to believe in both when evidence for them has been produced, and has
stood the test of such ordinary evidential canons as have been applied
to kindred subjects—for instance, by the Psychical Research Society. All
that I have said is that certain evidence on which the Theosophical
Society has been building proves nothing whatever, except the existence
of a hotbed of humbug within the society itself. As for the Mahatmas,
there is no difficulty about conceiving that illiterate, twaddling, and
mendacious beings of a second-rate order of intelligence, such as those
reflected in the “missives” which I have reproduced, may exist in Tibet
as they unhappily do elsewhere. But when we are told that these beings
have acquired powers which rise superior to time and space, and that
they use these for communicating “in a quasi-miraculous manner” with the
Theosophical Society, we ask for facts; and we get—such facts as were
investigated by Dr. Hodgson and his colleagues, and such facts as have
been exposed in “Isis Very Much Unveiled.” What else is there? One
Theosophist directs me to “our literature on the subject, which is
copious.” I don’t doubt it; but it is not “literature” that I am in
search of. Another declares “it does not all depend on Madame Blavatsky
and Mr. Judge; others have seen Mahatmas.” It seems that Mrs. Besant has
been telling her Australian audiences that she herself has been so
favoured (just as she told the Hall of Science audience that she had
been favoured with supernatural missives). Well, how did Mrs. Besant
know her Mahatma? By his “portrait,” I suppose, as others have done. And
how was that portrait produced? When Madame Blavatsky began to spell
spiritualism “Theosophy,” and turned her “spirit-control” “John King,”
of whom Colonel Olcott tells, into Master Koot Hoomi—whom she again
subordinated, after the Kiddle exposure, to Mahatma Morya, whom she, in
turn, after the S.P.R. Report, left over for exploitation by Mr.
Judge—when Madame started the Mahatma on this chequered career, it was
one of her earliest steps to secure a counterfeit presentment of her
creation. Various artists and amateurs were set to paint portraits under
occult inspiration. The results may all have resembled the Protean
Mahatma; some of them were strikingly unlike each other. The two best
were done by Mr. Schmiechen, now a society portrait-painter, partly out
of his head, partly from directions given by Madame, and partly from a
photograph of a typical Hindu which she gave him for the purpose. Madame
identified one as Koot and the other as Morya, and declared they were
speaking likenesses—an opinion which nobody else was in a position to
contradict. They hang to-day in the “Occult Room” at Adyar, and are
declared to have been painted from the respective “astral bodies” of
their subjects. Colonel Olcott, president, who knows their origin
perfectly well, exhibits them reverently to barefoot disciples doing
“puja.” Photographs from the fancy portrait of “M,” in locked cases,
have been distributed to the Esoteric few; Mrs. Besant always works with
one facing her; Madame Blavatsky made it part of a _chela’s_ course to
spend some time daily staring at the image, and deliberately trying to
“visualise” it in corners of the room. What wonder if some of them have
succeeded? It would have been contrary to all experience of the
phenomena of self-hypnotic hallucination if they had not. The thing only
begins to call for examination when the figure thus “visualised” leaves
something not entirely psychic behind him. The Master who left a shower
of roses once at Adyar turned out to have been M. Coulomb, eked out with
a mask, a bladder, and some white muslin; and the roses were traced
elsewhere than to Tibet. And the Master who precipitated the Judge
missives?——But perhaps the Theosophists would prefer not to put him
forward. When they have something better, I shall be glad to hear of it.
The Theosophistry of Throwing Over the Mahatmas.
“_What matter even if the Mahatmas do not exist, and the phenomena are
frauds? There still remain those sublime ideas which_,” &c., &c.
I was quite prepared for this particular Theosophistry. That was why I
started, at the very beginning of my story (Chapter II.), by showing
what an enormous practical part the Mahatmas and their miracles have
played in the movement. It is easy for this Theosophist or that to
protest that they never attracted _him_. The fact remains that the big
accessions to the society’s numbers have always followed on the miracle
“booms,” alike under Madame Blavatsky and under Mrs. Besant. Moreover,
it is not possible, even argumentatively, to dissociate “those sublime
ideas,” &c., from the Mahatmas on whose authority Madame Blavatsky gave
them out. If she spoke truth, they were the real authors of “Isis Very
Much Unveiled” and of “The Secret Doctrine.” If she lied, and the
authority for those teachings is her own, what is that lying authority
worth? I need not labour the point, as it was conclusively proved long
ago by Mrs. Besant herself. In an article in _Lucifer_ of December,
1890, addressed apparently to certain Theosophical schismatics who
showed a tendency to throw over alike their foundress and her “Masters,”
Mrs. Besant accomplished the easy task of showing that the society was
tied hand and foot to both. It was founded by _Her_ at the bidding of
“_Them_”; They have been the _deus ex machinâ_ whenever She was in a
fix, and the society has so accepted Them. It can be “neutral” about
Them, and Their miracles, and Their prophetess, only when an heir is
neutral about his own title-deeds. As Mrs. Besant puts it in a nutshell:
“If there are no Masters, then the Theosophical Society is an
absurdity.”
The Theosophistry of Throwing Over the “Inner Group.”
“_The Esoteric Section is a private body, not officially connected with
the Theosophical Society; so the Society is not responsible for
miracle-mongering in the Section._”
The so-called Esoteric Section or E.S.T. (“Eastern School of
Theosophy”), of which the High-priesters and the Vice-President are now
quarrelling for the headship, and, in the words of the latter official,
“the core of the Theosophical Society.” The Inner Group, again, is the
core of the E.S.T. Both were the special creation of the Society’s
foundress. The Group was to contain her top pupils. The members of the
group are almost to a man officials of the Society, living at the
Society’s expense. With the one exception of Colonel Olcott, practically
all the high panjandrums are included in it. Lastly, if it has been the
centre of the Mahatma communications, it is a centre that has radiated
them in all directions to the society’s circumference. The plop of a
missive sends a ripple from the Inner Group to the Esoteric Section,
from the Esoteric Section to the society at large, and from the society
to the public.
Well, the yolk of an egg is not officially connected with the outer
portion; but when the yolk is bad, we call it a rotten egg without
further parley.
The Theosophistry of Throwing Over the Society’s Personnel.
But that brings me to the most barefaced Theosophistry of all: “_Even if
all our officials be proved to have lied and cheated, there still
remains untouched their grand ethical teaching!_”
I simply state this, and leave it. Like the coster when his barrow broke
down, “Friends, I ain’t ekal to it.” I cannot do justice to such
colossal impudence. “Truth survives all attacks”; she does; she will
even survive Theosophical defences. “The noble religions and
philosophies of the East exist”; they do, as they did long centuries
before the Theosophical Society was heard of, and will do long centuries
after it has been forgotten. But when Mahatmas, and miracles, and the
founders, and the officials, and the official acts of the Theosophical
Society are all thrown over—What remains of the society? “We have
absolutely no creed,” the European secretary told an interviewer the
other day—(all unfettered by the fact that he distributes broadcast Mrs.
Besant’s “Introduction to Theosophy” with a complete pseudo-Buddhistic
cosmology about the Seven Planes, &c., authenticated by direct reference
to the Masters, and particularising, for instance, that “Devachan” lasts
“for average persons some fifteen centuries”!)—“Absolutely no creed.”
“You would simply call yours a moral or religious society, then?” asked
the puzzled interviewer. To which Mr. Mead naïvely replies, “_I don’t
exactly know what you would call it_.”—(_Sunday Times_, Nov. 11.)
Since scholarship has opened the stores of the East to Western culture,
there has been a natural awakening of popular interest in Eastern
directions. While that lasts, people discussing each other’s souls will
continue to sprinkle their remarks, harmlessly enough, with those
mingled jargons which make a true Orientalist smile. If “Theosophy”
means that, “Theosophy” has certainly some life before it; but as for
the Theosophical _Society_—“why cumbereth it the ground?” It is an
organised machine for taking in the Honest Enthusiast at one end,
passing him through the stages of the Willing Dupe and the Conscientious
Humbug, and turning him out at the other end at worst a conscious fraud,
at best a dreary and disillusioned cynic.
Enough of the logical and ethical fog that Theosophy diffuses!—the
Mahatmosphere, as one might call it. It is a relief to escape from it
into the fresh air of common honesty and common sense.
POSTSCRIPT.
A MAHATMA AT BAY:
THE VICE-PRESIDENT’S TRUMP CARD.
The following appeared in the _Westminster Gazette_, under the headings:
“OPEN SPLIT BETWEEN THEOSOPHICAL OFFICIALS”; “RIVAL REVELATIONS FROM THE
SAME MASTER”; “MR. JUDGE GETS A MISSIVE DEPOSING MRS. BESANT”:—
Just as the Story of the Great Mahatma Hoax is going to press in its
collected form, just in the nick of time to be included, comes the
material for a new chapter of more extravagant humour than all the rest.
Readers of the “Isis” chapters will recall that the Theosophic embroglio
has gone through the following stages:—(1) The vice-president’s
“Mahatma” makes reflections on the president. (2) The president and
other officials make charges of “forging” Mahatma missives against the
V.P. (3) Mrs. Besant, after some vacillation, adopts these charges, and
joins with the others in offering the V.P. the choice of retiring
quietly or an exposure. (4) The V.P. bluffs them all into silence, and
they all join in inducing the “Convention” of last July to separate
without looking further into the matter. (5) Mrs. Besant and the V.P.
“join hands,” in public, on her statement that though he wrote the
alleged missives “with his own hand,” yet he had “psychically received”
their contents from the Mahatma. (6) In private, Mrs. Besant separates
herself from the V.P. by dissolving their joint headship of the Esoteric
Section (“the core of the Theosophical Society,” as Mr. Judge justly
calls it below): Mr. Judge, V.P., to retain the American section of the
section, and she herself the European, to which she has since added the
Indian.
Now we learn Phase 7. Seven is a highly Theosophical numeral, and this
phase is certainly a rich one. Mr. Judge sends round to the Esoteric
Section a pamphlet in which he announces that Mrs. Besant is, in effect,
possessed of a devil, and that the Mahatma (under whose direction she
also professes to be acting) has ordered him to depose her altogether,
and take over the whole thing himself!! Which, in a formal “Order,” he
accordingly proceeds to do.
The pamphlet, which among other things professes to give the Judge
version of the true inwardness of the abortive “Enquiry” in July, has
just been sent round to the Esoteric Theosophists. Copies were not sent
to some who were considered dangerous; but the recent unveiling has made
a good many so who were safe enough, from the Judge point of view,
before, and thanks to one of these who does not acknowledge any headship
of Mr. Judge over the European Esotericists since Mrs. Besant’s
dissolution thereof, it is possible to give to mankind what was meant by
Mr. Judge for a party. The following are the salient passages, followed
by the Order deposing Mrs. Besant (the titles in capitals are Mr.
Judge’s; the paragraph headings are not):—
BY MASTER’S DIRECTION.
I now send you this, all of it being either direct quotations from
the messages to me, or else in substance what I am directed to say
to you, the different details and elaborations being my own....
We have now to deal with the E.S.T. and with our duty to it and to
each other; and among those others, to Mrs. Besant....
The Greatness of Wm. Q. Judge.
I am not a pledged member of the E.S.T., and never made a pledge in
it, as my pledges were long before to the Master direct. I was one
of its founders, with H.P.B., and she, at the beginning, made me
manager and teacher in it from the first, under her, for the
American part especially. You can remember all she said of that. I
wrote the rules of the E.S.T. myself in London in 1888 at H.P.B.’s
request, and under the direction of the Master. Those were not
altered by her, but after reading them and further consulting the
Master she added some general paragraphs. I am the only one standing
in that position. Mrs. Besant and all other members are pledged and
certified in the ordinary way....
An Inner Group was later on formed by H.P.B. at London, so that she
might give out teachings to be recorded by the members, and, if
possible, teach them practical Occultism. Of this Mrs. Besant, with
George Mead to help her, was made the Secretary, because she had
great ability in a literary way, was wholly devoted, and perfectly
fit for the task. But this did not make her a teacher....
The Littleness of Mrs. Besant.
The death of H.P.B. destroyed, of course, any further value in the
office of “Recorder.”
The conversations of H.P.B. with the Inner Group were taken down in
a more or less fragmentary form by the different members, in notes,
and later Mrs. Besant and George Mead wrote them out, as
Secretaries. I have a complete copy of these, and so has each member
of the Inner Group, and those copies comprise all the “Instructions”
left in the possession of Mrs. Besant or the Inner Group. In my
possession, and within my control, is a large body of instructions
given to me all the time from 1875, which I shall give out and have
given out, as far as I am directed....
Mrs. Annie Besant has been but five years in this work, and not all
of that time engaged in occult study and practice....
Since 1889 she has done great service to the T.S. and devoted
herself to it. But all this does not prevent a sincere person from
making errors in Occultism, especially when he, as Mrs. Besant did,
tries to force himself along the path of practical work in that
field. Sincerity does not confer of itself knowledge, much less
wisdom....
Singular Disinterestedness of Wm. Q. Judge.
I wish it to be clearly understood that Mrs. Besant has had herself
no conscious evil intention: she has simply gone for awhile outside
the line of her Guru (H.P.B.), begun work with others, and fallen
under their influence. We should not push her farther down, but
neither will the true sympathy we have blind our eyes, so as to let
her go on, to the detriment of the movement. I could easily retire
from the whole T.S., but my conceptions of duty are different,
although the personal cost to myself in this work is heavy, and as I
am ordered to stay I will stay and try my best to aid her and
everyone else as much as possible. And the same authority tells me
that “could she open her eyes and see her real line of work, and
correct the present condition in herself as well as the one she has
helped to make in the T.S. and E.S.T., she would find herself in
mental, spiritual, and physical conditions of a kind much better
than ever before, for her present state is due to the attacks of the
dark powers, unconsciously to her.”
Black Magic and the Plot Behind the Scenes.
And now it becomes necessary under instructions received to give the
members of the School some account of the things behind the scenes
in connexion with the recent investigation attempted at London upon
the charges against me....
I was made the object of an attack in the guise of an attempt to
purify the Society, and Mrs. Besant was thrown forward as the
official accuser of myself—a friend who was certified to her by
H.P.B., her teacher, well known as working for the T.S. for many
years. All this needs light, and the best interests of Mrs. Besant
and of the E.S.T. demand that some of the secret history shall be
given out, however disagreeable it may be, in order that the very
purgation which was improperly directed to the wrong quarter shall
take place now. The difficulty arose when in January or February
Annie Besant finally lent herself unconsciously to the plot which I
detail herein....
The plot exists among the Black Magicians, who ever war against the
White, and against those Black ones we were constantly warned by
H.P.B. This is no fiction, but a very substantial fact. I have seen
and also been shown the chief entity among those who thus work
against us....
How Mr. Judge’s Master Caught Out Mrs. Besant’s Friend.
The name of the person who was worked upon so as to, if possible,
use him as a minor agent of the Black Magicians, and for the
influencing of Mrs. Besant, is Gyanendra N. Chakravarti, a Brahman,
of Allahabad, India, who came to America on our invitation to the
Religious Parliament in 1893. He permitted ambition to take subtle
root in his heart; he is no longer in our lines. He was then a Chela
of a minor Indian Guru, and was directed to come to America by that
Guru, who had been impressed to so direct him by our Master....
While in that relation he was telepathically impressed in Chicago
with some of the contents of a message received by me from the
Master. It corroborated outwardly what I had myself received. It
was, however, but a part, and was, moreover, deficient in matter,
Chakravarti himself being only aware of it as a mental impression,
and I am informed that at the time he was not fully aware of what he
was doing. His ability to be used as an unconscious vehicle was made
known to me when he was made to receive the message. Although he was
not fully aware of it, not only was the whole of his tour here well
guarded and arranged, but he was personally watched by the agents of
the Master’s scattered through the country unknown to him, who
reported to me. On several occasions he has taken people into his
confidence, believing that he was instructing them, when in fact
they were observing him closely from the Lodge, helping him where
right, and noting him fully, though they did not tell him so. This
was also so in those parts of his tour when he believed himself
alone or only with Mrs. Besant....
“If I am a Fraud so are H.P.B. and the Masters.”
If I was guilty of what I was accused, then Master would be shown as
conniving at forgery and lying—a most impossible thing. The only
other possibility is that Mr. Chakravarti and I “got up” the
message. But he and Mrs. Besant have admitted its genuineness,
although she is perfectly unable herself to decide on its
genuineness or falsity; but further, Mrs. Besant admitted to several
that she had seen the Master himself come and speak through my body
while I was perfectly conscious. And still further, H.P.B. gave me
in 1889 the Master’s picture, on which he put this message, “To my
dear and loyal colleague, W. Q. Judge.”
Now, then, either I am bringing you a true message from the Master,
or the whole T.S. and E.S.T. is a lie, in the ruins of which must be
buried the names of H.P.B. and the Masters. All these stand together
as they fall together....
How Mrs. Besant Privately Thinks H.P.B. a Fraud.
As final proof of the delusions worked through this man and his
friends, I will mention this:—Many years ago—in 1881—the Masters
sent to the Allahabad Brahmans (the Prayag T.S.) a letter which was
delivered by H.P.B. to Mr. A. P. Sinnett, who handed a copy over to
them, keeping the original; it dealt very plainly with the Brahmans.
This letter the Brahmans do not like, and Mr. Chakravarti tried to
make me think it was a pious fraud by H.P.B. He succeeded with Mrs.
Besant in this, so that since she met him she has on several
occasions said she thought it was a fraud by H.P.B., made up
entirely, and not from the Master. I say now on Master’s authority
that it was from the Master, and is a right letter. Only delusion
would make Mrs. Besant take this position: deliberate intention
makes the others do it. It is an issue which may not be evaded, for
if that letter be a fraud, then all the rest sent through our old
teacher, and on which Esoteric Buddhism was made, are the same. I
shall rest on that issue: we all rest on it.
Mrs. Besant’s Rival Revelations.
Mrs. Besant was then made to agree with these people under the
delusion that it was approved by the Masters. She regarded herself
as their servant. It was against the E.S.T. rules. When the rule is
broken it is one’s duty to leave the E.S.T., and when I got the
charges from her I asked her to leave it if it did not suit her. The
depth of the plot was not shown to Mrs. Besant at all, for if it had
been she would have refused. Nor was Colonel Olcott aware of it.
Mrs. Besant was put in such a frightful position that while she was
writing me most kindly and working with me she was all the time
thinking that I was a forger and that I had blasphemed the Master.
She was made to conceal from me, when here, her thoughts about the
intended charges, but was made to tell Mr. B. Keightley, in London,
and possibly few others. Nor until the time was ripe did she tell
me, in her letter, in January, from India, asking me to resign from
the E.S.T. and the T.S. offices, saying that if I did and would
confess guilt, all would be forgiven, and everyone would work with
me as usual. But I was directed differently, and fully informed. She
was induced to believe that the Master was endorsing the
prosecution, that he was ordering her to do what she did. At the
same time, I knew and told her that it was the plan there to have
Colonel Olcott resign when I had been cut off, the presidency to be
then offered to her. It was offered to her, and she was made to
believe it was the Master’s wish for her “not to oppose.” She then
waited. I did not resign, and the plot so far was spoilt for the
time....
She felt and expressed to me the greatest pain to have to do such
things to me. I knew she so felt, and wrote her that it was the
Black Magicians. She replied, being still under the delusion, that I
was failing to do Master’s will.
How Mrs. Besant Tried Witchcraft.
Her influencers also made her try psychic experiments on me and on
two others in Europe. They failed. On me they had but a passing
effect, as I was cognisant of them; on one of the others they
reflected on health, although she did not desire any harm at all;
she was made to think it best and for my good. She then sent word to
these people that she had not succeeded. This is all the effect of
pure delusion; the variance between such things and her usual
character is shown in her all the time writing me the most kind
letters. In all this Mr. Chakravarti was her guide, with others. She
was writing him all the time about it. He went so far as to write me
on a matter he was supposed to know nothing of: “No matter what
Annie may do to you as co-head of the E.S. she means you no harm.”
“Every Man His Own Mahatma.”
Informed as I was of these inside facts, I drew up under Master’s
direction my circular on the charges in March, 1894, and there
outlined what would be done. It was all done as I said, and as the
Master in March told me would be the case. The London investigation
ended as Master predicted through me in my circular, and for the
benefit of the T.S. But all that time the conspirators used all
means against me. They had all sorts of letters sent me from India
with pretended messages from the Masters asking me to resign and
confess. But Master kept me informed and told me what steps to take.
He even told me that, much as it might seem the contrary from the
official papers, Colonel Olcott would be the central figure and the
one through whom the adjustment would come. This also turned out
true.
Migration of Mahatmas to—New York?
The Master says that the T.S. movement was begun by Them in the West
by western people; that cyclic law requires the work in the West for
the benefit of the world; that They do not live in India.
They also say that Nature’s laws have set apart woe for those who
spit back in the face of their teacher, for those who try to
belittle her work, and make her out to be part good and part
fraud....
A distinct object H.P.B. had in view I will now, on the authority of
the Master, tell you, unrevealed before by H.P.B. to anyone else
that I know of: it is, the establishment in the West of a great seat
of learning, where shall be taught and explained and demonstrated
the great theories of man and nature which she has brought forward
to us, where Western occultism, as the essence combined out of all
others, shall be taught.
I also state on the same authority that H.P.B. has not
reincarnated....
We are all, therefore, face to face with the question whether we
will abide by Masters and their Messenger on the one hand, or by the
disrupting forces that stand on the other, willing to destroy our
great mission if we will but give them the opportunity.
“I Declare Mrs. Besant’s Headship at an End!”
The pamphlet closes with the following “E.S.T. ORDER,” dated November 3,
and signed in manuscript:—
I now proceed a step further than the E.S.T. decisions of 1894, and
solely for the good of the E.S.T. I resume in the E.S.T., in full,
all the functions and powers given to me by H.P.B. and that came to
me by orderly succession after her passing from this life, and
declare myself the sole head of the E.S.T. This has been done
already in America. So far as concerns the rest of the E.S.T. I may
have to await the action of the members, but I stand ready to
exercise those functions in every part of it. Hence, under the
authority given me by the Master and H.P.B., and under Master’s
direction, I declare Mrs. Annie Besant’s headship in the E.S.T. at
an end.
[Illustration]
This, then, is Mr. Judge’s response to the case against him, and, as was
expected, it takes the form of attacking his colleagues, but keeps
strictly to generalities as regards the evidence against himself. The
date affixed is one when Mr. Judge had probably heard of the articles in
THE WESTMINSTER by cable, but had no idea of the detailed nature of the
attack. The parts quoted throw many interesting side-lights, but perhaps
the most delightful thing is the picture presented of all the
Theosophists playing off the Mahatma on one another: Mr. Judge, Mrs.
Besant, Mr. Chakravarti, and others, giving the most contradictory
messages from the same Tibetan source; and Mr. Judge now finally “going
one better” than all the rest, for has he not, in a very real sense, the
Mahatma in his pocket?
At any rate, the battle has now well begun. The prophets of Baal are
cutting, not themselves as of old, but one another. More power to all
their elbows!
Mrs. Besant was willing enough to accept Mr. Judge’s anti-Olcott
missives as “psychically” from the Mahatma; we shall now see how it
strikes her when the same weapon is turned against herself.[1]
Footnote 1:
We _have_ seen. _Vide_ Preface.
[In the same issue was published a “vote of censure passed on the
President by one of the local ‘Lodges’ of the T.S. (Bournemouth),
declaring that the articles recently published in the _Westminster
Gazette_ disclose a _primâ facie_ case against the Vice-President,”
“of fraud upon his fellow Theosophists.” “The Vice-President should
not continue to lie,” the Bournemouth Lodge remarks, “under such a
charge.” Other Lodges have also taken one side or the other.]
THE SOCIETY UPON THE HIMALAY.
(THEOSOPHICALLY ADAPTED FROM BRET HARTE.)
I reside at Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful James;
I am not fond of pious frauds or Oriental games;
And I’ll tell in simple language, as well as I can say,
What broke up our Society upon the Himalay.
But first I would remark that there must needs be painful scenes
When Theosophic gents begin to give each other Beans;
And though Mahatma missives do pan out a little queer,
We should avoid disturbances in the Mahatmosphere.[2]
Now nothing could be nicer or more full of harmony
Than the first few months that followed the decease of “H.P.B.”;
Till Judge of Calaveras produced a curious set
Of missives in red pencil what he said were from Tibet.[3]
From these he reconstructed a Mahatma (very rare),
A Nest of that peculiar kind pertaining to a Mare;
But Mrs. Besant found a rival missive on the shelf,[4]
And said she fancied Mr. Judge had written his himself.[5]
Then Judge’s smile took on a most unpleasant sort of curve;
He said he would not trespass so on Mrs. B.’s preserve.
He was a most resourceful man, that quiet Mr. Judge;
He got another missive saying Mrs. B.’s was fudge.[6]
Now, it is not edifying for a Theosophic priest
To call another one a fraud—to all intents, at least;
Nor should the individual who happens to be meant
Reply by throwing things about to any great extent.
Then Olcott, H., of Adyar, raised a point of order, when
A chunk of old red pencil took him in the abdomen;[7]
And he smiled a kind of sickly smile and curled up on the floor,
And the subsequent proceedings interested him no more.[8]
For, in less time than I write it, all the meeting got upset
With “precipitating” missiles which did _not_ come from Tibet;
And the things they called each other in their anger were a sin—
Till the public got disgusted, and the temple roof caved in.
And this is all I have to say of these improper games,
For I live at Table Mountain and my name is Truthful James;
And I’ve told in simple language all I know about the fray
That broke up our Society upon the Himalay.
* * * * *
Footnote 2:
“Any action in these controversial matters tends to set up a perfect
whirlwind on other planes.”—Mrs. Besant in _Lucifer_.
Footnote 3:
“Mahatma Morya affects red pencil, Koot Hoomi blue.”—“Isis Very Much
Unveiled.”
Footnote 4:
“She wrote ... it was Master’s wish ... that Master ordered her to do
as she did.”—Mr. Judge’s circular to the E.S.T.
Footnote 5:
“I now know that they were written by Mr. Judge.”—Mrs. Besant, “Report
of an Enquiry,” &c.
Footnote 6:
“Under Master’s direction, I declare Mrs. Besant’s headship at an
end.”—Mr. Judge’s circular to the E.S.T.
Footnote 7:
“Isis,” Chapters IX., X.
Footnote 8:
“I declare, as my opinion, that this Enquiry must go no
farther.”—Colonel Olcott, “Report of an Enquiry,” &c.
F. E. G.
[Illustration:
“WHEN AUGUR MEETS AUGUR”—
“It is rather a squalid fight between the augurs that the curtain has
been raised upon; but it has got to be fought out now before the
public, and it is in vain to try to ring the curtain down again.”
]
“ISIS VERY MUCH UNVEILED.”
A REPLY FROM MR. WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.
_To the_ EDITOR _of_ THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE.
SIR,—You have published slanderous articles against the Theosophical
Society, using me as the person; you have asked for a reply; I send it
to you and ask that it be given place in your paper.—Yours truly,
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.
_Theosophical Society, American Section,
General Secretary’s Office, New York, Nov. 26._
_To the_ EDITOR _of_ THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE.
SIR,—At the time your articles directed against the Theosophical Society
under the above title were appearing, I was lecturing in the country,
and only within a few days have I seen your last numbers. Time is
required for writing on such a subject, and at this distance from London
I cannot be accused of much delay. With the greatest interest and
amusement I have read your long series of articles. The writer is an
able man, and you and he together constitute one of the advertising
agencies of the Theosophical Society. The immense range of your notices
cannot be well calculated, and very truly we could never pay for such an
advertisement. Do you mind keeping this part of my letter as all the
remuneration we can give you for the work done by you in thus
advertising the movement and bringing prominently to the notice of your
public the long-forgotten but true doctrine of the possible existence of
such beings as Professor Huxley says it would be impertinent to say
could not exist in the natural order of evolution?
And while I look at it all as an advertisement, I cannot admire the
treason developed therein, nor the spiteful unworthy tone of it, nor the
divergence from fact in many cases when it suited the purpose, nor the
officious meddling in the private affairs of other people, nor the
ignoring and falsification in respect to possible motive, made out by
you to be gain by some of us, when the fact is that we are all losers of
money by our work. That fact a candid person would have stated, and
marvelled at it that we should be willing to slave for the Theosophical
Society, and always spend our money. Such a person would have given “the
devil his due.” You have suppressed it and lied about it, and hence it
is not admirable in you, but is quite mean and low. You advertise us and
then try to befoul us. Well, we gain by the advertisement, and the
course of time will wipe off the small stain you try to paint upon us.
When you and your ready writer are both dead and forgotten, and some of
you probably execrated for offences not as yet exposed, we will still
live as a body and be affecting the course of modern thought, as we have
been doing for nearly twenty years.
I am the principal object of your attack, though you also cruelly abuse
a woman who has long enough fought the world of your conventional
nation, and perhaps you expect me to either rise and explain, or keep
silent. Well, I will do neither. I will speak, but cannot fully explain.
Your paper is a worldly forum, a sort of court. In it there is neither
place nor credence for explanations which must include psychic things,
facts, and laws, as well as facts and circumstances of the ordinary
sort. Were I to explain in full, no one would believe me save those
students of the occult and the psychical who know psychic law and fact.
Those who doubt and wish all to be reduced to the level of compass and
square, of eye and word of mouth, would still be doubters. Nothing would
be gained at all. That difficulty no intelligent person who has had
psychic experience can overlook. That is why you are quite safe from a
suit for libel. I assure you that had you published something not so
inextricably tangled up with psychic phenomena I should be glad to have
you in court, not to soothe wounded feelings I have not, but to show
that our faulty law and so-called justice do sometimes right some
wrongs.
Let me first emphatically deny the inference and assertion made by you,
that I and my friends make money out of the T.S., or that the
organisation has built up something by which we profit. This is untrue,
and its untruth is known to all persons who know anything at all about
the society. No salaries are paid to our officers. We support ourselves
or privately support each other. I have never had a penny from the
society, and do not want any. The little magazine, the _Path_, which I
publish here in the interest of the society, is not supported by
subscriptions from members, but largely by others, and it is kept up at
a loss to me which will never be repaid. I publish it because I wish to,
and not for gain. Thousands of dollars are expended in the T.S. work
here each year over and above what is paid in for fees and dues. The
dues are but four shillings a year, and three times as much as that is
expended in the work. Where does it come from? Out of our private
pockets, and if I had a million I would spend it that way. My friends
and myself give our money and our time to the society without hope or
desire for any return. We may be fanatics—probably are—but it is false
and malicious to accuse us of using the society for gain. The only
payment we get is the seeing every day the wider and wider spread of
Theosophical theories of life, man, and nature. I am ready to submit all
our books and vouchers to any auditor to support these statements. And
you were in a position to find out the facts as I have given them.
It is also absolutely untrue, as you attempt to show or infer, that the
society grows by talking of the Mahatmas or Masters, or by having
messages sent round from them. The movement here and elsewhere is pushed
along the line of philosophy, and each one is left to decide for himself
on the question of the Mahatmas. “Messages from the Masters” do not go
flying round, and the society does not flourish by any belief in those
being promulgated. Nor am I, as you hint, in the habit of sending such
messages about the society, nor of influencing the course of affairs by
using any such thing. Send out and ask all the members and you will find
I am correct. It is true that those Masters tell me personally what I am
to do, and what is the best course to take, as they have in respect to
this very letter, but that is solely my own affair. Could I be such a
fool as to tell all others to go by what I get for my own guidance,
knowing how weak, suspicious, and malicious is the human nature of
to-day? You are on the wrong tack, my friend.
But you were right when you say that Mrs. Besant made a remarkable
change in respect to me. That is true, and Mr. Chakravarti whom you name
is, as you correctly say, the person who is responsible for it. Before
she met Chakravarti she would not have dreamed of prosecuting me. This
is a matter of regret, but while so, I fail to see how you aid your case
against me by dragging the thing in thus publicly, unless, indeed, you
intend to accuse him and her of going into a conspiracy against me.
There are two classes of “messages from the Masters” charged to me by
you and by that small section of the T.S. members who thought of trying
me. One class consists of notes on letters of mine to various persons;
the other of messages handed to Mrs. Besant and Colonel Olcott and
enclosure found in a letter to Colonel Olcott from a man in California.
I have never denied that I gave Mrs. Besant messages from the Masters. I
did so. They were from the Masters. She admits that, but simply takes on
herself to say that the Master did not personally write or precipitate
them. According to herself, then, she got from me genuine messages from
the Masters; but she says she did not like them to be done or made in
some form that she at first thought they were not in. I have not
admitted her contention; I have simply said they were from the Master,
and that is all I now say, for I will not tell how or by what means they
were produced. The objective form in which such a message is of no
consequence. Let it be written by your Mr. Garrett, or drop out of the
misty air, or come with a clap of thunder. All that makes no difference
save to the vulgar and the ignorant. The reality of the message is to be
tested by other means. If you have not those means you are quite at sea
as to the whole thing. And all this I thought was common knowledge in
the Theosophical world. It has long been published and explained.
One of those messages to Mrs. Besant told her not to go to India that
year. I got it in California, and then telegraphed it to her in
substance later, sending the paper. I had no interest in not having her
go to India, but knew she would go later. The other messages were of a
personal nature. They were all true and good. At the time I gave them to
her I did not say anything. That I never denied. It was not thought by
me necessary to insult a woman of her intellectual ability, who had read
all about these things, by explaining all she was supposed to know.
Those who think those messages were not from the Master are welcome to
doubt it so far as I am concerned, for I know the naturalness of that
doubt.
When Colonel Olcott resigned I was first willing to let him stay
resigned. But I was soon directed by another “message” to prevent it if
I could, and at once cabled that to him, and went to work to have the
American Section vote asking him to stay in office. As I was the person
mentioned to succeed him, we also, to provide for contingencies,
resolved that the choice of America was myself as successor. But when he
revoked, then my successorship was null and void until voted on at
another period not yet reached. But it is absolutely false that I sent
an emissary to him when I found he was minded to stay in office. Ask him
on this and see what he says. I leave that to him. Truly enough I made
an error of judgment in not telling the influential London members of my
message when I told Olcott. But what of that? I did not tell the
Americans, but left their action to the dictates of their sense and the
trend of friendship and loyalty to our standard-bearer. The English
voted against Olcott by doing nothing, but I asked them in the same way
as I asked the Americans to request him to revoke. They had their
chance. As India had done the same as America I saw the vote was final
as my message directed, and so I dropped it from my mind—one of my
peculiarities. I certainly did not use any pressure by way of “messages
from the Masters” on anyone as to that, save on Olcott. And he reported
a message to the same effect to himself. Did I invent that also? My
message to him was copied by me on my type-writer and sent to him. I did
it thus because I knew of spies about Olcott, of whom I had warned him
to little effect. One of those confessed and committed suicide, and the
other was found out.
A message was found in a letter from Abbot Clark, a Californian, to
Colonel Olcott. This, you say, I made and put in the letter. I have the
affirmation of Mr. Clark on the matter, which I send you herewith to be
inserted at this place if you wish. It does not bear out your
contention, but shows the contrary. It also shows that his letter to
Colonel Olcott was opened in India by some other person before being
sent on to Colonel Olcott. You can make what inference you like from
this.
Your statement about putting a question in a cabinet for an answer when
I stayed in the room and Mrs. Besant went out is false. No such thing
took place. I deny that there was any such thing as a reception of
“answers in a sealed envelope in a closed drawer.” That is supreme bosh
from beginning to end, and cannot be proved by anybody’s testimony,
unless you will accept perjury.
At the same time I can now say, as the sole authority on the point, that
several of the contested messages are genuine ones, no matter what all
and every person, Theosophist or not, may say to the contrary.
You have much talk about what you say is called the Master’s seal. You
have proved by the aid of Colonel Olcott that the latter made an
imitation in brass of the signature of the Master and gave it to H.P.B.
as a joke. You trace it to her and there you leave it, and then you
think I am obliged to prove I did not get it, to prove negatives again,
when it has never been proved that I had it. I have long ago denied all
knowledge of Master’s seal either genuine or imitated. I do not know if
he has a seal; if he has, I have not yet been informed of it; the
question of a seal owned by him as well as what is his writing or
signature are both still beclouded. None of the members who have been in
this recent trouble know what is the writing, or the seal, or the mark
of the Master. It was long ago told by H.P.B. that the so-called writing
of the Master was only an assumed hand, and no real knowledge is at hand
as to his having a seal. I have seen impressions similar to what you
have reproduced, but it is of no consequence to me. If there were a
million impressions of seals on a message said to be from the Master, it
would add nothing to the message in my eyes, as other means must be
employed for discovering what is and what is not a genuine message.
Seals and ciphers do not validate these things. Unless I can see for
myself by my inner senses that a message is genuine, I will not believe
it, be it loaded with seals I do not know. As I know the thousand and
one magical ways by which impressions of things may be put on paper,
even unconsciously to the human channel or focus, I have relied, and ask
others to rely, on their own inner knowledge and not to trust to
appearances. Others may think these little decorations of importance,
but I do not. I never asked anyone at any meeting, private or public, to
note or observe the seal-impression you give. Others may have done so,
but I did not. Others may have gone into laboured arguments to show the
value of such a thing, but I did not. The whole matter of this so-called
seal is so absurd and childish that it has made me laugh each time I
have thought of it.
Now I can do no more than deny, as I hereby do absolutely, all the
charges you have been the means of repeating against me. I have denied
them very many times, for I have known of them for about two years and a
half. My denial is of no value to you; nor to those who think there is
no supersensual world; nor to those who think that because conjurors can
imitate any psychical phenomenon, therefore the latter has no existence;
nor to those who deny the possibility of the existence of Mahatmas or
great souls. These things are all foolishness to such persons, and I am
willing to let it stay that way. Were I to go into all the details of
all the messages you refer to, and were I to get from those who know, as
I can, the full relation of all that is involved in those messages on my
letters which I saw after the July “investigation” was ended, I would be
opening the private doors to the secret hearts of others, and that I
will not do. Already I know by means not generally accessible altogether
too much of the private hearts of many of these people, and have no
desire to know more.
Some of the matters you cite are related to a private body, once called
the Esoteric Section, which is protected—nominally, so it seems, among
your informants—by a pledge. The breaking of that by others gives me no
right to add to their breach. I cannot, like Mr. Old and others more
prominent, violate the confidences of others. His revelations cannot be
analysed by me in public. He is in the position of those Masons who have
attempted to reveal the secrets of Masonry; and either the public has
listened to a liar or to one who has to admit that he does not regard
his solemn obligation as worth a straw when it obstructs his purposes;
in either case the information cannot be relied upon. His account and
yours contain so many misrepresentations that none [of] it has any
serious consideration from me.
And Mr. Old’s revelations, or those of any other members, amount to
nothing. The real secrets have not been revealed, for they have not been
put in the hands of such people; they have been given only to those who
have shown through long trial and much labour that they are worthy to
have the full relation of the plans of the master-builder exposed to
their gaze. Let the dishonest, the perjured, and the vacillating go on
with their revelations; they will hurt no one but themselves.
Now as to the Investigation at which you have laughed. I grant you it
was matter for laughter from outside to see such a lot of labour and
gathering from the four quarters to end in what you regard as smoke.
Now, my dear sir, I did not call the Inquiry Committee. I protested
against it and said from the beginning it should never have been called
at all. Must I bear the brunt of that which I did not do? Must I explain
all my life to a committee which had no right to come together, for
which there was no legal basis? It was called in order to make me give
up an official succession I did not have; months before it met I said it
would come to nothing but a declaration written by me of the
non-dogmatic character of the T.S. My Master so told me and so it turned
out. Will you give me no credit for this foreknowledge? Was it a guess,
or was it great ability, or did it come about through bribery, or what?
I was told to use the opportunity to procure an official declaration
that belief in Mahatmas or Masters was not and is not one of the T.S.,
and I succeeded in so doing. I might have been accused as an individual
and not official member. But by the influence of the Mr. Chakravarti
whom you mention the whole power of the society was moved against me, so
as to try and cut me down root and branch officially and privately, so
that it might thereby be made sure that I was not successor to the
presidency. This is the fact. That is why I forgave them all; for it is
easy to forgive; in advance I forgave them since they furnished such a
splendid official opportunity for a decision we long had needed. The
odium resulting from the attempt to try occult and psychical questions
under common law rules I am strong enough to bear; and up to date I have
had a large share of that.
I refused a committee of honour, they say. I refused the committee that
was offered as it was not of persons who could judge the matter rightly.
They would have reached no conclusion save the one I now promulgate,
which is, that the public proof regarding my real or delusive
communications from the Masters begins and ends with myself, and that
the committee could not make any decision at all, but would have to
leave all members to judge for themselves. To arrive officially at this
I would have to put many persons in positions that they could not stand,
and the result then would have been that far more bad feeling would come
to the surface. I have at least learned after twenty years that it is
fruitless to ask judges who have no psychic development to settle
questions the one half of which are in the unseen realm of the soul
where the common law of England cannot penetrate.
The “messages from the Masters” have not ceased. They go on all the time
for those who are able and fit to have them, but no more to the doubter
and the suspicious. Even as I write they have gone to some, and in
relation to this very affair, and in relation to other revelations and
pledge-breakings. It is a fact in experience to me, and to friends of
mine who have not had messages from me, that the Masters exist and have
to do with the affairs of the world and the Theosophical movement. No
amount of argument or Maskelyneish explanation will drive out that
knowledge. It will bear all the assaults of time and foolish men. And
the only basis on which I can place the claim of communication by the
Masters to me, so far as the world is concerned, is my life and acts. If
those for the last twenty years go to prove that I cannot be in
communication with such beings, then all I may say one way or the other
must go for naught.
Why so many educated Englishmen reject the doctrine of the
perfectibility of man, illustrated by the fact of there now existing
Masters of wisdom, passes my comprehension, unless it be true, as seems
probable, that centuries of slavery to the abominable idea of original
sin as taught by theology (and not by Jesus) has reduced them all to the
level of those who, being sure they will be damned any way, are certain
they cannot rise to a higher level, or unless the great god of
conventionality has them firmly in his grasp. I would rather think
myself a potential god and try to be, as Jesus commanded, “perfect as
the Father in heaven”—which is impossible unless in us is that Father in
essence—than to remain darkened and enslaved by the doctrine of inherent
original wickedness which demands a substitute for my salvation. And it
seems nobler to believe in that perfectibility and possible rise to the
state of the Masters than to see with science but two possible ends for
all our toil: one to be frozen up at last, and the other to be burned
up, when the sun either goes out or pulls us into his flaming
breast.—Yours truly,
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.
[The following is the “affirmation” of Mr. Abbot Clark, enclosed with
the above]:—
“San Francisco, Cal., April 21, 1894.
“I, Abbot Clark, a member of the Theosophical Society, do hereby state
and affirm as follows: I have seen it stated in the newspapers that it
is charged that I wrote Colonel H. S. Olcott in 1891 to India, and that
in that letter was some message not known to me, and that Colonel Olcott
replied, asking where William Q. Judge was at the time, and that I
replied he was in my house. The facts are: That in 1891 W. Q. Judge was
lecturing in this State, and I was with him at Santa Ana, and that I had
no house and never had, being too poor to have one. Brother Judge
stopped at the hotel in Santa Ana, where he came from my home, my
father’s house at Orange, where he had been at dinner, and at Santa Ana
I arranged his lectures and I stayed at my aunt’s at Santa Ana; while in
the hotel a conversation arose with us, in which I spoke of Theosophical
propaganda among the Chinese on this coast, and Brother Judge suggested
that I write to Colonel Olcott, as he knew many Buddhists Theosophists,
and might arrange it better than Brother Judge; and I then myself wrote
to Colonel Olcott on the matter, showing the letter after it was done to
Brother Judge to see if it should be improved or altered, and he handed
me back the letter at once. I put it in my pocket and kept it there for
several days waiting for a chance to buy stamps for postage as I was
away from any post-office. Brother Judge left by himself the morning
after I wrote the letter and went to San Diego, and the only time I saw
him again was in the train just to speak to him on his return after
about four days, and the letter was not mentioned, thought of, nor
referred to.
“I assert on my word of honour that Brother Judge said nothing to me
about any message pretended to be from Masters or otherwise, and so far
as any reports or statements have been made relating to me herein
different from the above they are absolutely false.
“From India I got a reply from Adyar T.S. office from one Charlu, saying
he had opened my letter in Colonel Olcott’s absence, and had forwarded
it to him; and Dharmapala told me he had seen letters from me to Colonel
Olcott on the matter received in India away from Adyar. The said Charlu,
in reply, also asked me where Brother Judge was when the letter was
written, and I wrote that he had been at my house on that date, which is
true as above stated, Orange being only three miles from Santa Ana, as I
thought Charlu wished to have Brother Judge’s dates. But I thought also
the questions put were peculiar from such a distance. I never got any
reply to my sincere first question in that letter about propaganda from
him, and never any reply of any sort from Colonel Olcott. When
Dharmapala was here he did not bring any message in reply from Colonel
Olcott, but referred to recollecting speaking with Olcott about a
proposal from California to work with the Chinese. And Charlu did not
speak of any enclosure in said letter. A year later I again wrote on the
same matter to Colonel Olcott, which was answered by Gopala Charlu, now
dead, saying but little, if anything, would be done by him. To all this
I affirm on my honour.
“ABBOT B. CLARK.
“Witness: signatures:
ALLEN GRIFFITHS, E. B. RAMBO.”
THE MAHATMA OF NEW YORK.
An Appreciation of Mr. Judge’s “Reply,” by the Author of “Isis Very Much
Unveiled.”
A convicted person has one last refuge. He may contrive to suggest
imbecility, and so appeal from the sense of justice to that of pity. To
the average reader it might seem that this, and this alone, could be the
real object of the astounding piece of self-revelation which I have been
privileged to extract from Mr. William Q. Judge, vice-president of the
Theosophical Society. But we must remember that with the Theosophical
reader it may be otherwise. To the Theosophical Society this “Reply”
from the man they have delighted to honour may seem, for all I know, a
model of candour, of coherence, and of cogency. That is not, I confess,
what I hear privately; but, so far as any public word goes, the good,
docile folk have evidently determined to wait till Mrs. Besant comes
home and tells them what to think, and (still more important) what to
say. For their benefit, then, and still more for the benefit of those
potential converts to Theosophy in whom the atrophy of the mental
processes is not yet complete, I will, as gravely as I can, examine the
vice-president’s utterance.
How Much is Admitted.
Now, first, let us see how many of the “Mahatma missives” Mr. Judge
directly or indirectly admits. Those which I have referred to as
produced by Mr. Judge included the following:—
The Cabinet missive.
The “Note the Seal” missive.
The “Judge’s Plan is Right” missive.
The “Masters Watch us” missive.
The “Judge is the friend” missive.
The “Master agrees” missive.
The Envelope Trick missive.
The “I withold” missive.
The Telegram missive.
The “Master will Provide” missive.
The Inner Group missive.
The “Grave Danger Olcott” missive.
The “Follow Judge and Stick” missive.
The “Judge is not the Forger” missive.
The Poison Threat missive.
(Besides these I have referred to other Mahatma letters or endorsements
on letters, on bank-notes, &c.; but those enumerated will do for the
present.)
Out of all these Mr. Judge disputes only two. As regards the “Note the
Seal” missive, all that he denies is the statement that it was he who
drew the special attention of the Inner Group to the seal upon it—a
denial which I shall deal with presently. He denies the whole story of
the Cabinet missive, and in regard to the “Judge is not the Forger”
missive, he denies that it was fabricated by _him_, but suggests that it
was fabricated by some other Theosophist.
The facts about the whole of the remaining thirteen (and more) missives
he thus implicitly admits, using such general phrases as
these:—“_Several_ of the contested messages are genuine ones”; “they
were _all_ good and true”; “they were from the Master”; “I _have not
admitted_ her [Mrs. Besant’s] contention” [that they were only
psychically from the Master, and were written in Mahatmascript by
Judge]; and, finally, “I _will not tell_ how or by what means they were
produced.” The “Grave Danger Olcott” missive, by the way, he admits
explicitly.
It is for the Theosophists, therefore, now to consider whether the
substance of these admitted missives (to say nothing of this “Reply,” in
which also Mr. Judge asserts the Master’s collaboration) squares with
their conception of “the Master of Wisdom,” that “god-like” exemplar of
“the perfectibility of man,” as his own “Messenger” describes him.
The Two Contested Missives.
The reason why Mr. Judge selected just these two for denial is, no
doubt, the damaging suggestiveness of the contents of the one and of the
circumstances under which the other was produced. I for my part applaud
his choice, because it will bring him into sharp conflict, as regards
the one missive, with Mrs. Besant, and as regards the other, with
Colonel Olcott.
(1) The Cabinet Missive: Judge v. Besant.
In regard to all those missives which were palmed off on Mrs. Besant
herself, my account is based, as regards generalities, on Mrs. Besant’s
own statements and Mr. Judge’s own admissions. As regards details,
however, I have had to rely on intimates and colleagues at Avenue-road,
to whom Mrs. Besant told the wondrous tale at the time.
The story of the Cabinet missive is briefly this (see “Isis Very Much
Unveiled,” p. 28). Mr. Judge suggests to Mrs. Besant that they should
put a question to the Masters by writing it on paper, and placing this
in a certain cabinet in “H.P.B.’s” room. The result was the endorsement
of the paper with the words, “Yes,” “And hope,” in the red script used
in all these communications, and also the impression of what Madame
Blavatsky called the “flap-doodle” seal, under circumstances which
demonstrated either psychic precipitation on the part of the Master, or
else vulgar trickery on the part of Mr. Judge.
Mr. Judge declares “no such thing took place.”
Now, on the facts stated, it is obvious that only one person can
authoritatively contradict Mr. Judge here: to wit, Mrs. Besant. This I
am bound to suppose that she will do; for my version of the story is
that given by her on the day after the occurrence to a colleague, who
quoted it from his diary. Mrs. Besant also showed what purported to be
the missive, sealed and endorsed as described, and this to several
people. At Adyar, at the beginning of this year, when the Judge missives
were being blown upon all round, she repeated the story, with only one
correction—a notable one—that she had _not_, as she at first implied,
stayed in the room all the time during Mr. Judge’s working of the
Cabinet oracle.
What Mr. Judge will do if Mrs. Besant sticks to her version of the story
I do not know. But he has already, in the secret circular lately
divulged, disposed of the rest of her action in this matter as due to
possession by a devil; so no doubt he will say that here, too, it was
“the Black Magicians” (_per_ Brother Chakravarti) who both imposed the
delusion and manufactured the missive to fit it. Note that he does not
appeal to Mrs. Besant to bear him out, but says: “It cannot be proved by
anybody’s testimony, _unless you will accept perjury_.” This is not the
only passage in his Reply where Mr. Judge foreshadowed his readiness to
extend his accusations of lying, pledge-breaking, &c. (as, indeed, he is
logically bound to), from Mr. Old to Mr. Old’s fellow-sinners, Mrs.
Besant and Colonel Olcott.
(2) The “Judge Is not the Forger” Missive: Judge v. Olcott.
The other missive with which Mr. Judge disclaims connexion is the only
one in the whole series which was apparently not produced in immediate
juxtaposition with him, and under his personal superintendence. That,
indeed, was just the point of it; it was enclosed in a letter from
another person, with all the distance between New York and California to
prove that Mr. Judge could have had no hand in it. It was, in fact, a
last desperate attempt to lull the suspicions of the recipient, Colonel
Olcott, who, however, discovered that Mr. Judge had been in California,
and in the company of Mr. Clark, from whom the letter came, at the very
date of the letter. (“Isis,” pp. 50-52.)
I told this story—quoting Colonel Olcott’s evidence—and forthwith was
assured, publicly, in general terms (“Isis,” p. 76), then specifically
through a private source, that Mr. Judge could annihilate it by
producing an affidavit from the Mr. Clark in question. (“Abbot
Clark”—the name comically recalls that of “Abner Dean” in Bret Harte’s
“Society upon the Stanislaus.”) I was not much perturbed by this
announcement, as the reserve evidence in my hands happened to include
the substance of a letter from Mr. Abbot Clark himself, offering
abundant material for cross-examination upon the boasted “affidavit,” if
and when this was produced.
And lo! now we have this precious “affidavit” (which, by the way, turns
out not to be an affidavit at all), testifying—what? Why, that Mr. Judge
had abundant opportunities for inserting or getting inserted any
enclosure he wished in Mr. Clark’s letter, and that the letter which
provided the opportunity was actually written at Mr. Judge’s suggestion,
and passed once through Mr. Judge’s fingers, besides spending several
days in Mr. Clark’s coat pocket!
The guilelessness with which Mr. Abner De—I mean Mr. Abbot Clark—adds,
among the rest of the plaintive verbiage of his statement, that “on my
word of honour Brother Judge said nothing to _me_ about any missive,”
completes the charm of this document. Ah! it would be a poor world for
the William Q. Judges if it did not contain a good percentage of Abbot
Clarks.
Whom does Mr. Judge Accuse?
But now arises another point. Mr. Judge does not number this missive
among the “several genuine” ones. It was not the Mahatma’s; it was not
fabricated by Mr. Judge; therefore it must have been fabricated by
somebody else. “You can make what inference you like,” Mr. Judge
liberally remarks; but the only inferences possible from what he says
are that the guilty person is Colonel Olcott or Colonel Olcott’s manager
at the _Theosophist_ office. (The latter, by name T. Vijiaraghava
Charlu, was the person who received and forwarded the letter and
enclosure to Colonel Olcott. Mr. Judge and his satellite appear to wish
to confuse this person with another Charlu, Theosophical treasurer, who
committed suicide after peculation.)
Now, as I have made sufficiently clear, I hold no sort of brief for any
Theosophist, and especially none for any Theosophical official. In the
past, Mr. Judge has had no monopoly of the missive-manufacturing
industry; and if he can prove that there are colleagues in the business
even now, I shall be glad to consider the evidence. But, in this
particular case, just look at the probabilities.
First, there is the handwriting, which is apparently exactly the same in
this missive as in others of the series with which, admittedly, these
other gentlemen had nothing, and Mr. Judge had everything, to do.
Then there are the contents. These also fit admirably into the chain.
The Master is made to declare that “Judge is not the forger”—a point of
which Mr. Judge was trying hard to convince the Colonel; also, to
provide explanations of various suspicious circumstances in other
missives which tended to show that Judge _was_ “the forger”; also to
exculpate Judge for various misstatements by suggesting that he was an
unconscious vehicle.
Then, there is the description of the “flap-doodle” seal as “the Lahore
brass”—a bad shot at the place of origin known to Olcott, but only half
known to Judge. Attribute this to Mr. Judge trying to startle his
colleague, and it exhibits just that mixture of fatuity and cunning
which appears throughout the vice-president’s transactions. Attribute it
to Colonel Olcott manufacturing a pretended Judge forgery, and it
becomes a refinement of malignant ingenuity such as his worst enemy, I
fancy, will not suspect Colonel Olcott of compassing, either himself or
through an agent.
It needs no Sherlock Holmes to point the bearing of these probabilities.
The Evidence of the Seal.
We have it now on Mr. Judge’s authority that “the whole matter of this
so-called seal ... has made me laugh whenever I have thought of it.” If
so, it shows how much harmless mirth a trivial and apparently useless
nick-nack may be the cause of. Throughout its history this
Mahatma-signet seems to have had a magical effect on the risible
muscles. We saw how Madame Blavatsky smiled at it as “a flap-doodle of
Olcott’s”; Colonel Olcott himself has told us that he had it
manufactured in the first instance as “a playful present,” and
accompanied the gift with “a jocular remark”; and there is no doubt that
he has enjoyed many a quiet chuckle since over the unwary use of it by
his rival, who may yet prove to have sealed his own official
death-warrant in sealing the Mahatma’s “missives.”
Well, since it is so provocative of pleasant emotions, let us look again
into this matter of the Master’s seal. For, indeed, it is only since
certain other things have been found out that Mr. Judge has discovered
how little the question of the seal’s genuineness matters either way. It
is all very well now for him to declare that internal evidence is the
only test of Mahatmic origin: that in a message, for instance, like
“Follow Judge and stick” (“Isis,” p. 48), it is the words themselves
whose very sweetness giveth proof
That they were born for immortality.
But that was not always Mr. Judge’s line. After all, _somebody_ must
have been at pains to see to the seal impression in those missives which
Mr. Judge vouched for—to say nothing of such other external and material
things as the texture of the paper, quite unlike any found elsewhere,
and the handwriting and signature, all of which used to be triumphantly
cited as evidence by Mr. Judge’s satellites (the present quotation is
from a pamphlet on “Mahatmas,” embellished with learned references to
“Lord Bacon,” which is by Mr. Judge’s private secretary, and bears the
imprimatur of Mr. Judge). Mr. Judge denies that it was he who called
special attention to the seal impression as authenticating his first
pioneer missive in 1891 (the “Note the Seal” missive, as I have called
it). As he does not deny my statement that he excused himself to the
others present for not showing the contents of the letter, perhaps he
will explain what it was that he did call attention to, if not the seal
and signature. But why labour the point, when there is the direct
evidence afforded by one of his own seal-bearing letters—one which he
has not denied—in which he wrote, “I believe the Master agrees with me,
_in which case I will ask him to put his seal here_”—and “plump on the
written word came the seal” (“Isis,” p. 34). In those days at any rate
Mr. Judge was of those who “think these little decorations of
importance,” as he now puts it.
“You trace it [the seal] to her [H.P.B.], and there you leave it,” Mr.
Judge says; “and then you think I am obliged to prove I did not get
it—to prove negatives.” But I traced it rather farther than to H.P.B. I
traced the seal to Lansdowne-road in 1888 (Mr. B. Keightley’s evidence).
I traced an impression of it on a letter from _Mr. Judge_ at
Lansdowne-road in 1888 (Colonel Olcott’s evidence). I showed that when
Mr. Judge went back to America, the seal went too (telegram impression,
New York, 1890; evidence of Mr. B. Keightley). I showed that
thenceforward it appeared on missives produced by Mr. Judge, and on no
others, again and again. I showed how, in the missives planted on
Colonel Olcott, as if dubious how far the Colonel would carry on the
complaisance of Madame Blavatsky, Mr. Judge’s complete letter-writer
tried the seal on gradually; first, an illegible impression, and then a
bold one; how, when the Colonel threatened to “peach,” the latter _pièce
à conviction_ was suddenly and stealthily removed from the spot where
Mr. Judge had taught the Colonel to find it; how, after that, legible
impressions were reserved for others, and the Colonel only got illegible
ones; how, finally (this was after the Colonel had threatened to
reproduce any he saw anywhere, together with the whole story of the
seal, in the _Theosophist_), seal-impressions ceased altogether; and how
Mr. Judge erased such as he could get hold of, and began quibbling and
equivocating about the seal as he is doing up to the present moment.
These facts, again, I leave to tell their own story; in face of which it
matters little how many “stories” Mr. Judge may tell.
Quibbling about the Mahatma.
Mr. Judge’s particular version of the old Theosophistry about the small
part played by Mahatmas and their missives in the society is
conveniently adjacent in this Reply to statements of his own in the
exactly opposite sense. While in one breath he denies “influencing the
course of affairs by any such thing,” a few lines lower down he tells us
how he got a message directing him to prevent the president’s
resignation, “and at once cabled to him and went to work to have the
American section vote”; and, again, how he stopped Mrs. Besant going to
India, “under direction”; and, again, how authoritative messages are
going round “even as I write,” “and in relation to this very affair.”
Compare these, too:—
MR. JUDGE IN HIS “REPLY.” MR. JUDGE ELSEWHERE.
It is absolutely untrue that the I am not acting impulsively in my
society grows by talking of the many public statements as to
Mahatmas or Masters, or by having Masters.... Experience has shown
messages sent round from them. The that a springing up of interest in
movement here and elsewhere is Theosophy has followed
pushed along the line of declarations, and men’s minds are
philosophy.... Messages from the more powerfully drawn.... The
Masters do not go flying around, Masters have said, “It is easier to
and the society does not flourish help in America, because our
by any belief in those being existence has been persistently
promulgated. declared.”—(Mr. Judge, letter in
_Lucifer_, April, 1893.)
Nor am I, as you hint, in the habit I now send you this, all of it
of sending such messages about the being either direct quotations from
society, nor of influencing the the messages to me or else in
course of affairs by using any such substance what I am directed to say
things. Could I be such a fool as to you.... We are all, therefore,
to tell all others to go by what I face to face with the question
get for my own guidance? whether we will abide by Masters
and their messenger.—(Mr. Judge,
circular to “the core of the T.S.,”
deposing Mrs. Besant, November,
1894.)
What Mr. Judge Lives On.
Mr. Judge pretends that I have said that his motive is mere pecuniary
gain. I have throughout treated the vice-president as a spiritual Jabez,
not a financial one; and I wish him joy of the distinction. But since he
has raised the question at such length, I will examine it a moment. Mr.
Judge says: “No salaries are paid to our officers. We support ourselves,
or privately support each other.” As he has elsewhere explained that he,
for one, gives his whole time to the society, it will be seen that the
Theosophical officials supply a parallel to those famous Scilly
Islanders who “eked out a precarious existence by taking in each others’
washing.” The statement about the salaries is directly contradicted, on
turning to the 1894 Convention Report, by an extra vote of £150 for the
officials at Avenue-road. But I am well aware that the ready money of
the T.S. is drawn far more from a few individuals with means and from
special funds than from the small annual subscription, and I have said
already that the “free board and lodging” amid the temple groves at
Adyar, Avenue-road, and New York is more than their small salary to
those of “the smaller fry” to whom such things are a consideration. As
for Mr. Judge, he does not deny that it is he to whom the _Path_, and
the press and publishing business connected with it, now belong; but he
makes the curious statement that the proceeds, whatever they may be,
come out of the pockets, not of “members, but largely of others.” In
other words, it is not Theosophists, but the outside public, who support
the official organ of Theosophy! Can it be that the _Path_ is widely
taken in as a comic paper?
A Few Other Curiosities.
Note the information conveyed, in this Reply and in Mr. Judge’s recent
Circular, that both Mrs. Besant and Colonel Olcott also profess to get
“messages from the Master.” “If you may get messages (he asks in effect)
why not I missives?” Why, indeed?
Note the reproach about “abusing a woman who has long enough fought,”
&c. This from the man who has just issued a circular ordering the
deposition of the said woman for being possessed of a devil!
Note the threat, addressed to me and the Editor of THE WESTMINSTER, that
Mr. Judge’s Master will get us “execrated for offences not yet exposed,”
and that he has already let Mr. Judge into “altogether too much of the
secret hearts” of his Theosophical colleagues. This is an old line which
Madame Blavatsky used to find very effective with weak-minded disciples.
Note the claim to prophetic “foreknowledge,” based on the fact that Mr.
Judge said, long before the July “Enquiry,” that it would come to
nothing. It must be granted that this does imply a complete prescience
on the part of Mr. Judge—of the tactics which Mr. Judge in due course
adopted.
Note, lastly, Mr. Judge’s plain avowal that he declines to face any
inquiry of any sort or kind. He declines the Law Courts, which, I
frankly agree, are no possible tribunal for him. He declines the
Judicial Committee of the T.S., because he, the vice-president, is a
private member. He declined a Theosophical Jury of Honour in July, which
would have tried him as a private member, because they, too, were not
occult enough for him. And he avows that he will decline everything and
anything else, because the “proof” of the New York Mahatma “begins and
ends with myself.” Need I add a word more?
F. EDMUND GARRETT.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
2. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as
printed.
3. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers.
4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
5. Enclosed bold font in =equals=.