Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl00987)

>From ~Old Diary Leaves~ 1st edition 1895 (Adyar) by H.S.Olcott:

"This wonderful organisation [The Theosopical Society] which
grew out of a commonplace parlour gatheringin a New York house,
in the year 1875, has already made for itself such a record that
it must be included in any veracious history of our times. Its
development ..... having neem so closely - for some years almost
exclusively, connected with the personal efforts if its two
founders, Madame Blavatsky and myself, it will perhaps help the
future historian if the survivor sets down truthfully and
succinctly the necessary facts. The series of chapters which
now compose this book was begun nearly three years in the
~Theosophist~ magazine ...

"The controlling impulse to prepare these papers was a desire to
combat a growing tendency within the Sociey to deify Mme.
Blavatsky, and to give her commonest literary productions a
quasi-inspirational character. Her transparent faults were
being blindly ignored, and the pinchbeck screen of pretended
authority drawn between her actions and legitimate criticism.
Those who had least of her actual confidence, and hence knew
least of her private character, were the greatest offenders in
this direction. It was but too evident that unless I spoke out
what I alone knew, the true history of our movement could never
be written, nor the actual merit of my wonderful colleague
become known. In these pages I have, therefore, told the truth
about her and about the beginnings of the Society - truth which
nobody can gainsay.

"..... I have pursued my present task to its completion, despite
the fact that some of my my own most influential colleagues
have, from what I consider mistaken loyalty to "H.P.B.,"
secretly tried to destroy my influence, reduce the circulation of
my magazine, and prevent the publication of my book.
Confidential warnings have been circulated against me, and the
current numbers of the ~Theosophist~ have been removed from
Branch reading-room tables. This is child's play: the truth
never yet harmed a good cause, nor has moral cowardice ever
helped a bad one."

>From the same Foreword, re HPB:

"To have know her was a liberal education, to have worked with
her and enjoyed her intimacy, an experience of the most precious
kind. She was too great an occultist for us to measure her
moral stature. She compelled us to love her, however much we
might know her faults; to forgive her, however much she might
have broken her promises and destroyed our first belief in her
infallibility. And the secret of this potent spell was her
undeniable spiritual powers, her evident devotion to the Masters
whom she depicted as almost supernatural personages, and her
zeal for the spiritual uplifting of humanity by the power of the
Eastern Wisdom ....."

 H.S.OLCOTT
 "GULISTAN."
 Ootacamund, 1895.

Seems that the censoring of theosophical writers started rather
earlier than is commonly supposed?

Alan