From the
English Morning News of Paris, April 21, 1884 – Discovered by Michael Gomes. Blavatsky
and Theosophy got quite a bit of press coverage at the time and this article
gives a good sampling of the pros and cons thereof. The point of interest for
the journalist seems to be the unusual, picturesque angle and thus remains
fairly superficial. And Blavatsky comes through with her unique mixture of
articulateness and candid frankness; and quite a canny debater(which she does not get nearly enough credit for, IMO)…But they probably did not have publicists or PR people in those days...of interest also is the participation of William Q. Judge, who was in the process of making a pivotal sojourn to Europe and Asia...
About the
beginning of next month there is to be a great gathering in Paris of
Theosophists, a mysterious body of men and women moving down from America and
from Asia upon Europe. Col. Olcott, of the United States, will soon be here; Mme.
Blavatsky, who started the society in council with a mystic circle of the wise
somewhere up in the Himalayas, is actually with us, and a great Hindoo, the
most learned man of the East„ is expected from day to day. This new
"Salvation Army" of philosophers have already effected a lodgement on
the other side of the Channel, and France is their next objective point.
The organ of
the Society in Europe is a monthly publication, the Theosophist, issued
by Trubner, of which Mme. Blavatsky is editor. There are more of what the
vulgar call miracles in one number of the Theosophist than in all of the
Four Gospels. The adepts play a great part in the work of the Society, and they
form one of the orders or grades. They have watched over all things almost from
the beginning of the world; and they had a good deal to do with the
independence of the United States by their direct inspiration of the writings
of Tom Paine.
All this is
to be brought into Parisian drawing-rooms, and one may safely predict for it
that it will make at least the sensation of a season. The society is
particularly well equipped for work in these latitudes in having so many women
among its members. The Parisian secretary is Mme. de Morsier, of 71, Rue Claude
Bernard; and the Parisian president for life - Lady Caithness, Duchess de
Pomar, mother of the eccentric novelist, who often lends her luxurious
apartment in the Rue de Grammont for the meetings. Finally, Mme. Blavatsky has
the Russian readiness in the tongues: she speaks English almost without accent;
French like a Parisian and when she likes like an American - of her Hindoostani
it is not within our competence to speak.
It is a long
way in every sense from Madras and its palace to the one or two poor rooms at
No. 46 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, of which Mme. Blavatsky is now in temporary
occupation, and where she receives on Thursday and Sunday evenings and on
Sunday afternoons. Here through the kindness of Mme. de Morsier, she was found
by a representative of THE MORNING NEWS, in company with Mr. Judge, an American
who is shortly going out to India to resume the study of the higher mysteries.
"We are
quite willing to have people write about us," said Mme. Blavatsky,
"only we wish they would write the truth, and not superficial nonsense, as
Mr. Moncure Conway did the other day after a visit to Madras. (2) It is worse
than idle to say that all the 'manifestations' ceased as soon as he appeared -
they had been ordered to cease long before he came by an authority which I will
assure you took very little account of his modest individuality. It was just as
foolish to think that one of our 'Chelas' refused to shake hands with him on
caste principles. The refusal had nothing to do with caste; it is only to
preserve his mystic, or if you like, mesmeric influence, which would have been
expended to no purpose in the contact of this useless salutation."
"Then
what we take for caste pride or prejudice of the East has often a deeper
significance?"
"Of
course: there is a great mystery in Oriental exclusiveness in the unwillingness
to touch. The Oriental sense is finer than ours, much more sensitive to
emanations of every kind, spiritual and material, and it holds that the best
way of purification is to keep from defilement."
"And,"
said Mr. Judge, "Mr. Conway was annoyed because the Chelas prostrate
themselves before a picture of one of the Masters! It is altogether the act of
a Chela or Hindoo, who does the same thing to his father and mother every day
of his life, and who regards the Master in the light of a father."
"This
curious susceptibility to contact," resumed Mme. Blavatsky, "runs
through everything. See in making this cigarette for you - you smoke, I hope; I
do - I twist a small holder around the middle of it, so that the cigarette does
not actually pass from me to you. A holy man in India taught me that, who was
bound by his vows not to touch anything that had touched a woman."
"Yet
with this prejudice against women in the East, how have you been able to do so
much?"
"Because
there is far less prejudice than you think, and you altogether mistake the
nature of it and the reasons. When I have sought the higher teachings I have
found no obstacle on account of my sex."
"But
tell me about this higher truth. Why do the Brahmins and the Buddhists make it
so eminently select? The Theosophists talk all through of an esoteric mystery,
of a truth revealed only to an inner circle. What is the use of a truth bottled
up in this way? If a truth at all, it concerns humanity at large - why not
proclaim it to all whom it concerns?"
"Because
it might be misused. Take certain truths in ordinary science, about poisons for
instance: they are practically communicated only to a few under all sorts of
restrictions, because of the abuse that might result if it were made a matter
of common knowledge. How much more is that true of the occult truths to which
some of us have found access in India - tremendous secrets of Nature and of
human life that in the keeping of the vicious or unprincipled would be as the
thunderbolt in the hands of a child."
"You
have merged individuality and nationality too in your new creed?"
"No, I
am an American by adoption - I respect American religious freedom - but I am
still a good Russian at heart. Only, there is too little freedom at home; that
is why I do not go back. I have not been in Russia for many years; I would not
care to give my friends and relations a chance of shutting me up in a convent
for life on the plea that I was a victim of illusions. I like the Emperor
personally, if only because of the long relations of my family with the
Imperial house. We have always been loyal supporters of the throne. I see very
little Russian society even at Nice, where I might see everybody. It is so
unpleasant to find them wondering why you do not go to Church, and to the Greek
Church."
"With
your knowledge of Hindoostani, you might give the world a fine work on the
position of the English in India."
"But I
have better work to do. The English owe more than they know to the religious
bodies in India - to the old faiths. A few men in spiritual authority stopped
the Mutiny: it was not stopped by the British army - how could England have
held all these millions in check? But wise men saw that the time had not yet
come for the English to go, and their expulsion would bring back the old
anarchy and the old despotism; so the word was passed round, and the Mutiny
stopped. And you have no idea how quickly such an order travels in India. It is
what you would call miraculous. Officers have often told me that news of any
event reached the common people, from the Himalayas to the sea, long before it
reached the Government. There were occult arts before the telegraph, you may be
sure of that. The English ought to take warning by what happened in the Mutiny
and lower their tone of patronage to men immeasurably their superiors in every
kind of knowledge."
"Their
contempt as practical men for the dreamy Hindoo is most marked."
"I
assure you it is repaid with interest; but time will show. How can one pretend
to despise men like that?" And Mme. Blavatsky produced the photograph of a
group in which two Hindoos of rather youthful appearance and extremely
intelligent expression are sitting in her company. One of them is dressed in
white from head to foot and is barefoot. (1)
"That,"
said Mme. de Morsier, "is the wisest man in India, and perhaps in all the
world."
"You
have read Mr. Isaacs?" (2)
"Yes;
it was written on an imperfect knowledge of our society and of the great
mysteries. Some of the passages will recall to you passages in the Theosophist
on the astral body. The book is a mixture of hints of our doctrine, in so
far as Mr. Crawford knows anything about it, with the personal description of
Mr. Jacobs, a well known diamond merchant in India."
"What
are the objects of your society?"
"How
can I state them better than by showing you the statutes? You see, we want to
form the nucleus of a 'Universal Brotherhood of Humanity', without distinction
of race, creed, or colour; to promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern
literature, religions and sciences, and to vindicate their importance; to
investigate the hidden mysteries of nature and the psychical powers latent in
man."
In running
over the list of members was found - along with Rawal Shree Hurreesinghjee
Roosinghjee, of Kathiawar; Diwan Bahadur R. Ragoonath Row, of Madras; Babu
Sourendro Nath Mukerji, of Punjab - the honoured and familiar name of Sam Ward,
from the United States. (3)
1. The photograph depicts H.P.B. sitting with Swami
T. Subba Row (the one considered to be “wisest man in India”) and
Krishnaswami Aiyengar (also known as Babaji and D. Nath).
2. A 1882 best-selling novel by Francis Marion Crawford. It's a beautiful, spiritual love story, still worth reading.
3. Samuel Cutler Ward (1814-1884) was an American financier
and lobbyist. He was also the uncle of Marion Crawford.
