In Madame Blavatsky, whose death from influenza was announced last
Saturday, one of the most remarkable women of the present century has passed away. For the
last forty years - ever since she attained the age of twenty- her life has been one long
string of adventures, not always very creditable perhaps, but always exciting. In the
various accounts that have been published of her earlier career, issued for the most part
under her own sanction, it is impossible to separate fact from fiction. But from 1875,
when she established the Theosophical Society, her life has been a public one, and it is
as President-Foundress of that Society that she will be, for a time at least, remembered.
This Society was founded at first in America, but seems to have made little headway there,
and it was not until Madame Blavatsky and her co-president, Colonel Olcott, arrived in
India in 1879 that they can be said to have achieved anything like success. Amid the
general dislocation of thought in India, consequent upon the loosening of old faiths,
Theosophy found a congenial sphere. Its teaching was skilfully adapted to conciliate Hindu
prejudices, and to assuage the wounds which the philosophic and religious pride of the
East was daily receiving at the hands of Western teaching. Theosophy had practically no
creed. It was its boast that made no demands upon the faith of its votaries. All it
required was a sincere desire on the part of every initiate to acquire the "secret
knowledge" of occult forces - a knowledge which had once been a common inheritance,
but from which the minds of men had long ago been turned by worldliness and sensuality.
This occult science was represented as still possessed by certain Hermits of Thibet - the
Mahatmas - who through its virtue had lived to fabulous ages, and were able to set at
naught the ordinary laws of matter. Madame Blavatsky claimed to have visited these
Thibetan sages, and to be the adopted disciple of one of them, Koot Hoomi Lal Singh, under
whose inspiration and guidance she had commenced her work of reformation, and who now
stood by her in her difficulties, authenticating her teaching by the timely exhibition of
marvellous "phenomena." It is to these phenomena, and to the openly expressed
antagonism of Theosophy to Christianity, that the rapid spread of the new cult in India is
to be ascribed, and not to any system of positive doctrine. It is, indeed, impossible for
the closest student to bring anything like system or order out of the chaos of Isis
Unveiled," Madame Blavatskys first great work. Few, probably, have had patience
to read that work through; but it may be described as an attempt to graft whatever is
marvellous in modern Spiritualism and magic upon the wilder dreams of early Gnosticism.
But, in truth, no theosophist we have ever known - and we have known and conversed with
many - has even professed to understand the mysteries of the "secret doctrine."
His faith and devotion were begotten and sustained by phenomena, and not by the
"sweet reasonableness of the truth." This is true, not only of the more
credulous Hindoos, but even of those of whom we might have expected better things. It is
impossible to read Mr. Sinnetts works without recognising that his adherence was won
and his loyalty maintained by a constant exhibition of childish wonders. We say childish
wonders advisedly, for nothing could exceed the frivolity and inherent littleness of the
miracles of Koot Hoomi. Broken saucers were mysteriously repaired, signet rings were
doubled, lost brooches were recovered, cigarettes were transported to strange places by an
"astral" way, and epistles from the "Master" fluttering down through a
crevice in the ceiling - "materialised in the air," as Mr. Sinnett puts it -
fell upon the heads of those who were wavering in the faith.
To the sober historian it may seem strange that such infantile methods of
propagandism should succeed. But succeed they did, and by 1884 the Theosophical Society
numbered its adherents in India by tens of thousands. Then came the end, and it came as
all reasonable men expected it would come. It was impossible for Madame Blavatsky to
maintain a constant succession of phenomena without an accomplice from whom she should
have no secrets. Colonel Olcott was not this accomplice, but a certain Madame Coulomb.
From the outset Colonel Olcott seems to have been as honestly deluded as any one of Madame
Blavatskys admirers, but Madame Coulomb and her husband were behind the scenes, and
arranged after their own skilful fashion both for the delivery of the Mahatmas
letters and the occult repair of crockery. Madame Blavatsky was naturally, therefore, in
Madame Coulombs power, and when, in an evil moment the Managing Committee of the
Society expelled Madame Coulomb from its ranks, that lady retaliated by giving to the
world a vast mass of Madame Blavatskys correspondence. The story of the exposure I
hope to relate briefly next week. Madame Blavatskys own words explained the
mysteries upon which her followers had fed, and did away with the fable of her residence
in Thibet. This was the end of Blavatskyism if not of Theosophy in India. Discredited in
the East, Madame Blavatsky had to seek fresh fields and pastures new. She settled in
London in 1887, and for the last four years has been engaged in compiling her Secret
Doctrine, editing Lucifer the Lightbringer, and using her strange powers of
personal fascination to commend to a small group of devotees the claims of "esoteric
Buddhism."