

and the honest,

misapprehensions of others,

still

INTRODUCTION. there

all

cumstances,

begin with,

the

for

3 undet the

justification,

effort

have reason

that

cir-

direction.

to believe that the attempt

many people, who regard the

respond to the wishes of a great

will

both

and abroad,

this country

current aspersions on

profound

with

Mme.

Blavatsky's character

indignation.

readily

will

life which has attracted so much beyond the large circle, even, of those

understood that a attention far

who

take

a strong interest

have been

faculties, will

within

that

circle.

Mme. Blavatsky

Some

Within the

misjudged her

;

known

of these

abnormal psychic

still

has lived

has become personally people.

closely

dozen years

last

many

watched

countries,

to great

and

numbers of

have misunderstood and

more numerous band

others, a far

venture to affirm, have been deeply influenced by the loftiness of her aims, and the self-devotion of

her

efforts,

and by the extraordinary

faculties that she has acquired.

attributes or all

of these

sure the time will be regarded as already

for putting before

the public the record of facts

concerning her which this volume contains.

Mme.

come

Again,

Blavatsky's influence on currents of thought

relating to the super-physical

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; exerted

phenomena

partly through her

own

of Nature,

writings, partly

through others of which she has been the indirect cause,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;has been widely

felt,

beyond the area within

which her personality has been discussed. thus become desirable for

all

has

students of natural

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

having to do with any phase of occult should research, that her character and life history be fairly appreciated and in endeavouring to conmysteries

;

tribute

interests

thus servmg

which are more important than those con-

nected with her It is

appreciation,

this

personal vindication.

own

plainly worth while, moreover,

some records of Mme. Blavatsky's while those are alive

commit

to to

life

who can speak with

paper

authority

as to the events of her earlier years, her family

circumstances, and her private I

have

plete,

to bring forward are

The memoirs

fragmentary and incom-

but they are thus authoritative as far as they

They

go.

life.

are written for the

most part from a

life-

long knowledge of their subject, and in other cases

who have Blavatsky for many

friends

lived

and worked with Mme.

years.

Apart altogether from

irritating controversies, the narrative will,

vinced, be found of

permanent

interest as

con-

throwing

a great deal of light on a career of a very unusual

and remarkable kind, much involved, to say the least,

with certain

speculative

questions

steadily

assuming a more and more prominent place world's

thought.

And

effect of incidentally

will,

exposing the

trust,

the

have the

folly or malignity

of a multitude of charges which have from time to

time been

made

against

Mme.

Blavatsky in the

by the breath of private scandal. Some of these have been so absurd as to provoke almost more amusement than indignation amonopublic press, or

INTRODUCTION.

her Russian relatives and the intimate 'friends of her recent years, but others, as httle warranted

themselves, have been productive of pain and distress ill

keeping with

Mme.

Blavatsky's erratic, perhaps,

but eminently unselfish, earnest, and indefatigable pursuit of her highest spiritual ideals.

The

made use of memoir will be

materials which will be chiefly

in the preparation of the present

found to consist of statements furnished

orally,

and

in letters from near relatives of Mme. Blavatsky who have known her from childhood, and from other persons who have enjoyed peculiar facilities

for

becoming intimately acquainted with her in Considerable use has also been made

recent years.

of articles originally appearing four or five years

ago

a Russian periodical, from the pen of

Vera de Jelihovsky, Mme. Blavatsky's self

Mme. her-

sister,

a well-known Russian authoress, widow of a

civil officer

formerly belonging to the Government

Tiflis.

This lady was married previously

officer

was then known which

will

Guards

the

Mme.

frequently

the following

pages.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

appear

The

and

Petersburg,

de Yahontoff" the

articles

name

course of

from which

The Truth about shall quote were entitled, I H. P. Blavatsky," of whom wonderful stories were "

already in circulation.

They embody

detailed

account of incidents which took place during two years which

Mme.

Jelihovsky's

Blavatsky spent under

roof,

and

their

Mme.

statements

are

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

by various witnesses. These articles have been recently revised and corrected by the authoress attested

for the service

Rebus, the

title

present publication.

The

of the Russian periodical in

which

of the

was committed deeply to certain rigid views concerning the origin and cause of such phenomena as those with which they dealt. the

appeared,

articles

This led to some mutilation of the narrative at the time of

publication, but the authoress has

its

endeavoured to restore

now

as far as possible to

its

proper shape, with the help of her original manu-

which she had preserved, and from which

script,

portions missing from the periodical have

now been

translated.

Mme.

name

Blavatsky's

became

first

familiar to

the English-speaking world by the publication in

America, " Isis

1877, of her

very remarkable work,

Unveiled," described on

its

page as "a

title

master-key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science

and theology."

of this

book

was not it

that

to bear.

Isis,"

and

later,

observe here that

its

which

was

shall

moment

for the

Blavatsky at

have been

work was

first

called "

an immeasurably superior

part of the

have more

to say

only

will

somewhat too sensational

Mme. to

title,

title

intended

The

Veil of

and a large

actually printed with that

name

head of the pages. But before the whole book was ready for publication it was found that a small and relatively quite insignificant volume had

at the

some years previously anticipated Mme. Blavatsky

INTRODUCTION. by the adoption of her

title,

so this last liad to be

altered in deference to the former author's copy-

and something employed

right,

in its stead,

which

should not be too strangely out of keeping with the title

already printed at the heads of the pages.

Hence the coinage of that under which the book has become known, and the flavour of which has proved unacceptable to fastidious

The book in

taste.

attracted attention wherever an interest

psychic mysteries rose above the general level or conventional

of materialistic

New York selves

a good deal with the

authoress,

and the

thinking,

papers of the period concerned themof the

personality

especially in view of the

fact that

she

had some time previously founded the Theosophical Society, to which her book gave additional importance.

The

America seemed

beginning to

remarkable extension

bear

little

this

society

promise

other countries to which

the organisation was ultimately destined. object of the articles the this

up,

time about in

Mme.

Blavatsky was simply to play

a spirit of more

less

good-humoured

who wrote about "magic," and

wonderful stories

the

American papers wrote

mockery, to the interest the public was taking person

the

were current

whom

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;they emphasized

all

that could surround their subject with an atmos-

phere of the marvellous, and are probably responsible for various in circulation

absurd stories that have been put

about

Mme.

Blavatsky's age and early

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

would have been diffiMme. Blavatsky, at that time, to have won a perfectly straightforward and unvarnished But

adventures. cult for

belief in

in truth

The world at large does not know very much even now about occult initiations, but it knew even less ten or twelve years ago. The account of herself

was

society she established

a cautious offer of

itself

Its design,

information to the public on the subject. in

one of

aspects at

its

all

human

persuade people that

was gradually

events,

nature

con-

really

tained certain potentialities of development, the final

cousummation of which

—

like those

carry out,

Mme.

men of abnormal attributes,

whose behest she was endeavouring

— required

Blavatsky would have had to

America

activity in

stood.

It is

— could

all

recognise,

experience, a

made

she

easy at this date, indeed, looking back

launched her undertaking, to can

—had

have been under-

Mme.

at the circumstances under which

tell

at the time of her

been perfectly frank about herself first

the story

before

recognition

by the

multiplicity

at the beginning.

criticise

Blavatsky

her discretion.

light of

mistakes

subsequent that

were

can, indeed, recognise

a long chain of such mistakes interlinking with one

another up to a very recent date.

be examined, so

far as

But these may

necessary to do so for

the elucidation of the story to be told, later on.

The

first

object to be attained

acquainted with the outline of actual career, so that facts

make the reader Mme. Blavatsky's

which can alone explain

INTRODUCTION. a great

deal

that

9 and otherwise

bewildering

unaccountable in her proceedings,

apprehended

In India, whither

by Colonel

may be

fairly

at the outset.

Mme.

Blavatsky, accompanied

Olcott, migrated in 1879, her notoriety

The

rapidly expanded.

papers frequently recorded

extraordinary feats of occult power attributed to her

The

by various witnesses. magazine, the

establishment of her

Theosophist,

fame of her society

;

own

served to spread the

many people

England con-

cerned with one or other of the various phases of psychic or spiritualistic enquiry that were going for-

ward, became deeply interested in news of the progress she was making; and in t88i the publication of

my own

book, "

The

Occult World," gave a great

impulse to the curiosity which had been thus excited concerning her.

her earlier

Still

remained shrouded to

and adventures

a great deal of mystery, which

she was unwilling, or authority

life

which

perhaps restrained by an

she

always

renders

implicit

obedience, from clearing up.

The

present approximately complete survey of

her career will serve,

think, to elucidate the later

episodes which have attracted public attention, more

advantageously than

this could

planations that should

and

fail

be done by any ex-

go over

all

the ground;

certainly the results of her activity during the last

ten years are such that no one acquainted with the facts

can refuse to recognise that career as one which

has influenced the current of

affairs in

the world in a

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

manner

remarkable to justify attentive

sufficiently

observation.

few words here on the present

position of the Theosophical Society in India will

The

far to establish that position.

tenth anniversary

convention of the Society was held last December at Madras. One hundred and seventeen

festival or

branches of the Society were in existence at that date

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

England,

in Scotland,

6 in America,

Holland,

Burmah, and

India,

Russia, and

English gentleman

home

to a

in France,

Australia,

the

who was

about eighty delegates present,

London, says

friend in

Ceylon, in

Germany,

Greece,

West

Indies.

present, writing :

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " There were

men who had

tra-

some of them thousands of miles to get here. I was very much struck with the representative character of the men. There were several judges,

velled

and vice-presidents of

pleaders, professors,

colleges,

and there were comparatively few who had not graduated at universities, modelled after the University of London. their caste,

When we

Nearly

and paint

all

the delegates keep

their foreheads accordingly.

consider that these different castes would

never have met on any platform before Theosophy

came

there,

Society

doing something

These large siderable

can appreciate the fact that the

degree to

President of the

would be the

in India."

results are of course

last

the

Society,

man

untiring

due

a con-

energy of

the

Colonel Olcott, but he fail

recognising that

INTRODUCTION. they

Mme.

spring directly or indirectly from

all

Blavatsky's initiation, and this consideration would

alone

suffice

less

the story

find

have to go over

own

for its

remarkable than

circumstances of her

the

invest

with interest, even

life

value

But, in truth,

to be.

one

were

that, quite inde-

pendently of any philanthropic results to be noticed in association

with

it,

altogether so replete with

marvellous incidents, that no honest inquirer into the mysteries of Nature can afford to put great

many

aside.

of the thousand and one occurrences of

an extraordinary kind that have been

Mme.

around

and discussed

showered

Blavatsky's path have been talked about in

books and newspapers, and people

have, foolishly enough, for the most part, striven to

get rid of the intellectual embarrassments to which

they have given

them

rise,

by trying

conjuring

and wit-

nesses in each

hypotheses

case

whom

for

were hopelessly untenable, but the general course of

Mme.

command

for the

hypotheses

such

at all events

Blavatsky's

be reviewed with such materials as

able to

for

There have never been wanting

various

imposture.

account

when

comes have been

life

service of the

present

memoir, the imposture hypotheses stand discredited as inadequate to explain the whole story, fortified as

it is

its

which leaves

among Mme. For

multiplicity of witnesses it

mere refuge

Blavatsky's

for

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

an extent

the

destitute

critics.

this reason especially,

has seemed to

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

12 desirable

further delay.

bring

out

Little

the whole story without

fragments exhibited by them-

selves have perhaps invited misconception.

It is

time that the public should be asked to consider

how

far

such misconception

possible

of the relatively complete narrative position to put forward.

by the

light

am now

in a

CHAPTER

CHILDHOOD,

Quoting the at a

the

time

Home

statement of her late

authoritative

made

uncle, General Fadeef,

when he was Department

request in 1881,

Joint-Secretary of State in

at St Petersburg,

Mme. H.

Blavatsky (Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, to give the

name

at full length)

is,

from her

father's side, the

daughter of Colonel Peter Hahn, and grand-daughter

Hahn von

Hahn

noble family of Mecklenburg, Germany, settled

of General Alexis

and she

Russia),

Rottenstern

from her mother's

is,

side,

the

daughter of Helene Fadeef, and grand-daughter of

Andrew Fadeef and of the Princess Helene Dolgorouky. She is the widow of the CounPrivy Councillor

cillor

State,

Nicephore

Blavatsky,

late

vice-

cfovernor of the Province of Erivan, Caucasus."

name

Mdlle. Hahn, to use her family to her childhood,

was born

south of Russia, in 1831.

proper writing

German form or

the

De Hahn,

Russian form the prefix

For

Von Hahn would be

the

of the name, and in French

conversation

Russians, would be

in referring

at Ekaterinoslow, in the

following

name, as used but in

its

strictly

was generally dropped. particulars

concerning

the

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

14 family

sentatives

indebted to some of

present repre-

its

interest in the pre-

who have taken an

paration of these memoirs.

The Von Hahn family is well known in Germany and Russia. The Counts Von Hahn belong to an Mme. Blavatsky's grandold Mecklenburg stock. "

was a cousin of Countess Ida Hahn- Hahn, the famous authoress, with whose writings England father

Settling in Russia he died in

well acquainted.

its

service a

He was

general.

full

married to the

Countess Proebstin, who, after his death, married Nicholas Wassiltchikof, the brother of the famous

Mme.

Prince of that name.

Blavatsky's father

left

the military service with the rank of a colonel, after the death of his

first

wife.

had been married en

premieres noces to Mdlle. H. Fadeew, literary

world

between

—the

first

authoress

appeared

Zenaida

and

novel writer

1840

that

in the

had

ever

—

under the novt de plume of and who, although dying before

Russia .

1830

known

she was twenty-five,

left

some dozen novels of

the

romantic school, most of which have been translated into the

German

language.

married his second wife

whom

—a

Baroness

he had a daughter referred

Jelihovsky as

'httle

Lisa'

the

given from her writings, published

Hahn Von Lange, to by Mme.

In 1846 Colonel

extracts

here

St Petersburg.

Mme. Blavatsky is the granddaughter of Princess Dolgorouky, with whose death her mother's side

the elder line of that family

became

extinct in Russia.

CHILDHOOD. Thus her maternal of the

families

ancestors belong to

empire, since they are the direct

descendants of the Prince or Grand the

first

oldest

thfe

ruler called

Duke

govern Russia.

Rurik,

Several

ladies of that family

belonged to the Imperial house,

becoming Czarinas

(Czaritza)

For a

by marriage.

Princess Dolgorouky (Maria Nikitishna) had been

married to the grandfather of Peter the Great, the

Czar

Michael

Fedorovitch,

the

reigning

first

Romanof; another, the Princess Catherine Alexeevna,

was on the eve of her marriage with Czar Peter the II.,

when he died suddenly

connection with

secuted this family in

and

its

greatest vicissitudes have been in

associated with that country. died,

before the ceremony.

strange fatality seems always to have per-

and others

were on

interesting of

all

The

London.

some way members

last

and most

the tragedy connected with the

Prince Sergeey Gregoreevitch Blavatsky's

grandmother's

ambassador

Poland.

Mme. who was

Dolgorouky,

grandfather,

the advent of

Archduchess Anne of Courland Russia, owing

its

;

into political disgrace, as they

fell

way

their

Several of

England

the

the throne of

to their opposition to her favourite of

infamous memory, the Chancellor Biron,

many

highest families were imprisoned or exiled

put to death and their wealth confiscated.

;

of the

others

Among

these such fate befell the Prince Sergeey Dolgorouky.

He was sent in exile to Berezof (Siberia) without any explanation, and his private fortune, that con-

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

sisted

of 200,000 serfs, was confiscated.

His two

placed with

a village

the elder

sons were,

little

smith as an apprentice, the younger condemned to become a simple soldier, and sent to Azof. Eight

Empress Anne laxnovna recalled the exiled father, pardoned him, and sent him as ambassador to London. Knowing Biron well, however, the Prince sent to the Bank of England years

later,

the

100,000 roubles to be

left

and accumulated

capital

untouched for a century,

interest, to

be distributed

His pre-

after that period to his direct descendants.

sentment proved

Novgorod, on seized,

his

and put

When

correct.

way

England, when he was

death by

had not yet reached

quartering

(cut

Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Great's daughter, came to the throne next, her first care was to undo the great wrongs perpetrated by her predecessor through her cruel and crafty four).

the

Among

favourite Biron.

and

heirs

title

Prince

restored,

given

back.

200,000

serfs,

younger son, hardship,

and

Sergeey were

their

This,

had dwindled down after a

recalled,

Paul,

instead

to only 8000.

being

The

youth of extreme misery and

Mme.

named while

their

ordered to

became a monk, and died young.

Prince

father,

property

however,

elder married a Princess son.

other exiles the two sons

Romadanovsky

;

The

and

his

Blavatsky's great-grand-

yet in his cradle a Colonel of

the Guards by the Emperor, married a Countess du Plessy, the daughter of a noble

French Huguenot

CHILDHOOD. family,

father

emigrated from

had found service

Catherine

dame "

II.,

France at the

Her

Russia.

Court of the Empress

where her mother was the favourite

d^ honnetir.

The

receipt of the

of 100,000 roubles, a

Bank of England

sum

for the

sum

that at the end of the

term of one hundred years had grown

immense

had been handed by a friend of the murdered prince to the grandson of the latter, the Prince Paul Dolgorouky. It was preserved by him with other family documents at Marfovka, proportions, politically

family property in the government of where the old prince lived and died in 1837. But the document was vainly searched for by the heirs after his death it was nowhere to be found. large

Penja,

;

their great horror further research brought to

light the fact that

must have been burnt, together

with the residence, in a great

fire

that

had some time

Having stroke some years

previous destroyed nearly the whole village lost

his

sight

a paralytic

previous to his demise, the octogenarian prince, old

and

ill,

had been kept

most important of a

ignorance of the loss of the

his family

documents.

crushing misfortune, that

of their

attempts

left

contemplated millions.

made

the

This was heirs

bereft

Many were

the

come to some compromise with the

was ascertained that some the name had been made, and then the

bank, but to no purpose.

the deposit had been received at the bank, but

mistake

bank demanded very naturally the B

receipt delivered

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; '

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

about the middle of the

last century.

In short, the

Mdme.

millions disappeared for the Russian heirs.

Blavatsky has three nations

thus

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the

blood

her veins the

Slavonian, the German, and the

French." year of Mdlle. Hahn's birth, 1831, was

The

for Russia, as for all

Europe, owing

fatal

to the first visit

of the cholera, that terrible plague that decimated

from 1830 to 1832

in turn nearly

every town of the

its popuand carried away Her birth was quickened by several deaths

a large part of

continent, lations.

She was ushered

in the house.

into the world

amid

The following narrative and desolation. composed from the family records coffins

"Her

was then in the army, intervals of peace after Russia's war with Turkey in 1829 being filled with preparations for new fights. The baby was born on the night between July 30 and 31 weak, and apparently no denizen of this world. A father

hurried baptism had to be resorted

to,

therefore, lest

the child died with the burden of original sin on

her soul.

Russia

The ceremony attended with

all

the

orthodox

paraphernalia

and pairs of god-mothers and godevery one of the spectators and actors being

lighted tapers, fathers,

of baptism in

wax candles during the Moreover, every one has to stand during the baptismal rite, no one being allowed

furnished with consecrated

whole proceedings. to sit in the

Greek

religion, as

they do in

Roman

Catholic and Protestant Churches, during the church

— '

CHILDHOOD. and

The room

religious service.

ceremony

19 selected for the

mansion was

in the family

large,

but the

crowd of devotees eager to witness it was still larger. Behind the priest officiating in the centre of the room, with his assistants, in their golden robes

and long

stood the three pairs of sponsors and

hair,

the whole household of vassals and

baby

child-aunt of the

— only a

few years older than

her niece aged twenty-four hours

an absent

for

relative,

diately behind

the

was

the

child settled

—placed as the

first

on the

still

proxy

row immeFeeling

venerable protopope.

nervous and tired of standing

The

serfs.

for nearly

an hour,

unperceived by the

floor

and became probably drowsy in the overcrowded room on that hot July day. The ceremony elders,

was nearing

its

The

close.

sponsors were just in

the act of renouncing the Evil

emphasized

renunciation

upon the

thrice spitting little

One and

Greek Church by

the

his deeds, a

invisible

enemy, when the

lady, toying with her lighted taper at the feet

of the

crowd, inadvertently set

fire

the long

flowing robes of the priest, no one remarking the accident

till

was too

late.

The

result

was an

immediate conflagration, during which several persons

— chiefly

the old priest

That was another

—were

severely burnt.

bad omen, according

superstitious beliefs of orthodox Russia

innocent cause of it— the future

was doomed from to

an eventful

Mme.

that day in the eyes of

life, full

of vicissitude

and

;

the

and the

Blavatsky all

the

town

trouble.

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

20 "

Perhaps on accoimt of an unconscious apprehen-

the child became the pet of her grand-parents and aunts, and was greatly spoiled in her childhood, knowing from her infancy no other

sion to the

same

effect,

authority than that of her

own whims and

her earliest years she was brought up

From

atmosphere of legends and popular fancy.

will.

far

back as her remembrances go, she was possessed with a firm belief in the existence of an invisible world of supermundane and submundane beings inextricably blended with the

The Domovoy

mortal. for her,

maids.

spirits

and

of each

life

(house goblin) was no fiction

any more than

for her nurses

and Russian

invisible landlord attached to every

This

house and building, who watches over the sleeping household, keeps quiet, and works hard the whole

year round for the family, cleaning the horses every

and plaiting their tails and manes, protecting the cows and cattle from the witch, with

night, brushing

whom

at eternal feud,

the child from the

first.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; had

The

the affections of

Domovoy

to be

dreaded only on March the 30th, the only day in the year, when, owing to some mysterious reasons, he becomes mischievous and very nervous, when he teases the horses, thrashes the

them

in terror,

cows and disperses and causes the whole household to be

dropping and breaking everything, stumbling and falling that whole dayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; every prevention notwithstanding.

The

plates

and glasses smashed, the inhay and oats from the

explicable disappearance of

CHILDHOOD. Stables,

and every family unpleasantness

in general,

are usually attributed to the fidgetiness and nervous

excitement of the Domovoy.

Alone, those born on

the night between July 30th and 31st are exempt

from

his freaks.

It is

from the philosophy of her

Russian nursery that Mdlle.

Hahn

learned the cause

of her being called by the serfs the Sedmitchka, an untranslatable

term,

number Seven

;

meaning one connected with

in this

particular case, referring to

the child having been born on the seventh

month of

the year, on the night between the 30th and 31st of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; days so conspicuous

July

Russia in the annals of

popular beliefs with regard to witches and their

Thus

doings.

the mystery of a certain ceremony

enacted in great secrecy for years during July the 30th,

by the nurses and household, was divulged

to her as

soon as her consciousness could realise the

importance of the

She learned even

initiation.

her childhood the reason why, on that day, she was carried about in her nurse's stables,

arms around the house,

and cow-pen, and made personally

to sprinkle

the four corners with water, the nurse repeating the while

some mystic

found to

this

Sacharof 's that *

day

"The

the

ponderous volumes of

thirty

a laborious work

years

Traditions of the Russian People," by

volumes,

witchcraft,

over

These may be

sentences.

Russian Demonology,'

necessitated

seven

the

embracing

submundane

popular spirits,

all

literature,

incessant SacharofF, in

beliefs,

magic,

ancient customs and

songs and charms, for the last 1000 years.

rites,

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

22 travelling,

and

researches

scientific

the

old

and that won to the author the appellation of the Russian Grimm." Born in the very heart of the country which the Roussalka (the Undine) has chosen for her abode chronicles of the Slavonian lands,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;reared on the shores of the blue Dnieper, that no Cossack of Southern Ukraine ever death â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the crosses without preparing himself ever since creation

for

these lovely green-haired

child's belief in

nymphs

was developed before she had heard of anything else. The catechism of her Ukraine nurses passed wholly into her soul, beliefs

fancied she earliest in

and she found

corroborated to

saw

these weird poetical

all

her by what

she saw, or

herself around her ever since her

babyhood.

Legends seem

have lingered

her family, preserved by the recollections of the

older servants, of events connected with such beliefs,

and they inspired the early tyranny she was taught powers were attributed to her by her nurses. The sandy shores of the rapid Dnieper encircling

to exercise, as soon as she understood the

that

Ekaterinoslaw, with their vegetation of sallows, were

her favourite rambling place. a

roiissalka

every willow

beckoning to her

Once

;

and

full

of her

there, she

tree,

own

smiling

saw and

invulnerability,

impressed upon her mind by her nurses, she was the only one who approached those shores fearless and daring.

The

child felt her superiority

and abused

it.

The

will

should be implicitly recognised by her nurse,

little

four-year-old girl

demanded

that her lest

CHILDHOOD. she should escape from her

side,

23 and thus leave her

unprotected, to be tickled to death by the beautiful

and wicked roussalka, who would no longer be restrained by the presence of one

Of course

not approach.

whom

her parents

she dared

knew nothing

of this side of the education of their eldest born, and

learned

too late to allow such beliefs to be eradi-

cated from her mind. that

It is

only after a tragic event

would otherwise have passed hardly noticed by

the family, that a foreign governess was thought

of.

In one of her walks by the river side a boy about

who was dragging

fourteen

incurred her displeasure by "

will

have you tickled

she screamed. that

tree

Whether he took

" .

the

some

slight disobedience.

by a roussalka

to death

There's one coming

here

she

carriage

child's

comes

" !

down from See,

see

nymph or not, angry commands of the

the boy saw the dreaded

to his heels, and, the

nurse notwithstanding, disappeared along the sandy

banks leading homeward.

After

the old nurse was constrained to

with

her

charge determined

punished. again.

much grumbling return home alone have

Pavlik

But the poor lad was never seen alive ran

away

to his village,

and

his

body

was found several weeks later by fishermen who caught him in their nets. The verdict of the police was " drowning by accident." It was thought that the lad having sought to cross some shallow pools, left from the spring inundations, had got into one of the many sand pits so easily transformed by

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

But the verdict householdâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; of the nurses and

the rapid Dnieper into whirlpools. the

servants

horrified

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; pointed

accide7ttal

death, but

the one that had occurred in consequence of the child

having withdrawn from the boy her mighty

protection,

thus

the

delivering

The

roussalka on the watch. family at this foolish

victim

some

displeasure of the

gossip was enhanced when they

found the supposed culprit gravely corroborating the

and maintaining that it was she herself who had handed over her disobedient serf to her faithful Then it was that an servants the water-nymphs. charge,

English governess was brought upon the scene.

Miss Augusta Sophia

Jeffries did not believe in

the roussalkas or the domovoys

;

but this negative

merit was insufficient to invest her with a capacity

managing the intractable pupil consigned to her She gave up her task in despair, and the child was again left to her nurses till about six years old, when she and her still younger sister were sent to live with their father. For the next two or three years the little girls were chiefly taken care of by

for

care.

their

father's

orderlies

;

the

elder,

all

events,

greatly preferring these to their female attendants.

They were taken about with their father

the troops to which

was attached, and were petted on du regiment.

all

sides as the enfants

Her mother

died

when

Mdlle.

Hahn was

still a about eleven years of age she was taken charge of altogether by her grandmother, and went

child,

and

CHILDHOOD. to

live

25 grandfatKer was

where her

Saratow,

governor, having previously exercised similar

civil

She speaks of having

authority in Astrachan.

alternately petted and punished, and hardened, but we may well imagine that she was a difficult child to manage on any

this

time been

spoiled

Moreover, her health was always

uniform system.

uncertain in childhood

dying," as she expresses

and

remarkable

peculiarities, set

herself,

ever sick and

a sleep walker,

abnormal

various

for

she was

;

down by her orthodox

psychic

nurses of

Greek Church to possession by the devil, so that she was drenched during childhood, as she often says, in enough holy water to have floated a ship, and exorcised by priests who might as well have been talking to the wind for all the effect the

they produced on her.

Some been

concerning

notes

furnished,

memoir,

for

by her

Madame Jelihovsky, and to many others in

Her

Europe.

ment,

still

one

the

service

known

childhood of

well

Mme.

Blavatsky's friends

strange excitability of temperaof

her

most

marked

character-

was already manifest

Even

then she was liable to ungovernable

rebel

her earliest youth. fits

and showed a deep-rooted disposition to

against

every kind of authority or control.

Her warm-hearted impulses tion,

personally to myself

istics,

passion,

have

present

the

lady who,

aunt,

her

however,

of kindliness and affec-

endeared her

her relatives in

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MADAME BLAVATSKY.

26 childhood,

much

as they have operated to obliterate

the irritation caused, sometimes, by her want of control in regard to the minor affairs of

memoranda

the

asserted by

It is justly

friends of a later period.

before me,

self-

with the

life,

she has no malice

her nature, no lasting resentment even against those

who have wronged

and her true kindness of

her,

heart bears no permanent traces of turbances."

momentary

who know Mme.

and

well," writes her aunt, speaking for herself

who had

another relative

preparation of the notes "

we who know

her

for

joined with her in the

am now

now

dis-

Blavatsky

dealing with

age can speak of her

with authority, not merely from idle report.

From

she was unlike any other Very lively and highly gifted, full of humour, and of most remarkable daring she struck everyone with astonishment by her self-willed and determined actions. Thus in her earliest youth and her earliest childhood

person.

;

hardly

married,

she

disposed

herself

angry mood, abandoning her country, without the knowledge of her relatives or husband, who, un-

was a man and more than

fortunately

every way

unsuited

Those her from her childhood would had they been born thirty j-ears later have also known that it was a fatal mistake to regard and treat her as they would any other child. Her restless and very nervous temperament, one that led her to

her,

thrice

her

age.

who have known

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

into

the most unheard

of,

ungirlish mischief;

her

CHILDHOOD. unaccountable to,

and

at the

sionate love

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

especiall)- in those

27 days

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

a'ttraction

same time fear of, the dead her pasand curiosity for everything unknown ;

and mysterious, weird and fantastical and, most of all, her craving for independence and

fore-

;

dom

of action

could control

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a craving that all this,

;

free-

nothing and nobody

combined with an exuberance

of imagination and a wonderful sensitiveness, ought to

have warned her friends that she was an excep-

tional creature, to

means

be dealt with and controlled by

The

as exceptional.

slightest contradiction

brought on an outburst of passion, often a

down

liberty of action,

no hand to chain her

or stop her natural impulses, and thus arouse

fury

Left alone with no one near her to

convulsions.

impede her

fit

her

inherent

would

she

combativeness,

spend hours and days quietly whispering, as people thought, to herself, and narrating, with no one near her, in

some dark

in bright stars

described

ness

corner, marvellous tales of travels

and other worlds, which her goveras

profane

gibberish

; '

but

sooner would the go^'erness give her a distinct order to

was

this or the other thing

than her

first

impulse

was enough to forbid her doing Her a thing to make her do it, come what would. nurse, as indeed other members of the family, to disobey.

sincerely believed spirits of rebellion.'

the child possessed

Her

the

seven

governesses were martyrs

and never succeeded in bending her resolute will, or influencing by anything but to

their

task,

;

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

kindness her indomitable,

obstinate,

and

fearless

nature. " Spoilt in

her childhood by the adulation of depen-

dents and the devoted affection of relatives,

forgave

all

the poor, motherless child

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

who later

temper made her

on, in her girlhood, her self-willed

rebel openly against the exigences of society.

would submit

no sham respect She would ride

public opinion.

She

for or fear of the

at fifteen, as

she

had at ten, any Cossack horse on a man's saddle She would bow \p no one, as she would recede !

before no prejudice or established conventionality.

She all

defied

all

and everyone.

in her childhood,'

her sympathies and attractions went out towards

people of the lower

She had always preferred

class.

to play with her servants' children rather than with

her equals, and as a child had to be constantly

watched

make in

for fear she should escape

from the house to

friends with ragged street boys.

So, later on

she continued to be drawn in sympathy

life,

towards those

who were

in a

humbler station of

life

than herself, and showed as pronounced indifference to the

The

nobility

five years

which by birth she belonged."

passed in safety with her grand-

parents seem to have had an important influence on

her future

life.

Miss

Jeffries

had

left

the family

the children had another English governess, a timid

young

girl

whom none

of her pupils paid any

attention, a Swiss preceptor, ness,

and a French gover-

who had gone through remarkable adventures

CHILDHOOD. in

Madame

her youth.

Henriette Peigneur was a

distinguished beauty in the days of the

Revolution.

Her favourite

first

French

narratives to the children

consisted in the description of those days of glory

and excitement when, chosen by the caps,''

Phrygian red-

the citoyens rouges of Paris, to represent in

the public festivals the goddess of Liberty, she had

been driven

streets of the

triumph, day after day, along the

grande

ville

The

narrator herself was

bent

down by

tional

age,

in glorious processions.

now

a weird old woman,

and looked more

Fee Carabosse than anything

like the tradielse.

eloquence was moving, and the young

But her girls

that

formed her willing audience were greatly excited by most of all the heroine of the glowing descriptions

—

She declared then and there that she meant to be a " Goddess of Liberty " all her life. The old governess was a strange mixture of severe morality and of that brilliant flippancy that these memoirs.

characterises almost every Parisienne to her death-

—

bed unless she is a bigot which Mme. Peigneur was not. But while her old husband the charm-

—

ing, witty, kind-hearted Sieur Peigneur, ever

ready

to screen the young girls from his wife's penitences

and severity

—taught

them the merriest songs

Beranger, his best bons mots and anecdotes, his wife

had no such luck with her lesson books. The opening of Noel and Chopsal became generally the signal for an escape to the wild woods that surrounded the large villa occupied by Mdlle. Hahn's

— MADAME BLAVATSKY.

grandparents during the

summer months.

was

or when roaming at leisure in the riding some unmanageable horse' on a Cossacks forest,

only

saddle, that the girl felt perfectly happy.

For the following period "

interesting reminiscence of this

Mme.

indebted to

Jelihovsky

great country mansion {datche), occupied

The

us at Saratow, was an old and vast building,

abandoned passages, and most weird nooks and corners. It had

subterranean turrets,

full

long

galleries,

by a family called Pantchoolidzef, several generations of whom had been governors at Saratow and Pfenja the richest proprietors and noblemen of the latter province. It looked more like a mediaeval been

built

—

ruined castle than a building of the past century.

The man who took prietors,

—

of a type

care of the estate for the pro-

now

happily rare,

who regarded

the serfs as something far lower and less precious

than his hounds,

— had

and tyranny, and

The

curse.

his

been known

for his cruelty

name was a synonym

legends

told

his

ferocious

despotic temper, of unfortunate serfs beaten to death,

and imprisoned

ranean dungeons, were

were repeated

had been

for

months

many and

to us mostly

for a

and

by him

dark subter-

They Peigneur, who

thrilling.

Mme

for the last twenty-five years the gover-

ness of three generations of children in the Pantchoolidzef family.

about

the

ghosts

promenading

Our heads were of

in chains

the

full

martyred

of stories

serfs,

during nocturnal hours

seen ;

CHILDHOOD. the

phantom of a young

girl,

tortured to death for

refusing her love to her old master, which floating in

the

and out of the

subterranean

iron-bound door of

passage at twilight, and

stories that left us children

fear

little

was seen

and

girls in

other

an agony of

whenever we had to cross a dark room or We had been permitted to explore, under

passage.

the protection of half-a-dozen male servants and a quantity of torches and lanterns, those awe-inspiring '

Catacombs.'

True,

we had found

them more

broken wine bottles than human bones, and had gathered more cobwebs than iron chains, but our imagination suggested

ghosts

shadow on the old damp walls. Blavatsky) would not remain

every flickering

Still

Helen (Mme. with one

satisfied

either. She had uncanny region as a Liberty Hall, and refuge where she could avoid her lessons. A

solitary visit, nor with a second

selected the

a safe

long time passed before her secret was found out,

and whenever she was found missing, a deputation of strong-bodied servant men, headed by the gend-

arme on

service in the Governor's

spatched

search of her, as

Hall,

required no less than

one who was not a serf and feared her her up-stairs by force.

was de-

little,

She had erected

to bring

for herself

a tower out of old broken chairs and tables in a corner under an iron-barred window, high up in the

and there she would hide for hours, reading a book known as Solomon's Wisdom,' in which every kind of popular legend was taught. ceiling of the vault,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MADAME BLAVATSKY.

Once

or twice she could hardly be found in those

damp

subterranean corridors, having in her endea-

way

vours to escape detection, lost her

For

rinth.

all this

or repentant,

she was not

to call her

little

" Intensely

company

hunch-backs

daunted

in the least

as she assured us, she

for,

there alone, but in the '

in the laby-

was never

beings

she used

and playmates.

nervous and sensitive, speaking loud,

and often walking at nights in the

her sleep, she used to be found

most out-of-way

and

places,

Thus from her one was missed room night when she she was hardly twelve, and the alarm having been given, she was searched for and found pacing one of the carried back to her bed profoundly asleep.

long subterranean corridors, evidently versation with

someone

She was the strangest

deep con-

invisible for all but herself.

one has ever seen, one

girl

with a distinct dual nature

in her,

that

made one

think there were two beings in one and the same

body one mischievous, combative, and obstinate everyway graceless the other as mystical and ;

;

metaphysically inclined as a seeress of

Prevost.

schoolboy was ever more uncontrollable or

of the most unimaginable espiegleries than she was.

and daring pranks and the same time, when

the paroxysm of mischief-making had run

no old scholar could be

full

more assiduous

its

course,

in his study,

and she could not be prevailed to give up her books, which she would devour night and day as long as the impulse lasted.

The enormous

library

of her

CHILDHOOD.

grandparents seemed then hardly large enough to satisfy her cravings.

Attached to the residence there was a large abandoned garden, a park rather, full of ruined

and

kiosks, pagodas,

out-buildings,

which running

ended in a virgin forest, whose hardly paths were covered knee-deep with moss, and

hillward,

visible

with thickets in

had disturbed hiding-place deserters,

refuge,

and

when

it,

which perhaps, no human foot

was reputed the runaway criminals and

for centuries.

for it

all

the

was there that Helen used

the

catacombs

to take

had ceased to assure

her safety."

Her

strange temperament and character are thus

described in a work called "Juvenile Recollections,

by Mme. Jelihovsky, a selected by the author from the diary kept by herself during her compiled for thick

Children,"

volume of charming

stories

girlhood. "

Fancy, or that which

days as fancy, was developed

all

regarded in these the

most extra-

ordinary way, and from her earliest childhood,

For hours at times she used to narrate to us younger children, and even to her seniors in years, the most incredible stories with the cool assurance and conviction of an eye-witness, and sister

Helen.

one who knew what she was talking about. When a child, daring and fearless in everything else, she got often scared into fits through her own hallucinaShe felt certain of being persecuted by what tions.

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

she called 'the terrible glaring eyes' invisible to everyone else, and often attributed by her to the

most inoffensive inanimate objects

an idea that

;

appeared quite ridiculous to the bystanders. As to herself, she would shut her eyes tight during such

and run away to hide from the ghostly glances thrown on her by pieces of furniture or articles of dress, screaming desperately, and frightenAt other times she would ing the whole household.

visions,

be seized with

amusing pranks of her

the

She found these

them by

of laughter, explaining

fits

invisible

companions.

every dark corner, in every bush

of the thick park that surrounded our villa during

summer months

the

;

when

while in winter,

all

our family emigrated back to town, she seemed to

rooms of the floor, entirely deserted from midnight till mornEvery locked door notwithstanding, Helen

meet them again first

ing.

in the vast reception

was found several times during the night hours in

those dark apartments in a half-conscious state,

sometimes

fast asleep,

and unable

story.

She disappeared

manner

hunted

after,

daytime

was

the

for,

in the

most unfrequented dark

loft,

and

them

sleep

localities

under the very

which she was traced, amid pigeons'

putting

called

she would be often discovered, with

surrounded by hundreds of those '

she

the top

same mysterious

Searched

also.

great pains, in the

once

how

to say

common bedroom on

got there from our

birds.

(according

nests,

;

roof,

and

She was the

rules

CHILDHOOD. taught in

At other

Wisdom

Solomon's

35 as she explained.*

'),

times behind the gigantic cupboards that

contained our grandmother's zoological collection,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the old days,

museum

princess's

ing achieved

wide renown

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;surrounded

stuffed animals

and monstrous

would be found,

and

flora,

birds,

the deserter

deep con-

after hours of search, in

and

with seals

versations

Russia in those

of fauna,

relics

amid antediluvian bones of

antiquities,

historical

of natural history hav-

stuffed

crocodiles.

one could believe Helen, the pigeons were cooing her

interesting

whenever

animals,

amused her with their

own

fairy

tales,

while

and

birds

solitary tUe-a-tete with her,

interesting stories, presumably from

For her

autobiographies.

all

nature

seemed animated with a mysterious life of its own. She heard the voice of every object and form, and claimed conwhether organic or inorganic sciousness and being, not only for some mysterious ;

powers

visible

what was

and audible

to every

for visible

one

else

for

herself

empty

alone

space, but even

but inanimate things such as pebbles,

mounds and

pieces

decaying

phosphorescent

timber. "

With a view

of adding specimens to the re-

markable entomological collection mother, as

much

for

pleasure, diurnal as .well

our

own

our grand-

instruction

as nocturnal

and

expeditions

* And, indeed, pigeons were found, if not asleep, still unable to move, and as though stunned, in her lap at such times.

— MADAME BLAVATSKY.

2,6

preferred the latter, as

they were more exciting,

and had a mysterious We knew of no greater

were often arranged.

charm

to us about them.

Our

enjoyment. ing

delightful travels in the neighbour-

woods would

o'clock

from 9 p.m. till i, and often 2 prepared for them with an

last

A.M.

may have

earnestness that the Crusaders

enced when setting out to fight the dislodge the

Turk from

infidel

The

Palestine.

experi-

and

children

of friends and acquaintances in town were invited

boys and

from twelve to seventeen, and two

girls

or three dozen of

young

serfs of

both sexes,

we were

with gauze nets and lanterns as

strengthened our ranks.

the rear

all

armed

ourselves,

followed a

dozen of strong grown up servants, cossacks, and even a gendarme or two, armed with real weapons for bur safety

and

protection.

set out

it,

was a merry procession

with beating hearts, and bent

with unconscious cruelty on the destruction of the beautiful, large night-butterflies for

which the

forests

The

foolish

of the Volga province are so famous. flying

insects

masses,

glasses of our lanterns, lives

long

pins

four inches square. sister asserted

tect flies

and ended and

cork

But even

as sphynxes

all

their

ephemeral

burial

in this

her independence.

and save from death

—known

would soon cover the

grounds eccentric

She would

pro-

those dark butter-

—whose

dark fur-covered

heads and bodies bore the distinct images of a white

human

skull.

Nature having imprinted on each

CHILDHOOD.

of them the portrait of the skull of some grSat dead

and must not be some heathen fetish-

hero, these butterflies are sacred,

she

killed,'

said,

speaking like

She got very angry when we would not but would go on chasing those " dead we called them and maintained that by

worshipper.

listen to her,

heads

;

so doing

disturbed the rest of the defunct persons

whose

skulls

weird

insects.

regions

less

were imprinted on the bodies of the interesting

more or

At about

less distant.

from the Governor's extensive sandy

were our day-travels there

villa

ten versts

was a

tract of land, evidently

into

field,

once upon a

time the bottom of a sea or a great lake, as

its soil

yielded petrified relics of fishes, shells, and teeth of

some

(to

us)

unknown

monsters.

Most of these

were broken and mangled by time, but one could often find whole stones of various sizes on which were imprinted figures of fishes and plants relics

and animals of kinds now wholly proved their undeniable

extinct,

but which

antediluvian origin.

The

marvellous and sensational stories that we, children and schoolgirls, heard from Helen during that

epoch were

countless.

stretched at

full

well

remember when

length on the ground, her chin

on her two palms, and her two elbows buried deep in the soft sand, she used to dream aloud, and tell us of her visions, evidently clear, reclining

vivid,

lovely

and as palpable as the

description

life

she

...

to her

gave

How the

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

38 submarine

life

those

all

How

us.

mingled

the

now crumbling

remains of which were

around

beings,

vividly

she

dust

described

their

past fights and battles on the spot where she lay, assuring us she saw it all and how minutely she ;

drew on the sand with her finger the fantastic forms of the long dead sea monsters, and made us almost see the very colours of the fauna and flora of those dead

While

regions.

listening

her

eagerly to

descriptions of the lovely azure waves reflecting the sunbeams playing in rainbow lights on the golden sands of the sea bottom, of the coral reefs and stalactite caves, of the sea-green grass

the delicate shining anemones, ourselves bodies,

the

and the

latter

speak

felt

our

our imagination galloped off

;

full

She never spoke

reality.

transformed into pretty and

with her fancy to a

fancied

velvety waters caressing

cool,

frisky sea-monsters

mixed with

oblivion of the present in later years as

she used

her childhood and early girlhood.

The

stream of her eloquence has dried up, and the very source

of her inspiration

now seemingly

lost

She had a strong power of carrying away her audiences with her, of making them see actually, if

even vaguely, that which she herself saw.

Once she into fairy

tive

frightened

had

all

of us youngsters very nearly

been transported into a world, when suddenly she changed her narra-

fits.

just

from the past to the present tense, and began to

ask us to imagine that

all

that which she

had

told

CHILDHOOD.

US of the cool blue waves with their dense 'popula-

was around

tions,

so '

far.

only invisible and intangible,

'Just fancy!

us,

suddenly opening, the

the earth

air

around us and rebecoming sea waves. look

moving.

Look,

are surrounded with water,

and are

amid the mysteries and the wonders of a sub-

right

marine world "

condensing .

there, they begin already appearing

she said;

miracle!'

She had

started from the sand,

and was speaking

with such conviction, her voice had such a ring of

amazement, horror, and her childish face wore

real

such a look of a wild joy and terror at the same

when, suddenly covering her eyes with

time, that

both hands, as she used to do

moments, she

fell

down on

The

Every one of us ately

sea

" It

fell

fully

engulphed

and

us,

excited

wave ...

are drowning!"

down on our

screaming and as

had

sea, the sea,

her

the sand, screaming at

the top of her voice, " There's the

come!

faces, as

has .

desper-

convinced that the that

we were no

was her

delight to gather around herself a

party of us younger children, at twilight, and, after taking us into the large dark museum, to hold us there,

spell-bound,

with her weird

stories.

Then

she narrated to us the most inconceivable tales about herself; the most unheard of adventures of which

she was the heroine, every night, as she explained. Each of the stuffed animals in the museum had

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

40 taken her

turn into

its

had divulged

confidence,

to her the history of its Hfe in previous incarnations

Where had she heard of reincarnation,

or existences. or

could have taught her anything of the super-

who

metempsychosis,

stitious mysteries of

family

she would stretch

Yet,

herself on

favourite animal, a gigantic stuffed seal, its

silvery, soft

her

and caressing

white skin, she would repeat to us as told to her

his adventures

a Christian

glowing colours and eloquent

himself, in such

even grown

style, that

up persons found themselves interested involuntarily in her narratives. They all listened to, and were carried

away by the charm of her

recitals,

the

younger audience believing every word she uttered.

Never can

forget the

white flamingo,

who

life

and adventures of a

tall

stood in unbroken contempla-

behind the glass panes of a large cupboard,

tion

with his two scarlet-lined wings, widely opened as

though ready to take

cell.

flight,

yet chained to his prison

had been, ages ago, she

told us,

no bird

but a real man.

and a murder,

which a great genius had changed

him

for

had committed

into a flamingo, a brainless

two wings with the blood of

condemning him marshes. " I

wander

bird, sprinkling his

his victims,

and thus

for ever in deserts

and

dreaded that flamingo

whenever

fearful crimes

fearfully.

chanced to pass through the

At dusk, museum to

say goodnight to our grandmother, who rarely her study, an adjoining room,

left

tried to avoid seeing

CHILDHOOD.

the blood-covered murderer by shutting

eyes and

running quickly by. " If

Helen loved to tell us stories, she was still more passionately fond of listening to other people's fairy tales. There was, among the numerous servants of the Fadeef family, an old woman, an underThe nurse, who was famous for telling them. catalogue of her tales was endless, and her memory retained

every idea

connected with

During the long summer grassy lawn under the

during the

still

on the green

twilights

fruit trees

superstition.

of the garden

;

longer winter evenings, crowding

around the flaming

fire

of our nursery-room,

used to cling to the old woman, and

felt

supremely

happy whenever she could be prevailed upon to tell us some of those popular fairy tales, for which our northern country '

The

so famous.

Ivan Zarewitch,' of

adventures of

Kashtey the Immortal,' of

Gray- Wolf,' the wicked magician travelling in the air in a self-moving seive or those of Mele-

the

;

tressa, the Fair Princess, shut up in a dungeon until

the Zarevitch unlocks key,

while

and all

we had

liberates

its

prison door with a gold

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;delighted

her

all.

Only,

children forgot those tales as easily as

learned them, Helen never either forgot the

stories or

consented to recognise them as

fictions.

She thoroughly took to heart all the troubles of the heroes, and maintained that all their most wonderful adventures were quite natural. People could change into animals and take any form they liked, if they

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

knew how men could fly, if they only wished Such wise men had existed in all ages, ?,o firmly. and existed even in our own days, she assured us, making themselves known, of course, only to those who were worthy of knowing and seeing them, and only

;

who believed in, instead of laughing at them. As a proof of what she said, she pointed to an old man, a centenarian, who lived not far from the .

villa,

known

a wild ravine of a neighbouring

The

Baranig Bouyrak.

real magician, in the

who

the patients

how

who

;

a sorcerer all

who also knew who had sinned.

applied to him, but

greatly

versed in the knowledge of the

occult properties of plants

read the future,

forest,

cured willingly

to punish with disease those

He was

man was a

old

popular estimation

of a good, benevolent kind,

was

and

said.

flowers,

and could

kept bee-hives

great numbers, his hut being surrounded by several

hundreds of them.

During the long summer

after-

noons, he could be always found at his post, slowly

walking among his favourites, covered as with a living cuirasse,

from head to

foot,

with swarms of

buzzing bees, plunging both his hands with impunity into

their

dwellings, listening to

their

deafening

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

and apparently answering them their buzzing almost ceasing whenever he addressed them in his noise,

(to us)

incomprehensible tongue, a kind of chant-

ing and muttering.

Evidently the golden-winged

labourers and their centenarian

each other's languages.

master understood

the latter, Helen

felt

CHILDHOOD. quite

sure.

Bouyrak' had an

Baranig

and she

tible attraction for her,

old

man whenever

Once

visited the strange

she could find a chance to do

would put questions and

there, she

irresis-

so.

listen to

how

the old man's replies and explanations as to

understand the language of bees, birds and animals, with a passionate

seemed

centenarian

wise - man,' he used to

constantly to us

from

' ;

of you.

all

This

that

will ;

lady

little

not live to see

would be impossible

Mme.

say of

her

quite different

predictions of her

pass

.'" .

write even a slight

Blavatsky's

thinking

feel sorry in

but they will all come

sketch of

ravine to the

There are great events lying

wait for her in the future.

verified

The dark As

earnestness.

her eyes a fairy kingdom.

life

without alluding

continually to the occult theories on which her

psychological development turns, and narrative will

be rendered most

frankly explain

some

own

think the

intelligible

of these at the outset, without

here being supposed to argue the question as to

upon a correct appreciation of natural laws (operating above and within those of physical existence), or whether they constitute an exclusive hallucination to which her mind whether these theories

has been subject.

rest

It will

be seen, at

all

events, that,

according to such a view, the hallucination has been

very protracted and coherent, so much so that, as I say, the life which has been entirely subordinate to the career marked out for

by those

whom

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

Blavatsky believes herself, and always has

Mme.

believed herself, guided and

without

meaningless

wish to disguise

reference

thread running through

it.

my own

would be

protected,

vitalising

this

course

have no

adhesion to the view of

Mme. Blavatsky's theory of life my own conviction concerning the real

nature on which

nor

rests,

existence of the living

whom

life,

Adepts of occult science with

Mme.

believe

Blavatsky, throughout her

have been more or

less closely associated.

But to argue the matter would convert this memoir going over a great deal

into a philosophical treatise

of ground

fitly

traversed in works of a purely

theosophical character.

be enough

It will

for

present purpose to expound the theory on which, as I

say,

Mme.

rests,

life

Blavatsky's comprehension of her

own

merely for the sake of rendering the

story which has

be set forth

intelligible to the

reader.

The primary

conception of oriental occultism, in

reference to the entity,

ness, cal

human

soul,

recognises

as an

a moral and intellectual centre of conscious-

which not only survives the death of any physi-

body

which

may be

time, but has also enjoyed

functioning at any given

many

periods of both

physical and spiritual existence before in that

body.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the â&#x20AC;&#x201D; may be

In fact the entity,

dual according to this view,

its

incarnation real indivi-

identified

persons with psychic faculties sufficiently developed,

through a series of

lives,

and not merely

in refer-

CHILDHOOD. ence to one.

The view

of Nature

—the Esoteric Doctrine, — quite

desctibine,

sufficiently accounts

from the point of view of any given body, no incarnated person can command a prospect for the fact that,

of the life-series through which he

Each is

incarnation, each successive

may have life

passed.

of the series,

a descent into matter from the point of view of

the

real

spiritual

entity

which the

organism

gether

true or higher

its

of Nature,

entity,

descent into

—which

self,

on the

spiritual plane

— may function with greater or

less success

according to the qualifications of the organism.

organism only remembers, with of

incidents

own

its

new

only alto-

The

specific detail, the life. The true may perhaps retain

objective

entity animating that organism

the capacity of remembering a great deal more, but

Moreover, until the

not through the organism.

organism

complete,

son concerned

immersed

illustration to

is it

grown

—

child, as

up,

to say, until the per-

—the true

may employ

only

materialistic

metaphysical language of great

—to a limited extent.

entity

suggest the idea which would be only

fully expressible in

elaboration

—that

ordinarily phrase

responsible being

;

that

The it,

quite

young

not a morally

to say, the organism has

not attained a development in which the moral sense of the true entity can function through the physical brain child in<y

and is

direct

physical

already marked out

acts.

But the young becom-

as in process of

the efficient habitat of the entity or soul that has

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

46 begun

to function through

fore, if

we imagine

men,

—adepts

its

organism

and, there-

;

that there are in the world Uving

the direction

forces

the

higher planes of Nature with which physical science is

not yet acquainted,

—we

understand

shall readily

the peculiar relations that exist between

them and

a child in process of growing up, and

gradually

taking into

itself

a soul that such adepts are already

in relations with.

Let

repeat that this

occult science view of

mere statement of the

human

nature

not put

forward as a proof that things are so; but simply because that theory of things tinuous

life

story goes

on,

be found a con-

upon which the

thread

Blavatsky's

will

are strung.

some readers

facts

may be will

Mme.

that, as the

develop other

theories to account for them, but all I have to say would appear disjointed and incoherent without this brief explanation, while

becomes, at

clearly intelligible with that clue to

its

all

events,

successive

incidents.

In this

way

proceed to assume, as a working

hypothesis, that even in childhood Mdlle.

Hahn was

under the protection of a certain abnormal agency capable even of producing results on the physical

plane

when

called

for.

heard her

extraordinary emergencies these were

For example, tell

have more than once

a story of her childhood's days, about

a great curiosity she entertained in reference to a certain picture

— the

portrait of

one of the ancestors

CHILDHOOD. of the family

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;which

hung up

47 in the castle

where

her grandfather lived, at Saratow, with a curtain before

it.

ground

hung

at a great height

a lofty room, and Mdlle.

above the

Hahn was

small mite at the time, though very resolute

her mind was set upon a purpose.

when

She had been

denied permission to see the picture, so she waited

an opportunity when the coast was

for

proceeded to take her her design.

own measures

She dragged a

for

and

clear,

compassing

table to the wall,

and

contrived to set another small table on that, and a chair on the top of in

mounting up on

just

manage

all,

and then gradually succeeded

this unstable edifice.

vantage, and leaning with wall, contrived with

dusty

the curtain.

The

sight of the picture

effect

was

one hand against the the other to draw back

wrought upon her by the

startling,

movement back upset her actly

She could

to reach the picture from this point of

frail

and the momentary platform.

what occurred she does not know.

moment she

consciousness from the

But ex-

She

lost

staggered and

and when she recovered her senses she was lying quite unhurt on the floor, the tables and chair were back again in their usual places, the curtain had been run back upon its rings, and she began to

would

fall,

have

imagined the whole

unusual kind of dream

incident

but for the fact that the

some mark

of her small hand remained imprinted on the dusty wall high

up beside the

picture.

another occasion again her

life

seems to have

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

been saved under peculiar circumstances, at a time

when she was approaching

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;she

bolted with her

fourteen.

horse

with her foot entangled in

fell,

the stirrup, and before the horse was stopped she ought, she thinks, to have been killed outright but

strange sustaining power she distinctly

for a

around

her,

which seemed

to hold her

felt

in defiance

of gravitation.

If anecdotes of this surprising kind

were few and

far

between

memoirs, but, as

will

be seen

staple of the narratives

who

Blavatsky's

they form the

later,

which each person

in turn,

has anything to say about her, comes forward

The

tell.

her

Mme.

should suppress them in attempting to edit her

life I

first

by her

records of her return to Russia after

long wanderings are

full

compared

relatives,

of evidence, given

which these

little

anecdotes of her childhood told by herself sink into insignificance as marvels.

not for their

own

sake, but, as

illustrate the relations in

refer to them, moreover,

began by saying,

which appear

have existed

her early childhood, between herself and those

whom

she speaks of as her " Masters," unseen

unknown by her at but not unknown to the body,

child-life

was

that time as living men,

visions with

which her

filled.

In the narrative quoted above,

seen that she was often sitting apart in

will

have been

by her friends corners, when she was not interfered

with, apparently talking

noticed

herself.

By her own

account she was at this time talking with playmates

CHILDHOOD. of her

own

real in

and apparent age, who

size

appearance as

to her'were as

they had been flesh and

blood, though they were not visible at else about her.

annoyed

and one

at the

relatives refused to take little

companion

all

anyone

Hahn used to be exceedingly persistent way in which her nurses

Mdlle.

any notice whatever of

hunchback boy who was her favourite at this time.

Nobody

else

was able to

take notice of him, for nobody else saw him, but to the abnormally gifted child he was a visible, audible,

and amusing companion, though one who seems have led her

into endless mischief.

strange double

life

recollections, she

mature

But amidst the

she thus led from her earliest

would sometimes have visions of

protector,

whose imposing appearance

dominated her imagination from a very early period. This protector was always the same, never changed

;

man, and knew him as

his features

met him as a living though she had been brought

in after life she

in his presence.

Students of spiritualism, of occultism, of clairvoyance, will find this record strangely confused at the first

glance, but

think,

by the

light of

what

have

said above, in reference to the occult theory of incarnation, people

who

hold that theory will be excused

for thinking that they see

way through the Mdlle. Hahn was born,

their

entanglement pretty clearly. of course, with all the characteristics of what is known in spiritualism as mediumship in the most extraordinary degree, also with gifts as a clairvoy-

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

And

ant of an almost equally unexampled order.

had not come

as a child, the time

which

would

have been possible for the occult protectors of the entity thus beginning to function in that organism,

on foot any of those processes of physical training by which such natural gifts can be tamed, to set

disciplined,

a time

and

thus

;

They had to run wild for Mdlle. Hahn looking at her

utilised.

find

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

childhood's history from the psychological point of

view

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;surrounded

usual

phenomena

all,

or a large

of mediumship,

number of the

and

also visibly

under the observation and occasional guardianship of

the authorities

whose

service

her mature

were altogether given over, to the absolute

faculties

repression in

of the casual

faculties

after

life

were

half- interested, half-terrified

mediumship.

Her

friends

those of her manifestations which they could under-

Her aunt

stand sufficiently to observe.

from the age of four years

and somniloquent.

says that

she was a somnambulist

She would

hold, in her sleep,

long conversations with unseen personages, some of

which were amusing, some edifying, some terrifying for those

who gathered around

the child's bed.

various occasions, while apparently in the ordinary sleep, she

would answer questions, put by persons

who took

hold of her hand, about lost property or

other subjects of momentary anxiety, as though she

were a

sibyl entranced.

Sometimes she would be

missing from the nursery, and be found in some

CHILDHOOD. distant

room of the mansion, or

51 in the

garden, play-

ing and talking with companions of her dream-life.

For

years,

childish

impulse, she would

shock

whom

she came in contact, and by looking them intently in the face and telling them that they would die at such and such a time, or she would prophesy to them some accident or misfortune that would befall them. And since her prognostications usually came true, she was the terror, in this respect, of the domestic strangers with

visitors to the house,

circle."

In 1844, the middle of the period during which

she was growing up from childhood to girlhood at Saratow, her father took her on her abroad.

She accompanied him

to Paris

first

journey

and London,

a child of fourteen, but a troublesome charge even

then and even for him, though in her father's hands

she was docile from the point of view of her de-

meanour in any other custody. One object of the visit to London was to get her some good music lessons, for she showed great natural talents as a pianist which indeed have lingered about her in later life,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

though often even,

in total

She had some

ther. I

abeyance for many years togelessons from Moscheles, and

understand, played a duet at a private concert

with a then celebrated professional pianist.

Hahn and

his

Bath during

Colonel

daughter went to stay for a week this visit

England, but the only

striking feature of this excursion that

had to do with a

little

can hear of

difficulty that arose

between

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

mademoiselle and her father on the subject of riding.

She wanted

go on a man's

as she had been used

saddle, Cossack fashion,

to, in face

the contrary, in Saratow.

The

protests to

all

Colonel would not

was a scene, and a fit of hysterics on the part of the young lady, followed by an attack of some more serious illness. He is represo there

tolerate this,

sented as having been well satisfied to get her

and lodge her once more

again,

of Asia Minor.

Her

home

in the congenial wilds

pride in another accomplishment,

her knowledge of the English language, received a

rude shock during this early visit to London. She had

been taught to speak English by her

Miss

make

Jefferies,

first

governess.

but in Southern Russia people did not

the fine distinctions

between

different sorts of

English which more fastidious linguists are alive

The English governess had been a Yorkshire woman, and as soon as Mdlle. Hahn began to open her. lips among friends to whom she was introduced to.

London, she found her remarks productive of

much more amusement than their substance justified. The combination of accents she employed Yorkshire grafted

on Ekaterinoslow

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; must

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

have had a

Hahn soon came had done enough for the

comical effect no doubt, but Mdlle. to the conclusion that she

entertainment of her friends, and would give forth her

"hollow

o's

and

a's"

no more.

With her

national

speaking foreign tongues, however, she set her conversation in another key by the time she next

talent for

visited

England

185

CHAPTER

II.

MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL.

The

Hahn

marriage by which Mdlle.

name she has

known

since been

acquired the

by, took place in

She was then, it will be seen, about sevenand General Blavatsky to whom she was

1848. teen,

—as as the ceremonies of the Church were concerned — was, at events, a man of advanced

united

far

all

age.

Madame

was nearer was himself reluctant to

herself believed that he

seventy than

sixty.

acknowledge

more than

about

Other

fifty.

matrimonial opportunities of a far more attractive character were, as

open

now

learn from her relatives,

to her really at the time, but these

would have

rendered the marriage state had she entered

some

of her younger admirers, a

matter than she designed

Her demeanour,

much more

its

which

precipitation

described by that phrase,

serious

most desirable

launched

she

and brevity

with

be in her case.

therefore, with the

of her suitors was purposely intolerable.

adventure

—seems

The herself,

may to

actual

—

fairly

for

have been

brought about by a combination of circumstances that could only have influenced a wild

temper

and irregular

girl

of Mdlle. Hahn's

training.

Her aunt

—

— ; '

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

describes the

manner

arranged, as follows

which the marriage was

She cared not whether she should get married or not. She had been simply defied one day by her governess to find any man who would be her husband, in view of her temper and disposition. "

The

governess, to emphasise the taunt, said that

so ugly, and had him a plumeless raven laughed at so much, calling That that even he would decline her for a wife

even the old

man she had found '

—

was enough three days after she made him propose, and then, frightened at what she had done, sought :

to escape

from her joking acceptance of his

offer.

was too late. Hence the fatal step. All she knew and understood was when too late that she had been accepting, and was now forced to accept But

—

a master she cared nothing

for,

nay, that she hated

was tied to him by the law of the country, hand and foot. A great horror crept upon her, as that she

she explained irresistible,

later

;

one

desire, ardent, unceasing,

got hold of her entire being, led her on,

by the hand, forcing her to act instinctively, as she would have done if, in the act of saving her life, she had been running away from a mortal danger. There had been a distinct attempt to so to say,

impress her with the solemnity of marriage, with her future obligations and her duties to her husband,

and married

life.

few hours

later, at

she heard the priest saying to her

honour and obey thy husband,' and

the

— Thou

altar,

at this

hated

shalt

MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL. word,

sixteen

shalt,'

—was

deadly pale.

—

her young face

was hardly then to become

for she

seen to flush angrily,

She was overheard

response, through her set teeth

—

mutter in

Surely,

shall

not!

"And mined

own

Forthwith she deter-

surely she has not.

to take the law

hands, and

— she

and her future left

her

life

husband

into her for ever,

without giving him any opportunity to ever even think of her as his wife. "

Thus Mme. Blavatsky abandoned her country

at seventeen,

and passed ten long years

and out-of-the-way

places, in

in strange

Central Asia, India,

South America, Africa, and Eastern Europe."

At the time the marriage took place, Mdlle. Hahn was staying with her grandmother and some other relatives at

frequented in the

The young

Djellallogly, a

summer by

mountain retreat

the residents of

Tiflis.

lady herself had never intended to do

more than establish the fact that General Blavatsky would be ready to marry her, but with an engagement regularly set on foot, announced in the family, proclaimed to friends, and so forth, with " congratulations " coming in, and the bridegroom claiming its fulfilment, a restoration of the status quo was found by the reckless heroine of the complication, more easily talked about than obtained. Her friends protested against the scandal that would be created if the engagement were broken off for no apparent reason. Pressed to go on with the

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

wedding, she seems to have consoled herself with the belief that she would be securing herself in-

woman

creased liberty of action as a married

ever she could compass as a

Her

girl.

away with

altogether off the scene, far

than

was

father

regiment

his

was not

in Russia,

and though consulted by

sufficiently

acquainted with the facts of the case to

take up any decided

all

The

way.

either

attitude

ceremony of the marriage,

letter,

events, duly took

place on the 7th of July 1848.

course the theories concerning

by General Blavatsky and

entertained

state

abnormally natured young bride, differed

and came

wedding

indignation,

his

toto coelo,

from the day of the

into violent conflict

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

married

the

day of unforeseen revelations, furious dismay,

and

belated

Nothing was ever imagined

fiction

repentance.

ex-

travagant than the progress of the brief and stormy

though imperfect partnership. will

Hahn so

The

understand that a born

intelligent reader

occultist

could never have plunged into a relationship

intolerable,

husband and wife ordinary plane of

The day

impossible if

human

after the

for her

retreat for

that

she had understood on the affairs

what she was about.

wedding, she was conducted by

the General to a place called Daretchichag, a

this

Mile.

Erivan residents.

She

summer

tried already

journey to make her escape towards the Persian

frontier,

but the Cossack she sought to win over as

her guide

in this enterprise,

betrayed her instead to

MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL.

The

the General, and she was carefully guarded.

cavalcade duly reached the residence of the gover-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the scene of

nor

his peculiar

honeymoon. Certainly

the position in which he was placed retrospective

sympathy

commands our

some reasons

for

;

but

impossible to go into a discussion of details that

might go

For three months the

far to qualify this.

newly married couple remained together under the

same roof, each fighting for impossible concessions, and then at last, in connection with a quarrel more violent even than the rest, the

young lady took horse

on her own account and rode to

Tiflis.

Family councils followed, and it was the unmanageable bride should be sent

father.

settled that

to join her

arranged to meet her at Odessa, and she

was despatched in the care of an old servant-man and a maid, to catch at Poti a steamer that would take her to

But her desperate

her destination.

passion for adventure, coupled with apprehensions that her

father

might endeavour to refasten the

broken links of her nuptial bond, led her her

own mind an amendment

to this

to design in

programme.

She so contrived matters on the journey through Georgia, to begin with, that she and her escort missed the steamer at vessel

But a small English

Poti.

was Blavatsky went on board

sailing

lying

the harbour.

this vessel

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

Mme. Com-

modore she believes was the name, and, by a

liberal

outlay of roubles, persuaded the skipper to

fall

first

with her plans.

The Commodore was bound

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

Kertch, then to Taganrog in the Sea of Azof, and ultimately to Constantinople. Mme. Blavatsky took

passage

for

Kertch.

herself

and

ostensibly

servants,

arriving there, she sent the servants

ashore to procure apartments and prepare for her

But

landing the following morning.

having

now shaken

herself free of the last restraints

that connected her with her past in

Commodore

the

instance,

in the night,

for

as the vessel

life,

she sailed away

Taganrog,

had business

and afterwards returning,

the

first

at that port,

Black

Sea,

for

Constantinople.

The

little

voyage

itself

seems

adventures, which, in dealing with a

with adventures

all

have been life less

full

crowded

Mme. Blavatsky's, The harbour police of

through, than

one would stop to chronicle.

Taganrog visiting the Commodore on her arrival, had to be so managed as not to suspect that an extra person was on board. The only available hiding place, amongst the coals, was found unattractive by the passenger, and was assigned to the cabin boy, whose personality she borrowed for the occasion, being stowed away in a bunk on pretence of illness. Later on

when

the vessel arrived at Constantinople

further embarrassments

and she had

had developed themselves,

to fly ashore precipitately in a caique

with the connivance of the steward to escape the persecutions

of the

skipper.

Constantinople,

however, she had the good fortune to

fall in

Russian lady of her acquaintance, the

with a

Countess

MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL.

with

whom

she formed a safe intima'cy, and

travelled for a time in Egypt, Greece,

and other parts

of Eastern Europe.

Unfortunately

it is

than sketch the period of her approach,

pages, self,

we of

do more

that

we now

For the

childhood given in the

her childhood,

full

foregoing

She

are indebted to her relatives.

though frequently able

dotes

life

the meagrest outline.

of her

details

impossible for

her-

to tell disjointed anec-

could

never

have

put

together so connected a narrative as that obtained

from Mme. Jelihowsky, and there was no

hand

during her wanderings

all

never kept diaries during a distance of time

but

of various periods,

K some

this period,

uneven

and memory

in its

my the

task.

Countess

Blavatsky already began to pick up

occult teaching, though of a very different

inferior order

from that she acquired

later.

time there was an old Copt at Cairo, a well and widely

and

treatment

can only point in excuse for

embarrassments of

Egypt, while travelling with

Mme.

She

over the world.

a very uncertain guide,

the present record

this to the obvious

sister at

keep a record of her subsequent adventures

influence,

magician.

The

known

;

and of a tales of

and

At that man very

of considerable property great reputation

wonder

popular report were very thrilling.

told about

Mme.

him by

Blavatsky

seems to have been a pupil who readily attracted his interest, and was enthusiastic in imbibing his

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

She fell in with hint again in later years, and spent some time with him at Boulak, but her acquaintance with him in the beginning did not last long, as she was only at that time in Egypt for about three months. With an English lady of rank whom she met during this period she also travelled for a time. Her relatives at Tiflis had instruction.

her from the time the deserted

lost all traces of

servants at Kertch reported her disappearance, but

she herself communicated privately with her

and secured foreign

his consent to her

travel.

realised

father,

vague programme of the

impossibility

inducing her to resume the broken thread of her

married

life

passed,

and, indeed, considering

;

not

unreasonable to

all

that

had

suppose that

General Blavatsky himself was ready to acquiesce in

the

obtain

separation.

endeavoured,

indeed,

a formal divorce on the ground that his

marriage had never been more than a form, and that his wife

had run away

;

but Russian law at the

time was not favourable to divorce and the attempt failed.

Colonel Hahn, however, supplied his fugi-

tive daughter with

money, and kept her counsel

regard to her subsequent movements.

Ten

years

elapsed before she again saw her relatives, and her restless eagerness for travel carried her

period to

and

all

this

parts of the world.

during this

She kept no

diary,

distance

of time can give no very connected story of these complicated wanderings.

Within about a year of their commencement she

MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL. seems with

have been

many

in Paris,

where she was ihtimate

hterary celebrities of the time, and where

a famous mesmerist,

still

living as

write,

though

an old man now, discovered her wonderful psychic

and was very eager to retain her under his But the chains had not yet control as a sensitive. gifts,

been forged that could make her prisoner, and she quitted Paris precipitately to escape this influence.

She went over to London, and passed some time in company with an old Russian lady of her acquaintance,

the

Countess

whom, however, she out-stayed remaining there in company with the Hotel,

Mivart's

at in

London,

Countess's

demoiselle de compagnie in a big hotel, she says,

somewhere between the City and the Strand, " but as to names or numbers, you might as well ask me to tell you what was the number of the house you lived in in your last incarnation."

Connected as she was

Russia, she naturally

met a good many of her own countrymen abroad, with whom she was either already acquainted,

who were glad to befriend her. Sometimes, when circumstances were favourable, she would

travel with

companions thus thrown

at other times altogether alone. adventure and for all strange

her way,

Her

craving for

and

outlandish

Her was quite first long flight abroad was prompted by a passionate enthusiasm for the North American Indians,

places

and

people,

unsatiable.

contracted from the perusal of Fennimore Cooper's

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

After a

novels.

little

with the Countess the that

minor touring about Europe

1850, she

welcomed

New

Year of 185 1 at Paris, and in the July of year went in pursuit of the Red Indians of her

imagination

Canada.

Fortunately her illusion

on the subject of these heroes was destined to an

At Quebec

early dissipation.

a party of

(she believes

Indians were introduced to her.

was)

She

was delighted to encounter the sons of the forest, and even the daughters thereof, their squaws. With some of these she settled down for a long gossip over the mysterious doings of the medicine men. Eventually they disappeared, and with them various articles

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;especially

Madame's personal property

a pair of boots that she greatly prized, and which the resources replace.

Quebec

The Red

Indian of actual fact thus ruined

the ideal she had constructed

gave up her search a

new programme.

days could not

in those

for their

In the

her fancy.

She

wigwams, and developed first

instance, she thought

she would try to come to close quarters with the

Mormons, then beginning to excite public attention but their original city Nauvoo, in Missouri, had just been destroyed by the unruly mob of their less ;

industrious and less prosperous neighbours,

and the

many

of their

survivors of the massacre in which so

were then streaming across the desert Mme. Blavatsky thought search of a new home.

people in

fell

that under these

circumstances Mexico looked an

inviting region in

which to risk her

life

next,

and

MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL. she

made her way,

the

New

meanwhile, td

Orleans.

This apparently hasty sketch

no idea of the

difficulty

will

give the reader

with which she has, at this

long subsequent period, recalled even so much as here set down.

has only been by help of public

events that she can remember to have heard about at such

and such places that

construct

have been enabled to

a skeleton diary of her wanderings, on

which here and there her recollections enable put a

little flesh

and blood.

At New Orleans

the

principal interest of her visit centered in the Voodoos,

a sect of negroes, natives of the

West

Indies,

and

half castes, addicted to a form of magic practices

that

no highly trained occult student would have

anything to do with, but which nevertheless presented attractions to

Mme.

Blavatsky, not yet far

advanced enough in the knowledge held in reserve for

her,

varieties

distinguish

" black "

of mystic exercise.

" white

from

The Voodoos'

pre-

tensions were of course discredited by the educated white population of New Orleans, but they were

none the

less

shunned and

feared.

might have been drawn dangerously

Mme.

Blavatsky

far into associa-

was

tion with them, fascinated as her imagination liable to

become by

but the

strange

occult mysteries of

any kind

guardianship that had

;

often

asserted itself to her advantage during her childhood,

which had by

this

shape, for she had

time assumed a more definite

now

met, as a living

man

the

I\IADAME BLAVATSKY.

long familiar figure of her visions, again come to her rescue. She was warned in a vision of the risk she

was running with the Voodoos, and at once moved off to fresh fields and pastures new. She went through Texas to Mexico, and congood deal of that insecure country, these hazardous travels by her own

trived to see a

protected in reckless

and by various people who from

daring,

time to time to time interested themselves in her

She speaks with

welfare.

old Canadian, a

man known

special gratitude of an

as Pere Jacques,

whom

she met in Texas, where at the time she was quite

without any companionship.

through some

perils to

saw her

safely

which she was then exposed,

and thus by hook or by crook Madame always

managed

to scramble along unscathed

seems miraculous have been able

was

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

to lead

in the retrospect

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;young woman

the wild

life

;

though

at that time as she

on which she was em-

There

barked without actually incurring disasters.

was no

that she should

reliance in her case, as in that of Moore's

heroine, on " Erin's

honour and Erin's pride."

passed through rough communities of

savage as well as

civilised,

and seems

all

She kinds,

have been

guarded from harm, as assuredly she was guarded,

by the sheer

force of her

own

fearlessness,

fierce scorn for all considerations

and her

however remotely

"magnetism of sex." During her American travels, which for this period lasted about a year, she was lucky enough to receive associated with the

MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL.

a considerable legacy bequeathed her by

one of her

godmothers.

funds for a

time,

This put her splendidly

though

account that the in

moderate instalments,

the facts of her

may

easily

much to be regretted on her money was not served out to her

life

for the

temperament which

so far even will have revealed,

be recognised as one not

habits of prudent expenditure.

likely to

go with

Madame,

the

course of her adventures has often shown that she

can meet poverty with indifference, and battle with it

any way that may be necessary, but with her

pockets to

full

throw

of money, her impulse has always been

away with both hands.

unable to explain roubles, except

how

that

She

wholly

she ran through her 80,006

amongst other random pur-

chases she bought land in America, the very situation of

which she has long since

totally forgotten,

besides having, as a matter of course, lost

all

the

papers that had any reference to the transaction.

She resolved during her Mexican wanderings that she would go to India, fully alive already to the necessity of seeking beyond the northern frontiers of that

country for the further acquaintanceship

those great teachers of the highest mystic science,

with

whom the guardian of her visions was associated

She wrote, therefore, to a certain Englishman, whom she had met in Germany two

her mind.

years before, and

whom

she

knew

quest as herself, to join her in the

be on the same

West

Indies, in

order that they might go to the East together. E

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

duly came, but the party was further augmented by the addition of a Hindoo whom Mme.- Blavatsky

met

Copau,

Mexico, and

tained to be what

called a

whom

" chela,"

she soon asceror pupil of the

The

Masters, or adepts of oriental occult science.

Cape Bombay,

three pilgrims of mysticism went out via the to Ceylon,

where, as

and thence I

make

a sailing ship to

out the dates, they must have

arrived at quite the end of 1852.

dispersion of the

each

being

bent

Madame would

little

party soon followed,

somewhat

not accept

the

ends.

different

guidance of the

was bent on an attempt of her own to Tibet through Nepal. For the time her

Chela, and

get into

failed, chiefly,

she believes, as far as external

visible difficulties

were concerned, through the

attempt

and

opposition of the

Mme.

British resident then in

Blavatsky went

down

Nepal.

to Southern India and

then on to Java and Singapore, returning thence to

England. 1853, however,

Russian to

was an unfortunate year

visit this country.

the Crimean

War

vatsky's patriotism,

The

for a

preparations for

were distressing

Mme.

and she passed over

at the

Bla-

end

of the year again to America, going this time to

New

York, and thence out west,

first

to Chicago,

then an infant city compared to the Chicago of the present day, and afterwards to the Far \\>st, and across the till

Rocky Mountains with emigrants' caravans,

ultimately she brought

for a time

San

MARRIAGE AND TRA\'EL. Her

Francisco.

stay in

America was prolonged on something like two years,

this occasion altogether to

and she then made her way a second time

to India

via Japan and the Straits, reaching Calcutta in the

course of 1855.

In reference to

aunt writes

—

her prolonged wanderings her

For the

first

her mother's family no sign of

by her legitimate

traced

father alone

knew

eight years she gave life

'lord

for fear of being

and

master.'

Her

Knowing,

of her whereabouts.

however, that he would never prevail upon her to return home, he acquiesced in her absence, and supplied her with places where

During her

money whenever she came

travels in India in 1856, she

taken at Lahore by a

was over-

German gentleman known

her father, who,

—

having

a journey in the East on his

laid out

could safely reach her."

association with

two

friends,

own

account, with a mystic purpose in view, in reference to

which

fate did

not grant him the success that

—

Mme. Blavatsky's efforts, had been asked by Colonel Hahn to try if he could find his errant daughter. The four compatriots travelled together attended

for a time

and went through Kashmir

Leli in

company with a Tartar shaman, who was instrumental in helping them to witness some Ladakh,

psychological wonders wrought at a Buddhist monastery.

Her companions, Mme. Blavatsky

explains,

formed what, referring to the incident in "Isis Unveiled," she calls " the unwise plan of penetrating

had

all

— MADAME BLAVATSKY.

—

under various disguises none of them speaking the language, ahhough one of them, a Mr K had picked up some Kasan Tartar, and into Tibet

begins on page 599, of that book, and describes the animation of

too long for quotation here. vol.

in " Isis " is rather

The passage

thought he did."

ii.,

an infant by the psychic principles of the old Lama, the

superior of the in " Isis," is

given

Mr K

monastery.

taken from a narrative written by

and put by him

The passage

Mme.

Blavatsky's

hands, and corresponds in outline to similar marvels

by the Abbd Hue

" Recollections

of Travel

testi-

the author gives to the wonders he witnessed

Tibet

cut

is all

was found

" miracles " that

down and

were

not,

earlier

form

;

but the

His story

mutilated.

be too striking

church, to be tolerated

still

Tartary, Tibet, and

In the later editions of that book the

China,"

mony

in the first edition of his

recognition

under the direction of the

by the

first

authorities

edition of the

its

book can

be seen at the British Museum, where

have

verified the accuracy of the quotation given in "Isis."

In reference to the journey in the course of which the Russian travellers witnessed the transaction at the Buddhist monastery, "

Two

politely

of them,

Mme.

the brothers

Blavatsky writes

N ——

were very

brought back to the frontier before they had

walked sixteen miles into the weird land of Eastern Bod, and Mr K an ex-Lutheran minister, ,

could not even attempt to leave his miserable village

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL. near Leli, as from the

days he found 'himself

first

prostrated with fever, and had to return to Lahore via Kashmir."

The Tartar Shaman, referred to above, rendered Mme. Blavatsky more substantial assistance in her efforts to penetrate into

Tibet than he was able to

afford to her companions.

Investing her with an

appropriate disguise, he conducted her successfully across the frontier, and far on into the generally inaccessible country.

vaguely refers chapter

last

Unveiled."

" Isis "

in these

records,

the narrative,

without any of the sur-

rounding circumstances, place

to this journey that she

a striking passage occurring in the

of " Isis

though given

was

here into

fits I

quote

its

proper

full

length.

Reference has just been made to certain talismans each shaman carries under

which

attached to a string. "

Mme.

his

left

Blavatsky goes on

arm, :

Of what use is it to you, and what are its virtues ? was the we often offered to our guide. To this he never answered '

question

directly, but evaded all explanation, promising that as soon as an opportunity was offered and we were alone, he would ask the stone to answer for himself With this very indefinite hope we were left to the resources of our own imagination. " But the day on which the stone spoke came very soon. It .

was during the most critical hours of our life ; at a time when the vagabond nature of a traveller had carried the writer to far-off lands where neither civilisation is known nor security can be guaranteed for one hour. One afternoon, as every man and woman had left ih&yourta (Tartar tent) that had been our house for over two months, to witness the ceremony of the Lamaic exorcism of Tshoutgour,* accused of breaking and spiriting away every bit of *

elemental demon, in which every native of Asia believes.

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

about two

living

the poor furniture

and earthenware of a family

miles distant, the

Shaman who had become our only

protector in

He sighed those dreary deserts, was reminded of his promise. on the sheepplace his left silence, after a short but and hesitated, and, going outside, placed a dried-up goat's head with

skin,

its

prominent horns over a wooden peg, and then dropping down the felt curtain of the tent, remarked that now no living person would venture in, for the goat's head was a sign that he was at work.' " After that, placing his hand in his bosom he drew out the little stone, about the size of a walnut, and, carefully unwrapping In a few moments his it, proceeded, as it appeared, to swallow it. '

limbs stiffened, his body became motionless as a corpse.

But

for

rigid,

and he

fell,

cold and

a slight twitching of his

lips

would have been embarrassing, The sun was setting, and were it not that the

at every question asked, the scene

nay dreadful. dying embers flickered at the centre of the tent, complete darkness would have been added to the oppressive silence which reigned. We have lived in the prairies of the West, and in the boundless steppes of Southern Russia ; but nothing can be compared with the silence at sunset on the sandy deserts of Mongolia ; not even the barren solitudes of the deserts of Africa, though the former aire

partially inhabited,

and the

void of

latter utterly

there was the writer, alone with what looked

corpse lying on the ground. long. " '

Mahaudu

Fortunately this state did not last

seemed to come from the Shaman was prostrated. Peace

uttered a voice which

bowels of the earth, on which the

What would you have me do

be with you.

Yet,

life.

no better than a

for

you

" Startling as the fact seemed, we were quite prepared for it, for we had seen other Shamans pass through similar performances. '

Whoever you

are,'

we pronounced mentally,

try to bring that person's

and

thought here.

go to and See what that other '

what we are doing and how situated.' announced the same voice. 'The old lady (kokona) is sitting in the garden. she is putting on her spectacles and reading a letter.' " The contents of it, and hasten,' was the hurried order, while preparing note-book and pencil. The contents were given slowly, party does,

"'I

tell

there,'

if,

while dictating, the invisible presence desired to afford us down the words phonetically, for we recognised the

time to put

MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL.

Valachian language, of which we knew nothing beyond the abiHty In such a way a whole page was filled. it. " Look west toward the third pole of the yourta,' pro-

to recognise '

nounced the Tartar in his natural voice, though hollow, and as if coming from afar. Her thought is '

Then

sounded

here.'

with a convulsive jerk the upper portion of the Shaman's

body seemed

raised, and his head fell heavily on the writer's which he clutched with both his hands. The position was becoming less and less attractive, but curiosity proved a good ally to courage. In the west corner was standing, life-like, but flickering, unsteady, and mist-like, the form of a dear old friend, a Roumanian lady of Vallachia, a mystic by disposition, but a feet,

thorough disbeliever in "

Her thought

this

kind of occult phenomena.

here, but her

body

lying unconscious.

^Ve could not bring her here otherwise,' said the voice. " We addressed and supplicated the apparition to answer, but

The features moved and the form gesticulated as if and agony, but no sound broke forth from the shadowy

all in vain.

in fear lips

;

we imagined

only

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; perchance

was a fancy

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; hearing, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

from a long distance, the Roumanian words, Non se pote It cannot be done.' " For over two hours the most substantial, unequivocal proofs that the Shaman's astral soul was travelling at the bidding of our unspoken wish were given us. Ten months later, we received a letter from a Valachian friend in response to ours, in which we had enclosed the page from the note-book, inquiring of her what she had been doing on that day, and describing the scene in full. She was sitting, she wrote, in the garden on that morning,* prosaically occupied in boiling some conserves; the letter sent to her was word for word the copy of the one received by her from her brother ; all at once, in consequence of the heat she thought, she fainted, and remembered distinctly dreaming she saw the writer in a desert place, which she accurately described, and as if

under a gipsy's tent,' as she expressed she added, I can doubt no longer.' " But our experiment was proved better still. sitting

it.

Henceforth,'

the Shaman's Inner in this chapter, the

Eye

to the

We had directed same friend heretofore mentioned

Kutchi of Lha-Ssa, who

travels constantly to

The hour in Bucharest corresponded perfectly with that of the country in which the scene had taken place. *

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

72 British India

and back.

was apprized of our later came help, hours for a few

We know

critical situation in the desert

;

that he

and we were rescued by a party of twenty-five horsemen, who had been directed by their chief to find us at the place where we were, which no living man endowed with common powers could have known. The chief of this escort was a Shaberon, an adept' whom we had never seen before, nor did we after that, for he never left his sotimay (lamasary), and we could have no access to '

it.

But he was a personal friend of the Kutchi."

This incident put an end for the time to Blavatsky's wanderings

Mme.

She was con-

in Tibet.

ductea Dack to the frontier by roads and passes

had no previous knowledge, and after further travels in India, was directed by her occult of which she

guardian to leave the country,

short!)'

before

the

troubles which began in India in 1857.

She went

a Dutch

Europe

Java, and thence returned to

Meanwhile the freely

exposed

all

fate to

from Madras to

vessel

in 1858.

which she has been so

through her later

asserting itself to her disadvantage,

was already

life

and without, up

to this time, having challenged the world's antagonism,

by associating her name with

tales of

wonder, she,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or rather,

nevertheless, already found herself

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the mark

absence, her friends found her

less extravagant, in

that have been

aimed

her

for slanders,

a different way, than some

at her quite recently

by people

claiming to take an interest in psychic phenomena,

but unable to tolerate those reported to have been

brought about by her agency. " Faint

Her aunt

writes

rumours reached her friends of her having

been met

Japan, China, Constantinople, and the

MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL. far

She passed

East.

times, but never lived in

Europe

through it.

Her

73 several

friends, therefore,

were as much surprised as pained

read, years

afterwards, fragments from her supposed biography,

which spoke of her as a person well known high

as well as the low, of Vienna, Berlin,

life,

saw, and Paris, and mixed her

and anecdotes whose scene was at

various

when her

epochs,

possible proof of her being far

These anecdotes

surname

;

names

Madame

with events

laid in these cities,

friends

had every

away from Europe.

of Julie, Nathalie, &c.,

really of other persons of the

and attributed

adventures.

War-

referred to her indifferently, under

the several Christian

which were those

name

in the

Thus

Heloise

same

to her various extravagant

the

Neue Freie Presse spoke

(?)

Blavatsky,

non-existing

—

who had joined the Black Hussars les Huzzards de la Mori during the Hungarian revolupersonage,

—

tion,

her sex being found out only in 1849."

Similar

stones, equally groundless, were circulated at a later

Anticipating

date.

this,

her aunt goes on

journal of Paris narrated the story of sky,

'a Pole from the

relative of

Caucasus

—

Mme.

(?),

Another Blavat-

a supposed

Baron Hahn of Lemberg, who,

after

taking an active part in the Polish Revolution of

1863 (during the whole of which time

Mme. H.

Blavatsky was quietly living with her relatives at Tiflis),

was compelled, from

as a female waiter in a

Antoine.'

These, and

lack of means, to serve

restmirant du Faubouig St

many

More in

astonished

than frightened

for

familiar

awaken her niece, put a stop to the phenomena

from her arm-chair to

arose

hoping thereby to but at the same

moment

a heavy arm-chair

moved

at the other end of the room, and rattling on the floor,

glided toward the sofa.

The

noise

made

awoke Mme. Blavatsky, who, upon opening her eyes, enquired of the invisible presence

matter.

what was the

few more whisperings, and

all

relapsed

into quietness and silence, and there was nothing

more of the

sort during the rest of the evening.

mada:\ie blavatsky.

152

the date at which

independent of her

every phenomenon

write,

except such as the one

will,

and that Mme. Blavatsky attributes

described,

quite a different cause than spiritual manifestations,

has for more than twenty years entirely ceased.

what

powers

time this complete change in her occult

was wrought we are unable to say, as she was far away from our observation, and spoke of it but rarely

—never unless

pondence

to "

our corres-

From

answer the question.

her letters

learned that she was always travelling, rarely

settling for

asked

distinctly

any length of time

And

one place.

believe her statements with regard to her powers

have been entirely true when she wrote

Now

1866)

(in

shall

external influences."

never be

not H. P. B.

to tell us,

subjected

who was from

that time forth victim to " infjiences" which would

have withotU doubt triumphed over a nature than was hers ;

who

be— ["

subjected these to

her

The

ness

influences

—whatever

return

no more," writes "

Blavatsky in a letter to a relation.

thanks to Those

life."

whom

Mme.

now

Jelihowsky,

Mme.

cleansed

May

free,

bless at every

believe in this

said in a conversation in sister,

may

attraction to myself

of stray spooks and ethereal affinities.

hour of

they

she

psycho-physical weak-

and purified of that dreadful free,

strong

it is

will.

last vestiges of

gone,

less

on the contrary,

bid,

statement,"

1884, at Paris, her

" the

more so

for

MME. DE JELIHOWSKYS NARRATIVE. nearly five years

we had

various

following-

the

transformations

and

Rougodevo,

I53

a personal opportunity

and gradual phases that

force.

happened

very

she could not control, nor even stop

often

its

Pskoff that

manifesta-

more fully every day, until after her extraordinary and protracted illness at Tiflis she seemed to defy and subject it entirely to her will. This was proved by her stopping any such phenomena at her will, and by previous arrangement for days and weeks at a time. Then, when the term was over, she could produce them at her command, and leaving the choice of what should happen to those present. In After that she appeared to master

tions.

short, as already said,

there

where a

surely wrecked

less itt

it is

the firm belief of

all

that

stronz nature would have been

the struggle, her indomitable will

foitnd somehow or other the means of subjecting the

world of the

invisibles

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

to the denizens

has ever refused the name of " spirits her

own

control.

Let

of which she

and souls

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

be clearly understood,

however, that H. P. B. has never pretended to be able to control real spirits,

i.e.,

the spiritual monads,

but only Elementals; as also to be able to keep at

bay the

shells of the dead."]

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

CHAPTER

VII.

FROM APPRENTICESHIP TO DUTY. Probably the years 1867

1870,

the story of

these could be properly told, would be found

the most life,

but

far

Mme. Blavatsky's eventful for me to do more at present

interesting of

it is

impossible

than indicate that they were associated with great progress in the expansion of her occult knowledge,

and passed

in the

East.

intervening between

period

the

European

or three years

residence

have named were

travel,

for holding

her

The two

Tiflis

spent

and

indeed in

and there would be no necessity

back any information concerning these

the latest of her relatively aimless wanderings

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of

have gained possession, but

which

might

watchful relatives were with her to passed, and her

own

record what

recollections give us

none but

bare outlines of her adventures.

1870 she came back from the East by a steamer via the then newly-opened Suez Canal, and In

after

for

spending a short time

Piraeus took passage

Spezzia on board a Greek vessel, which met

with a terrible catastrophe, and was blown up by

an explosion of gunpowder and fireworks forming part of the cargo.

Mme.

Blavatsky was one of a

FROM APPRENTICESHIP TO DUTY. very small number of passengers whose

The

saved.

were

lives

castaways were rescued with no more

than the clothes they wore

when picked

out of the

water, and were momentarily provided for

Greek Government, who forwarded them

by the

to various

Mme. Blavatsky went to Alexandria amid much temporary inconshe waited till supplies of money reached

destinations.

and

to Cairo, where,

venience,

her from Russia. I

this chapter "

have headed

to duty," because that

by the date

Mme.

Blavatsky 's return to

had altogether been

the passionate search for occult knowledge,

on which her inborn

instincts

impelled

her from

This had now come upon her

her earliest youth. in

marked Europe in

the great transition

Till that period her life

1870.

spent

from apprenticeship

ample measure.

The

natural-born faculties of

mediumship which had surrounded her earlier years with a corruscation of wonders had given place, now, to attributes for

which western students of psychic

The

mysteries at that date had no name.

time had

not come for even the partial revelations concerning the great system of occult initiation as practised in

the East, which has been embodied lished within the last few years.

already

knew

how

Mme.

Blavatsky

these

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;but she was sorely puzzled

it. She had to do making the world acquainted

she should begin

the best she could in

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

her,;

some knowledge concerning

mysteries to the world, to decide

books pub-

had a task before

that she

task of introducing

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

156

with the idea that the latent potentialities in nature,

—

in connection with which psychic

human

phenomena

of various kinds were already attracting the attention of large classes in both hemispheres,

—were of a kind

which, properly directed, would lead to the infinite

wrongly

spiritual exaltation of their possessors, while

directed they were

towards disastrous results

She

extent.

downward

of leading

capable

of almost commensurate

alone, at the period

refer to, appre-

ciated the magnitude of her mission,

and

she did

not adequately appreciate the difficulties in her way,

she had at

all

events no companion to share her

sense of the fact that these

difficulties

were very

great.

among those most willing back now upon the steps she

Probably she would be to recognise, looking

took

the beginning, that she went to

work the

wrong way, but very few people who have had a long and arduous battle in

when

life

that fight has been chiefly

to fight,

waged

— especially

against such

moral antagonists as bigotry and ignorance,

— would

a position at the close of their efforts to regard

their earliest

The

measures with

satisfied

complacency.

only lever which, as the

matter presented

the beginning to

Mme.

Blavatsky's mind,

available for her to

work

Itself in

seemed

and growing

with,

was the wide-

belief of large numbers of phenomena and somewhat too hastily formed theories of spiritualism. She set to work In Egypt finding herself there for the moment,

spread

civilised people in the

—

FROM APPRENTICESHIP TO DUTY.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

to found a society

which should have the

phenomena

gation of spiritualistic

investi-

for its purpose,

and which she designed to lead through paths of higher knowledge in the end. Some, among the

many

misrepresentations which have

made her

one long struggle with calumny from

life

time

this

onward, arose from this innocently intended mea-

Because

sure.

spiritualistic

having

she

society,

set

she

has

committed

been

her

foot

been regarded

date

that

acceptance of the

theory of psychic

which

hold.

spiritualists

It will

however, from the quotations her

sister's

narrative

that,

return from the East in

quasi-

phenomena

have been seen, have given from

even

her

first

1858, she was emphatic

in repudiating this view.

One

of the persons

who sought Mme.

Blavatsky's

acquaintance in connection with this abortive society

was the subsequently notorious

Mme. Coulomb,

attached at that time to the personnel of a small hotel at Cairo,

who

way with

afterwards finding her

her husband, in a state of painful destitution, to

on Mme.

India, fastened herself but too securely

Blavatsky's hospitality at Bombay, this in the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;only

end by rendering herself the

to repay

tool of

infamous attack made upon the Theosophical Society in the

person of

zine at Madras.

its

Founder, by a missionary maga-

this

shall

have occasion to

speak again later on.

The

narrative of the period beginning in 1871,

— MADAME BLAVATSKY.

158 on which

am now

entering, has

a good deal of assistance

from writings

herself,

friends of her later years.

the reader

this

some

noun

we "

Mme.

relatives It

Blavatsky

and

intimate

would be tedious

shall therefore prefer

special cases later

—

and the use of the

narratives into one, "

from

were divided into separate frag-

ments of testimony, and except

been prepared, with

weld these plural pro-

hereafter sufficiently identify pas-

will

sages which have a composite authorship. In 1871

Mme.

Blavatsky wrote from Cairo to

tell

her friends that she had just returned from India,

and had been wrecked somewhere en passant (near Spezzia).

She had

to wait in

before she returned

mined

Egypt

for

some time

home, meanwhile she deter-

to establish a Societe Spirite for the investiga-

tion of

mediums and phenomena according

to Allan

Kardec's theories and philosophy, since there was no other selves

way to give people a chance to see for themhow mistaken they were. She would first

give free play to an already established and accepted teaching and then,

when

the public would see that

nothing was coming out of

it,

she would offer her

own

explanations.

said,

she was ready to go to any amount of trouble,

accomplish this object, she

—

even to allowing herself to be regarded for a time as a helpless medium. " They know no better,

and

them

does

me no harm

—

for

will

very soon show

the diff"erence between a passive

an active doer," she explains.

medium and

— FROM APPRENTICESHIP TO DUTY.

A this

few weeks

enterprise,

had

later a

new

written,

59 In

of disgust for the

full

which had proved a perfect

She

failure.

seems, to England and France for a

medium, but without cause,

was received.

letter

one she showed herself

she had surrounded

mediums

— French female

tramps,

when

not

success.

herself with

spiritists,

adventuresses

M. de Lesseps' army

ddsespoir

amateur

mostly beggarly the

of engineers and

rear

workmen on

the canal of Suez. " "

They

steal

the

money," she wrote,

society's

they drink like sponges, and

now caught them who come to

cheating most shamefully our members,

phenomena, by bogus manifestations.

investigate the I

had very disagreeable scenes with several persons

who

held

alone responsible for

ordered them out.

has not lasted a fortnight

The

—

all

this.

Socieie Spirite

a heap of ruins

majestic, but as suggestive as those of the Pharaoh's

tombs.

drama,

To wind

got nearly shot by a

who had been present

held,

up the comedy with a

madman

at the only

and got possessed,

—a

Greek,

two public seances

suppose, by

some

vile

spook." *

She broke up her * This

all

Socidte,

connection with the " mediums," shut

and went

literal translation

to live in

Boulak near the

of a letter written by

Mme.

Blavatsky

shows that she never changed her way of viewing communication with " spirits " for physical phenomena, as she was accused of doing when in America. to her aunt fourteen years back,

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

l6o

Museum.

Then,

tact with

fame, of

seems, she came again in con-

Capt. of mysterious

her old friend the

whom

mention has been made

with her earhest

connection

Egypt, at the outset of

visit to

For several weeks he was her only visitor. He had a strange reputation in Egypt, and One the masses regarded him as a magician. gentleman, who knew him at this time, declared her travels.

that

he had outlined and predicted for him for years

twenty-five

narrator's, daily

him behind

sulted

his

Ishmail

secretly.

nearly

his,

all

pretending to laugh

officials

back, dreaded and visited

once,

and

later

on would

not consent to follow his advice, to resign.

to stir

an old

to a foreigner,

New

upon.

The

man who was

from his house (situated

from town),

sceptics

These

reputed hardly ever at

about ten miles

were much commented

slanders and scandals were set on foot.

who

visited the SociHd

made

him

Khedive, had con-

Pasha, the

him more than

visits of

the

even to the day of his death.

The Egyptian high at

come,

life,

had,

moved by

idle

curiosity,

and witnessed the whole

capital of the thing.

failure,

Ridiculing the idea of

phenomena, they had as a natural result declared such claims to be fraud and charlatanry all round. Conveniently inverting the facts of the case, they

even went the length of maintaining that instead of paying the mediums and the expenses of the Society,

been paid,

was Mme. Blavatsky who had herself and had attempted to palm off juggler

FROM APPRENTICESHIP TO DUTY. The

genuine phenomena.

tricks as

rumours thus

ventions and

in-

by her French-women

Mme.

mediums," did not prevent

groundless

on foot

set

discharged

mostly the

enemies,

l6l

Blavatsky from

pursuing her studies, and proving to every honest investigator, that her extraordinary

voyance and clairaudience were

powers of

clair-

and indepen-

facts,

dent of mere physical manifestations, over which

Also that

an undeniable control.

she possessed

her power, by simply looking at them, of setting

and vibration without any

objects in motion

direct

contact with them, and sometimes at a great distance, instead of deserting her or

had increased with

Mme.

Egypt

time,

that

years.

acquaintance of

B.,

enthusiastic letters

Russian gentleman, an

who happened

sent

he wrote to

a brother-officer

ment, a letter

now

tives,

believing any

ready to believe

but jugglery, then

woman who

beats

spirits

than

in witchcraft.

we have all

the

;

and without ever did,

after all

Mme.

Boscos

She

That which

mystery.

simply phenomenal

regi-

the possession of her rela-

unfathomable

she produces

same

the

most

Thus

Blavatsky.

and from which we translate

marvel,

to visit

the

friends

his

Mme.

about

even diminishing,

Blavatsky a

and

Houdin's of the century by her address.

Robert .

Once

showed her a closed medallion containing the portrait of one person and the hair of another, an object which I had had in my possession but a few I

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

months, which was

made

Moscow, and of which

very few know, and she told

it,

your cousin's

Both are

hair.

and

portrait

god-mother's

your

without touching

and she pro-

dead,'

ceeded forthwith to describe them, as though she had both before her eyes. Now, god-mother, as

you know, who tune

dead

left

years

fifteen

daughter her

eldest

How

ago.

could

for-

she

know!" &c. In an illustrated paper of the time there told of

Mme.

met her

a story

Blavatsky by another gentleman.

some

table d'hote with

at a

friends

He in a

Refusing to go with these to

hotel of Alexandria.

the theatre after dinner, they remained alone, sitting

on a a

sofa,

little

and

Before the sofa there stood

talking.

teapoy, on which the waiter had placed for

Mr N

a bottle of liqueur, some wine, a wine-

As he was

and a tumbler.

glass,

former with

its

carrying the

contents to his mouth, without any

broke

visible cause, the glass

hand

in his

into

many

She laughed, appearing overjoyed, and made the remark that she hated liqueurs and wine, and could hardly tolerate those who used them too

pieces.

The You do

freely. "

broke .

and

glass

squeezed

posely, for it

not

mean

my wine-glass

The

story goes on.

is it

to infer that .

It is

very thin

;

you who

simply an accident.

was perhaps cracked,

too strongly

lied pur-

had just made the mental remark that

seemed very strange and incomprehensible, the

FROM APPRENTICESHIP TO DUTY.

glass being very thick and strong, just as a verre a

liqueur would be. "

But I wanted to draw her out. She looked at me very seriously, and her eyes

flashed.

do not do "

be the

first

she asked,

bet,'

on the

will try

to proclaim

the

spot.

do,

Consulate.

And

will

If not,

spirits to-

saying

so,

and prepared

But no sooner had the glass touched

it.

than

lips

and

you

you a true magician.

half filled the tumbler with wine

to drink

that

have a good laugh at you or your

will

morrow I

you

will

again

Well,

What

felt it

hand

bled,

shattered between

wounded by

fingers,

a broken piece in

instinctive act at grasping the tumbler together

when " '

felt

Entre

myself losing hold of

it.

les levres et la cotipe,

U7ie

grande distance^ she observed

and

left

the room, laughing in

quelqttefois

sententiously,

face

most out-

rageously."

"During states, "

the latter years,"

many were

our family

husband,

our

had

left

P. Blavatsky

years,

grandfather and

who had both

positions in Tiflis,

Mme. de Jelihowsky

the changes that had taken place

had

our aunt's

occupied very high died,

official

and the whole family

the Caucasus to settle permanently in Odessa.

had not

and there remained

family and a

number

serfs of the family,

visited

the country for

in Tiflis

but myself with

of old servants, formerly

who, once

liberated, could not

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

164

kept without wages in,

the house they had been born

and were gradually being sent away.

These

some of whom owing to old age were unable work for their living, came constantly to me for help. Unable to pension so many, I did what I could for them among other things I had obtained a permanent home at the City Refuge House for two old men, late servants of the family a cook called Maxim and his brother Piotre once upon a people, to

;

—

time a very decent footman, but at the time of the

event

refer to

an incorrigible drunkard who had

arm in consequence. That summer we had gone to reside during the hot months of the year at Manglis the headquarters of the regiment of Erivan some thirty miles from town, and Mme. Blavatsky was in Egypt. I had just received the news that my sister had returned from India, and was going to remain for some time at Cairo. We corresponded very lost his "

—

rarely,

long

generally short.

intervals,

But

after

and

our

letters

were

a prolonged silence

received from H. P. B. a very long and interesting letter."

A portion of

consisted of fly-sheets torn out from

a note-book, and these were writing.

The

been

put

all

strange

down on

all

covered with pencil-

events they

recorded had

— some

the spot-

under the

shadow of the great Pyramid of Cheops, and some It appears of them inside Pharaoh's Chamber. that Mme. B. had gone there several times,

FROM APPRENTICESHIP TO DUTY. once with a large company, some of

whom

were

spiritualists.*

me know,

Let

Vera,' she wrote,

true that the old Piotre

dead

whether

must have

some time yesterday (the date on the stamp of the envelope showed that it had left Egypt ten days previous to the day on which it was received). A Just fancy what happened! friend of mine, a young English lady, and a medium, died last night or at

stood writing mechanically on bits of paper, leaning

The

upon an old Egyptian tomb. tracing

perfect gibberish

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

pencil

had begun

characters that had

never existed here, as a philologist told us suddenly, and as

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;-when

was looking from behind her back, they changed into what I thought were Russian

letters. I

had just

attention having been called elsewhere,

left her,

when

heard people saying that

what she had written was now evidently

existing characters, but that neither she nor else could read them.

came back

prevent her from destroying that

had done with the

rest,

just in time to

of paper as she

and was rewarded.

Possess-

astonish-

ing myself of the rejected

ment on finding

slip

some

any one

slip,

fancy

contained in

Russian an evi-

dent apostrophe to myself! * Some most wonderful phenomena were described by some of her companions as having taken place in broad daylight in the desert when they were sitting under a rock ; while other notes in

Mme.

Blavatsky's writing recorded the strange sight she saw in

the Cimmerian darkness of the King's Chamber, when she had passed a night alone comfortably settled inside a sarcophagus.

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

66 "

Barishnya !"

shnya sinner

drink

said the

term baryshnya

young miss '), dear bary-

suffer

writer, " help,

(little

—a

title

me a

drink, drink, give

suffer,

oh help me, miserable

From

suffer

our old servants

this

will,

use with us two even after our hair will have grown white with age I understood immediately that the appeal came from one of our old servants, and took therefore the matter in hand by arming myself with a pencil to record what I could myself I found the name Piotre Koutcherof echoed in see. my mind quite distinctly, and I saw before me an indistinguishable mass of grey smoke a formless pillar and thought I heard it repeat the same Furthermore, I saw that he had died words. see,

—

Gorolevitch's hospital attached to the City

the

Refuge,

them

placed it

workhouse

Tiflis

Moreover, as

both.

you who placed him there

our old Maxim,

his brother,

You had

days before him.

poor Maxim's death. or not. "

tell

made out, company with I

who had

died a few

never written about

whether

.' .

Further on followed her description of the whole

alone,

had

it,

later on, in the

and the authentic

Pietro's

was

had

you

vision as she

where

spook

bitterly

words

as she called

evening when

pronounced

The

it.

spirit

(?)

complaining of thirst and was becoming

quite desperate.

the spook seemed to

was a punishment,

know

well,

—

said,

for his

—and

drunken-

—

FROM APPRENTICESHIP TO DUTY. ness during the lifetime of that personality '

An agony

ever living

Mme.

as she explained

67 .

of thirst that nothing could quench fire,'

— an

it."

Blavatsky's letter ended with a postscript,

which she notified her

had been

all settled.

both the brothers

sister

that

She saw the

—one

her doubts

astral

spooks of

harmless and passive, the

other active and dangerous.*

Upon

the receipt of this

struck with surprise.

letter,

her sister was

Ignorant herself of the death

of the parties mentioned, she telegraphed immediately

and the answer received from Doctor Gorolevitch corroborated the news announced by Mme. Blavatsky in every particular. Piotre had town,

died on the very same day and date as given in H. Blavatsky's

letter,

and

his

brother

two days

earlier.

Disgusted with the failure of her

and the gossip went home via *

Miss

How O

dangerous

provoked,

Palestine,

Mme.

spiritist society

Blavatsky soon

and lingered

for

some

the latter kind was proved on the spot.

the medium, a young lady of hardly twenty, gover-

ness in a rich family of bankers, an extremely modest and gentle

had hardly written the Russian words addressed to Mme. when she was seized with a trembling, and asked to drink. When water was brought she threw it away, and went on asking for a drink. Wine was offered her she greedily drank it, and began drinking one glass after another until, to the horror of all, she fell into convulsions, and cried for "wine a drink!" till she fainted away, and was carried home in a carriage. She had an illness after this that lasted for several weeks. girl,

Blavatsky,

—

[H. P. B.]

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

months

longer,

making a voyage

Palmyra and

other ruins, whither she went with Russian friends.

Accounts of some of the incidents of her journey found their way into the French and even American

At the end of 1872 she returned in her way without warning, and surprised her family

papers.

usual

at Odessa.

CHAPTER

VIII.

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. In the beginning of 1873

and went

Mme.

Blavatsky

in the first instance to

left

Russia

Paris.

this

time the psychic relationship between herself and her occult teachers

East was already estab-

in the

lished on that intimate footing which has rendered

her whole subsequent direction.

adopted

life

subject to

its

unnecessary to inquire

this or that course

;

shall

practical

why she

rarely dis-

cover common-place motives for her action, and frequently she herself would be no better able to

say

why "

she might be at any given

moment

ar-

ranging to go here or there than the merest stranger present.

The immediate motive

of her proceedings

would be the direction she would receive through occult channels of perception, lious life,

and

for herself, rebel-

and uncontrollable though she had been in earlier " her master " was now enough

" an order " from

to send her forward

on the most uninviting errand,

in patient confidence that

good

results

would ensue,

and that whatever might be thus ordered, would assuredly prove for the best.

The of

position

so unlike any which the experience

ordinary mundane

life

supplies that

may usefully

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

170 endeavour

to explain the relationship

exists in

which

connection with, and arising out of occult initiation in the

East between a

pupil, or chela, of the esoteric

or occult doctrine and his teacher, master, or guru.

have known many chelas within the last few years, and I can speak on the subject from information I

that

not

derived

exclusively

even

from

that

people

who

source.

The primary motive which governs become

chelas

the desire to achieve moral and

may lead

spiritual exaltation that

state of being than can

directly to a higher

be hoped for by the unassisted

operation of the normal law of nature.

Referring

back to the esoteric view of the human

soul's pro-

gress,

be seen that people

will

impelled, as

Mme.

may

often be

Blavatsky was for instance, from

childhood, by an inborn craving for occult instruction

and psychic development. tion

under the guidance, as

instinct,

which

unlike

purpose to accomplish a

have assigned above motive.

But

Such people seek initiait were, of a commanding the

intellectually

spiritual

in truth the

chelas

formed

achievement that as

their

primary

motive would be regarded

same at different stages of For the normal law of Nature is having accomplished a certain amount of

occultists

the

development. that a soul

progress

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; along the

one physical

life

path of spiritual evolution

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

(one incarnation) will be reborn

without losing the attributes thus acquired.

All

these constitute what are loosely spoken of as inborn

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA.

17I

tendencies, natural tastes, inclinations, and so forth.

And

thus whether a chela

then, for the first time,

seeking initiation or watched over by a guru from

primary motive of his

his last birth the

effort is the

same.

And may

being his

this

own

advancement,

spiritual

be, that if circumstances

do not require him to

play an active part in any work in the world, his

duty

own

will, to

a large extent, be concentrated on his

interior

Such a man's chief obligation

life.

towards the public at large, therefore, ceal the fact that

be to con-

will

a chela, for he has not yet,

the hypothesis, attained the right to choose

and who

who

shall

be introduced to the " mysteries,"

shall not

merely has to keep the secrets entrusted to

him

as such.

his service

may

the other hand the exigencies of

require

him

world which involve the

to perform tasks in the

partial explanation of his

relationship with his masters,

and then a very much

more embarrassing career a chela, however perfect

before him.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

may

be,

faculties,

lies

his occult

For such

communications

through the channel of his own psychic

between himself and

his masters,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

never

allowed to regard himself for an instant as a blind

automaton

in their hands.

responsible agent

the light of his

who own

He left to

sagacity,

is,

on the contrary, a

perform his task by

and he

will

never

receive " orders " which seriously conflict with that principle. or,

These

where they

will

be only of a general character,

refer to details, will

be of a kind that

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

172 do is

not, in occult phrase, interfere to

with

Karma

;

that

say, that do not .supersede the agent's moral

responsibility.

Finally,

should be understood in regard to

"orders" among

initiates

occultism,

the

that

order of an occult guru to his chela differs in a very

important respect from the order of an officer to his soldier.

It is

a direction that in the nature of things

would never be enforced,

for the disregard of

which

there could be no positive or prescribed penalty, and

which

only imposed upon the chela by the con-

sideration that

it,

he gets an order and does not obey

unlikely to

get

any more.

regarded as an order because of

It is to

the ardour of

obedience on the side of the chela, whose aspirations,

by the hypothesis, are wholly centred on the

The

masters.

service thus rendered

of the kind which has been described

especially

as perfect

freedom.

mind by any reader who would understand Mme. Blavatsky and the All this must be borne in

foundation of the Theosophical Society, and must

be rigorously applied to the narrative of her later life.

constant perplexity arises, for people

who

are slightly acquainted with the circumstances of her career,

from the indiscretions

management

of the Theosophical Society which she

has frequently fallen

Mahatmas insight

in connection with the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;her

into.

How

occult teachers

represented

can

be that the

and masters, whose

being so great,

whose

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. interest in the theosophical

so keen, whose

wisdom

their adherents

vatsky, with

whom

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

movement

saiH to

vaunted so enthusiastically

permit their agent,

it is

Mme.

Bla-

alleged they are in constant

communication, to make mistakes which most people in

her place would have avoided, to trust persons

almost obviously unworthy of her confidence, to associate herself with proceedings that tend to lower

the dignity of her enterprise, to lose temper and

time with assailants

who might be

calmly ignored,

and to spend her psychic energy places, with

The

moments.

wrong

the

wrong the wrong

the

people, and at

solution of the puzzle

be found

entirely in the higher spiritual aspects of the under-

The Theosophical

by a great way not the only instrument through which the Mahatmas are working in the world to foster the taking.

growth of

spirituality

Society

among mankind,

but

one enterprise that has been confided,

the

a large

Mme. Blavatsky. If she were to fail with Mahatma energy concerned would be spent not

measure, to it,

the

in trying to bolster

different

up her

direction.

failure,

she

but

succeeds

some

with

quite

the

principles of moral responsibility are best vindicated

by leaving her her

own way.

officer

to struggle through with her

work

general on a campaign sending an

perform a

specific

duty

mainly con-

If he thinks cerned with the result to be gained. he can promote this by interfering with fresh orders

he does

so.

But by the hypothesis, a Mahatma

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

174

interfering with his

ofificer is

throwing into confuosin

the operation of the laws of Nature which have to

do with the causes

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

efficient

of physical incarnation

call

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;that

moral responsibility.

to people

who know nothing

on a plane above are generated

course

this

by what is open

of Eastern occultism,

nor of superior planes in Nature and so forth, to put

all this

aside

and judge Mme. Blavatsky's action

by commonplace prosaic standards, but it is not reasonable for the considerable number of people who in various ways are quite ready to profess

Mahatmas and

belief in the

Mme.

occult world in which

in the reality of that

Blavatsky

by most theosophists as having been

regarded

initiated, to

say, in spite of these beliefs, that the action of the

Mahatmas

leaving

Mme.

Blavatsky

mistakes and trust the wrong people and so unintelligible.

even though, as back,

Mme.

is I

make

forth, is

not unintelligible in principle,

have indicated a page or two

Blavatsky

will

sometimes receive orders,

the immediate motive of which she does not understand, but obeys

none the

less.

This condition of

things does not violate the rule about not converting

a responsible chela into a blind automaton. interferences

Such

would never be found to take place

under conditions which would discharge the agent of moral responsibility for the

manner

which he

might resume the guidance of his enterprise from the point to which obedience to the order received

might have carried on or diverted him.

— RESIDENCE IN AMERICA.

special interest attaches to

Mme.

BlaVatsky's

1873, where she stayed Nicolas Hahn, Rue de

brief residence in Paris in

with

cousin

hers,

rUniversite, for two months. visit

the United States, and

She was

make

directed to

that place for a

time the scene of her operations.

She arrived

New York

resided in that city

—with

on 7th July 1873,

^"^^

the exception of a few

weeks and months when she had to visit other cities and places for over six years, after which time she

—

got her naturalization papers.

Although, as

will

have been seen from Mme.

de Jelihowsky's testimony, she was emphatic, even in 1858, in claiming for

most of the phenomena that

took place in her presence a very different origin

from that usually assigned to such phenomena by the

spiritualists,

mediumship

experience

spiritualism

that she acquired in America, greatly

enlarged her views on this subject.

home The more

wrote "

and

1875 she

see of

mediums

—

for the

United

States are a true nursery, the most prolific hot-bed

mediums and sensitives of all kinds genuine and artificial the more I see the danger humanity is for

—

surrounded with.

between there

this

Poets speak of the thin partition

world and the other.

They

are blind

no partition at all except the difference of which the living and the dead exist, and

states in

the grossness of the physical senses of the majority of

mankind.

Yet, these senses are our salvation.

They

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

176

were given to us by a wise and sagacious mother and nurse nature for, otherwise, individuality and

—

;

even personality would have become impossible

dead would be ever merging into the latter assimilating the former.

but one variety of

living,

Were

spirits,'

—

the

and the

there around

as well

the

call

dregs of wine, spirits,— the reliquae of those mortals

who with

are dead and gone, one could reconcile oneself

it.

cannot avoid, in some

way

or other,

and little by little, and unconeven physisciously to ourselves, we become they cally, especially in the unwise West, where crema-

assimilating our dead,

—

tion

unknown.

breathe

and devour

—

the dead

—

men and animals with every breath we draw in, as every human breath that goes out makes up the bodies,

and feeds the formless creatures

men some

that will be cal process

;

for the

also the spiritual,

day.

So much

mental and the

it is

just

in the air

for the physi-

intellectual,

and

the same we interchange ;

gradually our brain-molecules, our intellectual and

even

and

spiritual auras,

aspirations, with those

process

a natural nature, ally

hence

common one,

—our

thoughts, desires,

who preceded

humanity

us.

This

in general.

It is

and follows the economy and laws of

insomuch that one's son may become graduown grandfather, and his aunt to boot,

his

imbibing their combined atoms, and thus partially accounting for the possible resemblance, or atavism.

But there

another law, an exceptional one, and

which manifests

itself

among mankind

sporadically

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. and periodically

of forced post-mortem

the law

prevalence of which epi-

assimilation, during the

demic the dead invade the domain of the living from their respective spheres

—though,

fortunately, only

within the limits of the regions they lived

which they are buried.

and

receive,

and

depends upon the

intensity of the epidemic

welcome they

in,

In such cases, the duration

upon whether they

find the

doors opening widely to receive them or not, and

whether the necromantic plague magnetic attraction, the

desire

increased

the

mediums,

and the curious themselves, or whether

sensitives,

again, the danger being signalled, the epidemic

wisely repressed. "

Such a

America.

periodical visitation It

Fox

Misses

now

occurring in

began with innocent children

—playingunconsciously with

—the

little

this terrible

And, welcomed and passionately invited to 'come in,' the whole of the dead community seemed to have rushed in, and got a more or less strong

weapon.

hold of the living. of strong

over a course,

went on purpose

—

to a family

—

mediums the Eddys and watched making experiments, which,

fortnight, I

kept to myself

You remember.

for

Vera,

for you at Rougodevo, how those who had been living ghosts of the saw often in the house, and described them to you, for you Well, it was the same could never see them. I saw and watched daily and nightly in Vermont, these soulless creatures, the shadows of their

how

made experiments

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

most cases soul and spirit had fled long ago, but which throve and preserved their semi-material shadows, at the expense terrestrial bodies,

from which

came and went,

of the hundreds of visitors that

remarked under And of my Master, that (i) those

well as of the mediums.

the advice and guidance

apparitions which were genuine were produced

the

of those

'ghosts'

who had

within a certain area of those mountains

who had the real

come

;

those

(2)

;

died far away were less entire, a mixture of shadow and of that which lingered in the

whom

personal aura of the visitor for to

and died

lived

and

(3)

purported

the purely fictitious ones, or as

them, the reflections of the genuine ghosts or

call

shadows of the deceased personality. myself more

clearly,

was not the spooks

that

medium, W. Eddy,

assimilated the medium, but the

who

explain

assimilated unconsciously to himself the pictures

of the dead relatives and friends from the aura of the

sitters.

"It was ghastly to watch the process

often sick

and the most

and giddy

the welcome given to !

but

had

made

to look at

it,

could do was to hold the disgusting

was a sight to see these nmbrcr by the spiritual-

creatures at arm's length.

ists

;

But

They wept and

clothed in

these

rejoiced around the medium, empty materialised shadows re;

joiced and wept again, sometimes broken

an emotion, a sincere

down with joy and happiness that made

heart bleed for them.

they could but see

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. Avhat

see,'

wholly of the

knew that men and women are made up

often wished.

these simulacra of

they only

and worldly

terrestrial passions, vices,

thoughts, of the residuum of the personality that

was

;

for these are only such dregs that

follow the liberated soul and

a second death

and are

left for

the terrestrial atmosphere, that

can be seen by the average

At times

spirit,

could not

medium and

the public.

used to see one of such phantoms,

quitting the medium's astral body, pouncing

one of the

sitters,

upon

expanding so as to envelop him or

her entirely, and then slowly disappearing within the

body as though sucked in by its every pore." Under the influence of such ideas and thoughts, Mme. Blavatsky came out finally quite openly with her protest against being called a medium. She living

stoutly rejected the application of " Spiritist " that

was being forced upon her by her foreign

Thus

pondents. letters "

corres-

1877 she says in one of her

What

kind of Spiritist can you see

of me, pray

Arya Samaj

make

have worked to join the Theo-

sophical Society, in alliance offensive

with the

in,

and defensive,

of India (of which

are

now

forming a section within the parent Theosophical Society),

because in India

all

the Brahmins,

whether orthodox or otherwise, are terribly against the bhoots* the mediums, or any necromantic evoca*

The

simulacra or ghost of a deceased person,

tary," or spook.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;an " Elemen-

— MADAME BLAVATSKY.

l8o

tions or dealings with the

dead

any way or shape.

That we have established our Society in order to combat, under the banner of Truth and Science, every kind of superstitious and preconceived hobbies.

That we mean

to fight the prejudices of the Sceptics

as well as the abuse of

power of the

ancient or modern, to put

down

false prophets,

the high

priests, the

Calchases, with their false Jupiterean thunders, and

show

certain fallacies of the Spiritists.

anything,

are

Spiritualists,

modern American Alexandria, with Porphyries.

fashion, but

its

are the

on that of ancient

Theodadiktoi,

and

Hypatias,

." .

The Theosophical 1875

only

not on

New

Society was founded in October

York, with Colonel

president — Mme.

Olcott as

Blavatsky preferring

life

invest

herself with the relatively insignificant title of cor-

responding secretary. Colonel Olcott's acquaintance with

Mme.

Blavat-

—

sky was formed at a farm-house in Vermont the house of two brothers, spiritualist mediums named Eddy, famous in the annals of American spiritualism

—

October 1874. Referring to her in his book from the other World," published in

called " People

1875, he says "

The

This lady has led a very eventful

life.

adventures she has encountered, the strange

people she has seen, the perils by sea and land she has passed through would make one of the most romantic stories ever told by a biographer. In the

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA.

whole course of

and

interesting-,

experience

may

say

l8l

never met so

without offence,

eccentric a character."

In the year that elapsed between his

duction to

Mme.

first

intro-

Blavatsky and the inauguration of

their joint enterprise, his intercourse with her

was

intimate and his personal experiences remarkable.

These need not be reviewed here in detail, except some of them will throw light upon the

so far as

Mme. Blavatsky's life moment it is enough to

circumstances of

at this period,

and

say that they

for the

induced him to throw up his professional career as a " lawyer

(the distinctions

branches of the profession

between the

England,

remembered, do not hold good devote his

life

different

will

America) and

to the pursuit of occult

development

same master to whom Mme. Blavatsky's allegiance is owing, and to the service of the theosophical movement. As Colonel Olcott has shared some of the obloquy

as a " chela " of the

directed against

Mme.

Blavatsky in recent years,

may be worth

while to add a paragraph concerning him written by Mr A. O. Hume, C.B., late Secretary to the Government of India in the Agricultural Department. This passage occurs in a letter by

Mr Hume quoted "

addressed to an English paper, and

in the preface to the

regards Colonel

papers which to

you that

send by

this

Occult World."

Olcott's this

gentleman

title,

same mail is

the printed will

officer

prove of the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 1

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

American army, who rendered good service durmg the war (as will be seen from the letter of the Judge Advocate-General, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Assistant Secretaries of War and of the Treasury),

and who was

own country

in his

known and esteemed

sufficiently well

to induce the

President of the

United States to furnish him with an autograph letter of introduction and recommendation to all Ministers and Consuls of the United States, on the occasion of his leaving America for the East at the close of 1878."

In introducing some notes put together for the

writes

Colonel

present memoir,

the

service

Olcott

of events

brought us

lives for this

work, under

strange concatenation

together,

and united our

the superior direction of a group of Masters, espe-

One, whose wise teaching, noble example, benevolent patience, and paternal solicitude have

cially of

made us regard him with

the reverence and love

that a true Father inspires in his children.

indebted to H. P. Blavatsky for making of the existence of these Masters

Philosophy before

;

and

and, later, for acting as

had come

me know

their Esoteric

mediator

into direct personal intercourse

with them."

The

earliest records of the

reveal the motives for

information since acter of

Mme.

its

made

Theosophical Society

formation which the

fuller

public concerning the char-

Blavatsky's mission

show

have

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. been present

her mind from the

first,

183 though the

means by which she should work them out

lay-

before her then in a very nebulous and hazy con-

She seems

dition.

have been embarrassed by

the difficulty of making her position intelligible to

people still

who knew

nothing of the existence, even,

less of the nature

occult

science

and powers of those

have been to

Her

policy

seems

by means of the occult powers possessed herself or could borrow

imitate,

which she either

from her masters from time of

persons

all

to time, the

phenomena

then seemed to absorb the

of spiritualism which attention

talked about

since so widely

the Adepts and Mahatmas.

proficients

America having any

natural leanings towards mysticism, trusting to the

sagacity of observers to

show them

that the circum-

stances with which she would surround such phe-

nomena were used.

quite unlike those to which they were

this

way she seems

have aimed at

cutting the ground from under the feet of people inclined

spiritualistic

theorise

too

observation,

hastily

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

on the basis of

persuading them that

the evidence on which they relied for the mainten-

ance of their opinions did not afford adequate fication for these,

and

at leading

them

justi-

into the path

of a more legitimate philosophical or theosophical research.

The

and was

carried

was undeniably a bad one, out with little discretion and with

policy

a waste of psychic energy which cannot but be

deplored in the retrospect, by occult students

who

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

184 realise the

merely wish to be

However,

consequences of such waste. sufficiently

critical

Mme.

Blavatsky's proceedings, as this narrative advances,

operations

the

elucidate

her engaged, and

which

find

refrain from the consideration

here of the policies that might have been more triumphant.

vast array of unattainable purposes

before themselves by the

organised the

new

enumerated

one of the

follows

was

set

group of friends who

little

society in

1875.

earlier

These were

codes of rules as

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

To keep alive in man his spiritual intuitions. To oppose and counteract after due investigation and

(a.) (d.)

proof of

its

irrational nature

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x201D; bigotry

an intolerant religious sectarianism or

in every form,

whether as

belief in miracles or any-

thing supernatural. (c.)

To promote

among

a feeling of brotherhood

assist in the international

exchange of useful

arts

nations and and products,

by advice, information, and co-operation with all worthy indiand associations provided, however, that no benefit or percentage shall be taken by the Society for its corporate viduals

;

services. (d.)

and aid

seek to obtain knowledge of

in diffusing

;

and

those laws least understood by occult

sciences.

fantastical

when

Popular sifted,

all

the laws of Nature,

especially to encourage the study of

modern people, and so termed the and folk-lore, however

superstition

may

lead to the discovery of long-lost but

important secrets of Nature.

The

Society, therefore, aims to

pursue this line of inquiry in the hope to widen the scientific (e.)

field

and philosophical observation. gather for the Society's library and put into written

forms correct information upon the various ancient philosophic traditions sible,

lation

and legends, and,

as the council shall decide

permis-

disseminate the same in such practicable ways as the trans-

and publication of

original

works of value, and extracts

—

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA.

185

from and commentaries upon the same, or the oral instruction of persons learned in their respective departments.

(/) To promote in every practicable way in countries where needed the spread of non-sectarian education. (g.) Finally and chiefly to encourage and assist individual fellows in self-improvement, intellectual, moral, and spiritual. But no fellow shall put to his selfish use any knowledge communicated to him by any member of the First Section violation of this rule being punished by expulsion. And before any such knowledge can be imparted, the person shall bind himself by a solemn oath not to use it to selfish purposes, nor to reveal it :

except with the permission of the teacher.

One

can readily discern in this formidable array

of objects the

Blavatsky had really

the world at large of

Doctrine

Esoteric of the

East,

view

Mme.

purpose which

inarticulate

—the communication to

some great

ideas "

concerning the

Wisdom

Religion

shining obscurely through

ambitious programme of her

new

the

disciples,

too

which

might be summed up as contemplating the reformation

and guidance of

gramme which

all

nations generally

—a

pro-

could hardly have been floated in

sober earnest elsewhere than in America, where the

mere magnitude of undertakings seems neither

daunt the courage of their promoters nor touch their sense of the ludicrous.

This volume of the friends

indebted to

Mme.

Mr W.

O. Judge, one

Blavatsky made

the early

part of her residence in America, for an account of

the miscellaneous marvels of which he was a witness

during the period with which

writes

are

now

dealing.

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

"My began

Blavatsky

the winter of the year 1874.

She was

acquaintance with H.

first

York en

suite.

Place, visit

She had several rooms

United States.

City,

The

rooms looked out on Irving

front

and the back upon the garden. was made in the evening, and I

among a

there

large

number

of persons

always attracted to her presence.

were

Mme.

Russian,

an observation

who were Blavatsky,

apparently

English into a discussion

between other persons upon a one she was engaged with. her, for

first

would suddenly turn round and

absorbed,

interject

saw her

Several languages

be heard among them, and

while conversing volubly in quite

New

Place,

then living in apartments in Irving

different topic to the

This never disturbed

she at once returned to her Russian

talk,

it up just where it had been dropped. Very much was said on the first evening that arrested my attention and enchained my imagina-

taking "

found

tion.

affairs

known

secret thoughts read,

private

Unasked, and certainly with-

to her.

out any possibility of her having inquired about me,

she referred to several private and peculiar circumstances in a

way

that

showed

at once that she

had a

my family, my history, my surroundings, and my idiosyncrasies. On that first evening I brought with me a friend, a perfect stranger to her. He was a native of the Sandwich Islands, who was studying law in New York, and

perfect

knowledge of

who had formed

all

his plans

for a

lifelong stay

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA.

187

He was a young man, and had then no intention of marrying. But she carelessly told in that city.

him, before

home, that before

left for

six

months

he would cross the continent of America, then make a long voyage, and, stranger yet to him, that before of this he would marry.

all

pooh-poohed by him.

Still

course the idea was

fate

was too much

him.

In a few months he was invited to

official

position in his native land,

for that country

America "

The

for

fill

and before leaving

he married a lady who was not

at the time the

next day

prophecy was uttered.

thought

would

try

an experi-

ment with Mme. Blavatsky. I took an ancient scarabeeus that she had never seen, had it wrapped up and sent to her through the mails by a clerk in the employment of a friend. My hand did not touch the package, nor did I know where it was posted. But when I called on her at the end of the week the second time, she greeted me with thanks for

the

scarabaeus.

pretended ignorance.

But

was useless to pretend, and then informed me how I had sent it, and where the clerk had posted it. During the time that elapsed between my seeing her and the sending of the package no one had heard from me a word about the matter. " Very soon after I met her, she moved to 34th Street, and while there I visited her very often. In those rooms I used to hear the raps in furniture, in glasses, mirrors, windows and walls, which are usually the accompaniment of dark " spiritist she said

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

But with her they occurred in the light, and never except when ordered by her. Nor could they be induced to continue once that she ordered seances.

them to stop. They exhibited intelligence also, and would at her request change from weak to strong, or from many to few at a time.

She remained in 34th Street only a few months, and then removed to 47th Street, where she stayed I until her departure to India in December 1878. "

was a constant visitor, and know, as all others do who were as intimate with her as I was, that the suspicions which have been breathed about her, and the open charges that have from time to time been made, are the foulest injustice or the basest

in-

At times she has been incensed by these and declared that one more such incident

gratitude. things,

would forever close the door against

all

phenomena.

But over and over again she has relented and

for-

given her enemies. " After

she had comfortably settled herself in 47th

Street, where, as usual, she

night surrounded by

all

was from morning

sorts of visitors, mysterious

sat there

and sounds continued many an evening, and

light, large

luminous balls creeping

events, extraordinary sights to occur.

have

seen in broad gas

till

over the furniture, or playfully jumping from point to point, while the

now and

most beautiful liquid

bell

sounds

again burst out from the air of the room.

These sounds often imitated gamut of sounds whistled by

either the piano or a either myself or

some

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. While

Other person.

this

all

was going, H.

89 P.

Blavatsky sat unconcernedly reading or writing at '

Isis Unveiled.' " It

should be remarked here that

never exhibited either hysteria

Mme. the

Blavatsky slightest

She was always in the full possession of all her faculties and apparently of more than those of average people whenever she was producing any phenomena. " In the month of November or the beginning of December of the same winter, a photograph was received from a correspondent at Boston by Col. Olcott, which was the occasion of two very striking phenomena. It purported to be the portrait of a appearance of trance.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

person said to have written the books called

Magic' and 'Ghost Land.' Col. Olcott to return

The

Two

or three days later a

Mme.

;

which

myself, being

in the nearest post-box.

demand was made upon

Blavatsky for a duplicate of the picture,

belief that

Art

sender required

almost immediately

he did on the following evening, and there as a caller, posted

in the

would be beyond even her powers, But she to copy from.

since she had no model actually did

;

the process consisting merely in her

cutting a piece of cardboard to the requisite size,

laying

upon

it it,

under a blotting-paper, placing her hand and in a moment producing the copy

demanded. picture,

and

Col. laid

Olcott

away

took possession of this a book that he was then

reading, and which he took to bed with him.

The

;

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

190

next morning the portrait had entirely faded out, and only the name, written in pencil, was

left.

week

seeing this blank card lying in Col. Olcott's room, I took it to Mme. Blavatsky, and

or two

later,

reappear.

requested her to cause the portrait to

under another

laid the card

Complying, she again

sheet of paper, placed her hand upon

it,

man had come back

sently the face of the

and pre-

as before

this time indelibly imprinted.

"In the

room where she wrote, there was

front

some time

a bookcase that stood for site

owl,

Upon

her writing-desk.

whose

seemed

glassy,

its

relate things apropos of that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

in the

words of

Jacolliot

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

such as one does not relate readers doubt

eye

his

sanity.

frequently

Indeed,

could

same defunct bird, but We have seen things for fear of making his

we have

Still

Well, over the top of the doors of the

seen them.'

was

bookcase

top stood a stuffed

never closing

your movements.

to follow

directly oppo-

blank

space,

about

inches

One

wide, and running the breadth of the case.

evening we were

and of at the "

see

came

out

They covered tion

showed

usual, '

Look

once,

upon nearly

that

and as we did

upon the blank

appear,

have described, several that

said,

looked up

could

magic as

when Madame

the Brothers,'

bookcase

sitting talking of

letters

the all

space

so, I

apparently in gold,

surface

of the space.

they were in gold,

the

wood.

Examinaand

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. character that

I9I

had often seen upon some 'of her

papers. "

This precipitation of

messages

occurred very frequently, and

took place under

way

my own

sentences

will relate

one which

hand and

eyes, in such a

as to be unimpeachable for me.

" I

was one day, about four o'clock, reading a book by P. B. Randolph, that had just been brought in by a friend of Colonel Olcott. I was sitting some six feet distant from H. P. Blavatsky, who was busy I had carefully read the title-page of the writing. But I knew book, but had forgotten the exact title. word of writing upon it. As that there was not one I began to read the first paragraph, I heard a bell sound in the air, and looking, saw that Mme. Blavatsky was intently regarding me. " What book do you read ? said she. " Turning back to the title-page, I was about to read aloud the name, when my eye was arrested by '

a message written in ink across the top of the page

which, a few minutes before,

found

clear.

was a message

had looked in

at,

about seven

and

lines,

had not yet quite dried on the page I am its contents were a warning about the book. volume in took the my hand when I positive that

and the

fluid

not one word was written in "

it.

one occasion the address of a business firm in Philadelphia was needed for the purpose of sending a

letter

through the mail, and no one present could

remember the

street

number,

nor

could any

MADAME BLAVATSKV.

^92

directory of Philadelphia be found in the neighbourhood. The business being very urgent, it was proposed that one of us should go down nearly four

miles to the General

Post Office, so as to see a

Philadelphia directory.

P. B. said:

But H.

'Wait

we can get the address some She then waved her hand, and we

a moment, and perhaps other way.'

instantly heard a signal bell

heads.

the air over our

expected no less than that a heavy

directory would rush at our heads from the empty

no such thing took

space, but

place.

She

sat down,

japanned black on

took up a

flat

both

and without having any painting on

sides,

Holding

tin paper-cutter,

this in

her

right,

all

with her

left

few moments,

After she had rubbed thus

faint outlines of letters

show themselves upon

began

whose address we desired was

upon the paper-cutter in had it done on slips of

the black, shining surface,

and presently the complete advertisement of firm

the while looking at us with

an intense expression. for a

hand, she gently stroked

it.

the

plainly imprinted

gilt letters, just as

they had

blotting-paper, such as are

widely distributed as advertising media

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

a close ex-

fact

afterwards found out.

amination, we saw

that the street

were the doubtful points

America

and number, which

our memories, were

precipitated with great brilliancy, the other words and figures being rather

dimmer.

Mme. Blavatsky

said

was because the mind of the operator was directed almost entirely to the street and number so that this

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. that

their

much

reproduction

was brought about with

greater distinctness than the rest of the adver-

tisement, which was, so to speak, dragged in in a

rather accidental way. "

About any

object

that

might be transported

mysteriously around her room, or that came into

through the

by supermundane

air

means, there

always lingered for a greater or less space of time a

very peculiar though pleasant odour.

At one time

always the same.

It was not was sandal-wood

mixed with what I thought was otto of roses at another time some unknown Eastern perfume, and again it came like the incense burnt in temples. " One day she asked me if I would care to smell ;

again the perfume.

she took

Upon my

handkerchief

replying afifirmatively,

her hand, held

few moments, and when she gave

back to

for

was heavy with the well-known odour. Then, in order to show me that her hand was not covered with something that would come off upon the handkerchief, she permitted

They were without

examine both hands.

perfume.

But

after

had

convinced myself that there was no perfumery or odoriferous objects concealed in her hands,

found

from one hand beginning to exhale one peculiar strong perfume, while from the other there rolled out strong waves of the incense.

"On

the table

written stood a

small drawers.

little

which

Isis

Unveiled' was

Chinese cabinet with

many

few of the drawers contained

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

194

but there were several that were always kept empty. The cabinet was an ordinary one of

some its

trifles,

class,

and repeated examination showed

that

there were no devices or mechanical arrangements but many a time has one in it or connected with it ;

empty drawers become the vanishing point of various articles, and as often, on the other hand, was the birth-place of some object which or other of those

had not before been seen

the rooms.

have

often seen her put small coins, or a ring or amulet,

and have put things

there myself, closed the

drawer, almost instantly re-opening

was

visible.

it,

had disappeared from

conjurers have been

known

and nothing

sight.

Clever

to produce such illusions,

but they always require some confederacy, or else they delude you into believing that they had put the object

in,

when

H. P. B. there was

in reality rio

they did

preparation.

not. I

With

repeatedly

and positively say that there was no means by which things could be dropped examined the

cabinet,

out of sight or out of the drawer small legs, elevated about desk, which neath. into I

was quite

Several times

clear I

;

stood on four

two inches above the and unbroken under-

have seen her put a ring

one of the drawers and then leave the room.

then looked

in the

drawer, saw the rine in

it,

and

She then returned, and without closed it again. coming near the cabinet showed me the same ring on her finger. I then looked again in the drawer before she again came near it, and the ring was gone.

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. "

One day Mrs who had

thropist,

to see her.

Elizabeth Thompson, the philana great regard for H. P.

When

was present.

Madame

the visitor asked

B., called

about to leave,

some

to lend her

object

which she had worn, as a reminder and as a talisman.

The

request being acceded

to the lady, said,

who

Take

;

was

Madame

immediately drawing

to her friend,

absorbed

finger,

ring,'

the choice

moment

hesitated a

this

and handing

to,

who

placed

admiring the stones.

left

then it

off

upon her

But

was

looking at H. P. B.'s fingers, and saw that the ring

was yet on her hand.

Hardly believing

were now two and went

rings

;

In a few days she returned

had the

There

right one.

Madame, who then

me that one of the rings was an illusion, to me to guess which one. I could not

for she

but the lady did not observe

off satisfied she

told it

eyes,

There was no mistake.

looked at the other.

this,

leaving decide,

pushed the returned ring up along her

finger

against the old one, and both merged into one. "

One evening

dinner,

all,

occultism.

several persons were present after

of course, talking about theosophy and

was

sitting

her desk.

While we were all engaged in conversation somebody said that he heard music, and went out into the hall where he thought it came from. While he was examining the

hall,

the person sitting near the

fire-place said that instead of being in the hall, the

music, which was that of a musical box, was playing

the chimney.

The gentleman who had gone

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

196

and said that he had once was thoroughly amazed at the fire-place, when he m

into the passage then returned lost the music,

but at

to find us all listening

Just as he began to

turn heard the music plainly. listen,

the music floated out into the room,

distinctly finished the tune in the air I

have on various occasions heard

many

instrument to produce

On this evening, Madame opened one "

music

it.

little

while after the music,

of the drawers of the Chinese

cabinet and took from

an Oriental necklace of

This she gave to a lady present.

curious beads.

One

this

there was not any

when

ways, and always

and very

over our heads.

of the gentlemen allowed to escape

him an

expression of regret that he had not received such a testimonial.

Thereupon H.

reached over and

grasped one of the beads of the necklace which the lady was

still

holding in her hands, and the bead at

Madame's hand.

She then passed It to the gentleman, who exclaimed that it was not merely a bead but was now a breast-pin, as there was a gold pin fastened securely in it. The necklace meanwhile remained intact, and its recipient was examining it in wonder that one of its beads

once came off

could have been thus pulled off without breaking "

have heard

young woman, the

first

time

after in

said that

when H.

coming back

many

company was amazed and

years,

P. B.

it.

was a

to her family for

everyone

her

affrighted to see material

objects such as cups, books, her tobacco pouch and

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA.

air into

come flying through the her hand, merely when she gazed intently at

them.

The

match-box, and so

forth,

stories of her early

days can be readily

by those who saw similar things done at New York head-quarters. Such aerial, flights

credited

the

were many times performed by objects

mand

One evening

presence.

hurry to copy a drawing

at her

com-

was

in a

had made, and looked

about on the table for a paper-cutter with which to

rub the back of the drawing so as to transfer the surplus carbon to a clean sheet. "

was suggested by some one that the round smooth back of a spoon bowl would be the best means, and I arose to go to the kitchen at the end of the hall for a spoon. But Mmo. I

searched,

Blavatsky

said,

a moment' in

go there

Stop, you need not

;

wait

stopped at the door, and she, sitting

her chair, held up her

left

hand.

that instant

a large table-spoon flew through the air across the

room from out hand.

one was there to throw

dining-room from which

about thirty feet distant it

and

into her

to her,

and the

of the opposite wall it

had been transported was two brick walls separating

it ;

from the front room.

"In the next room â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the wall between being â&#x20AC;&#x201D; there hung near the window a water-colour portrait solid

a frame with glass.

had

just

gone

into that

room and looked at the picture. No one was in the room but myself, and no one went there afterwards When I came into the place until I returned there.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MADAME BLAVATSKY.

198

was sitting, and after I had been sitting down a few moments, she took up a piece of paper and wrote upon it a few words, handing it

where H.

over to

to put

away without looking

She then asked me room. I went there, and picture which, a few moments I

some way been

examining

once saw that the

either

had looked

before,

moved

or broken.

at,

found that the glass was smashed,

This

it.

to return to the other

did.

had

and that the securely fastened back had been opened, allowing the

picture

Looking down

within

fall

the

floor.

saw it lying there. Going back to the other room I opened and read what had been written on the slip of paper, it was I

The

picture of

been opened is

on the "

in the

the glass

;

smashed and the painting

floor.'

One

day, while she

was talking with me, she

suddenly stopped and said ing of

dining-room has just

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

So-and-so

and says, &c.'

the hour, and on the

first

now

made a

talk-

note of

opportunity discovered

had actually heard the person named saying just what she told me had been said at the very that she

time noted. "

My office was One

rooms. in

office

my mind

at least three miles

day, at about

p.m.,

away from her I was sitting

engaged

intent

in reading a legal document, on the subject of the paper. No

else was in the office, and in fact the nearest room was separated from me by a wide opening, or

one

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. well, in the building,

chambers.

made

Suddenly

I99

to let light into the inner

hand a peculiar tingling sensation that always preceded any strange thing to happen in the presence of H. P. B., and at

moment

that

edge of

there

from the ceiling upon the

fell

desk, and

triangularly-folded It

felt

from there to the

note

Madame

from

floor,

myself

was written upon the clean back of a printed

Jain sutra or text. writing,

The message was

and was addressed

her hand-

her writing

across the printed face.

remember one phenomenon in connection with the making of a water-colour drawing of an Egyptian "

subject

for

her,

which also

illustrates

Spiritualists call apport, or the bringing

of objects from

some

distant place.

what

the

phenomenally I

was

want

of certain dry colours which she could not furnish

collection,

and as the drawing must be

finished at that sitting,

and there was no shop near

from her

by where I could purchase them, it seemed a dilemma until she stepped towards the cottage piano, and, holding up the skirt of her robe-dechambre with both hands, received into it seventeen bottles of Winsor & Newton dry colours, among them those I required. I still wanted some goldpaint, so she

caused

to bring her a saucer

from

the dining-room, and to give her the brass key of

She rubbed the key upon the bottom of the saucer for a minute or two, and then, returning them to me, I found a supply of the paint I required the door.

coating the porcelain."

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

200

should hardly venture to communicate the foregoing narrative to the public if it were not for the I

memoirs of Mme.

in editing

obvious impossibility,

Blavatsky, of keeping the various experiences re-

corded

generally held

person

the limits of that which

of her within to

of those

Certainly no one

credible.

who have had

opportunities

phenomena occurring in her presence be regarded by the world at large as

observing the could hope to

both sane and truthful in relating his experience.

But

fortified

testimony of

each witness

by the

turn

all the others, the situation

must be

who

recognised as involving

difficulties

contend that one and

near relations, old friends,

all,

for critics

casual acquaintances, or intimates of her later years,

are

all

possessed with a mania for trumping up stories about

fictitious

Mme.

different parts of the world,

sharing

periods,

Blavatsky, or

and

all

at widely different

an epidemic hallucination

regard to her, while in no other respects exhibiting

abnormal conditions of mind. with

whom

regards

Judge,

have been intimately acquainted

recent years, long subsequent to most of the inci-

dents above recorded,

him

as a

earnest

man

a position to describe

of very straightforward, simple, and

nature,

sophic cause,

steadfastly

connection

devoted to the with

which

his

theo-

ex-

is the case with many other persons who have been first of all drawn into association with it by Mme. Blavatsky, have ultimately de-

periences, as

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. veloped along- independent

lines.

201

known

many

persons interested in the theosophical move-

ment

with

London, who wOuld

all,

speaking of his character

sure, concur

terms of the

highest respect. In the midst of the exciting period of which he writes,

he made on one occasion a special one transaction.

in reference to

as follows

affidavit

This document

" City and County of

New

York, S.S.

"William Q. Judge, being duly sworn, says that he is an attorney and counsellor-at-law, practising at the bar of the State of New York that he was present at the house of Madame H. P. Blavatsky, at No. 302 West 47th Street, New York City, on one :

occasion in the month of December 1877, when a discussion was being held upon the subject of Eastern magic, especially upon the power of an adept to produce phenomena by an exercise of the

will,

had often done

previously by other experiments,

Mme.

in the presence

Blavatsky, without pre-

and sight of Marquette, tore a sheet of writing paper in two, and asked us the subject we would full

light,

deponent, Col. Olcott, and

have represented.

Mme.

and

illus-

in deponent's presence

paration and in

common

equalling or surpassing those of mediumship.

trate the subject, as she

Thereupon, laying the paper upon the

Blavatsky laid the palm of her hand upon

rubbing the paper a few times (occupying

it,

and

table,

after

with a circular motion, lifted

than a minute) her hand, and gave deponent the

Upon

the previously white surface there

paper for inspection.

was a most remarkable and

less

striking picture of

an Indian Fakir,

him as if in contemplation. Deponent has frequently seen it since, and it is now in possession of Col. Olcott. Deponent positively avers that the blank paper first taken was the paper on which the picture appeared, and that no substitution representing

of another paper was " Subscribed

1878.

made

and sworn

Wm. Q. Judge. 20th day of March

or was possible. to before

this

"Samuel " Notary Public,

Speyer,

New York

County."

—

•

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

202

This declaration received corroborative testimony from another witness, who appends a note as follows "

The

—

undersigned, a practising physician, residing at No. 224 New York, having read the foregoing

Spring Street, in the city of affidavit of

Judge, certifies that

it is

a correct statement of the

was produced, as described, in full light, and Moreover, the without there being any opportunity for fraud. undersigned wishes to say, that other examples of Mme. Blavatsky's power to instantly render objective the images in her mind

facts.

The

portrait

have been given in the presence of many witnesses, including the undersigned, and that having intimately known that lady since 1873, when she was living with her brother at Paris, the undersigned can and does unreservedly testify that her moral character is above censure, and that her phenomena have been invariably produced in defiance of the conditions of mediumship, with

which the undersigned

very familiar.

"L. M. Marquette, M.D."

So much

for

circumstances

the

production of the portrait its artistic

— Mr

art critic,

The

now

let

of the best

sculptors, and, as alleged,

and

Mr Le

known

an experienced

Clear occupying a place second

none as a portrait painter

To THE Editor of the

us see what are

witnesses are well qualified,

O'Donovan being one

American to

merits.

;

attending the

Spiritualist.'

— For the benefit of those among

your readers who may be able to gather the significance of it, I beg to offer some testimony concerning a remarkable performance claimed by Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky to have been done by herself without the aid of such physical means as are employed by persons usually for such an end. The production referred to is a small "Sir,

and white of a Hindu Fakir, which was produced by Madame Blavatsky, as it is claimed, by a simple exercise of will power. As to the means by which this work was produced, portrait in black

;

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA.

203

however,

I have nothing at all to do ; and wish simply to say as an artist, and give also the testimony of Mr Thomas Le Clear, one of the most eminent of our portrait painters, whose experi-

ence as such has extended over fifty years, that the work is of a kind that could not have been done by any living artist known to

any of

us.

has

all

the essential qualities which distinguish the

and Raphael namely, individuality of the profoundest kind, and consequently breadth and unity of

portraits

Titian, Masaccio,

as perfect a quality as I can conceive.

there

artist

who has

given

may

intelligent

safely assert that

attention to

por-

who would not concur with Mr Le Clear and myself in opinion which we have formed of this remarkable work and

traiture,

the

;

was done, as it is claimed to have been done, I am at utter loss to account for it. I may add that this drawing, or whatever it may be termed, has at first sight the appearance of having been done by washes of Indian ink, but that upon closer inspection, both Mr Le Clear and myself have been unable to liken it to any

if it

known to us; the black tints seem to be an integral part of the paper upon which it is done. I have seen numbers of drawings claimed to have been done by spirit influences, in which the vehicle employed was perfectly obvious, and none of them were of more than mediocre artistic merit not one of them certainly could be comparedat all with this most remarkable performance of which I write. process of drawing

Wm. R. O'Donovan."

" Studio Building, "51 West ioth Street, New York."

•

To THE President of the Theosophical Society. " Dear Sir, My experience has not made me at all

—

with magic, but I have seen

much

of what

termed

familiar

spiritualistic

phenomena; among the latter, so-called spirit drawings, which were thought by the mediums and their friends very fine, but the best of which I found wanting in every element of art. " I do not wish to be censorious, but an experience of fifty years in portrait-painting has perhaps

made me exacting, when it is a come from a supernatural

question of paintings alleged to have source. note. " I

—This much by way of preface

have seen

to the subject of

my present

your possession a portrait in black and white of

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

204

It would an Indian religious ascetic, which is entirely unique. degree the reach require an artist of very extraordinary power to There is a oneness of of ability which is expressed in this work. treatment difficult to attain, with a pronounced individuality, combined with great breadth. As a whole, it is an individual. It has

the appearance of having been done on the separable from great

art.

on the paper.

laid

Indian ink decide

;

first

thought

result in-

what material

chalk, then pencil, then

but a minute inspection leaves

certainly

moment â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a

I cannot discover with

quite unable to

neither of the above.

it is

was done instantaneously by Madame is, she must possess artistic powers not to be accounted for on any hypothesis except that of magic. The tint seems not to be laid on the surface of the common writing paper upon which the portrait is made, but to be combined as it were, with the fibres themselves. No human being, however much genius he might have, could produce the work, except with "

If,

you

Blavatsky, then

much

me,

tell all

I can say

and if my observation goes no medium has ever produced anything worthy of being mentioned beside it. time and painstaking labour

;

for anything,

" Thos. " Studio Building,

New

The

first

West

York."

incident during

which seems

her stay in America

have drawn the attention of the

newspapers to

Le Clear."

loth Street,

Mme.

Blavatsky was the death and

cremation, under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, of an eccentric personage

York

"the

Baron

eccentricities that

de Palm."

New

Among

other

known

he committed, lie made a will shortly

before his death professing to bequeath a considerable fortune to the Theosophical Society, but on

turned out that the property referred to

inquiry

in this

document existed

The newspapers

his imagination alone.

credited the Society with

having

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA.

205

acquired great wealth by seducing the sympathies of this

guileless

millionaire,

did not meet the

effects

cost of the

Mme.

reality

his

ceremonies

However, the

burning his body.

connected with Society and

when

Blavatsky suddenly sprang into

local notoriety. "

Fancy

time to her

" I

she wrote about that

sister.

—heaven

seems.

surprise

help us

—becoming fashionable,

writing articles on Esotericism

and Nirvana, and paid for them more than I could have ever expected, though I have hardly any time money.

for writing for

Believe me, and you

you know me, I cannot make myself realise that I have ever been able to write decently. If I were unknown, no publisher or editor would .It's all have ever paid any attention to me. will, for

vanity and I

fashion.

Luckily for the publishers

have never been vain." In the course of another family letter she writes:— "

Upon my

word,

can hardly understand

why

you and people generally should make such a fuss over my writings, whether Russian or English True, during the long years of

absence from

have constantly studied and have learned certain things. But when I wrote " I sis," I wrote it so easily, that it was certainly no labour, but a real

home,

pleasure.

ever then

I I

Why

should

told to write,

can write

easily

be praised I

for

it ?

When-

sit down and obey, and upon almost anything—

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 2o6

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

metaphysics,

psychology,

philosophy,

never put myself the question subject

simply

sit

or,

down and

years ago. lost

them

and

i.e.,

write on this

me. ...

whom

knew

but

? '

Because some-

My Master, in

travels

have

you candidly, that whenever

I tell

know

little

or nothing

address myself to Them, and one of

me,

have hinted to you before now about

upon a subject

write

Can

Please do not imagine that

my senses.

Why

write.

and occasionally others

equal to .the task

who htows all dictates

body

or what not.

zoology, natural sciences,

ligions,

re-

ancient

he allows

to simply

Them

of, I

inspires

copy what

write

from manuscripts, and even printed matter that

pass before process instant.

and

eyes,

during which

air,

have never been unconscious one

I .

His power that have enabled

become mentally and

single

knowledge of His protection

It is that

faith

even

the

spiritually so strong

(the Master)

and

not always required

for,

;

during His absence on some other occupation,

awakens

me His

such times

me.

Only see

ever so

Whence

On sister "

... At

/ who write, but my inner who thinks and writes for you who know me. When was

no more

Ego,

substitute in knowledge.

luminoics .

self,' .

learned as to write such thines

all this

knowledge

another occasion again she wrote also to her :

You may

disbelieve me,

but

tell

you that

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. in

saying this

occupied, I

ment, a

life

and watch the

but with Isis enchant-

sec7-ets,

to deceive

senses

and the

hardly trust to in

eyes,

becoming with every

veil

hold

senses

before

order not to forget what

where,

the secret meaning of her

hour thinner and more transparent, gradually off before

And

goddess constantly.

fair

she displays before

long lost

solely

of visions and sights with open eyes,

and no trance whatever sit

;

of permanent

a kind

live in

" Isis,"

writing

with

not

herself.

speak but the truth

207

breath

For

falls

and can

several years,

have learned

else-

have been made to have permanently eyes

that

all

need to

Thus, night

see.

and day, the images of the past are ever marshalled Slowly, and gliding silently before my inner eye. images

an enchanted panorama,

appear before me,

centuries

and

after

centuries

made

to connect these epochs with certain historical

and / know there can be no mistake.

Races emerge during some former century, then fade out and disappear during some other one, the precise date of which I events,

and

countries

nations,

then told by.

to historical periods

;

events and personages

and

cities,

Hoary

room explained by real

antiquity gives

myths are

who have

really existed

;

and

every important, and often unimportant event, every revolution, a

nations

new

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;with

natural results

its

leaf turned in the

incipient course

book of

life

and subsequent

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; remains photographed

my mind as

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

208

thoug^h impressed in indelible colours.

various shapes and colours, in the tite:

make them putting there

each other,

fit

always comes

geometrically correct.

blank to attribute

memory, such

for

out

...

its

of as

taking one, then

match, and

the

finally

something

end

certainly refuse point-

my own

knowledge or

...

conclusions.

helped.

." my Guru. As belonging to

residence in

first

find

am .

wood game known

could never arrive alone at either

premises

seriously T

pick them up one by one, and try to

aside, until

When

like those little bits of

though they were the casse

thoughts, they appear to

think and watch

And

who

you

tell

helps

Mme. Blavatsky's may here be made of

the period of

America, mention

a remarkable incident with which she was closely concerned, though exercise of her

was not accomplished by the

own abnormal

powers.

Prince Emile Wittgenstein, a Russian

an old friend

was

who had known

officer,

and

her from childhood,

correspondence with her at the time of the

formation of the Theosophlcal

Society.

In con-

sequence of certain warnings addressed to him at spiritual seances

menace him

Danube then instructed

him

concerning

fatalities

impending,

by her unseen

that on the contrary he

which would

the war on the

Mnle.

Blavatsky was

he took part

spiritual chief to inform

would be

care of during the campaign,

specially taken

and that the

spiritual-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. istic

The

warning would be confuted.

subsequent events

will

209 coarse of

best be described

by the

quotation of a letter afterwards addressed by the Prince to an English journal devoted to spiritualism.

This was as follows "

To THE Editor of the

'Spiritualist.'

" Allow me, for the sake of those

who believe

in spirit predictions,

you a story about incidents which happened to me last year, and about which I, for months past, have wished to talk to you, without, till now, finding time to do so. The narrative may perhaps be a warning to some of the too credulous persons to whom every medial message is a gospel, and who too often accept as true what are perhaps the lies of some light spirit, or even the

tell

own

reflection of their

thoughts or wishes.

believe that the

such an exceptional thing that in general one ought to set no faith in such prophecies, but should avoid them as much as possible, lest they have undue influence fulfilment of a

prediction

upon our mind, faith, and free-will. " A year and some months ago, while getting ready to join our army on the Danube, I received first one letter, and afterwards a few more, from a very kind friend of mine and a powerful medium me, in very anxious words, not to go to having predicted that the campaign would be

in America, beseeching

the war, fatal to

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

spirit

me, and having ordered my correspondent to write to me Beware of the war saddle It will be your

the following words,

death, or worse still " I confess that these reiterated warnings were not agreeable,

moment

especially

when

journey

but I forced myself to disbelieve them.

;

received at the

the Baroness Adelina von Vay, to matter, encouraged

whom

in doing so,

and

of starting upon such a I

cousin,

had written about the

I started.

Now it seems that this prediction became known also to some of my Theosophical friends at New York, who were indignant at "

and decided to do their utmost to make it of no avail. And one of the leading brethren of the Society, and residing far away from America, promised by the force of his will to shield me from every danger. " The fact is, that during the whole campaign, I did not see one it,

especially

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

2IO

shot explode near me, and that, so far as danger was concerned, I was quite I could just as well have remained at Vevey.

ashamed of

myself,

and sought occasion now and then,

to hear

once the familiar roar and whistle which, in my younger Whenever I All in vain years, were such usual music to me. remember I ceased. fire enemy's the action, scene of was near a having once, during the third bloody storming of Plevna, with my friend, your Colonel Wellesley, stolen away from the Emperor's at least

staff, in order to ride down to a battery of ours which was exchanging a tremendous fire with the redoubt of Grivitsa. As soon as we, after abandoning our horses further back in the brushwood, arrived at the battery, the Turkish fire ceased as by enchantment,

to begin again only when we left it half-an-hour later, although our guns kept on blazing away at them without interruption. I also tried twice to see some of the bombarding of Guirgiewo, where all the windows were broken, doors torn out, roofs broken

down

at the Railway Station by the daily firing from Rutschuk. stopped there once a whole night, and another time half a day, As long as I was there, always in the hope of seeing something. I

the scene was quiet as in the times of peace,

commenced last visit to

soon as

had

left

the place.

and the

Some

Guirgiewo, Colonel Wellesley passed

of his luggage destroyed by a

shell,

it,

firing re-

days after

and had

part

which, breaking through the

roof into the gallery, tore to pieces two soldiers

who were

stand-

ing near.

"I cannot believe all this to be the sole result of chance. It was too regular, too positive to be explained thus. It is, I am sure of it, magic, the more so as the person who protected me thus efficaciously is one of the most powerful masters of the occult science professed by the theosophists. I can relate, by way of contrast, the following fact, which happened during the war on the Danube, in 1854, at the seige of Silistria. A very distinguished Engineer General of ours, who led our approaches, was a faithful spiritualist, and believed every word which he wrote down by the help of a psychograph as a genuine revelation from superior spirits. Now these spirits had predicted to him that he would return from the war unhurt, and covered with fame and The result of this was that he exposed himself openly, glory. madly, to the enemy's fire, till at last a shot tore off his leg, and he died some weeks later. This is the faith we ought to have in

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

—

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. and

predictions,

a warning to many.

hope

narrative

may be welcome

I I

to you, as

— Truly yours,

"(Prince) E. Wittgenstein (F.T.S.)." "Vevey, Switzerland, \Wi Juiie 1878."

Apart from the

important as showing definitely,

it is

notorious for

period

while the infancy "

intrinsic interest of this narrative,

the

all

which

who knew Mme. it

refers,

Theosophical

New

Brothers,"

York,

—that

Blavatsky at the she had already,

Society was declared

whom

—what indeed in

still

its

the existence of

she has been so absurdly

accused by her recent

critics of

inventing at a far

later date.

The Countess Wachtmeister, whose name reappear

in this narrative later on,

Mme.

independent account of

sends

will

another

Blavatsky's doings in

America, communicated to her by the gentleman

She

concerned. "

Felix

writes

Cunningham, a young American of

describes a scene which took place one evening

Mme.

large fortune,

when

visiting

For some time past he had been terribly annoyed by certain manifestations which took place in his own presence chairs would suddenly begin to hop about the room, knives and forks would dance upon the tables, and bells would ring all over the house ; in fact, such a carillon would sometimes be set going that the landlord would politely request him to depart, and he would have to go in quest of another apartment, where, after a few days' sojourn, the same comedy would be repeated, until he felt like a wandering Jew, nearly driven wild by Having heard of Mme. Blavatsky's great his invisible foes. abnormal powers, he hoped through her to get a relief to his sufferings, and it was with a feeling of intense curiosity that, having been fortunate in obtaining an introduction to that lady, Blavatsky in America.

he one evening entered her drawing-room,

to find her

surrounded

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MADAME BLAVATSKY.

212

by a circle of -admiring friends. approach her, she invited him to

When

last

he was able to

sit on the sofa near her, and Mme. of his misfortunes. recital patiently listened to the long Blavatsky then explained to him that these phenomena were the

psychic force and partly the work of elemental, and she explained to him the process through which he might either rid himself of such disturbances for the future, or else

own

partly of his

result

how he could

nature,

obtain complete control over these powers of

and produce phenomena

Cunningham

ings to himself, he classed

Mme.

This seemed to Mr though he kept his feel-

at will.

as so utterly incredible, that

own mind

Blavatsky in his

a charlatan or a victim to her delusions. AVhat was his astonishment then when a few moments later she turned to him in the midst of an animated discourse she was holding with some professor on " Darwin's system of Evolution," and said, Well, Mr Cunningham, so you think it is all a sham ? I will give you a proof that it is not, if you like. Tell me, what would you like to have ? desire something without mentioning it aloud, and you either

shall

have

it."

thought of a rose, there being no flowers in on his mind, his

the room, and as the thought fastened itself

gaze was directed upwards, and there to his astonishment he saw a large full-blown rose suddenly appear near the ceiKng ; it swiftly but surely towards him, the stalk going right through his button-hole, and when he took out the rose to examine it, he found that it had been freshly plucked, and that the dew

descended

was hanging to the petals and leaves. Mme. Blavatsky, who had never moved from her corner of the sofa, looked at his bewilderment with amusement, and explained to him that when once man has obtained control over the elementals, such a phenomenon

simple as child's play."

Some sky's article

its

interesting reminiscences of

New York

residence

are

published recently by the issue of Jan.

1885.

Mme.

contained

New

The

Blavatin

York Times

writer, noticing

some then current news illustrating the progress India of the Theosophical Society, says This intelligence it

interesting to the general reader, mainly as

serves to recall a most curious phase of

modern

thought.

Its

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. development nearly ten years ago attention.

The

New York

213 attracted

much

doings of the strange society mentioned in the

French flat at Eighth Avenue and Forty-seventh Street, where they had their headquarters, were widely noticed by the press, and some influence on the thought of certain classes of men and women undoubtedly emanated from the small circle who gathered there.

This influence was beyond a question the result of the strange Mme. Blavatsky a woman of as remarkable characteristics as Cagliostro himself, and one who is to-day as differently judged by different people as the renowned Count was in his day. The Pall Mall Gazette recently devoted a half

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

personal power of

column

to the lady.

who know her

those

only slightly in this

country she was invariably termed a charlatan.

somewhat

better acquaintance developed the thought that she was a learned,

but deluded enthusiast. And those who knew her intimately and enjoyed her friendship were either carried away into a belief in her powers or profoundly puzzled,

and the longer and more

intimate the friendship was, the firmer the faith or the deeper their perplexity

The

became.

The

closest study of a trained

writer

was one of the

New York

last class.

reporter failed for over

two years to convince him that she was either a fraud or selfdeluded, or that her seeming powers were genuine. That she wrought miracles will be denied flatly, of course, by all persons

whom

the world calls

people

who

will

sober-minded, yet there are scores of

swear to-day that she did work them in

New

York.

A lady whose brother was an derful Russian, but

who was

enthusiastic believer in the

won-

Methodist and the new system of

herself a devout

thoroughly antagonistic to Theosophy (as thought was then beginning to be called), was induced to

make They became friends though One day Mme. Blathey continued widely opposed in belief.

Mme.

Blavatsky's acquaintance.

vatsky gave the other lady a necklace of beautifully carved beads of some strange substance that looked like, but was not, hard wood. " Wear them yourself," she said. " If you let anyone else

have them they

One day beads.

her

little

The lady wore them conMeantime she moved out of the city. who was sick and fretful, cried for the

will disappear."

stantly for over a year. child,

She gave them to him, half laughing

at herself for hesi-

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

214

seemed

The child put them around his neck and pleased with his new toy, while the mother turned away to attend to some domestic duty. In a few minutes the child began crying, and the mother found him trying to take the

tating.

off. She removed them herself and found that they were nearly one-third melted away and were hot, while the child's neck showed marks of being burned. She tells the story herself,

beads

and

the same breath denies that she believes in

"any such

things."

could be repeated by dozens, and for each one a reputable witness could be produced to swear to the truth of it. It was not, however, by the working of tricks or miracles, whichever the reader may choose to regard them, that Mme. Blavatsky

Such

made

stories

the impress she certainly

made on

the thought of the day.

was by the power of her own personality, vigour of her intellect, freedom and breadth of her thought, and the fluency and clearHer mental characteristics ness of her powers of expression. were as remarkable as her appearance. A more impetuous or She was generous and impulsive person than she never lived. hospitable to a fault. To her intimate friends her house was It

Liberty Hall, and while there was nothing sumptuous or pretentious about her

mode

life,

she lived well and entertained con-

She seemed physically indolent, but this was on account Nothing like of her size, which made bodily exertion onerous. mental indolence could be noticed in her conversation, and if such a trait had ever been attributed to her, the publication of " Isis Unveiled," her work on Eastern mysteries and religions, would have exonerated her from the charge. Without discussing the merits of the book it may be asserted that the labour involved in its production was very great. As a friend Mme. Blavatsky was steadfast and devoted to an unusual degree. Credulous by nature, she had been imposed upon by so many that she learned to limit her circle, but up to the time she left America she was always liable to imposition on the part of any designing person. She was unconventional, and prided herself on carrying her unconventionality to the utmost extremes. She would swear like a dragoon when in anger, and often used in pure levity expressions which served no other purpose than to emphasise her contempt for common usages. Born, so it is said, of the best stantly.

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA. lineage in Russia, she

had been bred and educated not only

lady but as an aristocrat.

as a

Discarding, as she did, the traditional,

same time the

belief of her family, she discarded at the

system of European

entire

During her residence in America know no more about her than

civilisation.

at least, for the writer claims to

was developed here, she protested against our civilisation vigorThe criticism she drew on herself by this course ously. was merciless, and from a civilised standpoint was certainly .

deserved.

Those who knew her best believe her

mean

incapable of a

have been entirely

act or a dishonest one.

The writer goes on Mme. Blavatsky was in

quote the views which

the habit of expressing on

the subject of spirituaHsm.

"The phenomena that are presented are perhaps often frauds. Perhaps not one in a hundred is a genuine communication of It is spirits, but that one cannot be judged by the others. entitled to scientific examination,

don't examine

deceive me.

it is

because they are

know more about

and the reason the scientists afraid. The mediums cannot

I have lived and have seen far more The whole universe is filled

than they do.

for years in different parts of the East

wonderful things than they can do. with

It is

spirits.

nonsense to suppose that we are the only

intelligent beings in the world.

I believe there

latent spirit in

But governed by natural laws. Even in cases of apparent violation of these laws the appearance comes from a misunderIn cases of certain nervous diseases it is standing of the laws. recorded of some patients that they have been raised from their beds by some undiscoverable power, and it has been impossible all

all

I believe

matter.

almost in the

spirits

of the elements.

to force

them down.

float feet first

The wonder

the room. that there rally

In such cases

has been noticed that they

may be passing through when you come to consider

with any current of air that of this ceases

no such thing as the law of gravitation as it is geneThe law of gravitation is only to be rationally

understood.

explained in accordance with magnetic laws as explain

it,

but the world would not accept

it.

Newton

tried to

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

2l6

coming to know many things that were centuries ago, and were discarded through the superstition

"The known

world

fast

" The church professes to reproof theologians," she continued. bate divination, and yet they chose their four canonical Gospels They took of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John by divination.

some hundred or so of books at the Nicene Council and set them up, and those that fell down they threw aside as false, and those that stood, being those four, they accepted as true, being unable to decide the question in

And

any other way.

out of the 318

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

members of the Council only two Eusebius, the great forger, and the Emperor Constantine were able to read." Talking thus by hours together when the right listener was present, and speaking always " as one having authority," it is small wonder that Mme. Blavatsky made her modest apartments

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

common meeting ground

for as

strange a group of original

thinkers as

New York

with her.

Indeed, there were only a few

ever held.

teachings with implicit

who joined

faith.

Not

Many

all

who

visited her agreed

who

followed her

of her friends, and

many

the Theosophical Society which she formed, were

who affirmed little and denied nothing. The marvels which were discussed and manifested

individuals

Blavatsky's

thought.

Mme.

rooms were to the most of them merely food

for

If the bell tones of the invisible "attendant sprite"

Pou Dhi where heard

as they were heard

by scores of

different

persons, this phenomenon so minutely described by Mr Sinnett in " The Occult World," was as likely to be chaffed good-naturedly

by an obstinate sceptic as it was to be wondered at by a believer. But even the sceptic would shrug his shoulders and say, when hard pushed, " It may be a spirit. I can't tell what it is." If the discussion turned on some marvel of Eastern magic, or some fanciful doctrine of Eastern mythology, there was always a witness to the magic and a believer in the mythology present, and there was no one bold enough to deny what was affirmed, however much it might be laughed at. Sensitive as Mme. Blavatsky was to personal ridicule and to slander, she was truly liberal in matters of opinion, and allowed as great latitude in the discussion of her beliefs as

she took in discussing the beliefs of others.

The apartment eight

rooms

she occupied was a modest

West Forty-seventh

Street.

flat

of seven or

was furnished

plainly but comfortably, but of the furniture properly so-called,

RESIDENCE IN AMERICA.

217

was hard to get an exact idea, for the rooms, especially the parlours, were littered and strewn with curios of most varied description. Huge palm leaves, stuffed apes, and tiger's heads, Oriental pipes and vases, idols and cigarettes, Javanese sparrows, manuscripts, and cuckoo clocks were items only in a confusing catalogue of things not to be looked for ordinarily in a lady's parlour.

CHAPTER

IX.

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA.

Judged by ordinary standards of common sense, Mme. Blavatsky's long stay in America was not a good preparation for her residence in yet her Theosophic mission appears India as

its

And

India. to

have had

objective point from the outset.

It is

just possible, therefore, that her alienation from the

English population of India

due

the unreasonable

the

prejudices

first

instance,

against them

which she came possessed with, may have served

way more than

Unhappily there

the cause she had in view in one told unfavourably in another.

good understanding widely amongst the two races in India. no

diffused

Each

sees the

worst features in the character of the other, and appreciates the best. state of things would,

divided, but at

all

yet

ill

The

responsibility for this

think,

be found very equally

events

it is

possible, that in wish-

ing to secure the hearty good-will of the natives,

Mme.

Blavatsky did not find herself really so

much

impeded as I have sometimes been inclined to by starting on terms which may almost be said to have cultivated the ill-will of the Europeans. think,

The

too-readily

enlisted

sentiment of race anta-

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. may

gonism,

more on her in

thus

side,

have put the

when

intimate or friendly

219

natives

the

all

was seen that she was not

relations

with the Anglo-

Indian community.

However

this

may

be,

Mme.

Blavatsky came to

India to plant the Theosophical Society in the

where

was destined

chiefly to flourish,

her task (for good or evil as

soil

armed

for

like to look at the

matter), with a flourishing stock of misconceptions

concerning the social conditions of the countr}.

was

guiltless of

any

She

inclination to concern herself

practically with politics,

and indeed, on the subject

of politics, though greatly misconceiving the true character of the English government at that time,

was

less prejudiced

rate she

than

consistently

other ways, for at any

recognised the theory that,

bad though it might be, the English Government was immeasurably the best India could acquire in the present state of her degeneration, as compared with the era of ancient Aryan grandeur.

But her

sympathies were always ready to flame up on behalf of individual native wrongs,

and since the organs of

native interests are apt in India to circulate stories

too hastily,

her

they seem to be flavoured with native

Mme.

wrongs, first in

Blavatsky, living almost entirely at

native society, imbibed a good

first

many

ideas,

establishment in the country, which used to

be the subject of warm argument between her and myself,

when

I first

made her

acquaintance.

This acquaintance was formed

at the close of the

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

220 year

1879, during

the

earlier

part of which she

reached Bombay, accompanied by Col. Olcott and two persons who were supposed to be Theosophists in the beginning,

but

from the Society at an

off

fell

which constituted the first of the long series of troubles that have attended the progress of the Theosophical movement. I never knew either of them, but they do

early date, under circumstances

not appear to have been persons soberer judgment, in

Mme.

whom

Blavatsky's place, would

have brought over as companions that she

had

anyone of

an enterprise

The four strangely down in one of the native

hand.

assorted travellers settled

Bombay, and were very naturally objects Their some suspicion with the authorities. movements about the country and into the neigh-

quarters of of

bouring native

states,

were not of a kind that the

ordinary habits of Europeans would account as a matter of course

intrigue, they

a country where great

were put under

surveillance.

But Englishmen are not clever at the police surveillance,

where,-r-and

Mme.

the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;no more so

pect

it.

in India

tricks of

than

else-

watch set upon the movements

Blavatsky and Col. Olcott was absurdly

apparent to the persons who, required,

and

have to be guarded from possible foreign

interests

for,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;should Mme.

if it

had been

really

never have been allowed to sus-

Blavatsky fretted under the sense of

insult this espionage inflicted sity of feeling

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; on

her, with the inten-

she carries into everything.

For my

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. own

part, I

used often to

tell her,

221

when we laughed

over the narrative of her adventures afterwards, pitied the

deal

unhappy

police officer,

more than herself

with sarcasms

all

her spy, a great

She pursued

this

officer

the while that he, in the perform-

ance of his irksome duty, pursued her

her vague

She would offer him bags or letters to examine, and address him condolences on the miserable fate that condemned him to pla}the part of a mouchard. I suspect from what I heard and

erratic wanderings.

Simla at the time, that the Bombay Government must have been treated by the superior authorities to remarks that were anything but complimentary on the manner in which they conducted this business.

At any

rate,

the mistake concerning the objects of

the Theosophists was speedily seen through, and the local

government instructed

to trouble itself

no more

about them. I

had been

and Mme.

correspondence with

Col. Olcott

Blavatsky, partly about this business,

during the summer.

Their arrival

India had

been heralded with a few newspaper paragraphs dimly indicating that

Mme.

Blavatsky was a mar-

modern develop-

vellous person, associated with a

ment of

magic," and

had seen her great book,

" Isis Unveiled," which naturally provoked interest

part in the authoress.

From some remarks

published in the Pioneer, of which the

editor,

arose.

the

first

was

communications

at that time

between us

In accordance with arrangements

made by

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

222

summer, she came to Allahabad wife and myself at our cold weather home

letter durino- the visit

to at

December 1879. I well remember the morning of her arrival, when I went down to the railway station to meet her. The trains from Bombay used to come into Allaha-

that station in

bad

and

those days at an early hour in the morning,

was

still

early breakfast,

but just time for chota hazree,

when

or--

brought our guests home.

She had evidently been apprehensive, to judge from letters, lest we might have formed some ideal conception of her that the reality would shatter, and had recklessly painted herself as a rough, old, " hippopotamus " of a woman, unfit for civilised society but she did this with so lively a humour that her latest

;

the betrayal of her bright intelligence this involved,

more than undid the

effect of

her warnings.

Her

rough manners, of which we had been told so much,

gravely informed that

remember when Col. had lasted a week or two, Madame was under " great

self-restraint " so far.

This had not been the im-

did not prove very alarming, though

going into

fits

Olcott, after the visit

pression

of laughter at the time

wife

and

had formed about

her,

though we had learned already to find her conversa-

more than interesting. would not venture to say that our new friends made a favourable impression all round, upon our

tion I

old ones,

strongly

Allahabad.

coloured

with

Anglo-Indian society conventional

views,

and

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. Mme.

223

Blavatsky was too violent a departure from

accepted standards in a great variety of ways to

be assimilated in Anglo-Indian

with readi-

circles

At the same time, the friends she made among our acquaintances while under our roof were the best worth having, and all who came to know

ness.

her,

and were gifted with the

bright and versatile talk,

faculty of appreciating

sparkling

first-rate dinner-table qualifications,

praises,

and eager

table qualifications,

for

anecdote, and

were loud

Her

her society.

it will,

her

dinner-

of course, be understood

did not include those of the bon vivant, for her dislike of alcohol in

all

forms amounted to a kind of mania,

and led her to be vexatious sometimes in her attack on even the most moderate wine-drinking on the part of others.

manner

made

which

illustration,

Mme.

by the

Blavatsky

bye, of the

constantly

the subject of the most extravagant falsehoods

by a statement which has, I hear, been London by some ex-AngloHe or she, I am glad to say I do not

afforded

made

quite recently in

—

Indian.

know who

—

^told

the he or she

is,

and do not seek to know,

informant that he or she had actually seen

Mme. Blavatsky

intoxicated at Simla.

know

her to be a total abstainer, not merely on principle (in

connection with her occult training), but by pre-

dilection

as well,

—by

virtue,

indeed,

have

described, of an absolute horror of alcohol,— and as

she has never resided at Simla under any roof but

my own

and one

other, beneath

which

was myself

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

224

same time a

at the

exactly as

guest,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

asserted that,

if it

statement

for

during her Simla

visit,

Blavatsky was double-headed like the famous

Mme.

" Nightingale."

want

give

Blavatsky, as

have known

nearly complete as

readers

can

that

her,

make

idea

it,

shall

and

Mme. be as

shall not

The hesitate to put in the shadows of the picture. first visit she paid us was not an unqualified success Her

in all respects.

excitability,

would sometimes take an

ing,

she would vent her impatience,

by vehement

her,

sometimes amus-

irritating shape, if

and

anything annoyed

tirades in a loud voice directed

against Col. Olcott, at that time in an early stage of

his

apprenticeship

what she would some-

times irreverently speak of as the " occult business."

one with the

least

discernment could ever

fail

see that her rugged manners and disregard of

were the

conventionalities

result

to all

deliberate

rebellion against, not of ignorance or unfamiliarity

with,

the

rebellion

customs

refined

society.

the

Still

was often very determined, and she would

sometimes colour her language with expletives of sorts,

all

some witty and amusing, some unnecessarily

violent, that

we should She

make

use

ficial

attributes

of.

spiritual teacher

all

have preferred her not to

certainly

one might ;

had none of the superhave expected

and how she could

at the

same

time be philosopher enough to have given up the

world

for the

sake of spiritual advancement, and yet

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. be capable of going

225

into frenzies of passion 'about

annoyances, was a profound mystery to us for

trivial

a long while, and

my own

indeed, within

now

only

partially explainable,

mind, by some information

have received relating to curious psychological laws under which stanced as she only,

and

initiates

occult mysteries, circum-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

proceedings

By slow degrees

inevitably come.

in spite of herself

her

part

in spite of injudicious

long

that

kept

suspicions she might easily have allayed,

alive if

she

could have kept calm enough to understand them

we come

did

and unseen agencies behind

forces It

to appreciate the reality of the occult

unnecessary for

her.

to give

an elaborate

account here of occult wonders performed by

Blavatsky during her various

These

bad and Simla. in

the

Occult

during her

Mme.

Allaha-

most of them, recorded

Those which took place

World.

first visit

are,

visits to us at

were not of great importance,

and some of them were so little protected by the conditions that would have been required to guarantee their bona fide character that they useless.

My wife

by not jumping were enabled tion

and

;

were patient observers, and

any conclusions too precipitately

in the

desired

were worse than

long run to obtain the satisfac-

but

guests,

especially

they

be of a very materialistic temperament, would regard anything Mme. Blavatsky might do of

happened

an apparently abnormal character as so much juggling, and hardly disguise these impressions from her. The p

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

226

would be a stormy end to our such guests had gone. To be suspected

result in such cases

evening after

as an impostor, deluding her friends with trickery,

would sting her at any time with a scorpion smart, and bring forth a flood of passionate argument as to the cruelty and groundlessness of such an imputation, the violence of

which would

really

have tended

with most hearers to confirm suspicions rather than to allay them.

Recollection of this time supplies

memory

varied assortment of

with a very

Madame,

portraits of

taken during different conditions of her nerves and

Some

temper.

her flushed and voluble, too

recall

some person or other who her Society some show her

loudly declaiming against

had misjudged her or quiet and

;

companionable, pouring out a flood of

interesting talk about

Mexican

antiquities, or Egypt,

or Peru, showing a knowledge of the most varied

and far-reaching kind, and a memory dealing with, hearers.

that

was

Then, again,

dotes of her

own

fairly

names and

fascinating

remember her

earlier

life,

point,

vivacity,

and

be her

telling anec-

mysterious bits of

adventure, or stories of Russian

much

for

and archseological theories she would

places

finish,

society,

that

with so

she would

simply be the delight for the time being of every-

one present. I

time,

hard

never could clearly

make

out her age at this

and was led partly by the look of life

things, for the

she has led has told upon her complexion

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. and

features,

and partly by her own vague reference

to remote periods in the past, to overestimate

several

She has always had a

years.

her age with exactitude,

telling

227

dislike to

which does not

spring in her case from the vanity which operates

with some ladies, barrassment.

human

entity

but has to do with occult em-

The age of the body in which a given may reside or function, is held by be sometimes a very misleading

occult initiates to fact,

and chelas under

forbidden to

the problem

case

rules are,

strict

their ages.

tell

Mme.

believe,

Blavatsky's

was somewhat complicated by

the fact that she had, within the few years previous to

first

knowledge of

her,

grown

somewhat

unwieldy proportions.

Mr deal

A. O. Hume, whose name has been a good

mixed up

very different ways, both with the

early beginnings of the Theosophical

India and with

some

movement

was at came there, holding an appointment for the time on the Board of Revenue in the N. W. P., and he took great interest

Allahabad when

Mme.

our remarkable guest.

at a public

its

latest phases,

Blavatsky

first

presided one afternoon

meeting which was held

at the

Mayo

Hall to give Colonel Olcott an opportunity of delivering an address

on Theosophy, and a passage

from his brief speech on that occasion

may

fitly

find

a place here as showing in graceful language the

manner

opening up.

which, at that time,

the

subject

was

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

228 This

much

have gathered about the Society,

primary and fundamental object of

its

existence

of a sort of brotherhood in which, sinking

and nationaHty, caste and creed,

all

viz.,

one

that

the institution

distinction of race

all

good and earnest men,

all

who love science, all who love truth, all who love their fellow-men, may meet as brethren, and labour hand in hand in the cause Whether

of enlightenment and progress.

this

noble idea

ever

germinate and grow into practical fruition; whether this glorious dream, shared in by so many of the greatest minds in all ages, is ever destined to emerge from the to

likely

shadowy realms of Utopia into the broad sunlight of the Many let no one now pretend to decide. and marvellous are the changes and developments that the past has witnessed ; the impossibilities of one age have become the truisms of the next; and who shall venture to predict that the future may not have as many surprises for mankind as has had the past, and that this may not be one amongst them. Be the success, regions of reality,

however, great or

little

of those

who

one thing we know, that no honest

men

are ever wholly fruitless.

ripens

;

the workers

may have

strive after this

may be

may

work

itself

ideal,

long before that

fruit

passed away long ere the world

discerns the harvest for which they wrought large

grand

the good of our fellow-

efforts for

;

nay, the world at

never realise what has been done for remains, imperishable, everlasting.

it,

but the good

They who wrought

have necessarily been by such efforts purified and exalted, the in which they lived and toiled has inevitably benefited

community

directly or indirectly,

ground,

on no

and through it, the world at large. On this we must necessarily sympathise with the

other,

Theosophists.

The Theosophists

in those days had all their them in an unsuspected future, and the movement seemed to be advancing gaily with

troubles before

many

friendly

hands stretching out to aid

thing but petty squabbling the

Bombay

among

it,

and no-

members

head-quarters to disturb the peace of

its

the

But Mme. Blavatsky's temperament always magnified the annoyance of the moment, whatever chiefs.

— ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. it

might

be,

till

229

overshadowed her whole

sky.

Mr Hume

Colonel Olcott spoke at the meeting which

opened with the remarks just quoted, but one of hearers, at all events

—

his

his distinguished colleague,

was not altogether pleased with his address, and no sooner were we clear of the Hall compound on our drive back than

she opened

with exceeding bitterness. this

subject at

intervals

fire

upon him

hear her talk on

during the evening one

might have thought the aspirations of her

do not remember that there was

anything amiss,

—were not important

of the

Society

Olcott

bore

set

all

any serious

down

and with

all

to the progress

with

wonderful

much probation

to the account of his occult chelaship this

exasperating

behaviour

Blavatsky nevertheless had a strange

winning

Colonel

degree.

tantrums

these

taking them as

fortitude,

com-

the speech,^

promised, though the meeting and

about which

life

affection.

ingly warm-hearted

Her own and

;

Mme.

faculty

nature was exceed-

affectionate, as

it is still,

and

must remain as long as she lives, in spite of the cruel disappointments and trials, the sickness and suffering of later years, the poignant regret she has

spent over irremediable mistakes that have compro-

mised the success of her cause, and the passionate sense of

wrong under which she fumes,

as the un-

teachable world complacently listens to the tales of

her traducers,

or, as flippant

newspapers make fun

of the wonderful stories told about her, as though

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

230

Thus

she were a mountebank or impostor. prestige of her occult power, uncertain

and

the

capri-

has latterly become, invests her with so rriuch interest for people who have emerged from the bog of mere materialistic incredulity about her cious though

anyone with a tendency towards mysticism is apt to become possessed with something like reverthat

ence for her attributes, in spite of the strangely unattractive shell with

Thus,

them.

bers of people

which she sometimes surrounds

one way and another, large numIndia

who came

know

her

through ourselves, learned to regard her with a very friendly feeling,

rugged manners and stormy tem-

perature notwithstanding.

Mme. Blavatsky visited us again at Simla in autumn of 1880, when most of the phenomena scribed in the " Occult

much

World " took

now

better inclined

de-

She was

place.

than on her

the

first arrival in

India to conciliate European sympathy and support for the

movement on which she was engaged.

She

had learned the lesson which the best friends of native interests in or later,

India must always learn sooner

they come

in contact

with the

the situation, that for any practical

the natives want a European lead. task in

hand has

philosophy, fided too

its

work

would

be done, the

do with the revival of Indian

administration languishes

exclusively to native

She

Even when

protest

when conMme.

direction.

Blavatsky therefore came to Simla society.

realities of

prepared

against

the

for

"flap-

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. doodle

on her

lips,

Mrs

of "

Grundy,"^

—

— favourite

23 phrases often

but to serve her cause she would even condescend to put off occasionally the red flannel dressing-gown in which she preferred to robe herself,

and

sit

down

in black silk

odours of champagne

and

amid the uncongenial

sherry.

course,

beyond a very narrow circle, the wonders she wrought were quite ineffective in kindling that zeal for

intelligent inquiry into the higher psychic laws

of nature

which

awaken.

by virtue of which they were accomplished, was the intention of their promoters to

Mme.

one could understand

Blavat-

sky without studying her by the light of the hypothesis

— even

were only regarded as such

if it

—that

she was the visible agent of unknown occult superiors.

There was much I

have described

in it,

her character on the surface as

which repelled the idea that she

was an exalted moralist trying

ward towards a higher

spiritual

to lead people up-

The

life.

internal

excitement, superinduced by the effort to accomplish

any of her occult

feats,

would, moreover, render

her too passionate in repudiating suspicions which could not but be

her part.

stimulated

by such

protests on

Conscious of her failure very often to

do more than leave people about her puzzled and vaguely wondering

how

she did her

" tricks,"

she

would constantly abjure the whole attempt, profess violent resolutions to produce no more pheno-

mena under any

circumstances for a sneering, un-

discerning, materialistic generation,

and as often be

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

232

impelled by her love of wielding the strange forces

command

at her

fall

into her old mistakes,

hurriedly rush into the performance of as she

some new

feat

the power upon her, without stopping to

felt

think of the careful conditions by which

surrounded,

ought to be

she meant to do more than aggravate

the mistrust which drove her into frenzies of suffer-

Once, however, recognise her as the

ing and wrath.

and

flighty

defective,

though loyal and

brilliantly-

gifted representative of occult superiors in the back-

ground, making through her an experiment on the spiritual intuitions of the

and the whole

which she moved,

was solved, the apparent her character and acts explained,

situation

incoherence of

and the best

world

attributes of her

own

nature properly

appreciated.

So much exasperation and trouble have been brought about in recent years by the disputes which have arisen concerning the authenticity of Mme. Blavatsky's phenomena, that the general opinion of

Theosophists has been apt to condemn the whole policy under which such displays have been associated with the attempt to

philosophy

spiritual

the outer world.

event

;

events,

ideas

easy

recommend the

of the " Esoteric

now

exalted

Doctrine

" to

easy to be wise after the

to see that in

where sympathy with

new

Europe

all

or unfamiliar

can best be courted by purely intellectual

methods, the Theosophical position, as stood by

its

now

under-

most devoted representatives, would be

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. stronger without, than with

the record

phenomena behind

Blavatsky's

233 of,

Still

it.

Mme.

very

myself from thinking that the idea of awakening

far

the attention of the world in regard to the possibilities for all

their

own

men

of greatly elevating

and expanding

inner nature and capabilities along the

lines of occult study,

by the display of some of the

powers which such study was capable of bringing about,

was

in itself

of course, that

an injudicious

Mme.

idea.

It is plain,

Blavatsky has to bear the

responsibility of having often misapplied that, idea;

that she

suffering from the

prompt

retribution of

circumstances in the ignominy that has been heaped

upon her of

late, is also

But cool obser-

apparent.

vation of the whole position will

show

with

that,

her mistakes, she has infused into the current of

all

the world's thinking a flood of ideas connected with

the possibilities of man's

many

thinkers are at

disregard

spiritual

work with now

not to say ingratitude

of,

from which they have come. failures all

;

Mme.

profound

the source Blavatsky's

and mistakes are glaring in the sight of us in every newspaper that mocks her and proclaimed (by the irony of

fate)

the proceedings of a Society that has stultified

own name by as

for,

trumpeted

as an impostor, in

evolution, that

its

investigating an episode in her career,

psychical developments were so

much

iron-

mongery, and the depth of nature's mysteries could be expressed

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;by

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

a sufficiently acute observer

decimals of an inch.

But her

successes are

only

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

234

apparent to those

eyes to see, and an

who have

enlightened understanding to comprehend.

And just is

as the history of

a party-coloured page,

external character,

Mme.

Blavatsky's work

equally variegated.

her

her personality,

have

good deal of her impetuosity and indiscretions manner and of the way in which she

said a

of speech and will

rage for hours,

allowed, over

trifles

which a

more phlegmatic, not to speak of a more philosophical, temperament would barely care to notice. But it must be understood that, almost at any time, an appeal to her philosophical intellect will turn her

and

right off into another channel of thinking,

equally for hours,

draw

may any

then,

appreciative companion

forth the stores of her information concerning

Eastern religions and mythology, the subtle metaphysics of esoteric

Hindoo and Buddhist symbolism, or

doctrine

some regions

public treatment. lamentations,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;over

article

problem tion

or in

some letter,

far

Even

in the in

vehemence

an allusion

for

to a catas-

fruits

of a

life-

a newspaper

offensive sneer in

esoteric

years

midst of passionate

have wrecked the

by a European

later

have been opened out

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; appropriate

trophe that might time,

itself,

of this

the

some unsolved

cosmogony, or misinterpretaorientalist

some Eastern

doctrine will divert the flow of her intense mental activity,

and sweep

all

recollection

of the current

annoyance, for the moment, from her mind.

The

record

Mme.

Blavatsky's

residence

ESTABLISHED IN India

INDIA.

235

of course, intimately blended with the

is,

history of the Theosophical Society,

on which

energies

indirectly,

are

spent,

directly

all

her

and

was obliged during do what literary work she could for Russian magazines to earn her livelihood, and supplement the narrow resources on which the headindirectly in so far only as she

this period to

quarters of the Society were kept up.

which she

research, first

monthly magazine

the

phist,

set

year in India, paid

on foot its

devoted in the

way from

and gradually came to earn a small the fact that

its

management was

and

its

work, in

ous,

by the ters

;

all

little

but

Theoso-

occult

autumn of her the beginning,

profit,

subject to

altogether gratuit-

departments, performed

band of Theosophists

all

movement

all

The

at the head-quar-

the while that sneering critics of the

would be suggesting, from time to time, that the founders of the Society were in the papers

doing a very good business with

and

living

" initiation

on the tribute of the

faithful,

fees,"

Mme.

Blavatsky was really at her desk from morning night, slaving at

Russian

articles,

solely for the sake of the little

make

in this

till

which she wrote

income she was able

way, and on which, in a far greater

degree than on the proper resources of the Society, the head-quarters were supported, and the move-

ment kept on foot. Thus energetically promoted, the Society continued to

make

steady progress.

Colonel Olcott

travelled about the country with indefatigable perse-

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

236

new branches

verance, founding

Mme.

in all directions,

and

Blavatsky herself went with him and some

others to Ceylon during the cold weather, 1880-81,

where the theosophical party

wz.5 feted

hy large and

The movement took

enthusiastic native audiences.

firm root in the island at once,

and flourished with

wonderful vigour.

Here, of course,

Mme.

Blavatsky's

open pro-

Buddhism as her religion was all in her her in it had been rather against exoteric Hindoos and Buddhists are not at

fession of

favour, though India, as in

all

sympathy, though the esoteric doctrines of

the initiates of both schools are practically identical.

The

Singalese welcomed, with delight, a lead which

showed them how

to set

up schools

which

their

children could be taught the essentials of secular

education without coming into contact with Euro-

pean missionaries.

During the autumn of 188 1 from a

visit to

returned to India

England, and on landing at Bombay

spent a few days with

Mme.

Blavatsky at the head-

quarters of the Theosophical

Society, then estab-

lished at Breach Candy, in a

bungalow

Crow's Nest, perched up on a the road.

had been unoccupied

by a reputation

heard, discredited ghosts,

neither

which

alarmed the new tenants. into

two

little

portions,

Society's service

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the

called the

eminence above for

some time

for snakes

encumbrances

The

and

greatly

building was divided

lower given over to the

and to Colonel

Olcott's

Spartan

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. accommodation

upper

237

by a covered stairway, corresponding to the slope of the to

hill,

Mme.

the

part,

Blavatsky and the

There was

Theosophist.

upper portion, level,

;

all

reached

office

also a spare

the rooms of which were on one

and opening on

to a

broad covered-in verandah,

which constituted Mme. Blavatsky's

and reception room at the further

work of the room in this

in one.

all

sitting, eating,

Opening out of

end she had a small writing-room.

more comfortably housed

the whole she was

knowing her wild contempt for the luxuries of European civilisation, I had expected to find her but the establishment was more native than AngloIndian in its organisation, and the covered verandah than,

;

day long and up to late hours in the evening by an ebb and flow of native guests, admiring Theosophists who came to pay their respects to Madame. She used to like to get half a dozen or more of them round her talking on any topic con-

was

all

visited

nected with the

affairs

of the Society that might

arise in a desultory, aimless way, that used to be

The

found rather trying by her European friends. latest

embarrassment or

whatever to

fill

fretful

might

little difficulty

be, that

or annoyance,

had presented

her horizon for the

itself,

moment and

anxiety out of keeping with

its

used

give her

importance,

and there has rarely been a period during the five or six years

have had

there has not been

Mme.

some

do with the Society when situation to

Blavatsky's estimation,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;some

be saved,

enemy

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

238

guarded against, some possible supporter to be conciliated. How it was possible for any nervous system to stand the wear and tear of the perpetual largely in consequence agitation and worry in which

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

of the

course

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Mme.

her

peculiarities

own temperament

Blavatsky spent her

persons of

life,

But she

calmer nature could never understand.

would generally be up

an early hour writing at

her Russian articles or translations, or at the endless letters

she sent off in

all

directions in the interest of

the Society, or at articles for the Theosophist

;

then

during the day she would spend a large part of her time talking with native visitors in her verandah

room, or hunting them away and getting back to her work with wild protests against the constant interruption she

was subject

to,

and

the same

breath calling for her faithful " Babula," her servant, in

a voice that rang

for

some one

all

over the house, and sending

or other of the visitors she

knew

waiting about below and wanting to see her. in the

to be

Then

midst of some fiery argument with a pundit

about a point of modern Hindoo belief that she might protest against as inconsistent with the real

of the Vedas, or a passionate

meaning

remonstrance with

one of her aides of the Theosophist about something

done amiss that would

for the time

overspread the

sky of her imagination with a thundercloud, she would perhaps suddenly " hear the voice they vvhole

did not hear,"

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

astral call of her distant

or of one of the other " Brothers," as

Master

that time

— ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. we had

all

learned

everything else

to call them,

230 »

— and

forgetting

an instant she would hurry

the seclusion of any

off to

room where she could be alone

few moments, and hear whatever message or

for a

orders she had to receive.

She never wanted to go She would sit on smoking

bed when night came.

cigarettes

and talking

was wonderful to on Eastern philosophy of any sort, on the

talking with a tireless energy that

watch

—

mistakes of theological writers, on questions raised (but not settled) in " Isis," or, with intensity

just

much

and excitement, on some wretched matter

connected with the administration of the Society, or

some

foolish

attributes

papers.

sarcasm levelled against herself and the

imputed to her

one of the

local

news-

say that she never would learn

estimate occurrences at their proper relative value,

to is

to express the truth so inadequately that the phrase

does not seem to express

all.

Her mind

seemed always like the exhausted receiver of an airpump, in which a feather or a guinea let fall drop

same momentum. Of society in the European sense of the term she had absolutely none at Bombay. She never paid visits, and as the custom of the English communities in the East requires the new-comer to make the first calls, she, ignoring this necessity, was left almost with apparently the

absolutely without acquaintances of her

home.

where she was supposed to be often wondered that none of the

that station of India

most

own kind

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

240

English residents at

Bombay had

the curiosity to

break through the conventionaHties of the situation

and take advantage of the opportunity lying within reach. of their hands for making friends with one of, at all events, the

gifted

women

tricities

most remarkable and

in the

whole country

intellectually-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;rugged eccen-

and cigarettes notwithstanding. But certainly

at first the quarters

lished herself,

where Mme. Blavatsky

estab-

and the habits of her heterogeneous

native household, and the wild tales which

doubt from the

first

were circulated about

have no her,

may

have intimidated any but the most adventurous of the English ladies accustomed to the decorous routine

She

of Anglo-Indian etiquette.

herself

may have

fretted occasionally against her isolation, but at

all

events did not regret the loss of European "society" in

the special sense of the

found

word

;

she would have

a terrible burden to go out to formal parties

of any kind, to forego the ease of the nondescript

costumes

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; loose

wrappers

any position

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;that

she wore, to put

which her fingers would be restrained from reaching, whenever the impulse prompted them to do so, for her tobacco pouch and herself in

cigarette

childhood

Rebel as she had been in her against the customs of civilised life,

papers.

so equally was she a rebel against the usages of

English society line spirit

India; and the strange discip-

of her occult training that

devoted

of control

and

submissive

had rendered her to

the one

she had learned to reverence,

left

kind the

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. independence

fierce

her

outer

24 T nature

quite

unaltered.

She joined me

Allahabad a few months after

return to India in 188

with

be the guest

season of

for the

A. O. Hume.

and the

at the time,

and went up

Simla

remainder of that

She was

from well

far

journey

latter part of the

trying one for the most robust passenger

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;was

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an

ordeal that brought out the peculiar characteristics of

her excitable temper in an amusing way, ber

;

for the

drive

tongas

which the eight hours'

up the mountain roads from Kalka

of the hills to the

at the foot

elevated sanatorium

plished, are not luxurious conveyances.

low two-wheeled carts hung on a crank the foot-boards are only about a road,

with

seats

for

back

accom-

They

are

axle, so that

foot

persons,

four

two and two back

driver,

remem-

above the

including the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;just

accommo-

dation enough in each for one passenger with his

portmanteau (equivalent,

he has one with him, to

a passenger), and a servant.

between

us,

had two tongas

putting our servants with

luggage in one, while

Mme.

some of the

Blavatsky and

occu-

pied the back seat of the other with a portmanteau

on the seat beside the

driver.

dation of a tonga

that

rapidly,

only recommen-

gets over the ground

and the ponies, frequently changed,

canter up veller

The

all

but the steepest gradients.

jolted frightfully, but he

trot or

The

tra-

not likely to be

capsized, though even that happens sometimes, for

JIADAME BLAVATSKY.

242

the mountain roads are very rough, and the ponies

apt to be troublesome.

may

the tonga pony that for

The

general character of

be appreciated from the fact

have known a driver apologise to a passenger a particularly flighty pair, on the ground that I

they had never been

The

harness before.

ani-

mals are attached to the vehicle by a strong crossbar resting in sockets on saddles they carry for the purpose, and though on this system ponies and cart are as firmly united as a ring,

still

bunch of keys by

they are no less loosely linked together,

and a nervous passenger

liable to

extraordinary positions

the

during any

and the

little

driver.

our

after

speaking,

steel

its

start

and

into

be disturbed by

which they get

disagreement between the team

One

such disagreement arose soon

the

journey of which

Madame's impassioned anathemas

directed against the whole service of the tonga dak

and the

civilisation of

which

formed a

part,

ought

remember thinking at the time, to have had their comicality wasted upon an audience of one. Then as the day and the weary drive wore on, Madame's indignation at the annoyance of the situation only waxed more vehement, instead of settling down into the dogged despair with which the more not,

phlegmatic Briton as a rule accepts the disagreeables of a tonga drive.

incensed

Especially she used to be

whenever the driver sounded

piercing horn close behind us. off

his

ear-

She would break

whatever she was talking about to launch invec-

;

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. tives at this unfortunate "

trumpet

243

whenever

was

blown, and as often, up to the end of the journey and, seeing that a tonga driver for self-preservation's

sake must blow his horn whenever he approaches a turn in the road (which

may

coming the other way)

;

Kalka

to Simla, the

conceal another tonga

fifty

consists chiefly of turns all the

was more

effectually cursed

the road from

that

also

whole

or sixty miles of

way

it,

the trumpet

up,

by the time we got

our destination than the jackdaw of Rheims himself. I

do not think

derful records of

contained

worth while to add to the won-

Mme.

Blavatsky's " phenomena," of this volume,

other portions

any

description of the relatively insignificant incidents of

which were

that kind, to

which

all

that occurred at the period

have now come.

The

manifestations of

abnormal occult power which had been displayed so freely in the

summer

had given

of 1880,

good deal of acrimonious discussion. policy

had

authorities

Masters,

by the mysterious Mme. Blavatsky spoke of as her

been under

whom

rise to

Whatever

when she was

whatever abnormal

trial,

freely permitted to exercise

gifts

she possessed, and even

own reach, The days of pheno-

helped to achieve results beyond her

had now

fallen into discredit.

mena working were

all

but over.

All that occurred

now, were concerned merely with the despatch and receipt

of letters,

some way

incidental

work of the Theosophic movement. It would rarely happen that even these presented themselves the

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

244

under conditions that rendered the transaction comthough plete enough to be described as a wonder ;

with the experience of

Mme.

Blavatsky that most of

us about her at this time had had on other occasions, incidents that

tests of

were incomplete as

occult

would necessarily share the retrospective attaching to other similar incidents that had

power, credit

been complete

the

However, the mot

past.

was now coming the craving for phenomena as

d'ordre in the Theosophical Society to

be unfavourable to

such,

Blavatsky might make, would necessarily

Mr Hume, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;who

first.

Mme.

each new set of acquaintances

that

time was greatly

at that

interested in the information

feel

had begun

to obtain

shortly before In reference to the views of Nature

entertained by the adepts of Indian occultism, I,

were

far

intent

now on

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;and

enlarging our compre-

hension of this " Esoteric Doctrine," than on witnessing further displays of a mysterious power of

which we could not fathom the to

spend long hours together, day

used

after day, in try-

ing to develop the unmanageable hints in the

secrets.

obtained

form of written answers to questions, with the

help of

perform

Mme. in

Blavatsky

;

but the task she had to

endeavouring to elucidate these

hints,

was almost hopelessly embarrassing for though her own knowledge was very great, it had not been originally Implanted in her own mind on European methods It was not readily recast in a European ;

;

mould, and above

all,

she had no clear Idea as to

ESTABLISHED IN what she was

INDIA.

at liberty to tell us,

general obligations of secrecy

still

245

and how

far

her

was

applied.

an uphill and not very profitable beginning that was

made

at this time with

an enterprise that assumed

considerable proportions in the end, and till

when

a later period,

own house

Allahabad,

occult philosophy, leading

was not

had returned to

that

" Esoteric

velopment of the book called

began to make

real progress.

lasting regret,

Mr Hume's

instruction

to the subsequent de-

Buddhism,"

that time, to

sympathies had

been

alienated from the undertaking. It

has been, in this way,

Mme.

Blavatsky's fate,

throughout her work on the Theosophical Society, to

make and

lose

many

friends.

The

peculiarities of

her character, which these memoirs will have disclosed, sufficiently account for this

of success

and failure.

No personal

chequered record

demeanour could

be imagined, worse calculated than hers to retain the confidence of people earnestly pursuing exalted spiritual

ideas,

during that intermediate stage of

acquaintanceship

intervening

between

the

first

kindling of an interest in her general theories of occultism,

intimacy. at

all,

profound

and

the establishment

It is

only people who know her

hardly

or only through her writings, and, at the

other end of the scale,

those

who know

her so

thoroughly that she herself cannot mislead them, external roughness

and

indiscretion, into distrusting

the foundations of her character,

who do

her justice.

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

246

who

People

familiar

are

closely intimate

with her without being

and long acquainted with the con-

elements of her nature, can hardly escape some shock to their confidence, sooner or later, some uncomfortable suspicion about her code of truthfulflicting

wrong, which once planted in their minds, and 7iot immediately brought forward and frankly discussed with her, will be sure to rankle and ness, of right or

grow.

easy for people whose work

together on the physical plane of existence,

lies

who

al-

deal

with one another by the light of principles which are perfectly well understood

the reach of

all

men

their

recognise the purity of their

and the high standards of right by which

intentions,

The

they are governed.

occult chela endeavouring

philanthropy

spiritual

round, to remain beyond

moral reproach, to regulate

all

conduct so that

all

" physical plane,"

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

" in

phrase would express

it,

course of

life

before an

work

to carry out a

amongst the world,"

people

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the

(as the occult

distinguishing between the

normal community of human kind at

large,

and the

secluded organisation in contact with other modes of

human

existence, besides

flesh), is

person reserve.

many

those of ordinary living

immeasurably more embarrassing.

entangled, to begin with, in a net-work of

facts

cannot but be cognisant of a great

connected with the occult

life

which he

not at liberty to disclose, which, indeed, he to

Such a

bound

guard even from the betrayal which an indiscreet

silence in face of indiscreet questioning

might some-

—

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. times bring about. his

way

247

There would be no

difficulty in

he were simply a chela of the ordinary kind

concerned as such merely with his psychic development; but

own

when he has

spiritual

and

make some

disclosures,

and must not go too

when he

not allowed, withal, to be judge of what

shall

communicate and what keep

his task

may

often

information back,

—

far with these,

be one that

replete

with the most serious embarrassment.

These embarrassments would, of course, be least for a person of naturally cool and taciturn temperament, but amongst occultists, as amongst people " in

the world," temperaments vary.

Mme.

course

Blavatsky's excitable and passionate disposition has

way

been a

frightful stumbling-block

what

the use in an orchard of the most gracefully

shaped tree that bears no

fruit ?

been born with the manners of

her

but

She might have

Mme.

Recamier, and

the sedate discretion of an English judge,

and have

been perfectly useless

Whereas,

with

all

psychic

her generation.

her defects, the possession of her splendid gifts,

of her

indomitable courage

carried her through the

—which

ordeals of initiation in the

mysteries of occult knowledge, and again held her

up against the protracted antagonism of materialistic opinion when she came back into the world with an onerous mission to discharge

enthusiasm which made in the balance,

unseen

all

— and

suffering

of her spiritual

and

toil

as dust

compared with her allegiance

to her

Masters," the possession, in short, of her

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

248

occult attributes, has rendered her an influence in the

The

world of great potency.

sumed a shape but the

fruit

tree

may

would admire,

that passing strangers

not have as-

has borne has been a stupendous

harvest.

When Mme.

say that suffering and

Blavatsky as dust

her duty,

toil

have been with

the balance compared to

say that with deliberate conviction

of course, the phrase must not be taken to

;

mean

but,

that

she bears suffering and privation with philosophical

She

calm or equanimity.

not capable of bearing

the annoyance of a pin prick with equanimity.

She

cannot help fuming and fretting over every annoy-

and when, as so often happens considering the stories told of her wonder

ance, great or small, inevitably,

working, and the occasional manifestation of her

powers

this respect

to a recent date,

she

suspected of trickery, her indignation and misery and incoherent protests are so vehement and unwise

their expression that they only serve to strengthen

unjust conclusions to her disadvantage.

During the Simla Simla Eclectic

visit

881,

established the

Theosophical Society

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

branch

was hoped at the time would attract AngloIndian members. Mr Hume was its president for

which the

first

year,

and

myself for

movement never took society,

and indeed

its

second, but the

root firmly in Anglo-Indian

at that

time there was nothing

before the world that could give the

movement an

adequate raison d'itre for Europeans at large.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. The

record of

Mme.

Blavatsky's

249 India for

life

the next year or two would be mainly a narrative of

tiresome episodes

connected with attacks of one

kind or another on the Theosophical Society.

made her

Calcutta newspaper called the Statesman

and her Society the object of frequent sarcasms, and sometimes of grave misrepresentation, so that

December 1881

was driven under a threat of from

legal proceedings to publish a letter

on Mme.

This

Blavatsky's behalf.

solicitors

may be

use-

reproduced here as illustrating at once the

fully

offensive

nature

and

attacks of which she

the groundlessness

was the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; In

the

16, 1881.

of Tuesday, the 6th instant, there

Statesma?i

appears an article having reference,

Madame

object.

Calcutta, December Sir,

among

other matters, to

Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, the founders of the Theo-

sophical Society. In the course of that article, it is stated " It is now asserted not only that the resources of both (Madame :

Blavatsky and Col. largely in debt,

are

Olcott)

on account,

exhausted, but that they are alleged, of the expenses of the

It is not difficult for any one to arrive at the conclusion would be highly desirable and expedient for the founders This is of the Theosophical Society to have these debts paid off. The question that a simple and not unpraiseworthy instinct. remains is, as regards the means by which this consummation is to be effected." The remainder of the article, which we need not quote at length,

Society.

that

an elaborate insinuation that

Madame

ing to procure from a gentleman named,

Blavatsky

endeavour-

by spurious representa-

payment of her debts. Now, the allegation about Madame Blavatsky being

tions, the

are instructed, absolutely false to begin with

which she helped to found

;

nor

in debt, unless, indeed,

in debt

is,

the Society

to herself.

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

250 The accounts last

Theosophist for on behalf of the Society

of the Society, published in the

May, show

that the outlay incurred

to that date had exceeded the receipt (consisting of " initiation fees" Rs. 3900, and a few donations) by a sum of Rs. 19,846, but this deficit was supplied from the private resources of Madame

Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott.

We may further explain that Madame Blavatsky is a Russian lady of high rank by birth (though since naturalised in the United States), and has never been in the penniless condition your article

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

whatever mistakes may have arisen from the improper publication of a private letter by Colonel Olcott to a friend in America, the careless exaggerations of which, designed merely for a correspondent familiar with the real state of the affairs to which these referred, have given you occasion for insultingly ascribes to her

some offensive remarks. We, therefore, duly instructed on behalf of Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, now require of you that you should publish with an apology for the scandalous which you have been misled into giving currency. this letter, together

also

require that

libel to

in further refutation of these,

and

general reply to the insulting language of your article, you should

publish the enclosed explanations extracted from the Pioneer of the loth instant.

In the event of your request, or to give

failure forthwith

up the name of the

comply with our

writer of the article in

we are instructed to proceed against you in the High Court for recovery of damages for the libellous attack of which our clients complain. Yours faithfully, question,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Sanderson

The

publication of this

letter

Co.

was accompanied

by a quasi-apology, and the matter dropped. But next month the Theosophists were engaged in another war of words with a missionary preacher,

who

Joseph Cook, a

attacked the Society in

gave at Poona. All standards of European good sense applied to such a matter would, of course, have required Mme. Blavatsky to certain lectures he

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. remain perfectly quiescent

such assailants,

in face of

but her temperament forbade

25 I

and possibly the

this,

native Indian feeling on such subjects, very unlike

the European feeling in corresponding cases,

have made

impossible for the leaders

may the

Theosophical Society to refuse an answer to any charges

made

against them.

all

Mme. Blavatsky was never dragged

events, poor

out of one pool

of hot water without forthwith iinding herself in another.

In the autumn of 1882, of which she spent the

Bombay, she became

greater part at

seriously

ill,

and was at length summoned to an interview with her occult superiors across the Sikkim frontier, near

In a note

Darjeeling.

had from her shortly

Bombay, written in the September, she bade my wife and myself

before her departure from

middle of

good-bye, in the expectation, apparently, that the

term of her physical note

life

so characteristic that

was nearly I

give

over.

The

here with only

a few private allusions suppressed.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

dear friends, Mrs and Mr Sinnett, you will have soon to bid me good-bye.

afraid

This time

have

well and good.

Bright's disease

and the whole blood turned

of the kidneys,

water, ulcers breaking out in the spots, blood, or

whatever

may

into

most unexpected be,

forming into

bags a la kangaroo and other pretty extras and ceteras.

This

all,

prima, brought on by

Bombay

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

252

dampness and heat and, secundo, by fretting and bothering. I have become so stupidly nervous that the unexpected tread of Babula's naked foot near me ;

makes me

start

Dudley

the heart. this,

with the most violent palpitations of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

can

says,

last

but a few days, for

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

forced him to

can die

last

then

give

course,

somewhere

to take

off,

where

got

and

wish

of Sep-

really too weak.

to the Fort to the

ears swollen thrice

met Mrs

make a

and

sister,

She did not

sign of recognition, but looked

very proud and disdainful. it.

and go

don't know, but, of

her carriage crossing mine slowly.

to resent

;

to prepare

me down up with both my

their natural size,

salute nor

the Himalayas.

can hardly write,

Yesterday they drove doctor.

can

sent a chela here from Nilgerri Hills,

and he

"...

How

month or so toward end

for a

tember.

lords of creation

the business over to

all

any time

have twenty a day.

(meaning her Master) wants

somewhere

consequence of an emotion. of such emotions

tell

a year or two, and perhaps

tell

you

Well, I

was

very

fool

sick.

enough Yes,

could see you once more, and dear

and

" Well,

good-bye

all,

and when

am gone, if I of me too much

go before seeing you, do not think as an impostor,' for I swear I told you the truth, however much I have concealed of it from you. I '

hope Mrs

will not

dishonour by evoking

ESTABLISHED IN with some medium.

never be

will

even

shell,

made

253

Let her rest assured that

spirit,

since this

in life yet,

Some

INDIA.

nor anything of is

gone long ago. H.

particulars of her journey

shortly after this, are given

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;not

Yours, P. B."

to Darjeeling,

a narrative

by an enthusiastic candidate for chelaship, Mr S. Ramaswamier, who endeavoured to accompany

Mme.

Blavatsky, scenting the probability that she

going to meet one of the higher adepts

was

really

or "

Mahatmas."

take a portion of this narrative

from the Theosophist of December 1882. the form of a letter addressed

by the writer

took to

brother Theosophist.

When we met last at Bombay I told you what had happened to me at Tinnevelly. My health having been disturbed by ofScial work and worry, I applied for leave on medical certifiOne day in September last, cate, and it was duly granted. while I was reading in my room, I was ordered by the audible to leave all and proceed voice of my blessed Guru, immediately to Bombay, whende I had to go in search of Mme. Blavatsky wherever I could find her and follow her wherever she went. Without losing a moment, I closed up all my affairs and For the tones of that voice are to me the left the station. I travelled divinest sound in nature ; its commands imperative. Arrived at Bombay, I found Mme. in my ascetic robes. Blavatsky gone, and learned through you that she had left a few and that, beyond the fact days before ; that she was very ill that she had left the place very suddenly with a Chela, you knew nothing of her whereabouts. And now, I must tell you what happened to me after I had left you. Really not knowing whither I had best go, I took a through ticket to Calcutta ; but, on reaching Allahabad, I heard the same .

;

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

254

well-known voice directing gunge, in the train,

At Azim-

go to Berhampore.

met, most providentially I

may

say,

with

some Babus (I did not then know they were also Theosophists, since I had never seen any of them), who were also in search of Mme. Blavatsky. Some had traced her to Dinapore, but lost her and went back to Berhampore. They knew, they said, she was going to Tibet, and wanted to throw themselves at the feet of At last, as I the Mahatmas to permit them to accompany her. was told, they received from her a note, informing them to come if they so desired it, but that she herself was prohibited from She was to remain, she said, in the going to Tibet just now. vicinity of Darjeeling, and would see the Brothers on the Sikkim Territory, where they would not be allowed to follow her Brother Nobin, the President of the Adhi Bhoutic Bhratru Theosophical Society, would not tell me where Mme. Blavatsky was, or perhaps did not then know it himself. Yet he and others had risked all in the hope of seeing the Mahatmas. On the 23rd at last, I was brought by Nobin Babu from Calcutta to Chandernagore, where I found Mme. Blavatsky, ready to start, track

five

minutes

with the train.

after,

tall,

dark-looking hairy

Chela (not Chunder Cusho), but a Tibetan I suppose by his

whom

had crossed the river with her in a had come too late, that Mme. Blavatsky had already seen the Mahatmas, and that he had brought her back. He would not listen to my supplications to take me with him, saying he had no other orders than what he had already executed, namely to take her about 25 miles beyond a certain place he named to me, and that he was now going The Bengalee to see her safe to the station, and return. brother-Thesophists had also traced and followed her, arriving at They crossed the river from the station half-an-hour later. Chandernagore to a small railway station on the opposite side. dress,

met

boat, told rae that

after I

—

When

the train arrived, she got into the carriage,

upon entering

And, before even her own things could be placed in the van, the train against all regulations and before the bell was rung started off, leaving Nobin Babu, the Bengalees and her servant, behind. Only one Babu and the wife and daughter of another all Theosophists and candidates for Chelaship had time to get in. I myself had barely the time which

found the Chela

—

jump

in,

into

the

last

carriage.

All

her things

—with

the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ESTABLISHED IN

INDIA.

255

exception of her box containing the Theosophical correspondence were left behind, together with her servant. Yet, even the persons that went by the same train with her did not reach

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Darjeeling. five

days later

left

five

Babu Nobin Banerjee, with the and they who had time to take ;

or six stations

accident

(?)

that

arrived

were

behind, owing to

another unforeseen at another further place, reaching Darjeeling also a

few days later

know

servant,

their seats

Mme.

It requires

no great

stretch of imagination to

Blavatsky had been, or was perhaps, being again

taken to the Brothers, who, for some good reasons best known to them, did not want us to be following and watching her. Two of the Mahatmas, I had learned for a

neighbourhood of British recognised,

by a person

territory,

certainty, were in the and one of them was seen and

need not name here, as a high chutuktu

of Tibet.

Mme.

Blavatsky was only two or three days

across the frontier with her

occult superiors,

but

she returned practically well again, and cured for

by which her

the time of the formidable diseases life

had been menaced.

December tainment was given by native the

6th of

1882, a farewell enterfriends to the founders

of the Theosophical Society, just before their de-

parture from

Bombay

to take

their residence at

Adyar, Madras, where a house had been purchased for the

Society by subscription.

ment an address was read On

as follows

this entertain-

the eve of your departure for Madras, we, the

Bombay Branch, beg most

members of

convey to you our heartfelt and sincere acknowledgment for the benefit which the people of this Presidency in general, and we in particular, have derived from your exposition of the Eastern philosophies and Although the exigencies of religions during the past four years. the

the Society's growing business

head-quarters to Madras,

respectfully to

make

assure

it necessary to remove the you that the enthusiasm for

256

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

Theosophical studies and universal Brotherhood which you have awakened in us will not die out, but will be productive of much good in future. By your editorial efforts and public lectures, you have done much to awaken in the hearts of the educated sons pf India a fervent desire for the study of their ancient literature which has so long been neglected ; and though you have never

undervalued the system of Western education for the people of which to a certain extent is necessary for the material and political advancement of the country, you have often justly im-

India,

pressed upon the minds of young

men

the necessity of making

investigations into the boundless treasures of Eastern learning as

the only means of checking that materialistic

and

atheistic ten-

dency engendered by an educational system unaccompanied by any moral or religious instruction. You have preached throughout the country temperance and universal brotherhood, and how far your attempts in that direction have been successful during the brief period of four years was perfectly manifest at the last anniversary of the Parent Society,

Bombay, when on one common platform brave hearts from Lahore and Simla to Ceylon, from Calcutta to Kattiawar, from Gujerat and Allahabad Parsees, Hindoos, Buddhists, Jews, Mahomedans, and Europeans assembled under the banner of Theosophy, and advocated the regeneration of India, under the benign influence of the British rule. Such a union of different communities, with all the prejudices of sects, castes, and creeds set aside, the formation of one harmonious whole, and the combining together for any national object, in short, a grand national union, are indispensable for the moral resuscitation of Hindoostan. Your endeavours have been purely unselfish and disinterested, and they, therefore, entitle you to our warmest sympathy and best respects. We shall most anxiously watch your successful progress, and take an earnest delight in the accomplishment of the objects of your mission, throughout the Aryawart. As a humble token of our sense of appreciation of your labours of love, and as a keepsake from us, we beg most respectfully to offer for your acceptance, on behalf of our Branch, an article of Indian make, with a suitable inscription. just held in

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Thus by words

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

as well as

by deeds the native

Theosophists of India were showing their apprecia-

ESTABLISHED IN INDIA. tion of the Col.

257

good work done by Mme. Blavatsky and spite of tlie perpetually renewed

Olcott in

slights

they received

the while from the Anglo-

all

Indian newspapers.

The house

Madras in which Mme. Blavatsky was next established was a great improvement on the cramped and comfortless bungalow at Bombay, from which she removed. Madras is a station of enormous extent, straggling along seven or eight miles of the sea-shore. Adyar is a suburb at the at

southern extremity, through which a small stream finds

its

way

to the sea,

and just before

reaches

the beach spreads out into a broad shallow expanse

of water, beside which the Theosophical house stands in

extensive grounds.

Here we found Mme.

Bla-

vatsky and her heterogeneous household comfortably

when my wife and home from India in March installed

forward to at last

final rest there,

visited her

on our way

She was looking

1883.

and was hoping she had

found the tranquil retreat

spend the remainder of her

life.

which she would

Her

occult gifts

have not included the power of forecasting the situdes of her at that

own

career,

vicis-

and she was very

far

time from suspecting the renewed disturb-

ance of her destinies, which the next two or three

The upper years were preparing to bring forth. rooms of the house were her own private domain. These did not cover the whole area of the lower storey, but,

even with an addition that had just been

made, stood on the roof like the poop of a ship R

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

258 upon

deck.

its

hurried forward

The new room that we might

was destined by Madame her

own

just built

see

complete, and

" occult

be her

specially private sanctum,

had been

where she would

be visited by none but her most intimate It

came

room,"

friends.

be sadly desecrated by her worst enemies

a year or two later.

In her ardour of affection for

the Masters," she had especially

all

that concerned

devoted

herself

hanging

decorating a certain

cupboard to be kept exclusively sacred to the communications passing between

and already bestowed upon

herself,

—

the designation

some simple Tibet

and

became so sadly celebrated subsethe shrine. Here she had established

under which quently

Masters

these

occult treasures

— two

small

portraits

—

relics

of her stay in

she possessed of the

Mahatmas, and some other

trifles

them

The purpose

her imagination.

special receptacle

was of course

associated with of this

perfectly intelligible

to everyone familiar with the theory of occult phe-

nomena

—held by Theosophists

be as rigidly sub-

ject to natural laws as the behaviour of electricity.

place kept pure of

all

steam or

magnetism

but that connected with the work of integrating and disintegrating letters,

would

facilitate

the process,

was used a dozen times

for the

transaction of business between the Masters

and the

shrine "

chelas connected with the Society for every once

was made

phenomenon.

subserve the purpose of any show

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ESTABLISHED IN

259

INDIA. #

At Madras Mme. Blavatsky was not quite so much neglected by the European society of the place, in the

beginning of her residence there at

events, as she

had been

Bombay.

Some

all

of the

leading Anglo-Indian residents went to see her and

became her

With some

fast friends.

of these she

spent part of the autumn at .,Ootacamund, the

during this

and

time,

excited

visit

went

that time

who

incident which took place

much

local interest at the

described by the lady chiefly concerned,

Mrs Carmichael, " I

Madras.

station of

hill

as follows

to see

on a

live at

Madame

visit to

who was at General and Mrs Morgan, Blavatsky,

Ootacamund.

conversation with her see her again soon,

After some interesting expressing a desire to

left,

and on

third visit the follow-

ing incident occurred. " It I

was about

called

four o'clock in the afternoon

Madame

Blavatsky, and was received by

her in the drawing-room.

and took off

sofa,

sat beside her

great

phenomenon, and

on the

driving gloves.

had already several times expressed

Blavatsky

when

Madame

some occult be convinced by some

desire

also to

see

token of the presence of the Mahatmas. " After a short time spent in conversation

and other

much

subjects, in course of

which

said

this

how

should like to have a ring duplicated in the

same way that Mrs Sinnett had, Madame Blavatsky took my hand, and withdrawing from her hand a

—

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

26o

ring which she called her occult ring, took off also

two rings from

hand, one a blue sapphire, single

She held the three rings for a short time her right hand, and then returned me one, saying stone.

can do nothing with this

ence

(it

was a ring of

has not your

;

influ-

husband's which

had

She then proceeded hand my blue sapphire the same time holding

put on accidentally that day). to manipulate in her right

and her own occult

my "

right

ring, at

hand with her

left.

After an interval of a minute or two she extended

her right hand, saying " '

Here

instant

your ring

two sapphire

— showing me

rings,

my own

same

at the

and another

identical in every respect, except that the second

larger

and a better cut stone than

do you give me " '

this

asked

/ have not done

be so favoured

Madame

Blavatsky,

you to have

this as

;

? '

the

own.

was

Why

in surprise. is

Madame

Mahatmas,' answered should

gift

from the

Blavatsky.

asked.

'Why

Because,' said

Mahatmas have allowed

a token that they recognise and

thank you and your husband for the deep interest

you have always shown to the " I

About two months

after,

natives.'

my return

to Madras,

took the duplicated sapphire ring to Messrs Orr

Son, jewellers, and

was

told

by them that they

valued the stone at 150 rupees, calling

a party-

coloured sapphire. (Signed) "

London,

August i^ih, 1884."

Sara M. Carmichael.

CHAPTER A

VISIT TO EUROPE.

the Convention of the Theosophical Society,

was stated that there were then seventy-seven branches in India and eight in held in December,

The

Ceylon.

anniversary celebration went off with

klat as usual, in spite of some sparring in print

between the President and the Bishop of Madras, foreshadowing a

and the in the

fiercer conflict

between the Society

local missionaries at a later date

spring the leaders of the

;

and early

movement came on

visit to Europe. Colonel Olcott had arranged to come some time previously on some business con-

nected with a case before the Colonial Office, in

which the interests of the Ceylon Buddhists were

and

moment

was decided that Mme. Blavatsky should accompany him. Her rescue, during the visit to the Sikkim frontier, from the death that seemed awaiting her during the autumn of 1882, had not done more than patch up involved,

at the last

was thoroughly out of order. She was again falling into very bad health, and it was supposed that the sea voyage to Europe and a few It was not months' change would do her good. physical machinery that

contemplated,

the beginning,

that

she should

— MADAME BLAVATSKY.

262 come

London, and on her

as far as

where she had she wrote,

London " I

the beginning of

friends, in

arrival at Nice,

have received the kind invitations of your-

selves, of

and

others.

worthy

self,

make

try to

but see no use to kick against

sick,

Bombay.

worse than

feel

sea

was

had

laid

was,

un-

and

—

will

leaving

and on land

up now.

laid

first

the

suppose, the vile emanations

European civilised pigs and beef, and here and the most

when

whole day on

for the

of an

to pieces, crumbling

I felt

felt better,

landing at Marseilles, and

former place

fate,

the realisable out of the unrealisable.

and

feel worse.

deeply

touched by this proof of the desire to see

from

invitations

various

March

first-class

well,

away

with

hotel,

anyhow

an old sea

be able to do,

will

its

falling biscuit,

be to pick up

and join together my voluminous fragments, and gluing them together, carry the ruin to Paris. What's the use asking shall

what can

London

do amidst your eternal

What

fogs,

the emanations of the highest civilisation.

and left

Madras d mon corps defendant. I did not want to go would return this minute if I could. Had not ordered it, I would not have stirred from my

—

rooms and old surroundings. cross,

Nice but

for

feel

ill,

miserable,

... I would not have come to Madame our dear Theosophist Lady C is the embodiment of

unhappy

from Odessa.

A VISIT TO EUROPE. She

kindness.

humour me.

without

does

came

for

As soon

to join the

begin fidgetting as soon as ing myself sooner

kind of company

...

reckoned

there,

better,

only to

Paris,

than

Jericho

Provence and the

secretaries'

creation

two days, but

host, the mistral of

cold winds of Nice.

mean

everything

263

and wish-

What

Paris.

to civilised beings like your-

would become obnoxious to them in seven minutes and a quarter were I to accept it and selves.

land

disagreeable, bulky self in England.

tance lends

its

charms, and in

would surely ruin every vestige of

The London Lodge

is in its

could not (especially in

case

Dis-

presence

it.

sharpest

crisis.

present state of ner-

vousness) stand by and listen calmly to the astound-

Sankaracharya was

ing news that

Subba

Row knows

not what he

without kicking myself to death

astounding

evidently

And

or that other

Masters

shall I

tending against the Goughs and

theist,

and

talking about,

that

declaration

Swabhavikas.'

;

still

are

begin con-

Hodgsons who

have disfigured Buddhism and Adwaiticism even their exoteric sense,

London upon hearing

in .

and

Let

risk bursting a blood-vessel

their

die in peace

Lares and Penates in

doomed

to see

them

arguments reiterated

have to Adyar,

die, or return if

ever

again."

In spite of the reluctance thus expressed she ultimately

came

London and stayed

for several

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MADAME BLAVATSKY.

264

months, but meanwhile she remained in Paris for a few weeks and was there joined by some of her

Mme. de

Russian relatives and friends.

Jelihow-

whose writings have been quoted so largely

sky,

the earlier chapters of this memoir, again took pen

hand

to describe

some phenomena

that occurred

during this period. In an article contributed to a Russian newspaper,

she says "

When, about

Paris,

May, we

the middle of

an interview with

for

Mme.

found her surrounded by a regular of their Society

who had gathered

arrived in

we members

Blavatsky,

staff of

at Paris,

coming

from Germany, Russia, and even America, to see her after her five years' absence in India; and by a

crowd of the curious who had heard of the thaumaatmosphere always around

turgic

anxious

become

eye-witnesses

Truth compels

powers.

her,

and were her

say that

occult

Blavatsky was very reluctant to satisfy idle curiosity.

She has her own way any physical

powers

of looking very contemptuously

phenomena, hates to waste her

a profitless manner, and was, moreover,

at the time quite

ill.

Every phenomenon produced

at her will invariably costs her several days of sickness. "

say

at her will,' for

phenomena, independent

more frequently in their midst, than those produced by herself She attributes them of her, took place far

to that mysterious being

whom

they

all

call

their

A VISIT TO EUROPE.

265

Such manifestations of forces (to us) unknown, leave her unhurt. Every time that an accord ox arpeggio of some invisible chords resounded '

Master.'

the

wherever she was, and with whatever

air,

occupied, she used

hasten to her room, from

whence she emerged with some order or news. Most of the 'secretaries' of the Society received very of

the

...

8th,

showed similar ally,

summons

such

often

her.

Col.

Olcott returned from

to us a curious

paper

independently

quite

London and

Chinese envelope with a

a letter he had received person-

it,

from one of the Masters on

us,

tells

On May

give one instance.

April 6th, in a railway carriage, in the presence of witnesses.

The

letter

had dropped on

his knees,

and warned him of a grave treason that was being all at Adyar (their Madras headby persons whom they had trusted, and who owed to them all during their five years' long Every detail in the letter was stay in their house. Mme. Blavatsky corroborated two months after. But when the paid little attention to it at the time.

prepared for them quarters)

news corroborative of the prophecy extremely hurt. "

arrived, she felt

phenomena produced what Professor Thurmann heard to

at in

will,

this

company of

several persons, myself included.

"He

was telling us one night of some musical sounds he had heard at a spiritual seance, in the dark. H. P. Blavatsky, who was sitting in her arm-chair,

—

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

266

quietly laying out a Russian patience with cards,

laughed

the

and remarked

narrative,

When

of darkness.

there .

no deception there

And upon

saying

hand upon the table, she as though throwing off some

Now

listen

no need

this,

with one

the other in the air

lifted

Why

for such_ manifesta-

should darkness be necessary tions

' :

and said:

current,

At the same instant we heard, in that corner of room towards which she had waved her hand,

the

harp

harmonious sound as though of a

the

zither.

and she

sharp, lifted

The

and then died away

her hand, moving

Again

in the air.

an opposite direc-

tion,

and the same phenomenon was produced

all

started from our seats, struck with amaze-

For the

ment.

scale of melody resounded clear

moved her hand

third time she

a third direction, as though cutting the air through with

her arm

—

this

time toward a large bronze

chandelier over our heads

—and,

the chandelier emitted a sound, as jets lay concealed a

its

Mme. de "

Champs,

every one of

if in

command.

Jelihowsky also recounts the following

Rue Notre Dame des Mme. N. A. Fadeyeff, Mme. Blavat-

were four of us 46,

—

sky, the eminent Russian author, I,

instant,

musical chord, which had

vibrated in response to her

incident

same

at the

— having

tea at the

same

ing-room, about II P.M.

Soloviof,

table of the .

Mme.

little

and

draw-

was asked

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A VISIT TO EUROPE. something of her

to narrate

Master,' and

had acquired from him her occult telling us

many

267

how

she

While

talents.

things which would be out of place

she offered us to see a portrait of his

in public print,

gold medallion she wore on a chain round her

in a

neck,

made

and opened to

It is

it.

a perfectly

contain but one miniature,

passed from hand to hand, and

some Hindoo face " Suddenly our

all

saw the hand-

painted in India.

it,

party

little

felt

it is

was as though the

suddenly changed, was rarefied

disturbed

something very strange, a sensation which possible to describe.

locket,

flat

and no more.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

hardly

air

had

atmosphere

became positively oppressive, and we three could H. P. B. covered her eyes hardly breathe. .

with her hand, and whispered "

Attention

happen.

that

is .

going

.' .

He/

considers so powerful.

something

Some phenomenon.

preparing to do it. " She meant by

feel that

her guru-master, .

whom

she

moment Mr

Soloviof fixed his eyes on

a corner of the room, saying that he saw something like

a ball of

fire,

of oval form, looking like a radiant

golden and bluish egg.

... He

had hardly pro-

nounced these words when we heard, coming from the farthest end of the corridor, a long melodious

some one had brushed the chords of a a melody far fuller and more definite than any

sound, as

harp

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

of the musical sounds

we had

previously heard.

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

268 "

Once more the away.

died

then

clear notes

were repeated, and

reigned again

Silence

the

rooms. " I

left

into the passage hall,

and went

seat

brightly lighted with a lamp.

was

all

sky

was empty. the .drawing-room I found H. and that

quiet,

returned to

Useless to say that

When

P. Blavat-

sittingly quietly as before at the table

Mme. Fadeyeff and Mr time,

saw

Solovioff.

between

the same

as distinctly as can be, the figure of a

man, a grayish, yet quite clear form, standing near

and who, upon

sister,

looking at him, receded

from her, paled, and disappeared

This man

wall.

—

or,

the opposite

perhaps, his astral form

—was

of a slight build, and of middle size, wrapped in a

kind of mantle, and with a white turban on his head.

The

had

the time to examine

all

every one what it

distinctly saw, though, as

had disappeared,

nervous.

were

and

more than a few seconds, it, and to tell

vision did not last

but

felt

objective.

terribly frightened

Hardly come back

startled with another

soon as

and

to our senses,

wonder, this one palpable

suddenly opened her locket,

P. B.

and instead of one portrait of a Master, there were two "

—her own facing Firmly

under

its

likeness, "

The

set inside

his

the other half of the medallion,

oval glass, there was her

which she had locket

just casually

was once more

own

examined by hand to hand.

carefully

the three witnesses, and passed from

miniature

mentioned.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

;

A VISIT TO EUROPE, "

This was not the

later the

finale.

269

quarter of an hour

magical locket, /tisot which we three literally

never took off our eyes for one second, was opened at the desire of one of us to h& fotmd in

The

lished in

Mme.

Light

Blavatsky's stay in Paris, was pub-

attest

the morning of the

were present

the following pheno-

nth

in the reception

of June, instant,

room of the Theoso-

46 Rue Notre Dame des was delivered by the postThe door of the room in which we were

phical Society at

Champs, when a sitting

her portrait was no more had disappeared."

man.

for July 12, 1884:

The undersigned

menon "

statement that follows, relating to another

incident of

it.

Paris,

letter

was open, so

that

could see into the hall

and the servant who answered the

bell

was seen

take the letter from the postman and bring

to us

it in the hands of Mme. Jelihowsky, who threw it before her on the table round which The letter was addressed to a we were sitting. lady, a relative of Mme. Blavatsky's, who was then visiting her, and came from another relative in Russia. There were present in the room, Mme.

at once, placing

de Morsier, secretary-general of the

Societe Theo-

sophique d'Orient et d'Occident;' M. Soloviof, son of the distinguished Russian historian, and attache

of the writer;

Imperial Court, himself well

Colonel Olcott,

Mr W.

Babu, and several other persons.

known

Q. Judge, Mohini-

Mme.

Blavatsky

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

270 was

Mme.

also sitting at the table.

upon her

sister

(Mme.

she would like to

Jelihowsky,

Blavatsky) remarking that

know what was

in the letter,

asked

on the spur of the moment, to read its contents before its seal was broken, since she professed to be her,

able so to do. "

Thus

challenged,

Mme.

Blavatsky at once took

against her forehead, up the closed letter, and read aloud Avhat she professed to be its conThese alleged contents she further wrote tents. down on a blank page of an old letter that lay on

held

the

Then she

table.

would give those

said she

present, since her sister

still

laughed at and chal-

lenged her power, even a clearer proof that she was able to exercise her psychic

Remarking

envelope. in

power within the closed

that her

own name

occurred

the course of the letter, she said that she would

underline this through the envelope in red crayon. In order to effect this she wrote her

name on

the

old letter (on which the alleged copy of the contents

of the sealed letter

had been

written), together with

an interlaced double triangle or

Solomon's

seal

below the signature, which she had copied as well as the body of the

letter.

This was done

in spite of

her sister remarking that her correspondent hardly ever

signed

relatives,

would

name

will

when writing to Mme. Blavatsky

full

in this at least

find herself mistaken.

replied, in the

her

and that

Nevertheless,' she

cause these two red marks to appear

corresponding places within the

letter.'

A VISIT TO EUROPE. She next one upon the "

so as to

TT] I

and placed her hand upon both,

table,

make

(as

she said) a bridge, along which a

current of psychic force might pass.

features settled into

expression

concentration, she kept her

Then, with her

of intense mental

hand quietly thus

few moments, after which, tossing the closed across the table to her sister, she said, fait.

Here,

The experiment may be well to

successfully

add, to

show

by a Government

fixed

on the

official

for a letter

Tiens, c'est finished.'

that the letter

could not have been tampered with in transit less

open

laid the closed letter beside the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;un-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that the stamps were

flap of the envelope,

where a

seal is

usually placed. "

Upon

being opened by the was addressed, it was found that Mme. Blavatsky had actually written out its contents ; that her name was there ; that she had really underlined it in red, as she had promised ; and lady to

the

whom

envelope

was reprodttced below the which was in fotll, as Mme.

that the double triangle writer's

signatiire,

Blavatsky had described "

Another

it.

fact of exceptional interest

slight defect inform-ation triangles, as

noted.

of one of the two interlaced

drawn by Mme. Blavatsky, had

faithfully reproduced within the closed

been

letter.

This experiment was doubly valuable, as at once an illustration of clairvoyant perception, by which

Mme.

Blavatsky correctly read the contents of a

sealed letter, and of the

phenomenon

of precipita-

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

272 tion, or

the deposit of pigmentary matter in the form

of figures and lines previously

drawn by the operator

presence of observers.

in the

(Signed)

Vera Jelihowsky. VsEVOLOD SOLOVIOF. Nadejda a. Fade;eff. Emilie de Morsier. William Q. Judge. H. S. Olcott.

"PARis,/2ine

Petersburg

the

1884."

2ist,

J^edus

psychological sciences)^ of July

periodical

1884, No.

26, the

same account appeared over the signature of V. Soloviof, an eye-witness to the above fact, under the title

of "

A Letter

Interesting Phenomenon.*

to the Editor.

" Several persons,

among

number

that

myself,

met

casually

H. P. Blavatsky (the founder of the Theosophical Society, then on a visit to Paris), about 10 a.m. in the forenoon. A postman entered and brought, among others, a letter for a relative of Mme. B., then on a visit to the latter, but owing to the early morning hour still absent in her bed-room. J^rom the hands of the postman upon the table in Glancing at the post-

the letter passed on, in the presence of all present,

the parlour, where

mark and

the

we were

address

all gathered.

of that

particular

* Since then the author, between

letter,

both

whom and Madame

Mme.

Blavatsky

there have been personal differences, tried to throw a doubt over the

genuineness of this phenomenon, saying

may have been due

to psychological glamour thrown over the witnesses.

hypothesis, the bare fact of

Mme.

of collectively mesmerising a group of people in that they thought they

not see,

is,

saw a

that

Blavatsky possessing the power full

daylight, so

series of occurrences that they did

to say the least, sufficiently astonishing.

A VISIT TO EUROPE.

273

Blavatsky and her sister, Mme. Jelihowsky, remarked that it came from a mutual relative then at Odessa. The envelope was not only completely closed on

its flaps,

all

but the post-stamp

itself

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

was glued on the place where the seal is habitually placed as I got convinced by carefully examining it myself. H. P. Blavatsky, who was on that morning, as I had remarked, in very high spirits, undertook, unexpectedly for sister,

who was

to read the letter in

it,

placed

the

first

one

of us, with the exception of her

all

propose

and

to defy

closed envelope.

its

Mme.

B. to

After this she

on her forehead, and with visible efforts began to read down the pronounced sentences on a sheet of

out, writing

paper.

When

she finished, her

sister

expressed her doubts as to

the success of the experiment, remarking, that

several of the

and written down by Mme. B. could hardly be found in a letter from the person who had written it. Then H. P. B. became visibly irritated by this, and declared that in such case she would do still more. Taking the sheet of paper again she traced upon it with red pencil, at the foot of the sentences supposed to be contained in the closed letter, noted down by her a sign, then she underlined a word, after which, with a visible effort on her face, she said This sign that I make must pass into the envelope at the end of the letter, and this word in it be found underlined, as I have done it here.' " When the letter was opened, its contents were found identical with what Mme. Blavatsky had written down, and, at the end of it we all saw the sign in red pencil correctly repeated, and the word underlined by her on her paper, was not only there, but expressions read out

equally underlined in red pencil.

"After that an

drawn up, and under it. " its

all

exact

description

of the

phenomenon was

of us, the witnesses present, signed our names

The circumstances under which

the

phenomenon occurred

do not leave

smallest details, carefully checked by myself,

the smallest doubt as to

its

genuineness and

reality.

Deception

or fraud in this particular case are entirely out of question.

"Vs. SOLOVIEFF." Paris, 10 (22) June 1884.

The Theosophical movement in London, when Mme. Blavatsky ultimately came over from Paris s

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

274

on the 7th of April,

— arriving

evening of a meeting of the "

unexpectedly on the

London

lodge,"

—was

already established on a footing which was leading

many

its

most prominent representatives to look

with no sympathetic eye on such

have just been described,

phenomena "

illustrative of oc(;ult

operating on the physical plane of Nature.

one acquainted

power

And

any degree with the course that

movement has taken

—ever since a

sufficient

volume

of philosophical teaching has been given out by the

"adepts" in reality

—

show how very elevated a purpose lies Theosophy

before the students of Esoteric

make the mistake of imagining that the London society consists of people attracted to It by will

mere rumour of Mme. Blavatsky's wonderworking power. But wherever Mme. Blavatsky the

may

abnormal occurrences even

be,

when they have been

in recent years,

practically suppressed as

com-

pared with the abundance of their manifestation

earlier period of her

frequently observed.

cerned as

life,

And

with her

have been more or

latter

own

personal history

in a

movement

with

part of her career

intimately blended, must maintain

Mme.

the end. friends

have

in the

just said,

phenomenal

less

the present volume, con-

greater degree than with that of the

which the

its

has been so character to

Blavatsky and her most attached

Theosophical movement have, as

come

to feel a very great distaste for

owing to the strife of words they have evoked and the hostile incredulity they

all

stories,

A have excited. entirely, in

VISIT TO EUROPE.

They

now

are

275

in a position to rely

recommending Theosophic study

to the

world, on the intrinsic, intellectual, and philosophical

claims of the esoteric doctrine, and strongly

from India this

Mme.

Blavatsky's

in 1870,

life,

the

final

since her return

has been to convey something of

of this

doctrine,

cannot be too

emphasised that

or frequently

purpose of

philosophy, to the

spiritual

world, and not to dazzle the narrow circle of people

immediately around her at any given time with displays of occult power. Still,

partly

owing

on which, as

to the principle

the reader will have seen, she has endeavoured

along to carry out her

task â&#x20AC;&#x201D; partly

all

because her

love of exercising her abnormal faculties continually

overcomes her to

irritation at the

annoyances for her

which their exercise has often given

rise

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;she has

displayed these from time to time up to a recent period. for a week only on her first London and then returned to Paris. She came over to London again on the 29th of June,

She stayed with us

arrival in

and stayed with friends Hill,

where she remained

over then to

Elgin Crescent, Netting early in August, going

till

Germany with a

party of Theosophists

on a visit to friends in Elberfeld.

London during the period

Her presence

referred to

became rather

widely known, and large numbers of people contrived to tors

make her

acquaintance.

were constantly pouring

Streams of

in to see her,

visi-

and wath

— MADAME BLAVATSKY.

276

her usual abandon of manner she would receive her callers in

any costume,

any room which happened

moment— in

for the

be convenient to her

her

bedroom, which she also made her writing-room and study, or in her friends' drawing-room thick with the smoke of her innumerable cigarettes, and of those which she hospitably offered to

all

who

cared to

accept them.

Occasionally

happened that some manifestations

of her occult powers would be given on these occasions, as for

example on the evening referred

the following letter

to in

Holloway's Hotel,

48 Dover Street, Piccadilly, London, August 9, 1884. "

My dear Mr

in telling

—

see no difficulty whatever

you what happened

presence a few

days ago at Mrs Arundale's house, where

been dining with

"In

Mme.

had

Blavatsky.

the midst of the conversation, referring to

various subjects,

Mme.

heard a sound that might be com-

all

distinctly

Blavatsky became

pared to that produced by a small silver "

silent,

and

bell.

The same phenomenon was produced

later

the drawing-room, adjoining the dining-room. "

was naturally surprised

more by the following

at this manifestation,

had been had brought with me that evening, and which seemed to give much

but

still

singing a Russian song that

pleasure to

audience.

incident.

After the last chord of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A

VISIT TO EUROPE,

the accompaniment had died away, said,

Listen

277

Mme.

Blavatsky

and held up her hand, and we last full chord, composed of five

heard the

distinctly

notes, repeated in our midst. "

means

have, of course, not the slightest

for

giving any kind of explanation, but the facts were

such as

have

stated.

(Signed)

The

Olga Novikoff,

nee Kireef."

phenomena " wrought during

this period,

however, were not of an important character, and are scarcely worth recording after those that

have been

already described

it is

but for obvious reasons

;

worth

while to include mention of one incident which, though quite disconnected from is

the

all

more worth

Mme.

Blavatsky's influence,

notice on that account, as

throwing light upon the assurance she constantly

many

gives that a great

worked

of the wonders

her presence are really performed by the agency of

her

Masters."

Dr Hubbe

Schleiden,

who

writes

became president of the branch the Theosophical Society which was formed in

the following letter, of

Germany.

Mme.

says, addressing

Blavatsky:

" Elberfeld, August 1884.

you

Dear Madam, the

particular

received

K. H. "

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; You requested

first

circumstances

communication

have much pleasure

On the morning of the

first

to state to

under which from

doing

of this

Mahatma

so.

month Colonel

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

278

were travelling by an express train from here to Dresden. A few days before I had written a letter to the Mahatmas, which Colonel Olcott and

Olcott had addressed and enclosed to you, which,

however, as

now

hear, never reached you, but

taken by the Masters while the post

Olcott

officials.

thinking of this

fact that since

was

joy,

was not

but was relating to Colonel life,

expressing also the

sixth or seventh year

known peace nor

hands of

in the

the time mentioned

letter,

some events

was

had never

and asking Colonel Olcott's

opinion on the meaning of

some

striking hardships

have gone through. " In this conversation

we were

interrupted by the

When I demanding our tickets. moved forward and raised' myself partly from the seat, in order to hand over the tickets, Colonel Olcott

railway guard

noticed something white lying behind that side of

he was

me which was

sitting.

appeared there, envelope,

When

which

opposite to the one where

took up that which had

turned out

it I

found a

unmistakable

be a Tibetan

letter

K. H., written with blue pencil

and

back on

handwriting.

from Mahatma his

well-known there

were

several other persons unacquainted with us in the

compartment,

suppose the Master chose

for depositing the letter near least likely to attract the

me where

unwelcome

this place

was the

attention and

curiosity of outsiders. "

The envelope was

plainly addressed to me,

and

A VISIT TO EUROPE. the communication

279

contained in the letter was a

consoling reflection on the opinion which

The Mahatma

life.

sum

five

explained that such events

and the mental misery attached to the ordinary

had

on the dreary events of

or ten minutes ago given

past

life,

were beyond

but that hardships of

all

kinds would be the lot of one striving for higher

his opinion that

work

thropic

"In

for the

my first-mentioned was given me that I was to

had put

and an assurance

receive assistance

good of the world.

were also answered some of the

this letter

need of

very kindly expressed

had already achieved some philan-

questions which letter,

development.

spiritual

and advice when

should be in

it.

dare say

would be unnecessary

for

me to

ask

you to inform the Mahatma of the devoted thankfulness which

shown

feel

towards him for the great kindness

me, for the Master

ments without

will

know

senti-

forming them into more or

less

inadequate words. "

am, dear Madam, (Signed)

due "

respect, yours faithfully,

Dr Hubbe Schleiden.

"To Mme. Blavatsky, Elberfeld."

Elberfeld,

Mr and Mrs

Mme.

Blavatsky was the guest of

Gebhard, and one of their sons,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Rudolph Gebhard, writes as follows " I have always taken a great interest in conjuring When in London, I had an opportunity of tricks. :

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

28o

from Professor Field, a most skilful sleight-of-hand conjuror, who very soon made me From that time forward quite proficient in his art.

takingr lessons

have given performances wherever our renowned

all

exchanged

watching them,

was bound order to

This of course made

famous mediumistic

feats.

;

observation.

them occurred

during the stay

feld,

good time a pretty close and I feel giving here an opinion on the phenomena

which came under

Two

observer, as far as tricks are concerned

make

in all the different lines of card

coin conjuring, or the

justified in

whom

with

wizards,'

favourite sleight in which he excels,

myself perfect

(as

every conjuror has some

tricks.

be very careful

went

and made the acquaintance of

a77tateur, of course),

nearly

in it

our house in Elberof

Mme.

Blavatsky,

Colonel Olcott, and a small party of friends and TheosoiDhists. " to

The

one was a

first

father,

letter

from Mahatma K. H.

and took place one evening

the

presence of a number of witnesses, partly members of our Society, and of Major-General D. O. of the U.S.

were

Army.

sitting in the

topics,

was about nine

p.m.

drawing-room discussing

when Mme.

Howard,

different

Blavatsky's attention was sud-

denly attracted by something unusual taking place in

the room.

After a while she said that she

the presence of the haps, the intention

felt

That they had, perof doing something for us, and '

Masters.'

A VISIT TO EUROPE. SO she asked us to think of

Then

occur.

little

what we should

and

thing,

unanimously resolved that a addressed to

like to

discussion took place as to

what would be the best for,

father,

finally

was

should be asked

letter

G. Gebhard, on a

subject on which he should mentally decide himself.

Now my

time being, great

father had, at the

anxiety about a son in America,

elder brother,

and was very eager to get advice from the Master concerning him.

Meanwhile, Mme.

recent illness,

was

B.,

resting

who, on account of her

on a

sofa,

and had been

looking around the room, suddenly exclaimed that there

was something going on with a large oil paintsame room, she

ing hanging over the piano in the

having seen tion

like a ray of light

of the picture.

ately corroborated

mother also

;

This statement was immedi-

by Mrs

see,

picture,

had also ob-

Mme.

B. then required

and say what was going

on,

Mrs H when Mrs

saw something forming over but could not distinctly make out what

said that she

the picture, it

and then by

the mirror, like a faint light going towards

the painting. to

who, sitting opposite a looking-glass

and turning her back to the served

shooting in the direc-

was.

Everybody's attention was now fixed in the direction of the wall high above and under the ceil"

ing,

where so many saw bright

confess, that for

part, not

lights.

But,

must

being clairvoyant,

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

282

could neither see lights, nor any other thing except

what

had always seen on that

Madame

that there

felt

was something going

on,

had kept our seats

absolutely sure

got up (we

and climbing on

this while)

all

And when

wall.

now

Blavatsky said she

the piano lifted the picture right off the wall, but

not off the hook, shook

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; nothing

well

The room was

and looked behind

well

dropped

nothing felt

the

but

;

saying

frame,

Madame

up,

lit

was not an inch of the picture which

and there

could not see.

that

Blavatsky told

could

see

that she

must be something, so on

sure that there

climbed once more and tried again.

The

was a large oil painting, suspended from the wall by a hook and a rope, which made it hang over at the top, so that when "

picture in question

the lower part of the frame was lifted off the wall, there was a space of fully six inches between the wall and the back of the picture, the latter being vir-

There being a wall

tually entirely off the wall.

gas-

bracket fixed on each side of the painting, the space

between the

and the wall was well

latter

But the second time, no better than the able to detect anything, though It

was

order to

make

along the frame,

inches thick, up and picture drop back,

looked very

perfectly sure that

on the piano, and passed carefully

down

lit

first,

hand

which

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;nothing.

up.

was

close.

got up

twice very

about three Letting the

then turned round to

Madame

Blavatsky to ask her what was to be done further.

A VISIT TO EUROPE. when she exclaimed I

' :

283

see the letter

there

;

it is

turned quickly back to the picture, and saw at

moment

that

piano.

a letter dropping- from behind

picked

up.

was addressed

on the

Herrn

Consul G. Gebhard,' and contained the information he had just asked perplexed the "

for.

face, for

must have made rather a

the

company laughed merrily

family juggler.'

Now

for

this is

picture but myself closely,

thing

and as

;

was

examine

careful to

was searching

not have

could

a most completely demon-

Nobody had handled

phenomenon.

strated

some other

object

have paid any attention to a letter

was

fully four

by two

;

the

very

such a

for a letter,

escaped

attention,

had been

as then

might not

perhaps would have been the case looking for

slip

of paper.

inches, so

The

by no means

a small object.

was the company that had decided upon Mr G. Gebhard as the person who should be the recipient of a letter and as I knew what was "

Moreover,

;

weighing on myself

father's

mind

who had suggested

at the time,

was

that he should ask for an

answer on that special object, when he said he would. "

Let us consider

this

phenomenon from a

sleight-

of-hand point of view. "

Suppose several

letters

had been prepared before-

addressed to different persons, treating of Is it possible to get a letter to an different subjects. hand,

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

284

appointed place by a sleight-of-hand trick possible

;

attention

only depends what place

drawn beforehand

it is,

Quite

and

our

to such a place or not.

get that letter behind that picture would have

been very

but might have been managed

difficult,

moment been

our attention had for a

directed to

another place, the letter being thrown behind the

What

picture in the meantime.

sleight-of-hand

else but the execution of a

or less

swift,

observed.

draw your attention

for a short while

to a certain spot, say for instance

right

served

as to

;

make

then free to

hand theory,

certain

hand,

entirely erroneous.

You

cannot

so quickly that it,

the only thing

either to conceal the necessary

movements unob-

the eye would not follow and detect

you can do

left

the quickness of the eye deceives the

movement with your hand

movement more a moment when you are not

Nothing

move-

ment by another one which has nothing to do with what you are about, or to. draw the attention of the looker-on to another point, and then quickly do what is

required. "

Now,

drawn

in this instance all

to the picture, before ever the question

put as to what there

all

;

throw a

for

anyone

for the

letter

would have been impossible letter

without being observed.

having been concealed behind the

picture beforehand, this it

was

should like to have, and was kept

the while

gether,

our attention had been

out of the question alto-

could not have escaped

attention while

A VISIT TO EUROPE.

285

repeatedly searched for

it. Suppose the letter had been placed on the top of the frame, and my hand had disturbed it passing along without my knowing

it,

this

would have caused the

instantly, whereas, it

put

together,

worked "

Taking

an appearance.

seems to

this

all

circumstances

an impossibility to have

phenomenon by a

The day

drop down

letter to

about thirty seconds passed before

trick.

had occurred,

after this

went

into

Madame's room about noon but seeing that she was engaged I retired to the drawing-room, where we had been sitting the night before, and just then ;

the idea struck to

make

to try that picture again, in order

perfectly sure that the letter could not

been concealed somewhere behind detected.

was alone

in the

it,

without being

myself that a

fully satisfied

attention,

the picture.

where

had

room, and during

examination of the painting nobody entered

escaped

have

letter could

;

not have

been concealed behind

then went back to Madame's room,

engaged with the same In the evening we were again sitting

found her

woman.

still

together. " '

The Masters watched you

to-day,

did try to find out

and were

How

highly amused with your experiments. that letter could not

you

have been

concealed behind the picture.' "

was

Now

in the

am room

secondly, that

positively certain, at the time

had

told

first,

that

nobody

tried the picture;

no one

in the

house of

and

— MADAME BLAVATSKY.

286 experiment.

Madame

It is

have

could

impossible for

except through her clairvoyance. " "

Elberfeld

was

recorded

later,

when a

cast

report

on a great many phenomena

connection with

memoir,

this

Mme.

Gebhard's

was suggested,

story, of

was issued

Research, in which

the most part not mentioned

for

Rudolph Gebhard.

the Society for Psychical

discredit

movements,

(Cologne), September, 1884.''

More than a year by

found out

how

to explain

Blavatsky, but

in the in

course of

regard to

which the Society had received

somewhat Mr Gebhard did not seem

briefer account than that given above,

that

have contemplated

the possibility of a confederate having been present,

who might have thrown observed to

— not

an incident occurring

persons

all

the letter without being

a very forcible suggestion in regard

watching for

in the its

presence of several

occurrence, and in a

room with only members of the family and intimate guests present. However, on that subject, Mr Gebhard writes to me under date January i8th, private

1886, as follows

" Elberfeld, \%th January 1886.

kind

dear

letter,

Sinnett,

— Many thanks

with enclosures, which

day morning.

for

your

received yester-

Considering the very weak

way

the

met my letter to Hodgson regardphenomenon in Elberfeld, I think it

S.P.R. report has ing the letter

A VISIT TO EUROPE. may be some

287

use to point out that (i) an account of

by me a very few days after the occurrence, a copy of which I found this morning (2) in this first account I have very seri-

phenomenon was

the

written

;

ously considered the possibiUty of the letter having

been thrown by a confederate, but having,

shown

conclusively question,

The two report

reports absolutely tally in the main points,

the second as 8

the letter

the right size, as

the

first

x 2^

The second

questions which

think, to

5 in.

in.

(the latter

report

detailed than the

asked by people to

and which

instance as 4

have taken exact rneasure of

to-day).

letter

somewhat more as

first

Secondly, the size of

in.

given in the

second report as

in the

in.,

the

give the space between picture and wall as

in.,

in later reports.

only two differences being that

the

never came back to

think,

was out of the

that such a thing

whom

wanted

first

even

one, owing,

was repeatedly

related the incident,

guard against from the

outset. " I

made

and

trial

before.

this

morning rather a curious discovery,

only sorry that

did not

Taking the

on the piano, and threw

make

identical letter, it

same got up

the I

behind the picture, but

the letter stuck between the picture

showed me

and the

that the

wall,

picture,

and repeated trials being very heavy, rests with the bottom part so closely to the wall that not even a letter can fall between

and the

wall.

lifted

up the picture

288

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

several times

and

effect

let

back again, but the

fall

was always the same.

at a loss to explain, because, to

am more than ever my best knowledge,

the letter fluttered from behind the picture on the piano."

The

Mme.

close of

Blavatsky's European visit

was overshadowed by a disagreeable incident which gave

rise to

widely ramifying results.

A magazine missionaries

Madras

that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an organ of the Christian

place

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

Christiait

Magazine by name, published a

series

purporting to have been written by

Mme.

College

of letters

Blavatsky

Mme. Coulomb, who had lived with her some years, first at Bombay and then at Madras. Mme. Coulomb and her husband formerly kept a hotel at Cairo, where Mme. Blavatsky had to a certain

in India for

made

their acquaintance, to her sorrow, in the days

of her abortive Sociele Spirite.

the

Coulombs turned up

Years afterwards,

in India in great straits,

and

were hospitably sheltered by Mme. Blavatsky at Bombay. They eventually settled down as members of her household,

house-keeping

Mme. Coulomb

in return for her

and her husband being supposed looking out for work.

looking after the

board and lodging, for a

long time to be

The arrangement was

gether of a very informal kind, but longer than

many such arrangements

begin with on a more permanent basis.

alto-

continued

established to

In progress

of time, however, the kindly feelings on both sides,

out of which

may be supposed

the arrangement

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A VISIT TO EUROPE. took

its

rise,

gave

place,

289

on Mme. Coulomb's part

at all events, to sentiments of a

very different

The whole

after

matter but for

its

would be too ignominious

now going

even

treated, if at

all,

to discuss, but without

which could only be

into details,

at a length altogether dispropor-

tionate to their importance,

Mme. Coulomb

sort.

consequences

may be

explained that

supplied the editor of the magazine

with a series of letters apparently from

vatsky to herself, some of which,

Mme.

Bla-

genuine, would

have shown her to have employed Mme. Coulomb

and her husband as confederates of fraudulent

When received

in a

long succession

phenomena.

the mag-azine containing the letters was in

Europe,

Mme.

Blavatsky wrote

following letter on the subject to the

appeared on October the 9th Sir,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;With reference

Times.

the It

to the alleged exposure at

Madras of a

dishonourable conspiracy between myself and two persons of the

name

of Coulombs to deceive the public with occult phenomena,

have to say that the letters purporting to have been written by me are certainly not mine. Sentences here and there I recognise, taken from old notes of mine on different matters, but they are I

mingled with interpolations that entirely pervert their meaning. With these exceptions the whole of the letters are a fabrication. The fabricators must have been grossly ignorant of Indian since they make me speak of a " Maharajah of Lahore," when every Indian schoolboy knows that no such person exists. With regard to the suggestion that I attempted to promote " the financial prosperity" of the Theosophical Society by means

affairs,

of occult phenomena, I say that I have never at any time received, or attempted to obtain, from any person any money either for I defy anyone to myself or for the Society by any such means.

— MADAME BLAVATSKY.

290

Such money as I have the contrary. received has been earned by hterary work of my own, and these earnings, and what remained of my inherited property when I

come forward and prove

went to India, have been devoted to the Theosophical Society. I am a poorer woman to-day than I was when, with others, I

founded the Society.

—Your obedient Servant,

H. 77

Blavatsky.

Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill, W., October

The same paper a letter from

on the same date

also contained

St George Lane

Fox

—

In the Times of September 20 and September 29 you Sir, pubUsh telegrams from your Calcutta correspondent referring to As I have just returned from India, the Theosophical Society. and am a member of the board of control appointed to manage the affairs of the Society during the absence from India of Colonel

Olcott and

Madame

Blavatsky,

hope you

will

allow

through

your columns to add a few words to the news you publish. First, then, these Coulombs, who, in conjunction with certain

now

missionaries, are

trying

throw discredit on the Theo-

sophical Society, were employed at the Society's headquarters at

Adyar

as housekeepers,

and the board of

control, finding that

money They had meanand sliding panels

they were thoroughly unprincipled, always trying to extort

from members of the Society, discharged them. while been constructing

all sorts

of trap-doors

rooms of Madame Blavatsky, who had very indiscreetly given over these rooms to their charge. As to the letters purporting to have been written by Madame Blavatsky, which have recently been published in an Indian " Christian " paper, I,

in the private

common

with

all

who

are acquainted with the circumstances of

the case, have no doubt whatever that, whoever wrote them, they are not written by

Madame

importance to

new

this

Blavatsky.

scandal, as I

I myself attach very little

do not beheve that the

true

Theosophic cause suffers in the slightest degree. The Theosophical movement is now well launched, and must go ahead, in spite of obstacles. Already hundreds, if not thousands, have been led through it to perceive that, for scientific and not merely sentimental reasons, purity of life is advisable,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 1

A VISIT TO EUROPE. and

that honesty of purpose

for true

human

and

unselfish activity are necessary

progress and the attainment of real happiness.

Your obedient Servant, St G. Lane Fox, F.T.S. London,

October

good deal of anxiety was nevertheless felt among some persons who had been greatly interested in the reports of

ments

genuine,

Mme. Blavatsky's occult achievehow far the letters might be

India, as to

and,

finally,

the

Society for

Psychical

Research decided to send out to Madras one of their

own members

willing to undertake the investigation

on the spot of

all

letters referred.

man

in question,

1884,

the transactions

which the

Richard Hodgson, the gentle-

went out

and stayed there

his return

till

India in

November

the following April.

he gave his Society a report that was

altogether unfavourable to

Mme.

Blavatsky, and the

committee of the Society appointed to enquire into the character of the

phenomena

connected with the

Theosophical Society" reported in their turn to a

meeting of the Society held on the 24th of June, that the letters were genuine in the opinion of experts,* and that they sufficed to prove that

been engaged

in a

Mme.

Blavatsky " has

long continued combination with

other persons to produce by ordinary means a series of apparent marvels for the support of the Theosophical

movement."

Meanwhile India.

Mme.

Blavatsky had

returned

the arrival at Madras of the steamer in * See Appendix.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MADAME BLAVATSKY.

292

which she came a delegation of native students of

Madras colleges went on board to welcome her. The meaning of the demonstration turned upon the fact that the current charges against her had originated in the letters alleged to be written by her, and the

published in a magazine professedly identified with

one of the

Conducted

colleges.

to a public

hall

where a large number of natives were assembled, the

student

address

read

delegates

her

In according to you

this

following

our heartiest of welcomes on your

return from the intellectual campaigns which fully

the

waged

in the West,

feeble expression to the

are conscious

you have so success-

are giving but a

"debt immense of endless gratitude"

which India lies under to you. You have dedicated your life

to the disinterested services of

disseminating the truths of Occult Philosophy. mysteries of our hoary Religion

Upon

the sacred

and Philosophies you have thrown

light by sending into the world that marvellous production of yours, the " Isis Unveiled." By your exposition

such a flood of

has our beloved Colonel been induced to undertake that gigantic labour of love

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the vivifying on the

altars of

Aryavarta the dying

flames of religion and spirituality.

While

one quarter of the globe you had been with

all

your

heart and soul addressing yourself to the work of propagating eternal Truth, your enemies dustrious. in

this side

have been equally

in-

allude to the recent scandalous events at Madras,

which an expelled domestic of yours has been made a conpaw of. While looking upon such futilities with the

venient cat's

indignant scorn which they certainly deserve, we beg to assure you and admiration, earned by the loftiness of your

that our affection

your aspirations and the sacrifices you have made, have become too deeply rooted to be shaken by the rude blasts of spite, spleen, and slander, which, however, are no uncommon occurrences in the history of Theosophy. That the revered Masters whose hearts are overflowing with soul, the nobility of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A VISIT TO EUROPE.

293

Humanity will continue as ever to help you and our esteemed Colonel in the discovery of Truth and the dissemination of the same, is the earnest prayer of, Dear and Revered Madame, your affectionate Servants,

love for

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Students of the Colleges of Madras.

The

address was signed by more than

three

hundred students.

During a great part of the time spent by Hodgson at Madras, Mme. Blavatsky lay on a

Mr sick

bed, dying as her friends believed, and as she herself

supposed, her restoration to comparative health

in the

end constituting

surprising " of her this

life.

period I

compelled to write to you once more. reputation

sacrifice of,

live

not

care

leave

attacked as

and

for the

selves.

more I,

few months

have made a I

what becomes of me.

little

the

and honour

reputation is

have yet to

But

poor Olcott

can-

by Hume and Mr Hodgson, who

have become suddenly fraud

one of the not least

My own

in itself

phenomena " connected with the story She wrote to me towards the close of

mad

with their hypotheses of

phenomenal than phenomena them-

with a thousand other Theosophists, protest

manner and way the investigations are He examines only our carried on by Mr Hodgson. and robbers like thieves enemies greatest and being shown by him some letters received by him, as he assures Hodgson, seven years ago from America, Hodgson copies some paragraphs against the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MADAME BLAVATSKY.

294

from them that he behaves the most damaging, and builds on that the theory of .

know how

Vote,

make them seemed I

them.

from

yet,

Hindus

power

government, bad as

trustworthy Hindu

ever breathed a disloyal word to

because of a certain paper stolen

and that the missionaries have

to him, a

paper partially or wholly written

Mr Hodgson

in cipher,

all

a respectable,

say that

And me by

shown

did

spy.

was the best they could ever have.

to them,

will

realise that this

defy to find

who

being a Russian

tried to conciliate the

How

with the Enghsh.

has publicly proclaimed

a Russian spy."

Recurring to "

this

They (meaning

sent

further on, she says

the missionaries) took

Police Commissioner, it,

little

to the

had the best experts examine moved heaven

to Calcutta for five months,

and earth to

find out

what the cipher meant, and

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

now gave it up in despair. It MSS. I am perfectly confident sheets of

my book,

Zenzar

character of

a its

one of

my Zenzar

for

one of the

it,

with numbered pages,

mystic language,

own, used by the

missing."

with a peculiar initiated occultists

of Tibet.

Mme. Blavatsky remained for a time at a hotel near Naples, when she reached Europe on her return after her illness,

and thence wrote

wife on the 21st of June,

reply to a letter of

sympathy. "

The

sight of your familiar handwriting

was a

A VISIT TO EUROPE.

295

welcome one indeed, and the contents of your letter still more so. No. ... I never thought that yoti I

now accused of,

neither you nor any one of those

who

have Masters

could have believed that

played the tricks

their hearts, not

Nevertheless here

their brains.

am, and stand accused without

any means to prove the contrary, of the most dirty villainous deceptions ever practised

What

medium.

can

by a half-starved

and what

do,

shall

Useless to either write to persuade, or try to argue with people

who

are

bound

heart

thing

burnt to the to found

suffered that at

every "

new

to believe

Let

change their opinions.

last

guilty, to

fuel in

can suffer no more.

have so

simply laugh

accusation.

Notwithstanding the experts,' you say.

Coulombs'

Henceforth, no-

atom.

but cold ashes.

they must be famous those experts

bow

The

be.

letters genuine.

who found

all

The whole world may

before their decision and acuteness, but there

one person at least

in this

the

wide world

whom

they

can never convince that those stupid letters were written

by me, and

"Now facts.

it is

want you to know^these have never been allowed to see

look here, and

one single

this

day

P. Blavatsky.

line of those letters.

Why

Hodgson come and show me one .

Pray

tell

me,

is it

could not

them

at least

the legal thing in England to

accuse publicly even a street sweeper in his absence

without giving him the chance of saying one single

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

296

word in his defence without letting him know even of what he is precisely accused, and who it is who ;

and

forward

brought

chief

accuses

him,

evidence

do not know the first word of Hodgson came to Adyar, was received as examined and cross-examined all whom he

all this.

a friend,

wanted

him

all

For

the boys (the Hindus) at

;

the information he needed.

Adyar gave he now finds

discrepancies and contradictions in their statements, it

only shows that, feeling as they

their sight) pure tomfoolery to

(in

nomena

of the

Masters,

that

all did,

was

doubt the phe-

they had not

prepared

may

themselves for the scientific cross-examination,

have forgotten many of the circumstances.

Here I am. Where I shall go next, I know no more than the man in the moon. Why they should want to keep me still in life, is something too strange for me to comprehend but their ways are, and What good always have been, incomprehensible. "

;

now

Doubted and suspected except a few, would I not do

for the cause

by the whole creation more good to the T. S. by dying than by living ?" Two months later she moved on from Italy to a quiet little town in Germany, where I visited her last

autumn

(1885).

In the

Research Society had held

interim

its

the Psychic

meetings, at which

the committee " appointed to investigate

phenomena

connected with the Theosophical Society," had

re-

ported that the Coulomb letters were really written

by Mme. Blavatsky,

that the " shrine " at

Adyar was

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

A VISIT TO EUROPE.

297

elaborately designed to subserve treachery and false manifestations,

power

occult

and that the marvels related of the of

the

Mahatmas were

deliberate

deceptions carried out by and at the instigation of

Mme.

In August she wrote to

Blavatsky.

"... sentment

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Trust and friendship, or distrust and

re-

neither friends nor foes will ever realise

the whole truth

;

so what's the use

The

only

Coulomb-Patterson-Hodgson

between

difference

now and those previous to the Adyar scandal is this Then the newspapers only hinted, now they affirm. Then they were restricted howcharges

ever feebly, by fear of law and a sense of decency

now they have become and

and have

fearless,

Look

every manner of decency.

Sidgwick.

;

lost all

Prof

evidently a gentleman and an

man by nature, Englishmen are. And now

honourable

minded, as most

fair

me, can any out-

tell

sider (the opinion of the Fathers of S. P. R.

course valueless) presume to say that his printed opinion of

either

fair, legal,

picking the pockets of else,

If,

the charging with which,

punishable by law,

or honest

were charged with victims, or of something

instead of bogus phenomena,

when unproved,

not wholly demonstrated, would

Prof Sidgwick, you think, have a leg to stand upon in

a court of justice

Assuredly

not.

Then what

right has he to speak publicly (and have his opinion

fraud,

printed)

tricks ?

Shall you maintain that

deceptions,

dishonesty,

it is

fair

and

of him, or

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

298

honest, or even legal, to take advantage of his exceptional position

and the nature of the question

involved to slander me,

to charge

or, if

you

prefer,

shall say,

my name

thus and dishonour

on such

wretched evidence as they have through Hodgson ,

Can you blame,

after

and other

this

Russian Theosophists for saying that the chief motor

of their wrath against I

know ,

made

and

a Russian

but they, the Russians, like

so,

Odessa

the

cannot

Theosophists,

to see the cause of such a glaring injustice in

any other "

not

that

light.

Please read

intention Olcott.

imputing

about their disclaiming any wilful

deception

poor

Following this there comes the question of

envelopes in which the Mahatma's writing was found

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;which

might have been previously opened by

or others.

Adyar when in all

Letters from the Masters received at

Europe might have been cases arranged by Damodar. The disappearI

was

ance of the Vega packet

can be easily accounted

for by the fact of a venetianed door near Babula's room a door, by the bye, which was hermetically '

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

covered and nailed over (walls and door) with large carpet,

you remember.

But we

shall sup-

pose that the Vega packet was made to evaporate fraudulently

Bombay.

Hodgson, Myers

How

then

Co. account for

its

shall

immediate

instantaneous reappearance at Howrah, Calcutta, in the presence of

Mrs and Colonel Gordon and

of our

A VISIT TO EUROPE.

so obviously immacu-

Colonel,

late that

the

public

One thing Is Gordon or Mrs Gordon

the said Colonel

Dons

of S. P. R. felt

bound

they, the

gods of

selves.

Surely, as

S. P. R.,

fools of

no sane

says,

either

confederate, or

making

are

him

or Colonel Olcott

was, one of them, at that time

to offer

obvious

excuses.

Colonel

299

them-

man

with

sound reasoning, acquainted with the circumstances

Vega case, or the broken plaster portrait case, or Hubbe Schleiden's letter, received on the German railway while I was in London, and so many other cases, shall ever dare to write himself down such of the

an ass as to say that while

and

my phenomena

all

a full-blown fraud, the Colonel

tricks, that

be charged simply with

observation and

and inaccuracy

credulity

inference.'

some

scornful

language concerning the intelligence of the

S. P. R.

In a tone of bitter mockery, after

inquirers, she " to

goes on to leave her "

assume that

Isis

Unveiled,' and

articles in the Theosophist, as

Mahatmas, whether Sanscrit,

scientific friends

every

the best

all

letter

from both

French,

English,

Telegu,

Hindi were written by Mme. H.

She is willing to have it believed, that more than twenty years she has bamboozled the most intellectual men of the century In Russia, America, India, and especially in England. Why, genuine phenomena, when the author herself of the Blavatsky.

for

1000 bogus manifestations on world, to

all

record

such a living incarnated that

and much more.

before

phenomenon

the as

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

300

Why

should

complain

Has

not Master

Buddha, who enjoins us not to all

Karma, which

sin

and misery, or

the sinner or the sufferer.

any way better

whose names appear

to relieve

greater or

Germain and

and so many other martyrs in

the Encyclopaedia of the

19th century over the meritorious

and impostors

or to face

;

fails

than were St

Paracelsus,

Cagliostro,

should turn

him who turns away

sure to punish

from the sight of

to feed even

fail

fear lest

round and bite the hand that feeds

Lord

choice to either follow the dictates of

siarving serpent, scorning

left

It shall

be the

title

of charlatans

Karma

of the blind

and wicked judges, not mine. "

can do more good by remaining in the

shadow, than by becoming prominent once more the

movement.

and

write, write, write,

Let

hide in

and die now

in relative peace.

still

work

not allow

make a

wants

places,

and teach whoever wants

Since Master forced

learn.

unknown

for the

S.,

live

evident

since

who had

does

[men-

contract with

tioning a foreign publisher,

to live, let It is

her

offered

very favourable pecuniary terms] to write exclusively for his journal

and paper.

He would

not permit

to sign such a contract last year in Paris

posed, and does not sanction

when

now, for he says

time shall have to be occupied otherwise. cruel

wicked

round.

injustice that has

pro-

Ah the me all

been done to

Fancy the horrid calumny of the

C. C.

A VISIT TO EUROPE. {Christian College Magazine\, I

sought to defraud

30I

whose statement

that

Jacob Sassoon of Rs. 10,000

Poona business has been allowed to eo uncontradicted even by and who know that

as well as they are sure of their

any

this special charge, at

own

rate, is the

existence that

most abomin-

able lying calumny.

"Who worked

knows

of the public

for

and given

life

over ten years,

Society for

that

having

after

to the progress of the

have been forced to

leave India a beggar, depending on the bounty of

(my own journal, founded and created

the Theosophist

my own money)

with

for

daily support.

made

out to be a mercenary impostor, a fraud for the sake

money, when thousands of

Russian

for five years

my own money

earned

have been given away, when

articles

have abandoned the price of "Isis" and

the income of the Theosophist to support the Society. .

Pardon

myself to be so

for saying all this

selfish,

the vile calumny, and sophists in

The

but

and showing

a direct answer to

but right that the Theo-

London should know

it."

assurances mentioned above that her time

would be

" otherwise

occupied

retreat than in writing stories

and

her

German

social articles for

Russian magazines has been very fully vindicated.

Within the

months of 1885 she began to inspiration," or whatever it may

last three

receive the occult "

be called by people more or

less

circumstances of her higher

acquainted with the

life,

required for the

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

302

The

production of the long-promised book on

This book was foreshadowed by

Secret Doctrine."

notices in the Theosophist as far back as the begin-

ning of February 1884.

work

the

should

and important

and commentaries in

the

was then proposed

new

" ;

additions,

Isis

and copious notes

and Mme. Blavatsky's intention

issued in monthly parts, beginning in or,

that '

of the matter,

instance had been that

first

version

new arrangement

Unveiled,' with a large

It "

should be

March

1884,

provided so early a date could not be managed,

Mme.

in June.

Blavatsky's visit to Europe, how-

ever, in the spring of that year interfered with the

undertaking, and in Europe the multifarious claims

made on her time stood in the summer of 1884, exploded, and, with

all its

operated to render

fatally in its

the

way.

"Coulomb

Then, scandal"

exasperating consequences,

impossible for her to begin a

task claiming steady and prolonged devotion, concentration of purpose, and something like tranquillity

of mind.

The

Secret

Doctrine

was

still

untouched

September 1885, when my wife and I saw her in Germany. We found her settled in an economical way, but in comfort and quietude, cheered just then by the companionship of her aunt, Mme. Fadeef, to she is warmly attached. She was naturally

whom

seething with

indignation at

the wrongs she had

suffered at the hands of the S. P. R. committee,

though the cruel and calumnious report

even

—

— A VISIT TO EUROPE.

303

Hodgson, on which they professed to have based their conclusions, had not been finally perfected.

the whole, however, she seemed in better health

and

than

spirits

symptoms "

Secret Doctrine

month or so

October

expected, and

indicated

that

might shortly be set on after our return to

the course of which she wrote

" I

very busy on

New York

which

us.

the

foot.

London

Blavatsky, in

Secret

D.'

Unveiled' was written]

Isis

The

thing

[meaning the circumstances under

only far clearer and better. vindicate

Mme.

received a note from

some premonitory

preparation

the

Such

that

all

repeated it

shall

panoramas, scenes,

pictures,

antediluvian dramas, with

begin to think

Never saw or

heard better."

Early

December

received a letter from the

Countess Wachtmeister, then staying on a

Mme.

The Countess

Blavatsky.

though bearing a foreign

title,

visit

with

an English lady,

herself gifted with clair-

voyant faculties of a high order,

lifting

her entirely

out of the reach of the clumsy scraps of materialistic

evidence with which the denser-minded enemies of the Theosophic cause were so busily assailing her trusted '

Secret

and esteemed Doctrine

friend.

contains

She wrote

—

The

a translation of

[certain occult writings of which the world at large

knows

nothing].

but a faint idea of

The its

public at present will have

real

meaning, but as years

roll

will penetrate deeper into the hearts of men."

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

304

And

again, a fortnight later, she wrote

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

" I

consider

a great privilege to be allowed to witness the

marvellous

way

few days

which

this

some

later

mischievous person sent

Hodgson's

book

being written."

indiscreet or wantonly

Mme. Blavatsky

famous,

or,

a copy

Theosophists

think, infamous, report, published in the " Proceed-

ings

Research

Psychical

the

Countess wrote

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

The

Society."

have had a

terrible day,

name for Mme. Blavatsky] wanted to start off to London at once. I have kept her as quiet as I could, and now she has

and the

[using

a familiar

relieved her feelings in the enclosed letter."

For a whole

fortnight the tumult of

Mme.

Bla-

vatsky's emotions rendered any further progress with

her work impossible. renders her in of her

own

all

case,

Her

volcanic temperament

emergencies a very bad exponent

whatever that

may be. The

letters,

memoranda, and protests on which she wasted her energies during this miserable fortnight were few, if

any, of a kind that

would have helped a cold and

unsympathetic public to understand the truth of things,

and

here.

it is

not worth while to resuscitate them

induced her to tone

down one

a presentable shape for insertion issued in the latter part of January,

in a

and

protest into

pamphlet

for the rest,

few but her most intimate friends would correctly appreciate their fire and fury. Her language, when she

is in fits

of excitement, would lead a stranger to

suppose her thirsting for revenge, beside herself

A VISIT TO EUROPE.

305

with passion, ready to exact savage vengeance on her enemies if she had the power. It is only those

who know

her as intimately as half-a-dozen of her

closest friends

may, who are quite aware through

this effervescence of feeling that if

really put

suddenly

them would

Mr ently

her enemies were

her power, her rage against

collapse like a broken soap bubble.

Hodgson's report was not actually published having in the interim appar-

—

December 1885

till

all

undergone additions and amendments.

This

delay and subsequent preparation of the document

on which the committee of

inquiry based

their

was deeply resented by Mme. Blavatsky's as showing a disposition to make out a case

decision friends

When

against her.

200 pages of small its

at last

print,

appeared,

and a minute

occupied

criticism of

contents would naturally require a considerably

greater space.

attempt that here, therefore,

The

out of the question.

report consists mainly of

circumstantial evidence calculated to throw suspicion

Mr Hodgson

on the phenomena investigate,

endeavoured to

and of a very elaborate comparison of designed to show that

various

handwritings

letters

had received in India during

ance with believe

Mme.

still)

Blavatsky

from

two

—as

the

this

volume as

authority over

the Masters

Mme.

Blavatsky

by her and one other person u

the

acquaint-

believed

(and

Mahatmas " or

secluded proficients of occult science ''

spoken of

exercising spiritual

—were in

really written

the ordinary

way

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

306 and passed I

shall

off

for

what

supposed them.*

most conveniently indicate the character of

the report by quoting the introductory passages of

a pamphlet f its

in reply that

issued very soon after

appearance.

The Report which has been addressed by Mr R. Hodgson to the Committee of the Psychical Research Society, " appointed to investigate is

phenomena connected with the Theosophical Society," first time in the December number of the

published for the

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Proceedings of that Society, six months after the meetings were held at which the Committee concerned announced its general adhesion to the conclusions Mr Hodgson had reached. In a letter

addressed to Light on the 12th of October, I protested by the Psychical Research Society

against the action thus taken

in publicly stigmatising Mme. Blavatsky as having been guilty of " a long-continued combination with other persons to produce,

by ordinary means, a series of apparent marvels for the support of the Theosophic movement," while holding back the documentary evidence on the strength of which their opinion had been formed. In a note to the present Report (page 276) " I have

now

cerned with the experiences of tion with

Mme.

Mr Hodgson

says

hands numerous documents which are con-

Mr Hume and

others in connec-

Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society.

These

documents, including the K. H. MSS. above referred to, did not reach me till August, and my examination of them, particularly of the K. H. MSS., has involved a considerable delay in the production of this Report.'' In other words, Mr Hodgson has employed the time during which his Report has been improperly

withheld in endeavouring to

render

amend and

strengthen

so as to

better able to bear out the committee's hasty endorse-

ment of the conclusions he reached before he obtained the evidence he

But even

now if

puts forward.

the committee had been in possession

* See Appendix. t The "Occult World Psychical Research

Garden.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which

Phenomena," and the Society for George Redway, 15 York Street, Covent

A VISIT TO EUROPE. was not

— of the Report

now

stands,

its

307

action in promulgat-

announced on the 24th of June, would have been no less unwarrantable and premature. The committee has not at any stage of its proceedings behaved in accordance with

ing the conclusions

the judicial character

has arrogated to

itself.

appointed as

agent to inquire, in India, into the authenticity of statements

its

relating to occurrences extending over several years

have taken place

at various parts of India,

persons, including natives of India in that country

were mixed up

too great, confidence

his

and

—alleged

which many

and devotees of occult science

— a gentleman of own

abilities,

great, of

but,

at all

perhaps events,

wholly unfamiliar with the characteristics of Indian life and the complicated play of feeling in connection with which the Theosophical

movement has been developed

in India during recent

years.

Nothing

—

it now stands amended with more experienced persons unfriendly

in his Report, even as

the protracted assistance of

— suggests

to the

Theosophical movement

begun

to understand the primary conditions of the mysteries

set

himself to unravel.

that even yet he has

has naively supposed that every one

devoted to the work of the Theosophical Society might be assumed, on that account, desirous of securing his good opinion and of persuading him that the alleged phenomena were He shows himself to have been watching their genuine.

in India visibly

demeanour and

stray phrases to catch admissions that might

He seems never to have turned against the Theosophical case. suspected what any more experienced inquirer would have been aware of from the beginning, that the Theosophical movement, in so far as it has been concerned with making known to the world at large the existence in

India of persons called Mahatmas

—-very

—

comprehension of occult science and of the philosophical views they hold, has been one which many of the native devotees of these Mahatmas and many among the most ardent disciples and students of their occult teaching, have regarded with profound irritation. The traditional attitude of mind in which Indian occultists regard their treasures of knowledge, is one in which devotion is largely tinged with jealousy of all who would endeavour to penetrate the secrecy in which these treasures have hitherto been far

advanced

shrouded.

in the

These have been regarded

only the

rightful

—

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

30S

acquirement of persons passing through the usual ordeals and probations. The Theosophical movement in India, however,

The old rules were infringed under an authority so great that occultists who found themselves But in many entangled with the work could not but submit. Any cases such submission has been no more than superficial. one more intimately acquainted, than the agent of the S. P. R., with the history and growth of the Theosophical Society would involved a breach of this secrecy.

persons among its most faithful was owing entirely to the Masters they served, and not to the idea on which they were employed at all events not so far as it was connected with the demonstration of the fact that abnormal physical phenomena could be produced

have been able to indicate native members,

whose

many

fidelity

by Indian proficients in occult science.

Now

for

such persons the notion that European outsiders,

who

had, as they conceived, so undeservedly been admitted to the

were blundering into the there was no such thing as Indian occultism, that the Theosophical movement was a sham and a delusion with which they would no more concern inner arcana of Eastern

belief that they

occultism,

had been deceived,

— was enchanting

— that

and the arrival in young man from England attempting the investigation of occult mysteries by the methods of a Scotland Yard detective, and laid open by total unfamiliarity with the tone and temper of modern occultism to every sort of misapprehension, was naturally to them a source of intense satisfaction. Does the committee of the S. P. R. imagine that the themselves

their midst of

an exceedingly

its

attractions

;

self reHant

native occultists of the Theosophical Society in India are writhing at this

moment under

over

the

on the contrary,

certain,

with delight.

judgment

that for the

They may

it has passed? I am quite most part they are chuckling

find the situation complicated as

regards their relations with their Masters in so far as they have

consciously contributed to the easy misdirection of

Mr Hodgson's

mind, but the ludicrous spectacle of himself which Mr Hodgson furnishes in his Report where we see him catching up unfinished

—

sentences and pointing out weak places in the evidence of some

among

the Indian chelas, against

whom,

he had better under-

stood the task before him, he ought to have been most on his

guard

—

is,

at all events,

find amusing.

one which we can understand them to

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

A VISIT TO EUROPE. I regard the

committee of the

P. R.

309

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Messrs

E. Gurney,

W. H. Myers, F. Podmore, H. Sidgwick, and J. H. Stackmuch more to blame for presuming to pass judgment by the light of their own unaided reflections on the raw and misleading report

supplied to them by Mr Hodgson, than he for his part is to blame, even for misunderstanding so lamentably the problems he set out naturally ill-qualified to investigate. It would have been easy for them to have called in any of several people in London, qualified to do so by long experience of the Theosophical movement, to report in their turn on the prima facie case, so made

out against the authenticity of the Theosophical phenomena, before proceeding to pass judgment

on the whole accusation in

We have

all heard of cases in which judges think it unnecessary to call on the defence; but these have generally been cases in which the judges have decided against the theory of the prosecution. The committee of the S. P. R. furnish us with what is probably an unprecedented example of a judicial refusal to hear a defence on the ground that the ex parte statement of the prosecutor has been convincing by itself The committee brooded, however, in secret over the report of their agent, consulted no one in a position to open their eyes as to the erroneous method on which Mr Hodgson had gone to work, and concluded their but too independent investigation by denouncing as one of the most remarkable impostors in history a lady held in the highest honour by a considerable body of persons, including old friends and relations of unblemished character, and who has undeniably given up station and comfort to struggle for long years in the service of the Theosophical cause amidst obloquy and privation. She is witnessed against chiefly for Mr Hodgson, as any one

the hearing of the public at large.

who will read

his report will see, in spite of his affected indifference

to their testimony,

character by

first

by two persons who endeavour

to blacken her

exhibiting themselves as engaged in fraud and

and by then accusing her of having been base enough These are as themselves her confederates. the persons whom his report shows Mr Hodgson to have made the It is on the strength of writings principal allies of his inquiry. deception, to

make such people

obtained from such persons that the committee of the S. P. R. chiefly proceeds in coming to the conclusion that Mme. Blavatsky is

an impostor.

And

this course is

pursued by a body of

men

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

3IO

in reference to psychical phenomena at large (which the designation of their society would suggest that they are concerned with), decline all testimony, however apparently overwhelming,

who,

which comes from

money

spiritualistic

mediums

tainted by receiving

for the display of their characteristics.

not suggest-

ing that they ought to be careless in accepting such testimony, but merely that they have violated the principles they profess

when

the repression of unacceptable evidence

case in which, by their disregard,

indictment against persons

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;whom

And with

all

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

first,

but whom, at

all

condemning unheard.

going further than

this,

they have not hesitated to publish,

the authority their proceedings can confer, a groundless

and monstrous invention concerning Mme. Blavatsky, which

Hodgson puts forward its

in a

to frame an

not justified in assuming

that they were prejudiced against from the

events, they finished by

at stake

was possible

at the conclusion of his report to

prop up

obvious weakness as regards the whole hypothesis on which

For it is evident that there is a powerful presumption against any theory that imputes conscious imposture and vulgar trickery to a person who, on the face of things, has devoted her

rests.

life

to a philanthropic idea, at the manifest sacrifice of

all

considerations which generally supply motives of action to kind.

Mr Hodgson

alive to the necessity of furnishing

the

man-

Mme.

Blavatsky with a motive as degraded as the conduct he has been

Mme. Coulomb

to believe her guilty of, and he by suggesting that she may be a Russian political agent, working in India to foster disloyalty to It is nothing to Mr Hodgson that she the British Government. has notoriously been doing the reverse that she has frequently assured the natives orally, by writings, at public meetings, and in letters that can be produced, that with all its faults the British Government is the best available for India, and repeatedly from the point of view of one speaking en connaisance de cause she has declared that the Russian would be immeasurably worse. It is nothing to Mr Hodgson that her life has been passed coram populo to an almost ludicrous extent ever since she has been in India, that her whole energies and work have been employed on the Theosophic cause, or that the Government of India, after

taught by M. and

triumphs over the

difficulty

;

looking into the matter with the help of

came

its

when she first and abandoned

police

to the country, soon read the riddle aright,

A VISIT TO EUROPE. Mr Hodgson

suspicion of her motives.

all

that every

one who has known her counsellor

— Mme.

careless of the fact

any length of time laughs He has obtained from his

for

at the absurdity of his hypothesis.

guide and

3 II

Coulomb

—a

fragment of

Mme.

would seem, some years ago, and cherished for any use that might ultimately be made of it which refers to Russian politics, and reads like part of an argument in favour of the Russian advance in Central Asia. This is enough for the Psychical Researcher, and the text of this document appears in his Report in support of his scandalous insinuaBlavatsky's handwriting, picked up,

—

tion against

Mme.

of the paper

is,

Blavatsky's integrity.

that

The

simple explanation

evidently a discarded fragment from a

long translation of Colonel Grodekoff's Travels in Central Asia (or whatever title the series bore)

which Mme. Blavatsky made

request for the Pioneer (the Indian Government organ), of

which

was at that time

to write to India

of articles appeared in the Pioneer.

and must have appeared

decade, or possibly in 1880.

Mr Hodgson

pamphlet which the Grodekoff series

I will not delay this

editor.

and get the dates

They

one of the

By applying

could perhaps obtain,

the

ran for some weeks,

latter years

of the last

to the Pioneer printers,

MS.

has been preserved, several hundred pages of

of this translation

Mme.

Blavatsky's

most ardent Anglo-phobia. It is most likely, as I say, that the pilfered slip of which he is so proud, was some rejected page from that translation, unless, indeed, which would be more amusing still, it should happen to have fallen from some other Russian translations which Mme. Blavatsky, to my certain knowledge, once made for the Indian Foreign Office during one of her visits to Simla, when she made

writing, blazing with sentiments of the

the acquaintance of

some of the

officials in that

was employed to do some work in I venture to think that if

be too

ill-supplied with

bar of British justice

—

its

department, and

service.

Mme. Blavatsky had not been known money to claim redress at the costly

she had not been steeped to the

lips in

the flavour, so ungrateful to British law courts, of Psychic mystery, the committee of the S. P. R. would hardly have thought it well to accuse her, in a published document, of infamous conduct,

which,

men

—

it, would render her a public foe and an object of scorn to honourable

she were really guilty of

in the land of her adoption

at the flippant suggestion of their private agent in desperate

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MADAME BLAVATSKY.

312

need of an explanation ordered

pedantically

which no amount of

conclusions

for

circumstances could

render,

without

it,

otherwise than incredible.

Mme.

Blavatsky contributed to this pamphlet a

own name, which

Protest in her "

The

Society for Psychical Research

made

published the Report

have now

one of their Com-

Hodgson, the agent sent out to India investigate the character of certain phenomena,

mittees to

ran as follows

described as having taken place at the head-quarters of the Theosophical Society in India and elsewhere,

and with the production of some of which been directly or indirectly concerned. imputes to

impose

various persons around

and

declares

me by

the

be genuine, a series of

supposed conspiracy,

have already myself declared to be

part fabrications.

letters

Mme. Coulomb

by me

connection with

the

credulity

fraudulent devices,

alleged to be written

letters

have

a conspiracy with the Coulombs and

Hindus

several

This Report

which in large

Strange to say, from the time

the investigation was begun, fourteen months ago,

and

to this day,

when

self-instituted judges,

declared guilty by

was never permitted to see draw the attention I

those incriminating letters.

of every fair-minded and honourable Englishman to this fact. "

Without

mination of

at present

the

going into a minute exainconsistencies,

errors,

reasoning of this Report,

and

bad

wish to make as publicly

A VISIT TO EUROPE. as

possible

indignant and

313

emphatic

protest

against the gross aspersions thus put upon

me by

the Committee of the Psychic Research Society at the instigation of the single, incompetent, and unfair

whose

inquirer

There

no charge against

present

conclusions

Report that could

they

have

in the

accepted.

whole of the

stand the test

impartial inquiry on the spot,

where

of an

my own

ex-

planations could be checked by the examination of

They have been developed in Mr Hodgson's own mind, and kept back from my

witnesses.

and colleagues while he remained at Madras abusing the hospitality and unrestrained assistance friends

in his inquiries

supplied to him at the head-quarters

of the Society at Adyar, where attitude of a friend, though he

persons with

and

liars.

whom

he took up the

now

represents the

he thus associated

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as

cheats

These charges are now brought forward

supported by the one-sided evidence collected by him, and

when

the time has gone by at which even

he could be confronted with antagonistic evidence and with arguments which his very limited knowledge of the subject he attempted to deal with do not supply him.

Mr Hodgson

having thus consti-

tuted himself prosecutor and advocate in the

first

and having dispensed with a defence in the complicated transactions he was investigating, finds me guilty of all the offences he has imputed to me instance,

his capacity as judge,

and declares that

proved to be an arch-impostor.

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

314

The Committee

of the P. R. S. have not hesi-

tated to accept the general substance of the judg-

ment which

Mr Hodgson

thus pronounces, and have

me publicly by giving their

insulted

of their agent's conclusions

opinion in favour

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;an opinion which

rests

wholly and solely on the Report of their single deputy.

Wherever the

principles of fairness

and honour-

able care for the reputation of slandered persons

may be

understood,

Committee

will

think

conduct of the

the

regarded

some

with

feeling

resembling the profound indignation of which

directed

spends

That

sensible.

inquiries, infinite

Hodgson's elaborate but mishis

affected

patience over

which

precision,

and

trifles

blind to

facts of importance, his contradictory

reasoning and

his manifold incapacity to deal with

such problems

as those he endeavoured to solve, will

by other writers

Many

friends

due course

who know me

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

be exposed

make no

doubt.

better than the

Com-

mittee of the P. R. S. will remain unaffected by the opinions of that body, and in their hands

leave in

my much-abused

monstrous Report

this

answer "

his

my own

must

must,

all

events,

name.

Plainly alive to the comprehensive absurdity of

own

conclusions about

remained

totally

me, as long as they

unsupported by any theory of a

motive which could account for tion

But one passage

reputation.

life-long

Theosophical work at the

devo-

sacrifice of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A VISIT TO EUROPE.

my own

natural place in society in

Hodgson has been base enough assumption that

sham

inventing a

a Russian

religious

of undermining the British

315 country,

concoct

the

agent,

political

movement for the sake Government in India !

Availing himself, to give colour to this hypothesis,

of an old bit of

writing, apparently supplied to

him by Mme. Coulomb, but which he did not know to be, as

made

was, a fragment of an old translation

for the Pioneer,

Central Asia,

theory about

men

Mr Hodgson has promulgated this me in the Report, which the gentle-

of the P. R. S. have not been

Seeing that

lish.

from some Russian travels

ashamed

to pub-

was naturalised nearly eight

years ago a citizen of the United States, which led to

losing every right to

widow

roubles yearly as the

Russia

;

that

in India to

pension of 5000

of a high

its

native friends that bad as

all

Government

some

unsympathetic

America on my way to India, every one familiar with my pursuits very undisguised

no taste

that

life

in India, is

them

which suspected

a Russian

when

first

;

aware that

that the

;

that

have

1879 and habits and in

for or affinity with politics whatever, but

intense dislike to India,

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the

letters to that effect to Indian friends before

left

respects

character

Russian would be a thousand times worse

wrote

ofificial

voice has been invariably raised

answer

think the English

by reason

Government of I was

as a spy because

went

to India, soon aban-

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

3l6 doned

needless espionage, and has never, to

its

knowledge, had the smallest inclination to suspect

since

—the Russian

Mr Hodgson where

spy theory about

has thus resuscitated from the grave,

had been buried with

me which

ridicule

for years,

merely help to render his extravagant conclusions about me more stupid even than they would

will

have been otherwise

and of

all

who

in the estimation of

know

really

friends

But looking upon

me.

the character of a spy with the disgust which only a

Russian

who

not one can

sistibly to repudiate

calumny

infamous

feel, I

impelled

irre-

Hodgson's groundless and

with

concentration

the

general contempt his method of procedure in this

inquiry seems to

and

to merit,

be equally

deserved by the Committee of the Society he has

They have shown

served.

wholesale adoption

persons

less

fitted

the

present

day,

a group of

blunders,

his

should

after

mysteries of

the

explore

phenomena than

psychic

—

themselves, by their

have thought been

has

that

all

written and published on the subject of late years

— could

have been found among educated

men

England. "

Mr Hodgson

less share his

for libel at

knows, and the committee doubt-

knowledge, that he

hands, because

safe from actions

have no money

conduct costly proceedings (having given

had

to the cause

vindication

would

serve),

involve

all

ever

and

also

the

examination into

because

A VISIT TO EUROPE.

317

psychic mysteries which cannot be dealt fairly with a court

of law

questions which

and again because there are

;

solemnly pledged never to

answer, but which a legal

investigation

of these

slanders would inevitably bring to the front, while

silence

and

refusal to

would be misconstrued

answer certain queries 'contempt of

into

court.'

This condition of things explains the shameless attack that has been less I

woman, and the

made upon an almost inaction in face of

defenceto

which

so cruelly condemned. "

"Jan.

lowing

Blavatsky.

1886."

14,

glad to be permitted to insert here the

letter

fol-

from the Countess Wachtmeister, sum-

ming up the general impressions of her long Mme. Blavatsky at Wurzburg â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

visit to

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

" Dear Mr Sinnett, Last autumn, having left Sweden to spend the winter in a more congenial climate, and hearing that Madame Blavatsky was suffering, ill and lonely at Wurzburg, I offered to spend some time with her, and do what I could to

render her position more comfortable, and to cheer her in her

acquaintance with H. P. Blavatsky was a very had met her casually in London and Paris, but had no real knowledge or experience in regard to herself or her I had been told a great deal against her, and I can character. honestly say that I was prejudiced in her disfavour, and it was only a sense of duty and gratitude (such as all true students of solitude.

slight one.

theosophy should notwithstanding service to

feel all

its

numbers of

towards the founder of a society, which, drawbacks, has been of great benefit and

individuals),

which caused

to take

upon

myself the task of alleviating her troubles and sorrows to the best of

ability.

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

3lB

"Having heard the absurd rumours circulating against her, and by which she was accused of practising black magic, fraud, and deception, I was on my guard, and went to her in a calm and tranquil frame of mind, determined to accept nothing of an occult

character and coming from her without sufficient proof ; to make my eyes open, and to be just and true in

myself positive, to keep

conclusions.

Common

sense would not permit

in her guilt without proof, but

that proof

to believe

had been furnished,

made it impossible for me to founder of which committed cheating and

sense of honour would have

remain in a

society, the

my frame of mind was bent on investigation, was anxious to find out the truth. " I have now spent a few months with Madame Blavatsky. I have shared her room, and been with her morning, noon, and I have had access to all her boxes and drawers, have read night. the letters which she received and those which she wrote, and I now openly and honestly declare that I am ashamed of myself for having ever suspected her, for I believe her to be an honest and trickery, therefore

and

true woman, faithful to death to her masters and to the cause for which she has sacrificed position, fortune, and health. There is no doubt in my mind that she made these sacrifices, for I have seen the proofs of them, some of which consisted of documents whose genuineness is above all suspicion. " From a worldly point of view Madame Blavatsky is an unhappy woman, slandered, doubted, and abused by many but looked at from a higher point of view, she has extraordinary gifts, and no amount of vilification can deprive her of the privileges which she enjoys, and which consist in a knowledge of many things that are known only to a few mortals, and in a personal intercourse with ;

certain Eastern adepts.

"On account of the extensive knowledge which she possesses and which extends far into the invisible part of nature, it is very much to be regretted that all her troubles and trials prevent her giving to the world a great deal of information, which she would be willing to impart if she were permitted to remain undisturbed and Even the great work in which she is now engaged, in peace. The Secret Doctrine,' has been greatly impeded by all the persecutions, offensive letters, and other petty annoyances to which she has been subjected this winter; for it should be remembered that H. P. Blavatsky is not herself a full-grown adept, nor does '

;

A VISIT TO EUROPE. she claim to be one ledge she

;

and

319 her know-

that, therefore, in spite of all

and suspicion

as painfully sensitive to insult

any

lady of refinement in her position could be expected to be. " The ' Secret Doctrine will be indeed a great and grand work. I have had the privilege of watching its progress, of reading the manuscripts, and of witnessing the occult way in which she '

derived her information.

themselves

style

pained me. the

have

Some

exist, it

were nevertheless a truth, etc., have come into circulation in

place,

tion, as to

if it were proven that would not matter,' that theosophy etc. Such and similar statements Germany, England, and America '

understanding they are very erroneous, there were

who have

persons

heard among people who

such persons said that

Mahatmas did not

but to

latterly

Theosophists,' expressions which surprised and

no Mahatmas or Adepts

for, in

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;that

progressed so far in the scale of

be able to unite

the

first

so say,

human

evolu-

their personality with the sixth principle

of the universe (the universal Christ), then the teachings of that system which has been called Theosophy would be false '

because there would be a break in the scale of progression, which would be more difficult to be accounted for than the absence of the 'missing link' of Darwin.

But if these persons refer merely have been active in the foundation of the Theosophical Society,' they seem to forget that without these Adepts we would never have had that society, nor would ' Isis Unveiled,' the Esoteric Buddhism,' the Light on to those

Adepts who are said

and other valuable theosophical publications ever have been written and if in the future we should shut ourselves out from the influence of the Mahatmas and be left entirely to our own resources, we should soon become lost in a labyrinth of metaphysical speculation. It must be left to science and speculative philosophy to confine themselves to theories and the

Path,' the

Theosophist,'

;

to the

obtaining of such information as

contained in books.

and acquires knowledge by direct interior perception. The study of theosophy means therefore practical development, and to attain this development a guide is necessary who knows that which he teaches, and who must have attained himself that state by the process of spiritual regeneration. "After all that has been said in these 'Memoirs' about the

Theosophy goes

occult

farther,

phenomena taking place in the presence of Madame and how such phenomena have been a part and parcel

Blavatsky,

— MADAME BLAVATSKY.

320

occurring at all times both with and without her knowneed only add that during my stay with her, I have frequently witnessed such genuine phenomena. Here, as in every other department of life, the main point is to learn to discriminate properly and to estimate everything at its true value.' Yours

of her

life,

ledge, I

—

"Constance Wachtmeister,

sincerely,

This

letter

has

been

already

American newspaper devoted

F.T.S."

printed

Theosophy, where

appears with the following remarks appended to

by Dr Franz Hartmann "

—

Kempten, Bavaria, May

lo, 1886. I have read the above by the Countess Wachtmeister, and I fully agree with every sentence contained therein. I myself, like my friend the Countess, have passed through a state of creduhty and doubt before I arrived at knowledge. T have often been perplexed, and had to grope in the dark, but I can now say without

statement written

any

hesitation, sincerely

and

truthfully, that those

who

desire

explanation of the great commotion that has taken place within the sphere of the ' Theosophical Society will have to look for it '

deeper than in any desire of deception on the part of Blavatsky.

The

accusations of

Mr Hodgson and

Madame

others are only

based upon external appearances and upon superficial reasoning.

To recognize, then, the truth, requires not only sharpness and wit, but the power of intuition, which a scientist, who reasons merely from the plane of illusions, cannot be expected to possess, and which he would not be permitted to use, even if he possessed it, because by doing so he would act in contravention to the laws upon which material science

is based. This power of intuition is the corner-stone,' which the (material) builders have rejected so often, and which they will continue to reject. It is the power '

whose possession is

the highest of

all

on which progress

required to arrive at spiritual knowledge, which sciences,

and

its

development

in practical occultism

depends.

desire to arrive at the truth develop this

the

first

Let those

law

who

power and make it alive and they will obtain a guide and a Master whose voice they will know and whose words they will not doubt and whose hand will lead them out of the illusions of the senses and out of the meshes of theoretical speculation into the bright in their hearts,

A VISIT TO EUROPE. sunlight of the eternal truth.

Let the members of the Tlieosophical way that has led

Society stop and think before they spit on the

them up higher and brought them nearer to the God that is slumbering in the paradise of their souls, and let us all be thankful to those Children of Light who have awakened us from our sleep and called our attention to the fact that the morning is dawning. Let us

listen

to their teachings, grasp their doctrines with our

understanding, and test them upon the touch-stone of reason,

and as we assimilate them we

When

greater.

will

ourselves

grow stronger and

the Paraclet arrives he will be attracted to those

temples on whose altars he finds his

own

fire

burning

but the

;

and the distorter of the truth will see nothing but the smoke that rises from his own brain. The owl loves the darkness, but the eagle mounts towards the sun."

unfaithful, the

The

sceptic

mental

suffering

Mme.

went

Blavatsky

through while the insults of the S. P. R. report were recent outrages, need not be displayed in too

still

minute the

detail to

unsympathetic observation, and

all

unnecessary here to go step by step

over the stories to

Mme.

Blavatsky's prejudice told to

Mr Hodgson by the Coulombs, and absurdly accepted as

evidence by the committee of the S.

Certainly the appearance of these memoirs has been

by the attack on Mme. Blavatsky

precipitated

tuted

by the

S. P. R.

have kept them back

insti-

should have preferred to

by the accumulation of more information, the story of her life could have been told more completely. But even as that story is

here

told,

until,

look forward with very great confidence

to its recognition

indirect refutation,

by all thoughtful readers as an more effective than any wrangling

over the circumstances which clouded

Hodgson's

understanding at Adyar, of the monstrous and un-

MADAME BLAVATSKY.

322 principled

assertion

put forward by the

Research Committee that she

Psychic

impostor."

Society which that committee represents

The

probably

not destined to a very prolonged existence. rose like a rocket on a brilliant stream of

might have carried misdirection of

its

fire

that

high into the heavens, but a

course turned

back to earth

almost instantly, and the force which should have

borne

the sand. life

will

aloft

now

But the

buries

its

_head more deeply

literary fruits of

long survive the

Mme.

recollection

generation will retain, of the efforts

Blavatsky's

which

made

this dis-

parage the interest of those physical wonders she has so often been concerned in working and which really constitute the least important circumstances of her career.

For the

tales of

wonder with which Mme.

Blavatsky has thus been associated, though they

have

filled this

volume so

largely, are really

no more

than the foam on the surface of the current that has

been set flowing through human thought, time, under her auspices.

our

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

APPENDIX. It

may

serve to caution readers of the S.P.R. report from

attaching too

much importance

" experts " consulted if I

the opinion of the

by the committee of

that

Society,

here reprint some correspondence which passed be-

tween

G. Gebhard and the foremost

German expert

handwriting, in reference to the authorship of the writing attributed to the

Mahatma K.

H.,

and (absurdly as

con-

by the S.P.R. committee and their expert Mr Gebhard to have been produced by Mme. Blavatsky. sent to the Expert a long letter (marked A) from Mme. Blavatsky, received by him in October 1885, and the letter ceive) supposed

(marked B) which

fell

from behind the picture at Elberfeld,

under circumstances described

K. H. letters

follows.

The Expert

and which

in the text,

persons concerned believe to have

come from

the

all

Mahatma

replied to the inquiry, whether these

might not perhaps be really by the same hand, as His

letter is of course in

lated here with close exactitude

German, but

trans-

Berlin,

To CoMMERZiENRATH Gebhard, Elberfeld. You will kindly excuse me, that I only to-day

"jth

Feb. 1886.

send the desired

I have made it testimony, as I was very busy with other affairs. as complete as possible, but I must assure you most positively

you have believed that both letters came from one and the same hand, you have laboured under a complete mistake, Ernst Schutze, (Signed) am, Sec, Caligraphist to the Court of H.M. that if

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

j4he II

KOCHSTRASSE.

Emperor of Germany.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; APPENDIX.

324

sent to the Expert another letter (marked C) in the hand-writing of the Mahatma, and asked whether, on an examination of this,

After

he, the Expert,

was

Mr Gebhard

receiving this report,

as follows

would adhere

to his opinion.

The reply

Berlin, i6rt Feb. 1886.

To CoMMERZiENRATH Gebhard,

Elbcrfeld.

have the honour to enclose the desired testimony on the This letter was written by the same hand as the second letter. letter B ; and there is not the remotest similarity between A I

and C. In furnishing

this, I

remain, &c.,

Ernst

(Signed)

Caligrapher the

ScniixzE,

to the

Court of H.M.

Emperor of Germany.

The testimony enclosed could not be reproduced in ordiprint, as it includes a great number of letters copied

nary

from the documents under examination, with their peculiarities

of formation.

concludes by affirming that,

The letter A, which is written in ink, has not the remotest resemblance with the letter B, according to the standpoint of a caligraphist,

and they are of different handwritings. This, my exon the oath, taken by me, once for all, as an

pert testimony, I give

expert in handwriting.

(Signed as before.)

Turnbull

iSf

Spears, Printers, Edinburgh.