Through the obliging courtesy of the Rev. O. B. Frathingham, whose congregation were worshipping in the great hall of the Masonic Temple, at the comer of Twentv-third Street .ind Sixth Avenue, New York City, we were enabled to hold the Baron's obsequies in that v.«t apartment. An hour before the appointed time the street was crowded bv an eager, e\ en somewhat obstreperous multitude, and a strong body of police, had   to be sent for to prevent the doors being forced. We had issued two kinds of admission tickets, both of triangular shape, one a black card printed in silver, for reserved seats, the other a drab one printed in black, for general admission ; and the police were instructed to admit nobody without one or the other kind. But an American or British mob is hard to restrain, and there was such a rush when the doors were opened that the 1500 holders of tickets had to find seats as best they could. The great hall, which holds 2000 people, was crowded in every corner, the very passages and lobbies were blocked, and from the buzz of conversation and uneasiness prevailing it was easy to see that the multitude had come to gratify its curiosity, certainly not to evince either respect for the dead or sympathy with the Theosophical Society. It was just in that uncertain mood when the least unexpected and sensational incident might transform it into the wild beast that an excited crowd becomes at times. Through the whole of the previous week the leading papers had been lashing public curiosity into a frenzy, and one of the wittiest burlesques I ever read, that appeared in the World upon our anticipated ceremonial and public procession, set all New York laughing. For the benefit of our Theosophical grand-children I will quote the following fragment :

" ' All right,' said the Colonel ; ' go ahead and make out your programme, but leave everybody out but the members of the society, for the Masons wont have anything to do with it.'

" Two hours were then spent in making out an order of march and a programme of exercises after the procession reaches the Temple, and the following is the result. The procession will move in the following order :

" Colonel Olcott as high priest, wearing a leopard skin and carrying a roll of papyrus (brown card-board).

" Mr. Cobb as sacred scribe, with style and tablet.  

" Egyptian mummy-case, borne upon ;i sledge drawn by four oxen. (Also a slave bearing a pot of lubricating oil.)

" Mme. Blavatsky as chief mourner and also bearer of the sistrum. (She will wear a long linen garment extending to the feet, and a girdle about the waist.)

" Colored boy carrying three Abyssinian geese (Philadelphia chickens) to place upon the bier.

" Vice-President Felt, with the eye of Osiris painted on his left breast, and carrying an asp (bought at a toy store on Eighth avenue).  

" Dr. Pancoast, singing an ancient Theban dirge :

" ' Isis and Xepthys, beginning and end ; One more -victim to Amenti we send. Pay we the fare, and let us not tarry, Cross the Styx by the Roosevelt Street ferry.' "

" Slaves in mourning gowns, carrying the offerings and libations, to consist of early potatoes, asparagiis, roast beef, French pancakes, bock-beer, and New Jersey cider.

" Treasurer Xewton, as chief of the musicians, playing the double pipe.

" Other musicians performing on eight-stringed harps, tom-toms, etc.

" Boys carrying a large lotus (sun-flower).

" Librarian Fassit, who will alternate with music by repeating the lines beginning :

" ' Here Horus comes, I see the boat, Friends, stay your flowing tears ; The soul of man goes through a goat In just 3,000 years.'

" At the Temple the ceremony will be short and simple. The oxen will be left standing on the sidewalk, with a boy near by to prevent them goring the passersby. Besides the Theurgic hymn, printed above in full, the Coptic national anthem will be sung, translated and adapted to the occasion as follows :

" Sitting Cynocephalus, up in a tree, I see you, and you see me. River full of crocodile, see his long snout ! Hoist up the shadoof and pull him right out."

With this sort of thing going on for days together in advance, it may be imagined in what sort of dangerous mood was the crowded audience, only a handful of whom were members of the T. S. and most of whom were positively prejudiced against it. All went peacefully enough, however, until an excited Methodist, a relative of an F. T. S. who was assisting me in the ceremony, rising and wildly gesticulating, shouted " That 's a lie ! " just when I had pronounced the words " There is but one first cause, uncreated — ." Instantly the audience sprang to their feet and some turned towards the door.  as people will in such crises, not knowing wherher the confused shout may not mean an alarm of fire : some of the rougher sort mounted the chairs, and, looking towards the stage, seemed ready to take part in fighting or skirmishing in case such should break out. It was one of those moments when the turn of events depends upon the speaker. As it happened, I had once seen the great Abolitionist orator. Wendell Philips, by imperturbable coolness quell a mob who were hooting and catcalling him, and as the memory flashed within me I adopted his tactics. Stepping quietly forward, I laid my left hand upon the Baron's coffin, faced the audience, stood motionless and said nothing. In an instant there was a dead silence of expectancy : whereupon, slowlv raising my right h.md. I said very slowly and solemnlv ; " We are in the presence of death ! " and then waited. The psychological effect was ver}' interesting and amusing to me, who have for so many vears been a student of crowds. The excitement was quelled like magic, and then in the same voice as before, and without the appearance of ever. having been interrupted, I finished t'le sentence of the litanv — "'eternal, infinite, unknown." The two Orphic hymns that we compiled for the occasion were sung by a volunteer choir of the New Yorker S.isngerbund and the org.wi accompaniment was the music of an Italian Mass, 300 years old : " and," — says the Svn's report — " as it swelled and then died softly away in the half gloom of the crowded but hushed room, with the synibolic fire flickering (on the triangular altar) and the ancient knightly decorations flashing on the coffin, the effect was very impressive."

After the singing of the first Orphic hymn, an invocation, or mantram, was made to " the Soul of the World, whose breath gives and withdraws the form of everything." " The universe," it went on to say, " is thy utterance and revelation. Thou, before whom the light of being is a shadow which changes and a vapor that passes away ; thou breathest forth, and the endless spaces are peopled ; thou drawest breath and all that went forth from thee returns again." Good Vedantism this and good Theosophy ! The same thought ran throughout all the parts of the service — the hymns, invocation, litany, and my discourse. In the latter I gave such particulars about Baron de Palm as I had got from himself (and very misleading they were afterwards proved to be when I heard from the family solicitor). I explained the character and objects of the T. S.* and my view of the complete inefficacy qf death-bed repentance for the forgiveness of sins. I am glad to see upon reading the newspaper reports after the lapse of many years that I preached the doctrine of Karma, pure and simple. There was an outburst of applause and hisses when I said that the Society " considered the ruffian who stood under the gallows a ruffian still though twenty prayers might have been uttered over him." I immediately commanded silence and continued my remarks, — reported thus :

" He then went on to say that Theosophy could not conceive of bad going unpunished or good remaining unrewarded. I believe a man to be a responsible being, and it was a religion not of professions but of practices. It was utterly opposed to sensuousness and taught the subordination of the body to the spirit. There, in that coffin, lay (the body of) a Theosophist. Should his future be pronounced one of unalloyed happiness without respect to the course of his past life ? No, but as he had acted so should he suffer or rejoice. If he had been a sensualist, a usurer, or a corrupter, then the divine first (and only) cause could not forgive him the least of his offences, for that would be to plunge the universe into chaos. There must be compensation, equilibrium, justice."  

* " This Society," I said, " was neither a religious nor a charitable but a scientific body. Its object was to enquire, not to teach, and its members comprised men of various creeds and beliefs. ' Theology ' meant the revealed will of God, ' Theosophy ' the direct knowledge of ' God. ' The one asked us to believe what some one else had seen and heard, the other told us to see and hear for ourourselves. Theosophy taught that by cultivation of his powers a man may be inwardly illumined and get thereby a knowledge of bis God-like faculties,"  

After the singing of the second Orphic hymn, Mrs. E. Hardinge Britten, the Spiritualist orator, addressed the audience for about ten minutes, in the capacity of a speaking medium, concluding with a strongly emotional apostrophe to the deceased Baron, bidding him farewell, declaring that he had " passed the golden gates wherein {st() sorrow entereth not," and strewing his bier with flowers, " as symbols of full-blown life ! " This closed the proceedings and the huge audience quietly dispersed. The body of the deceased was given in charge of Mr. Buckhorst, the Society's undertaker, to be lodged in a receiving vault until I could arrange for its cremation. I was obliged to devise a better method of preserving it than the weak process of embalming that had been employed at the Hospital, which proved its inefificacy even within the fortnight. It gave me much anxiety, and no end of enquiry and research was involved, but I solved the difficulty at last by packing the cadaver in desiccated clay impregnated with the carbolic and other vapors of distilled coal tar. Decomposition had actually begun when the antiseptic was applied in the first week of June, but when we examined the corpse in the following December before removal for cremation, it was found completely mummified, all liquids absorbed and all decay arrested. It could have been kept thus, I am convinced, for many years, perhaps for a century, and I recommend the process as superior to any other cheap method of embalming that has ever come under my notice. H. P. B. had no official part in the public celebration of the De Palm obsequies, bvit made herself heard all the same. She sat with the non-officiating members of the Society among the audience, and when the excited Methodist interrupted our litany and a policeman was getting him in hand to escort him out of doors, she stood up and called out, " He 's a bigot, that 's what he is ! " and set everybody around her laughing, in which she soon heartily joined. The members who took part in the ceremony were Messrs. Judge, Cobb, Thomas, Monachesi, Oliver, and three or four more whose names I cannot recall.

The Council of the T. S., at its meeting of June 14th, and the Society, in its session of 21st June (1876), passed Resolutions ratifying and confirming all that the officers had done in connection with the De Palm autopsy, obsequies, and enbalming. A Resolution was also adopted to the effect that,  

" The President and Treasurer of this Society, who are the executors under the last will and testament of our late fellow be, and hereby are, authorised and empowered to do in the name of this Society any and all further acts, which they may deem necessary to complete the disposal of the remains of our late fellow, according to his expressed wishes and direction.'

The Baron's funeral being over, the next thing was to see what his estate was likely to realise for the Society (for although all was left to me individually there was an understanding between us that I should be free to hand over everything to the T. S). Mr. Newton and I obtained probate of the will, and Mr. Judge was instructed to make the necessary inquiries. Our first shock came when we opened his trunk at the hospital : it contained two of my own shirts, from which the stitched name-mark had been picked out. This looked very cloudy indeed, a bad beginning towards the supposed great bequest. There were also in the trunk a small bronze bust of a crying baby, some photographs and letters of actresses and prima donnas, some unreceipted bills, some gilt and enamelled duplicates of his orders of nobility, a flat, velvet-lined case containing the certificates of his birth, his passports and the several diplomatic and court appointments he had held, the draft of a former will, now cancelled, and a meagre lot of clothing. Beyond this, nothing ; no money or jewelry, no documents, no manuscripts, no books, no evidences of a literary taste or habits. I give these details— in which Mr. Newton and Mr. Judge and others will corroborate me — for an excellent reason, to be presently stated.  

The old will described him as Seignior of the castles of Old and New Wartensee, on Lake Constance, and his papers showed him to be rtie presumed owner of 20,000 acres of land in Wisconsin, forty town lots in Chicago, and some seven or eight mining properties in Western States. Upon the low estimate that the farming land was worth $5 per acre, the rumour spread that I had inherited at least ;r^2o,ooo, to say nothing of the two Swiss castles, the town lots, and the gold and silver mining claims. It ran through the whole American press, editorials were written upon it, and I received a shoal of letters, congratulatory and begging, from known and unknown persons in various countries. Mr. Judge communicated with the lady legatees, with public officials at home and abroad, and with a representative of the Baron's family. This took several months, but the final result was this : the ladies would not take the Chicago lots for a gift, the Wisconsin land had been sold for taxes years before, the mining shares were good only for papering walls, and the Swiss castles proved castles in the air ; the whole estate would not yield even enough to reimburse Mr. Newton and myself for the moderate costs of the probate and funeral ! The Baron was a broken-down noble, without means, credit, or expectations ; a type of a large class who fly to republican America as a last resource when Europe will no longer support them. Their good breeding and their titles of nobility gain them an entrance into American society, sometimes chances of lucrative posts, oftener rich wives. I never knew exactly what our friend had been doing in the West, but through importunate creditors who turned up, I found out that he had at any rate been concerned in unprofitable attempts to form industrial companies of sorts.

Neither then nor since have I discovered one grain of proof that Baron de Palm had either literary talent, erudition, or scholastic tastes. His conversation with H. P. B. and myself was mainly upon superficial matters, the topics which interest society people. Even in Spiritualism he did not seem to have been a deep thinker, rather an interested observer of mediums and phenomena. He told us much about his experiences in diplomatic circles, and ascribed his present straitened circumstances (as regards the possession of ready cash) to his futile attempts, when an attache, to vie with rich English diplomats in showy living and fashionable indulgences. He read little and wrote nothing ; as I had ample opportunity of observing, since he was living with me as my guest.

It would be ]5ainful for me to dwell upon these personalities but for the necessity of my showing the man's character, and leaving my readers to judge for themselves whether he was fit to be a teacher or mentor to a person like the author of Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. For that is the disputed point. With an inconceivable malignity certain unprincipled foes of hers have spread the calumny that her Isis Unveiled is " nothing but a compilation from the manuscripts of Baron de Palm, and without acknowledgment." This will be found in a mendacious letter of Dr. Elliott Coues in the New York Sun of July 20, 1890, which the Editor of that influential paper more recently, in the most honorable spirit of justice, expressed regret for having published and declared unsupported by evidence. The falsehood has been circulated, as I am informed, by Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten, by a learned calumniator in The Carrier Dove, and by other hostile newspaper writers : it has, moreover, been given a certain permanency of publication by an expelled French F. T. S., one Dr. G. Encausse (known by the pseudonym of Fapus) in his work Traits Methodique de Science Occulte, which was reviewed in the Theosophist for August, 1892.

To those who knew H. P. B.'s mode of life while writing her book, who were acquainted with Baron de Palm at the West and in New York, and who were associated with him during his brief connection with the T. S., the above candid and easily proven details about his personality, habits, and acquirements will suffice. For others, I reluctantly append the scathing letter which Herr Consul Obermayer, of Augsburg, Bavaria, sent Mr. Judge in response to his official and professional enquiry as to M. de Palm's supposed European properties, and which has been translated for this publication from the original in my possession. From its date, the reader will see that we did not receive it, and consequently did not know the truth about the Baron's European antecedents, until a full year after his death, and five months after the worldfamous cremation of his remains :  

" Consulate of the Argentine Republic,

Augsburg, May 16, 1877.

No. 1 130.

To William Q. Judge,  

Attorney and Counsellor at Law,

71 Broadway, New York.

" From your letter of the 7th ult., I gather that Baron Josef Heinrich Ludwig von Palm died in New York in the month of May, 1876.

" The undersigned. Consul Max Obermayer (late United States Consul at Augsburg from 1866 to 1873), happens by chance to be in a position to give you the information desired regarding the deceased in a thoroughly exhaustive manner, and is very willing to do so.

  " Baron von Palm was in his youth an officer in the Bavarian army, but was forced on account of his many shady transactions and debts to leave the service. He then betook himself to other parts of Germany, but could not remain long anywhere, because his great frivolity, his love of good living and his debaucheries constantly led him to incur fresh debts and involve himself in shady transactions ; so that he was even condemned by the courts and sent to jail.  

" After it became impossible for him to remain longer in Germany, he went to Switzerland to enter on a new course of swindling, and he actually succeeded, by false promises and misrepresentations, in persuading the owner of Schloss (Castle) ' Wartensee' to sell him that property, which he forthwith occupied. His stay there, however, was short ; not only was he unable to raise the purchase money, but he could not even pay the taxes, and in consequence the property was sold for the account of the creditors and Palm fled to America.

" Whether or not he supported himself in America by frauds is not known here.

" Of property in Europe he possesses not one cent's worth ; all that may be found among his effects to that purport is a pure swindle.

" The only property on which he had any claim whatever, before he went to America, was a share in the Knebelisher inheritance in Trieste. When he left he had already taken much trouble to obtain immediate payment of this amount, but in vain.

" Towards the end of the year 1869, Palm addressed himself to the undersigned in his then capacity of United States Consul, with the request to arrange for the payment to him of his share in the Knebelisher estate mentioned above. " This request was at once complied with, and, as appears from the enclosed copy of his receipt, the sum of 1,068 Thalers 4/6 = $3247.53 was placed at Palm's disposal by a consular letter of Jan. 21, 1870, and he availed himself thereof through the banking house of Greenbaum Bros. & Co., as appears from his letter to the consulate of Feb. 14, 1870.

" I can only repeat that Palm possessed in Europe neither a single dollar in money, nor a single foot of ground, and that everything which may be found among his papers to the contrary is based solely upon fraudulent representation.

" Palm's only known relatives are the two Baronesses Von T domiciled in Augsburg, both families in every way most respectable, and to whom Palm in the last year of his residence in Europe caused much scandal and annoyance.

" The above gives all that is to be known about the deceased Palm in the most exhaustive manner, and probably more even than you may have expected.

(Signed) Max Obermayer.

Consul Argentine Republic."  

My compliments to M. Papus, Mrs. Britten and her party.'' Palmam qui meruit, ferat !

CHAPTER XI.

THE FIRST CREMATION IN AMERICA.

BARON DE PALM'S cremation is the theme of the present chapter. I have related above the circumstances which led to my taking it upon myself and, since it is historically important from having been the first public cremation in the United States and the first where a crematorium was employed, the details should be interesting.  

The cremation took place December 6, 1876, at the small inland town of Washington, Washington County, Pennsylvania, more than six months after the body had been packed in carbolised dried clay at New York. It is very easy now to cremate a body, either in America or England, for efficient crematories are available and cremation societies exist, but then it was quite another thing. When I pledged myself to dispose of the Baron's remains as he wished, there were no facilities, no precedents in my country to follow, unless I wished to adopt the Eastern method of open-air burning, which had been once employed, and which, in the then state of public prejudice and the probable refusal of the SanitaryBoard to issue a permit, would have been very difficult, not to say dangerous. My only practicable policy was to wait until the chance offered itself. In the year 1816, a Mr. Henry Laurens, a wealthy gentleman of South Carolina, ordered his executors to burn his corpse and compelled his family to acquiesce by the testamentary proviso that they should not inherit his estate unless his wishes were strictly carried out. Accordingly, his body was burnt on his own plantation in the Eastern fashion, on a funeral pyre and in the open air ; his family and near relations being present. One other case of the kind is recorded, that of a Mr. Berry, the pyre being used in this instance also, if my memory serves me.

But there had been no case of the disposal of human remains in a retort or crematorium constructed for the purpose, and so, as above said, I had no choice but to wait patiently the turn of events. I was not kept long in suspense, for one morning in July or August it was announced in the papers that Dr. F. Julius Le Moyne, an eccentric but very philanthropic physician of Western Pennsylvania, had begun erecting a crematorium for the burning of his own body. I immediately opened correspondence with him, with the result that (Letter of August 16, 1876) he consented that if he should survive the completion of his building, the Baron's corpse should be the first one disposed of. At the time of the funeral the possibility of there being a subsequent cremation was not publicly announced but only whispered about ; now, however, it was openly declared, my purpose being to give the authorities fair warning, so that if any legal obstacle existed it might be brought to view. Mr. F. C. Bowman, Counsellor at Law (Barrister), and I were elected a legal Advisory Committee of the original N. Y. Cremation Society, to carefully examine the statutes and report whether or not a person had the right of choosing the way in which to dispose of his body. We found nothing to indicate the contrary ; and, in fact, common sense itself would show that if a man has absolute ownership of anything belonging to him it must be of his physical body, and that he is free to say how it shall be disposed of after his death, provided that he chooses no method imperilling the rights or welfare of others. Under my private agreement with the N. Y. Cremation Society, and hence long before Dr. Le Moyne's crematorium was ready, we made formal application to the Brooklyn Board of Health for a permit of removal for cremation, and the Board took counsel's opinion.* It agreed with Mr. Bowman's and mine, and an ap* Following is the text of the note in question :

New York City, June 5, 1876.

Gentlemen :

The undersigned, Executors under the last Will and Testament of Joseph Henry Louis, Baron de Palm, hereby apply for the delivery to them of his body, now lying in the receiving vault of the Lutheran Cemetery : the said body to be removed to a convenient point beyond the city limits and cremated, agreeably to the request of the aforesaid De Palm.

(Signed) H. S. Olcott,

H. J. Newton.

plication, couched in officially prescribed terms, being made later when the crematorium was finished, the permit was duly granted. Thus the first important point was made, and no legal impediment existing, the advocates of cremation had only to meet theological, economic, scientific, and sentimental objections. Dr. Le Moyne and I agreed upon the plan of arranging for a public meeting with addresses from representative men, to take place immediately after the cremation, and for an evening meeting to discuss the merits and demerits of this mode of sepulture. We agreed that each public speaker should confine himself to a special branch of the subject, to avoid repetitions while covering the entire ground.

Owing to the neutral character of the T. S. upon all questions involving different religious opinions, it had been decided that my co-executor and I should carry out this affair in our personal capacities. It was also decided that there should be no further religious ceremonies.

Both Dr. Le Moyne and I being strong advocates for cremation, we were fully convinced that the public interest demanded the giving of wide publicity to this event and the invitation of men of science and officers of Boards of Health, to be present and carefully scrutinise the process of reduction of the body by fire. " I agree with you," writes the good old Doctor, " that the addresses are to be confined to the subject of cremation without branching out on other topics, however proper and right they might be in themselves and in their own place. I have never intended or expected that our programme should include any kind of religious service, but should be a strictly scientific and sanitary experiment, looking to a reform in the disposition of a body." The American press, which had made fun of the T. S. for having too much religious ceremony at the Baron's funeral, now abused us for having none at all at his cremation. However, we cared nothing for that, the praise and the blame of the ignorant being equally valueless. Dr. Le Moyne and I wished to settle the following points :

(a) Whether cremation was a really scientific method of sepulture ; (b) Whether it was cheaper than burial ; (c) Whether it offered any repugnant features ; (d) How long it would take to incinerate a human body. In pursuance of the policy of bold publicity, Mr. Newton and I, as executors, and Dr. Le Moyne, as owner of the crematory, addressed the following invitation to Boards of Health, individual scientists, selected principals and professors of colleges, clergymen and editors :

New York, November, 1876.

Dear Sir : Upon the 6th of December, proximo, at Washington, Pa., will be cremated the body of the late Joseph Henry Louis, Baron de Palm, Grand Cross Commander of the Sovereign Order of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem j Knight of St. jpohn of Malta ; Prince of the Roman Empire ; late Chamberlain to His Majesty the King of Bavaria ; Fellow of the Theosophical Society, etc., etc.,

in compliance with wishes expressed to his executors shortly before his decease. This ceremony you are respectfully invited, either in person or by proxy, to attend.

The cremation will be effected in a furnace specially designed for the purpose, and erected by F. Julius Le Moyne, M.D., as an earnest of his preference for this mode of sepulture.

The occasion being one of interest to Science, in its historical, sanitary, and other aspects, the Executors of Baron de Palm have consented that it shall have publicity. This invitation is accordingly sent you in the hope that you may find it convenient to be represented and, in case the general subject of cremation should be discussed, take part in the debate. The University of Pennsylvania, the Washington and Jefferson College, the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, other institutions of learning, and the Health Boards of Boston, Philadelphia, Washington (D. C), and other cities, have already signified their intention to send representatives. It is believed that the occasion will draw together a very large number of highly competent and influential scientific observers. Addresses appropriate to the occasion will be delivered.  

Washington is a town in Washington County, in the State of Pennsylvania, twenty-five miles West of Pittsburgh, on the Chartiers Valley R. R., and about midway between the cities of Pittsburgh and Wheeling. Trains leave Pittsburgh and Wheeling for Washington at 9 o'clock A.M., and at 5 o'clock p.m., every day except Sunday. The running time is about two hours.

The audience room of the Crematory being quite small, it is necessary that the number intending to be present should be known in advance. You are therefore requested to signify your determination by mail or telegraph to either of the undersigned at your early convenience.

Henry S. Olcott, ) Executors under the last Will  and Testament of Baron de Henry J. Newton, ) Palm.

Address, Box 4335, N. Y. City.

Or, F. Julius Le Moyne, M.D.

Address, Washington, Washington Co., Pa.

The acceptances were numerous, the public interest being so thoroughly aroused that, as a gentleman (Mr. A. C. Simpson of Pittsburgh, Pa.), who had access to the exchanges of an influential journal, declares, " there is not a journal printed in the United States but has had more or less to say, not only about the Baron's burning, but also about his theosophical religious views" (see Banner of Light, Jan. 6th, 1887). One of the most amusing things written about the case was the expression used by Mr. Bromley in a N. Y. Tribune editorial, that " Baron de Palm had been principally famous as a corpse."

It was a great responsibility to take upon ourselves, for, if anything went wrong with Dr. Le Moyne's furnace,therewould have been a tremendous clamour against us for exposing a human body to the chance of irreverential scientific maltreatment.* However, the object in view being so thoroughly humanitarian, we carried the affair through without flinching. To guard as far as possible against accident, the good Doctor first tested the furnace on a sheep's carcase and, in a letter dated October 26, 1876, he r.eports to me that it had been " a complete success. A carcase weighing 164 lbs. had been cremated in six hours and it could have been done in less time." He then had made a skeleton crate, or bier, composed of flat and round half-inch bars, the whole weighing about 40 lbs., in which to lay the corpse for putting it into the retort ; and asked me to buy, if possible, a sheet of asbestos cloth to lay over it as a sort of fire-resisting shroud. This was not procurable at the time and I had to devise a substitute. Upon my arrival at the place, one peep into the heated retort showed me that any ordinary cerement about the corpse would be instantaneously consumed and the body be uncovered, so I soaked a bed-sheet with a saturated solution of alum and ventured that. It proved to be perfectly efficacious, and, I believe, has now come into general use.

* There was one risk to be provided against, viz. , the possibility of the corpse being carbonised in the still air of an incandescent clayretort heated up to a temperature of 1500° to 2000°. To obviate this, Dr. Le Moyne, against the protest of his contractor, drilled an air-hole in the iron door of the retort and fitted to it a revolving flap which permitted of the hole being opened or closed at pleasure. In the sheep-cremation experiment this proved so thoroughly efficacious that the contractor was converted to the Doctor's views.

I need not go into many details about the cremation, since they can all be found in the file of any American journal for the month of December, 1876 : still, considering the historical interest which attaches to this first scientific cremation in the United States, a condensed narrative embodying the main facts had better be given by its responsible manager.  

The Le Moyne crematorium is (for it still exists), in a small, one-storied brick structure divided into two rooms ; the one to the left on entering, a receptionroom, the other containing the furnace and retort. Exclusive of the value of the land, it cost Dr. Le Moyne about $1700, or say ^340. Everything was very plain, repulsively so, one might say : there was no ornamentation within or without — just simply a practical corpse-incinerator, as unaesthetic as a bake-oven. Yet results have shown that it is thoroughly practical and can do its intended work as well as if its walls had been of sculptured marble, its partitions of ornately carved vood, and its doors and furnace poems in modelled bronze. Dr. Le Moyne wrote me that his aim was to give the poor a method of sepulture that would be far cheaper than burial, and offer more safeguards against those violations of graves and those tragedies of premature burial which are unavoidable in the case of the prevailing fashion of sepulture.

The theft of the corpses of the late Lord Crawford and Balcarres, of Scotland, and Mr. A. T. Stewart, of New York, not to mention the thousands of body-snatchings for dissectors, prove the reality of the former, while the alleged cutting up of poor Irving Bishop while entranced and the instances where, upon re-opening a coffin, the body has been found turned and with the flesh of its arms gnawed by the hapless victim in his agony of starvation and suffocation, give a fearful weight to the last-named suggestion. The pecuniary and sanitary ends in view were attained with the Le Moyne furnace, for even this first cremation in America cost us only about ten dollars, and proved that a body could be disposed of without unpleasant concomitants.

Mr. Newton and I reached Washington, Pa., on the 5th December, 1876, with the Baron's remains enclosed in two envelopes — the cofifin and an outer case of wood. Dr. Le Moyne and others met us at the station, and the corpse was taken in a hearse to the crematorium, where it lay until the next morning in charge of an attendant, the fireman who stoked the furnace. The fire (of coke) had been lighted at 2 a.m. that day and the retort was already at a dazzling white heat — " hot enough " the stoker said " to melt iron." The mechanical construction of the apparatus was simplicity itself. An arched retort of fire-clay, 8 ft. long by 3 ft. broad and the same in height, for receiving the corpse, was surrounded by a fire-flue communicating with a furnace beneath the retort ; which had a tall chimney for making a draft and carrying off the smoke. An opening from the retort into the surrounding hot-air flue allowed the escape into it of the gases and other volatile products of cremation, where they were effectually consumed. A large iron door luted with fire-clay around the frame, was fitted into the front of the retort, and the swinging flap, above described, not only permitted of the introduction of cold air and the making of a slight draught through the retort at will, but also served as a peep-hole through which glimpses could be had of the progress of the cremation from time to time. As the corpse lay upon an open iron crate, swathed in its alum-saturated sheet, in a fire-clay box which effectually separated it from the furnace-fire beneath, it will be seen that there could be none of that horror of roasting human flesh and bursting entrails which makes one shudder at an open-air pyreburning, while, as all the lighter products of cremation, the gaseous and watery components of a body, were burnt up in the heat-flue that encircled the white-hot retort, there was none of that unpleasant odour that sometimes sickens one who drives past an Indian burning-ghat.

The corpse simply dries into nothing save the ashes of its skeleton. When the retort was opened, the morning after De Palm's cremation, there was nothing left of the once tall, stout body save a trail of white powder and some fragments of osseous articulations ; the whole weighing but some 6 lbs.*

* More fortunate than most innovators, I have lived to see several reforms that I helped in the cradle, become world-wide successes. Of these, cremation is one. Public opinion has now, after the lapse of seventeen years reached the point where a law-journal dares print the following praise of cremation :

" There is nothing surer than that in the not far distant future the cremation of dead bodies will be in universal vogue. It is now ascertained that earth-worms convey microbes of disease from cemeteries, and distribute them at their own sweet will. We have never yet been able to comprehend how about thirty thousand putrefying bodies in an acre or two of ground can be anything less than an unmitigated danger to those living within a few miles of their influence. Earth is a pretty good deodoriser, but there are limits to its capacity. If any one has studied the slow process of animal putrefaction, they know how revolting it is, and what a danger arises from the noisome gases which escape. Do the advocates of interment imagine that the gases from thousands of closely-packed corpses escape toward the centre of the earth ? If so, they will have to learn that they easily permeate the few feet of earth, and have liberty to roam in the sunlight and poison those who happen to cross the path of their wanderings. Every malignant disease which curses mankind to-day is the admonition of law calling on us to improve our habits and live in accordance with reason, and the only hope of our ever being rid of epidemics is by the slow but sure process of education. The time will come when all putrefactive matter will be rendered harmless by the action of heat."— yarv.

Our invitation to scientists and sanitary boards was accepted in many cases, and the following gentlemen attended the cremation : Dr. Otterson, of the Brooklyn Board of Health ; Dr. Seinke, President of the Queen's County Board of Health ; Dr. Richardson, Editor of the (Boston) Medical 'jfournal ; Dr. Folsom, Secretary of the Boston B. of H. ; Prof. Parker, of the University of Pennsylvania ; three physicians deputed by the Philadelphia B. of H. ; one who represented Lehigh University ; Dr. Johnson, of the Wheeling, W. Va. B. of H. ; Dr. Asdale, Secretary of the Pittsburgh B. of H. ; a number of other medical men attending unofficially ; and a swarm of reporters and special correspondents representing all the leading American and some foreign journals. I know it as a fact that the intention of the editors was to have the fullest details telegraphed to their papers, the iV. Y Herald, for instance, having ordered its reporter to wire at least three columns ; but a  tragedy occurred which changed their plans : the Brooklyn Theatre caught fire the same evening and some two hundred people were burnt alive. Thus, the greater cremation weakened the public interest in the lesser one. The mummified corpse of the Baron being removed from the coffin and laid in the iron crate, enwrapped in my alum-soaked sheet, I sprinkled it with aromatic gums and showered it with choice roses, primroses, smilax, and dwarf palm leaves, and laid sprays of evergreens on the breast and about the head.* From the H. Y. Times report I quote the following :

* Visitors to Adyar Headquarters may see framed and engraved pictures of this and other scenes and details of the cremation taken from the IV, Y. Daily Graphic. " When all was ready the body was quietly and reverently slid into the retort. There were no religious services, no addresses, no music, no climax, such as would have thrown great solemnity over the occasion. There was not one iota of ceremony. Everything was as business-like as possible. At 8.20 o'clock Dr. Le Moyne, Col. Olcott, Mr. Newton, and Dr. Asdale quietly took their stations on either side of the body, and raising the cradle from the catafalque bore it at once to the crematory retort, and slid it in with its unearthy burden head foremost. " As the end of the cradle reached the further and hottest end of the furnace, the evergreens round the head burst into a blaze and were quickly consumed, but the flowers and evergreens on the other part of the body remained untouched. The flames formed, as it were, a crown of glory for the dead man."

The description is not quite complete, for, as the head of the corpse passed into the superheated retort, the evergreens that surrounded it took fire and a plume of smoke drew out of the door, as if it were a bunch of ostrich feathers, such as a lady wears in her hair at a drawing-room, or a knight of old bore in the crest of his helmet. The iron door of the retort was closed at once after the crate had been thrust in, then bolted and screwed up tight. At first all was dark inside, owing to the steamy vapour from the soaked sheet and the disengagement of smoke from the incinerating gums and plants, but this passed off in a few minutes, and then we could see what is well described by the Titnes correspondent in these words :

" By this time the retort presented the appearance of a radiant solar disk of a very warm rather than brilliant color, and though every flower and evergreen was reduced to a red-hot ash condition, they retained their individual forms, the pointed branches of the evergreens arching over the body. At the same time I could see that the winding-sheet still enfolded the corpse, showing that the solution of alum had fully answered its purpose. This answers one of the avowed objections to cremation — the possibility of indecent exposure of the body. Half an hour later it was plainly evident that the sheet was charred. Around the head the material was blackened and ragged. This was easily accounted for. It appears that in saturating the sheet with the solution <>( alum, Col. Olcott began at the feet, and that by the lime he reached the head the supply was exhausted. All were, however, rejoiced to see that the heat was increasing rapidly."

A REMARKAHLK SCKNK.

" Just at this time a remarkable muscular action of the corpse, almost amounting to a phenomenon, occurred. The left hand, which had been lying by the side of the body, was gradually raised, and three of the fingers pointed upward. Although a little startling at the moment, this action was of course the mere result of intense burning heat producing muscular contraction. At 9.25 o'cloek Dr. Otterson tested the draught in the retort by placing a piece of tissue paper over the peephole, some one having suggested that there was not a sufficient amount of oxygen in the retort to produce the necessary combustion. It was found that the draught was ample. At this time the left hand began to fall back slowly into its normal position, while a luminous rose-colored light surrounded the remains, and a slight aromatic odor found its way through the vent-hole of the furnace. An hour later the body presented the appearance of absolute incandescence. It looked red hot. This was the result of the extra firing, the heat of the furnace now being far more unpleasant than it was before, with the mouth of the retort wide open."

CURIOUS EFFECTS NOTICED.

" As the retort became hotter the rosy mist I have spoken of assumed a golden tinge, and a very curious effect was noticed in the feet. The soles of the feet were, of course, fully exposed to any one looking through the peep-hole. They gradually assumed a certain transparency, similar in character to the appearance of the hand when the fingers are held between the eye and a brilliant light, but very much more luminous. At 10.40 o'clock Dr. Le Moyne, Col. Olcott, William Harding, and the health officers present entered the furnace-room and held a consultation with closed doors. On re-appearing they announced that the cremation of the body was practically complete. Any one looking into the retort at this moment would think it ought to have been.  

" The fiery ordeal through which Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego passed on account of Nebuchadnezzar's golden image must have been a trilling experience compared with what the body of the Baron de Palm had gone through. Some experiments with sheep were made by Dr. Le Moyne when tlie furnace was completed, but Mr. Dye, the builder of the furnace, sa\'S the body was more thoroughly cremated at the end of two hours and l\)rl)minutes than the sheep were in five or six hours. About this time I noticed that the body was beginning to subside, that, though incandescent to a degree, it was ne\ertheless a mere structure of powdery ashes, which the lungs of a child might blow away. The red-hot filmy shroud still covered the remains, and the twigs of evergreens still remained standing, though they had sunk with the subsidence of the body. The feet too had fallen, and all was rapidly becoming one glowing mass of a white light and an intense heat. . . . At 11.12 o'clock Dr. Folsom, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Health, made a careful examination, so far as possible, of the retort and its contents. His announcement that ' Incineration is complete beyond all question ' was received with universal gratification. The last vestige of the form of a body had disappeared in the general mass."  

I have given so much out of the scores of descriptions of the event that might have been quoted, because of the excellence of the narrative and its historical value. Another reason is that it shows how cleanly and esthetical this mode of sepulture is in contrast with that of burial. One feature of cremation must recommend it to the friends of those who die in far-distant lands, viz., that the bodies can be converted into dust, and thus easily, unostentatiously, and unobjectionably be taken home and laid in the family vault or in the cemetery, alongside the remains of relatives —

" Those that he loved so long and sees no more, not dead, but gone before. "

On the afternoon of the same day, at the public meeting at the Town Hall, Dr. King, of Pittsburgh discoursed upon the deleterious and poisonous effects of crowded graveyards ; Dr. Le Moyne upon the scriptural and practical issues of cremation ; President Hays showed its unobjectionable character from the Biblical aspect ; Mr. Crumrine expounded its legality ; and I contributed a historical retrospect of the subject in ancient and modern times.

The furnace fire was, of course, drawn as soon as the body was thoroughly incinerated, and the draught-hole in the door stopped up, so as to give the retort time to cool down gradually as, if exposed to the cold air, it would inevitably have cracked. Dr. Asdale and I removed the ashes on the following morning and placed them in a Hindu urn that had been given me in New York for the purpose. I took them to town with me and kept them until shortly before our departure for India, when I scattered them over the waters of New York Harbour with an appropriate, yet simple, ceremonial.

And thus it came about that the Theosophical Society not only introduced Hindu philosophical ideas into the United States, but also the Hindu mode of sepulture. Since that first scientific cremation in America, many others, of men, women, and children, have occurred, other crematoriums have been built, and cremation societies have been originated in my country. British prejudice has been so far overcome that Parliament has legalised cremation, a society has been chartered, and it was in its crematorium at Woking, near London, that the body of H. P. B. was burnt, agreeably to her verbal and written request. In the abstract it matters not to me whether my " desire-body " be dropped through the salt sea to its amoebastrewn floor, or left in the snow-locked Himalayan passes, or on the hot sand of the desert ; but, if I am to die at home and within reach of friends, I hope that, like those of the Baron de Palm and H. P. B., it may be reduced by fire to harmless dust, and not become a plague or a peril to the living after it has served the purpose of my present prardbdha karma !

CHAFTER XII, 

FUTATIVE AUTHOR OF "ART MAGIC."

I SHALL now redeem my promise (See Chạp VIII) to say something about Mrs. Hardings Britter's Art Magic and its production. It has been mentioned above that the book was launched almost coincidently with the formation of the Theosophical Society, and the circumstances are a little curious. Mrs. Britten was particularly struck by them, and testifies to her surprise in the following passages in a letter to the Bearer of Light:

So amared and struck was I with the coincidence of purposes (not ideas), expressed in the inauguration of the Theosophic Society, at which I was present, with some of the purposes, though not the ideas put forth in my friend's work, that I felt it to be my duty to write to the President of that Society, enclose a copy of the still unpublished advertisement, and explain to him that the publication of the book in question anticipated, without concern of action or even persons acquaintance, with the parties concerned, whatever of Cabalistic were the said Theosophic Society might hearafther resolve." 

The coincidence consisted in the fact that the book and our Society simultaneously affirmed the dignity of ancient Occult Science, the existence of Adepts, the reality of, and contrast between, White and Black Magic, the existence of the Astral Light, the swarming of Elemental races in the regions of air, earth, etc., the existence of relations between them and ourselves, and the practicability of bringing them under subjection by certain methods long known and tested. It was, so to say, an attack from two sides simultaneously upon the entrenched camp of Western ignorance and prejudice.

Mrs. Britten affirmed that Art Magic had been written by an Adept of her acquaintance, " a life-long and highly honoured friend,"* whom she had first met in Europe, and for whom she was but acting as " Translator " and " Secretary." His name, she said, was Louis, and he was a Chevalier. A piquant Prospectus, calculated to switch the most jaded curiosity to the buyingpoint, was issued, and the bibliophile's cupidity excited by the announcement that the Author would only permit five hundred copies to be printed, and even then should reserve the right of refusing to sell to those whom he might find undeserving ! f This right he seems to

* Nineteenth Century Miracles  p. 437.

I " To prevent his recondite work from falling into the hands of such heterogeneous readers, as he felt confident would misunderstand or perhaps pervert its aims to evil uses." {Nineteenth Century Miracles, p. 437.) And in a letter to myself, of September 20, 1875, about her copy of Cornelius Agrippa that I wished to borrow, she calls Louis " The Author of the l/ook of books (italics hers), just advertised in the Banner " and says, " This man would far sooner burn his book and die amidst its ashes than spare it even to a favoured 500," have exercised, since, in another published letter to " The Slanderers of Art Magic," — whom she calls " little pugs " — she tells us that " some twenty names have been struck off by the Author." The fact that some persons, more cavilling than well-informed, had hinted that her book had been hatched in the Theosophical Society, provoked her wrath to such a degree that, with a goodly show of capitals and italics, she warns all these " whisperers who dare not openly confront us," that she and her husband " had laid the case before an eminent New York legal gentleman," who had instructed them " to say publicly that, free as this country may be to do what each one pleases («V), it is not free enough to allow the circulation of injurious libels " — and that they " had instructed him to proceed immediately against any one who hereafter shall assert, publicly or privately, that the work I have undertaken — namely, to become Secretary to the publication of Art Magic, or Mundane, Sub-Mundane and Super-Mundane Spiritualism — has anything to do with Col. Olcott, Madame Blavatsky, the New York Theosophic Society, or any thing or person belonging to either those persons or that Society" (vide her letter in Banner of Light, of about December, 1875 ; the cutting in our Scrap-Book being undated, I cannot be more exact).

This clattering of pans was kept up so persistently — she and her husband actually being all the while executive members of the Theosophical Society — that, despite the fancy price put upon the book — $5 for a volume of 467 pages, in pica type heavily leaded, or scarcely as much matter as is contained in a yj. 6d. volume of the London publishers — her list was soon filled up. I, myself, paid her $10 for two copies, but the one now before me is inscribed, in Mrs. Britten's handwriting, " To Madame Blavatsky, in token of esteem from the Editor [herself] and the Author [?]." The Prospectus stated that, after the edition of 500 copies was run off, the " plates " were to be destroyed. The imprint shows the book to have been " Published by the Author, at New York, America," but it was copyrighted by William Britten, Mrs. Britten's husband, in the year 1876, in due form. The printers were Messrs. Wheat and Cornett, 8 Spruce St., N. Y.

I have given the above details for the following reasons : I. The book marks a literary epoch in American literature and thought ; 2. I suspect that good faith was not kept with the subscribers, myself included ; since the work— for which we paid an extravagant price — was printed from type forms, not plates, and Mr. Wheat himself told me that his firm had printed, by Mr. or Mrs. Britten's orders, 1500 instead of 500 copies— the truth of which assertion his account-books should show. I only repeat what her printer told me, and give it for what it may be worth ; 3. Because these and other circumstances, among others the internal evidence of the matter and execution of the work, make me doubt the story of the alleged adept authorship. Unquestionably there are fine, even brilliant, passages in it, and a deal that is both instructive and valuable. As a neophyte in this branch of literature, I was, at the time, deeply impressed with it, and so wrote to Mrs. Britten; but the effect of thse upon me was afterwards marred by my discovery of the unacknowledged use of text and illustrations from Barrett Piere de Abano, Jennings, Layard, and even (see plates facing pp. 193 and 219) from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper *; also by the unspiritual personification of God, "the eternal, uncreated, self-existent, and infinite realm of spirit" (p. 31), as a globe, that is to say. a limited sphere or central sun related to the universe as our sun is to our solar system ; by much bad spelling and grammar : by such mistakes as the making of "" Chrishna and Buddha Sakia ' heroes of an episode identical with that told of Jesus, viz a

* The book-reviewer of W. and Clagfin's Weekly, a New Yor journal of the day, in having the appreance of Art Magic uses very severe language in regard to the reputed Author, whom he identifies, whether justly or unjustly, I cannot say, with Mrs. Britten. The book, he says, "is simply a rehash of books accessible to any student of even limited means, and (which) can be readily found in almost any bookstore, or on the shelves of any public library. Ezzemoser's History of Magic, Howiz's Supernatural, Salverte's Philosophy of Magic, Hargrave Jennings's Rosicrucian, Farrett's Mague, Agrippa's Onair Philosophy, and a few others and the real sources of this wretched compilation, which is full of bad grammar and worse assumptions. We unhesitatingly assert that there is not a single important statement in the book which cannot be discovered in already printed books." This is exaggerated censure, for the book does contain passages worthy of Bulwer-Lyttez; in fact, we would say they were written by him: and while the ...  of illustrations and matter from the authors cited are palpable, there is much sound occult doctrine sententously put to reward the patient reader.

 190

 215 of 552

" flight and concealment in Egypt and their return to work miracles," etc. ; * also by the declaration, which contradicts every canon of Occult Science ever taught in any school, that for becoming a Magican, or Adept, the " first great pre-requisite is a prophetic or naturally mediumistic organisation" (j^ i6o); and that the sitting in" circles," mutual mesmerism, the cultivation of intercourse with spirits of the dead, and the acceptance of spirit guides and controls, are substantial and lawful aids to the development of Adept powers. Whatever Adept may have written this book, most assuredly it became in the pro* But I really must quote, for the edification of the High Priest H. Sumangala, and other unenlightened Buddhist scholars, the whole passage : " The births of these Avatars through the motherhood of a pure Virgin, their lives in infancy threatened by a vengeful king, their flight and concealment in Egypt, their return to work miracles, save, heal and redeem the world, suffer persecution, a violent death, a descent into Hell, and a re-appearance as a new-born Saviour, are all items of the Sun God's history, which have already been recited, etc. etc." (pp. cit., p. 60). Fancy Buddha Gautama concealed in Egypt, suffering a violent death, and then descending into Hell ! And this Art Magic is claimed to be the work of an Adept, who had studied in the East, and been initiated in its mystical lore ! An Adept, moreover, who, when cholera was raging in London, "adjourned to an observatory " — in London — where he and "a select party — all distinguished for their scientific attainments,'' made " observations through an immense telescope, constructed under the direction of Lord Rosse " (Ghost Land, p. 134, by the same Author); which telescope happens to have never been nearer London than its site at Birr Castle near Parsons Town, Kings County, Ireland ! The fact is that the Author of this book seems to have borrowed his (or her) alleged facts — even to the misspelling of the names of Krishna and Sakya Muni — from Chapter I. of Kersey Graves's veracious work, The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviours, which H. P. B. satirised so merrily in his Unveiled.   cess of " editing " and " translating " a panegyric upon mediumship, and upon those phases of it which Mrs. Britten's mediumistic history seems to illustrate. One has but to compare it with Isis Unveiled, to see the vast difference in favour of the latter as a trustworthy elucidation of the nature, history, and scientific conditions of magic and magicans, of both the Right and Left Hand paths. To affirm that mediumship and adeptship are compatible, and that any Adept would permit himself to be guided or commanded by departed spirits, is an absurdity only equal to that of saying that the North and South Poles are in contact. I remember very well pointing this out to Mrs. Britten upon first reading hei book, and that her explanation was not at all convincing. She makes one statement, however, which Spiritualists often deny, but which is doubtless true, nevertheless :  

" It is also a significant fact, and one which should commend itself to the attention alike of the physiologist and psychologist, that persons afflicted with scrofula and glandular enlargements, often seem to supply the pabulum which enables spirits to produce manifestations of physical power. Frail, delicate women — persons, too, whose natures are refined, innocent, and pure, but whose glandular system has been attacked by the demon of scrofula, have frequently been found susceptible of becoming the most remarkable instruments for physical demonstrations by spirits."

The author had seen astounding phenomena exhibited by " rugged country girls and stout men of Ireland and North Germany," but careful scrutiny would often reveal in the mediums a tendency to epilepsy, chorea, and functual derangements of the pelvic viscera.

" It is a fact, which we may try to mask, or the acknowledgment of which we [Adepts ? ] may indignantly protest against, that the existence of remarkable medium powers augurs a want of balance in the system, etc."

Yet (p. 161), we are told that, "To be an 'Adept' was to be able to practise magic, and to do this was either to be a natural prophet [or medium, as above declared], cultured to the strength of a magician, or an individual who had acquired this prophetic [mediumistic ?] power and magical strength through discipline." And this soi-disant Adept, says (p. 228) that if "the magic of the Orient combine with the magnetic spontaneity of Western Spiritism, we may have a religion, whose foundations laid in science and stretching away to the heavens in inspiration, will revolutionise the opinions of ages and establish on earth the reign of the true Spiritual Kingdom."

But this will suffice to show what manner of Adept is the reported Author of Art Magic, and what weight should be given to Mrs. Britten's current sarcasms and pifflings against H. P. B., her teachings, and the pretensions of the Theosophical Society which she helped us found. In the early days, she declared her acquaintanceship with us " a great privilege," her membership something to be proud of, and her office in the T. S. "a mark of diitincrion " [Letter on "The Sl.inderers of Art Jfij^!\" in 5.';>;y./.?/ S.itn/isf] ; and, ..s late as the year iSSi or iSS:?, she calls herself, in a letter introducing Professor J. Smyth, of Sydney, lo H. P. B., her unchanged friend, for whom she ever feels "the old time affection " : yet she has been an>ihing but that of later years : and it is her attitude towards Theosophv which has created the necessity for my recording these several reminiscences, both in the interest of histor\", and for the profit of her friends and herself.

The author, we are told, had had " more than fortv years ' o; occult experience (p. i66\ after having "learned the truth'" of magical science: so that he might reasonably he taken as at least fifty or sixty vears of age when Arf Jf.ip'.was published ; yet. from an alleged portrait of him, obligingly sent me by Mrs. Britten from Boston to Xew York, in 1876, for examination.* he seems a young man of about twenty-five. Moreover, all those years of profound study ought to have made his face embody the acquired masculine majesty one finds in the countenance of a true Yogi or Mahatma ; whereas in this portrait, of a pretty man with mutton-chop whiskers, the face has the vapid weakness  a "sick sensitive." of a fashionable lady-killer. or, as many say who have seen it, that of a wax figure such as the Parisian barber sets in his shop window to d:st lav his wic;s and whiskers upon. One who has ever * Her cond;!' . r.5 were :'. j: I ^ i5 to show ii only to those living in cur hcuse and then re:jim it to her.

been face to face with a real Adept, would be forced by this effeminate dawdler's countenance to suspect that either Mrs. Britten \^z.A, faiUe de mieux, shown a bogus portrait of the real author, or that the book was written by no " Chevalier Louis " at all.

The portrait is far less interesting in itself than in its relation to a remarkable phenomenon, which H. P. B. did upon the provocation of a French lady, a Spiritualist, then a guest at our New York Headquarters. Her name was Mile. Pauline Liebert, and her place of residence at Leavenworth, in Kansas, a distant Western State. H. P. B. had known her in former years at Paris, where she took the deepest interest in " spirit photography." She believed herself to be under the spiritual guardianship of Napoleon Bonaparte, and that she possessed the power of conferring upon a photographer the mediumistic faculty of taking the portraits of the spiritfriends of living sitters ! When she read in the papers H. P. B.'s first letters about Dr. Beard and the phenomena of the Eddy family, she wrote to her and told about the wonderful success she had had in Kansas, St. Louis, and elsewhere among the photographers, in getting spirit portraits. Mr. H. J. Newton, the Treasurer of the T. S., was a distinguished and scientific amateur photographer, and had fitted up a very excellent experimental gallery in his own house. Upon hearing from me about Mile. Liebert's pretensions, he asked us to invite her to pay us a visit and give him sittings, with a view to testing her claims in the interest of science. H. P. B. complied, and the eccentric lady came to New York at our expense, and was our guest during several months. The erudite calumniator of the Carrier Dove, whom I have above mentioned in another connection, published (C. D., vol. viii., 298) an alleged assertion of Mile. Liebert to himself, that H. P. B.'s phenomena were tricks to delude me along with others, that her pictures were bought or prepared in advance and foisted on us as instantaneous productions, etc., etc.; in short, a tissue of falsehoods. He parades her as an intelligent person, but the fact is that she was credulity personified, so far as her spiritualistic photographs were concerned. Upon her arrival at New York, she began a course of photographic sittings at Mr. Newton's house, confidently prognosticating that she should enable him to get genuine spirit portraits. Mr. Newton patiently went on with the trial, until, with the fiftieth sitting, and no result, his patience gave way and he stopped. Mile. Liebert tried to account for her failure by saying that the " magnetism " of Mr. Newton's private gallery was not congenial to the spirits ; notwithstanding the fact that he was the foremost Spiritualist of New York City, the president of the largest society of the kind. With Mr. Newton's obliging help, I then arranged for a fresh series of trials in the photographic gallery of Bellevue Hospital, the manager of which, Mr. Mason, was a man of scientific training, a member of the Photographic Section of the American Institute, and anxious to test Mile. Liebert's pretensions in a sympathetic spirit. His success was no better than Mr. Newton's, despite seventy-five careful trials under the French lady's prescribed precautions against failure. All these weeks and months that the two series of experiments were going on, Mile. Liebert lived with us, and almost every evening she used to bring out and lovingly con over a handful of so-called spirit photographs that she had collected in divers places. The ignominious collapse of her hopes as to the test trials in progress seemed to make her dote upon what the -poor deluded creature regarded as past successes, and it was an amusing study to watch her face while handling her thumb-worn pieces de conviction.

H. P. B. had naturally but small pity for intellectual weaklings, especially little for the stubborn dupes of mediumistic trickery, and she often poured out the vials of her wrath upon the — as she called her — purblind old maid. One cold evening (Dec. i, 1875), after a fresh day of failures at Mr. Mason's laboratory. Mile. Liebert was, as usual, shuffling over her grimy photographs, sighing and arching her eyebrows into a despairing expression, when H. P. B. burst out : " Why will you persist in this folly ? Can't you see that all those photographs in your hand were swindles on you by photographers who did them to rob you of your money ? You have had every possible chance now to prove your pretended power, — more than one hundred chances have been given you, and you have not been able to do the least thing. Where is your pretended guide. Napoleon, and the other sweet angels of Summerland ; why don't the)' come and help you ? Pshaw ! it makes me sick to see such credulity. Xow see here : I can make a ■ spirit picture ' whenever I like and — of anybody I like. You don't believe it, eh ? Well, I shall prove it on the spot ! " She hunted up a piece of card-board, cut it to the size of a cabinet photograph, and then asked Mile. Liebert whose portrait she wished. " Do you want me to make your Napoleon ' " she asked. " Xo," said Mile. L., " please make for me the picture of that beautiful M. Louis." H. P. B. burst into a scornful laugh, because, by Mrs. Britten's request, I had returned to her through the post the Louis portrait three days previous!}', and it being by that time in Boston, 250 miles away, the trap set bv the French ladv was but too e\'ident.

" Ah ! " said H. P. B., " you thought you could catch me, but now see ! " She laid the prepared card on the table before Mile. Liebert and m}'self, rubbed the palm of her hand over it three or four times, turned it over, and lo ! on the under side we saw (as we then thought) a fac-simile of the Louis portrait. In a cloudv background at both sides of the face were grinning elemental sprites, and above the head a shadow}' hand with the index-finger pointing downward. I never saw amazement more stronglv depicted on a human face than it was upon Mile. Liebert's at that moment. She gazed in positive terror at the mysterious card, and presentlv burst into tears and hurried out of the room with it in her hand, while H. P. B. and I went into fits of lau2:hter. .\fter a half hour she returned, gave me the picture, and on retiring for the night I placed it as a book-mark in a volume I was reading in my own apartment. On the back I noted the date and the names of the three witnesses. The next morning I found that the picture had quite faded out, all save the name " Louis," written at the bottom in imitation of the original : the writing, a precipitation made simultaneously with the portrait and the elves in the background. That was a curious fact — that one part of a precipitated picture should remain visible, while all the rest had disappeared, and I cannot explain it. I locked it up in my drawer, and Mr. Judge, dropping in a day or two later, or, perhaps, the same evening, I told him the story and showed him the defaced card ; whereupon he asked H. P. B. to cause the portrait to re-appear and to " fix " it. It needed but a moment for to lay the card again face down upon the table, cover it with her hand, and reproduce the picture as it had been. He took it by her permission, and kept it until we met him at Paris in 1884, when — as he had fortunately brought it with him — I begged it of him for the Adyar Library. From Paris I crossed over to London, and, going one evening to dine with my friend Stainton Moses, he showed me his collection of mediumistic curios, among others, the very original of the Louis picture, which I had returned to Mrs. Britten by post from New York to Boston in i8y6 ! On the back was written " M. A. Oxon, March i, 1877, from the Author of Art Magic, and Ghostland." The next day I brought and showed Stainton Moses the H. P. B copy, and he kindly gave  

ORIGINAL OF THE PRETENDED PORTRAIT OF CHEVALIER LOUIS."  

DUPLICATE OF THE PRETENDED PORTRAIT OF "CHEVALIER LOUIS," PHENOMENALLY PRODUCED.  

me the original. Thus, after the lapse of eight years, both came back to my hand. Upon comparing them, we found so many differences as to show conclusively that the one was not a duplicate of the other. To begin with the faces look in opposite directions, as though the one were the enlarged and somewhat deranged reflection of the other in a mirror. When I asked H. P. B. the reason for this, she said that all things on the objective plane have their images reversed in the astral light, and that she simply transferred to paper the astral reflection of the Louis picture as she saw it : the minuteness of its accuracy would depend upon the exactness of her clairvoyant perception. Applying this test to these two pictures, we find that there are material differences in horizontal and vertical measurements throughout, as well as in the curl of the hair and beard and the outlines of the dress : the " Louis " signatures also vary in all details while preserving a general resemblance. When the copy was precipitated, the tint was infused into the surface of the whole card as a sort of pigmentous blur, just as the background still remains, and H. P. B. touched up some of the main lines with a lead-pencil ; to the artistic improvement of the picture, but to its detriment as an exhibit of occult photography.

I am fortunately able to cite an account, hitherto unpublished, by Mrs. Britten herself, of the incidents connected with the taking of the portrait. It is given in a letter to Lady Caithness, Duchesse de Pomar, who copied it out at my request :

" I now enclose you a faint shadow of our ' archiniagus.' I deeply regret my inability to send you anything better, for, indeed, his face is wonderfully beautiful. He has raven hair, superb eyes, a very fine complexion, and the sweetest smile imaginable — you may judge therefore what a poor representation this picture forms of him. It only resembles him as he lay fainting in the carriage* when we left the photographer's. There was a very curious incident about this picture. When the negative was finished, I insisted on the photographer making me a proof, then and there, in order that I might judge of its resemblance ; that proof I took away with us, requesting my friend, who is a fine artist, to make me an enlarged crayon sketch for myself, — this he agreed to do. I wondered why the photographer did not send me any more pictures, and waited for many days for them. I knew it only represented my poor sufferer as he then was, not as he generally appears, still he entreated me to send it as it was for his Madonna — as he calls you — because he had made such a great exertion to have it taken, and only for you. Still he did not come. The photographer might have been prevented from executing the pictures, I thought, by bad weather. At last I called on him — when, with a strange and singular air of reluctance, he acknowledged that almost immediately after we had left, the picture on the negative faded entirely out, leaving only some very faint indications or marks, which looked like Cabalistic characters. He was very angry

'' A fainting adept would indeed Ipe a novelty in the East ! about it, complained that these spiritualists were always playing tricks when they came for pictures, and he could not bear to have anything to do with them. I demanded to see the negative which he reluctantly showed me. He then, at my request, developed the plate [Note above that it had already been developed and printed from — H. S. O.], but the figures or signs are so faint that they are scarcely perceptible. He added, in a frightened way, that he ' did not want the gentleman to come again, for he did n't think he was a mortal man anyway.'

" I was terribly disappointed, but had no resource but submission. I had half resolved to have my miniature copied, when I received from Cuba, where Louis went first, the chalk-drawing he has made from the proof. He added to it a statement that the proof he took with him has most strangely faded out, leaving nothing but a faint indication of some Cabalistic signs too faint to make out.

" Is not that very strange ? Determined not to be balked, I have had the chalk-drawing photographed, and though it is somewhat inferior in softness to the proof, it is an equally good resemblance of our invalid. What momentous times we are living in ! "

Momentous, indeed, when Adepts of forty years' experience are made to look like a school-girl's hero, and photographic negatives are twice developed, each time giving a different print !

CHAPTER XIII.

'ISIS UNVEILED."  

OF the writing of Isis Unveiled, let us see what reminiscences memory can bring out of the darkroom where her imperishable negatives are kept.

If any book could ever have been said to make an epoch, this one could. Its effects have been as important in one way as those of Darwin's first great work have been in another : both were tidal waves in modern thought, and each tended to sweep away theological crudities and replace the belief in miracle with the belief in natural law. And yet nothing could have been more commonplace and unostentatious than the beginning of Isis. One day in the Summer of 1875. H. P. B. showed me some sheets of manuscript which she had written, and said : " I wrote this last night ' by order,' but what the deuce it is to be I don't know. Perhaps it is for a newspajter article, perhaps for a book, perhaps for nothing : anyhow, I did as I was ordered." And she put it away in a drawer, and nothing more was said about it for some time. But in the month of September — if my memory serves — she went to Syracuse (N. Y.), on a visit to her new friends, Professor and Mrs. Corson, of Cornell University, and the work went on. She wrote me that it was to be a book on the history and philosophy of the Eastern Schools and their relations with those of our own times. She said she was writing about things she had never studied and making quotations from books she had never read in all her life : that, to test her accuracy, Prof. Corson had compared her quotations with classical works in the University Library, and had found her to be right. Upon her return to town, she was not very industrious in this affair, but wrote only spasmodically, and the same may be said as to the epoch of her Philadelphia residence, but a month or two after the formation of the Theosophical Society, she and I took two suites of rooms at 433 West 34th St., she on the first and I on the second floor, and thenceforward the writing of Isis went on without break or interruption until its completion in the year 1877. In her whole life she had not done a tithe of such literary labour, yet I never knew even a managing daily journalist who could be compared with her for dogged endurance or tireless working capacity. From morning till night she would be at her desk, and it was seldom that either of us got to bed before 2 o'clock a.m. During the daytime I had my professional duties to attend to, but always, after an early dinner we would settle down together to our big writing-table and work, as if for dear life, until bodily fatigue would compel us to stop. What an experience ! The education of an ordinary life-time of reading and thinking was, for me, crowded and compressed into this period of less than two years. I did not merely serve her as an amanuensis or a proof-reader, but she made me a collaborator ; she caused me to utilise — it almost seemed — everything I had ever read or thought, and stimulated my brain to think out new problems that she put me in respect to occultism and metaphysics, which my education had not led me up to, and which I only came to grasp as my intuition developed under this forcing process. She worked on no fixed plan, but ideas came streaming through her mind like a perennial spring which is ever overflowing its brim. Now she would be writing upon Brahma, anon upon Babinet's electrical " meteor-cat " ; one moment she would be reverentially quoting from Porphyrios, the next from a daily newspaper or some modern pamphlet that I had just brought home ; she would be adoring the perfections of the ideal Adept, but diverge for an instant to thwack Professor Tyndall or some other pet aversion of hers, with her critical cudgel. Higgledy-piggledy it came, in a ceaseless rivulet, each paragraph complete in itself and capable of being excised without harm to its predecessor or successor. Even as it stands now, and after all its numerous re-castings, an examination of the wondrous book will show this to be the case.  

If she had no plan, despite all her knowledge, does not that go to prove that the work was not of her own conception ; that she was but the channel through which this tide of fresh, vital essence was being poured into the stagnant pool of modern spiritual thought ? As a part of my educational training she would ask me to write something about some special subject, perhaps suggesting the salient points that should be brought in, perhaps just leaving me to do the best I could with my own intuitions. When I had finished, if it did not suit her, she would usually resort to strong language, and call me some of the pet names that are apt to provoke the homicidal impulse ; but if I prepared to tear up my unlucky compositon, she would snatch it from me and lay it by for subsequent use elsewhere, after a bit of trimming, and I would try again. Her own manuscript was often a sight to behold ; cut and patched, re-cut and re-pasted, until if one held a page of it to the light, it would be seen to consist of, perhaps, six, or eight, or ten slips cut from other pages, pasted together, and the text joined by interlined words or sentences. She became so dexterous in this work that she used often to humorously vaunt her skill to friends who might be present. Our books of reference sometimes suffered in the process, for her pasting was frequently done on their open pages, and volumes are not wanting in the Adyar Headquarters and London libraries which bear the marks to this day.

From the date of her first appearance in the Daily Graphic, in 1874, throughout her American career, she was besieged by visitors, and if among them there chanced to be any who had some sjiecial knowledge of any particular thing cognate to her field of work, sheinvariably drew him out, and, if possible, got him to write down his views or reminiscences for insertion in her book. Among examples of this sort are Mr. O'Sullivan's account of a magical sdance in Paris, Mr. Rawson's interesting sketch of the secret initiations of the Lebanon Druses, Dr. Alexander Wildcr's numerous notes and text paragraphs in the Introduction and throughout both volumes, and others which add so much to the value and interest of the work. I have known a Jewish Rabbi pass hours and whole evenings in her company, discussing the Kabballa, and have heard him say to her that, although he had studied the secret scienre of his religion for thirty years, she had taught liim things he had not even dreamed of, and thrown a rle/ir light upon passages which not even his best tc.iehers had understood. Whence did she get this knowledge ? That she had it, was unmistakable ; whence did she get it ? Not from her governesses in Russia ; not from any soiirrc known to her family or most intimate friends ; not on the steamships or railways she had been haunting in her world-rambles since her fifteenth ye.-ir ; not in any college or university, for she never matriculated at eilher ; not in the huge libraries of the world. 'I'o jiidf^e from her conversation and habits before she took up this monster literary task, she had not lenrnt it at all, whether from one source or another; but when she needed it she had it, and in her better moments of inspiration — if the term be admissible— she astonished the most erudite by her learning quite as much as she dazzled all present by her eloquence and delighted them b}' her wit and humorous raillery.  

One might fancy, upon seeing the numerous quotations in /sis Unveiled that she had written it in an alcove of the British Museum or of the Astor Library in New YorL The fact is, however, that our whole working library scarcely comprised one hundred books of reference. Now and again single volumes would be brought her by Mr. Sotheran, Mr. Marble or other friends, and, latterly, she borrowed a few of Mr. Bouton. Of some books she made great use — for example. King's Gnostics ; Jennings' Rosicj-ueians ; Dunlop's Sod and S/inV ITiston of Man ; Moor's Hindu Pantheon; Des Mousseaux's furious attacks on Magic, Mesmerism, Spiritualism, etc., all of which he denounced as the Devil ; Eliphas Levi's v.irious works ; JacoUiot's twentv-seven volumes ; Max Miiller's, Huxley's, Tyndall's, Herbert Spencer's works, and those of many other authors of greater or less repute : vet not to exceed the hundred, I should say. Then what books did she consult, and what library had she access to ? Mr. W. H. Burr asked Dr. Wilder in an open letter to the Tr-uth-seeker whether the rumour was true that he had written Isis for H. P. B. ; to which our beloved old friend would truthfully reply that it was a false rumour, and that he had done as much for H. P. B. as I have above stated, had given her much excellent advice, and had, for a consideration, prepared the ven copious Index of some fifty pages, from advanced plateproofs sent him for the purpose. That is all. And equally baseless is the oft-repeated tale that I wrote the book and she touched it up : it was quite the other way about. I corrected every page of her manuscript several times, and every page of the proofs ; wrote many paragraphs for her, often merely embodying her ideas that she could not then (some fifteen years before her death and anterior to almost her whole career as a writer of English literature) frame to her liking in English ; helped her to find out quotations, and did other purely auxiliary work : the book is hers alone, so far as personalities on this plane of manifestation are concerned, and she must take all the praise and the blame that it deserves. She made the epoch with her book, and, in making it, made me — her pupil and auxiliary — as fit as I may have been found to do Theosophical work during these past twenty years. Then, whence did H. P. B. draw the materials which compose Isis, and which cannot be traced to accessible literary sources of quotation ? From the Astral Light, and, by her soul-senses, from her Teachers — the "Brothers," "Adepts,"' " Sages,'" " Masters," as they have been variously called. How do I know it ? By working two years with her on Isis and many more years on other literary work.  

To watch her at work was a rare and never-to-be-forgotten experience. We sat at opposite sides of one big table usually, and I could see her every movement. Her pen would be flying over the page, when she would suddenly stop, look out into space with the vacant eye of the clairvoyant seer, shorten her vision as though to look at something held invisibly in the air before her, and begin copying on her paper what she saw. The quotation finished, her eyes would resume their natural expression, and she would go on writing until again stopped by a similar interruption. I remember well two instances when I, also, was able to see and even handle books from whose astral duplicates she had copied quotations into her manuscript, and which she was obliged to " materialise ' for me, to refer to when reading the proofs, as I refused to pass the pages for the "' strikeoff " unless my doubts as to the accuracy of her copy were satisfactory. One of these was a French work on physiology and psychology ; the other, also by a French author, upon some branch of neurolog}-. The first was in two volumes, bound in half calf, the other in pamphlet wrapper. It was when we were living at 3c j West 47th street — the once-famous " Lamaser)'," and the executive headquarters of the Theosophical Society. I said : " I cannot pass this quotation, tor I am sure it cannot read as you have it." She said : " Oh don't bother ; it 's right ; let it pass. ' I refused, until finall} she said : " Well, keep still a minute and I '11 try to ge: it." The far-away look came into her eyes, and presently she pointed to a far corner of the room, to an e'tagire on which were kept some curios, and in a hoUow voice said : " There ! " and then came to herself again.

" There, there ; go look for it over there ! " I went, and found the two volumes wanted, which, to my knowledge, had not been in the house until that very moment. I compared the text with H. P. B.'s quotation, showed her that I was right in my suspicions as to the error, made the proof correction and then, at her request, returned the two volumes to the place on the dtagire from which I had taken them. I resumed my seat and work, and -when, after awhile, I looked again in that direction, the books had disappeared ! After my telling this (absolutely true) story, ignorant sceptics are free to doubt my sanity ; I hope it may do them good. The same thing happened in the case of the apport of the other book, but this one remained, and is in our possession at the present time.

The " copy " turned off by H. P. B. presented the most marked dissemblances at different times. While the handwriting bore one peculiar character throughout, so that one familiar with her writing would always be able to detect any given page as H. P. B.'s, yet, when examined carefully, one discovered at least three or four variations of the one style, and each of these persistent for pages together, when it would give place to some other of the caligraphic variants. That is to say, there would not often — never, as I now remember — be more than two of the styles on the same page, and even two only when the style which had been running through the work of, perhaps, a whole evening or half an evening, would suddenly give place to one of the other styles which would, in its turn, run through the rest of an evening, or the next whole evening, or the morning's " copy." One of these H. P. B. handwritings was very small, but plain ; one bold and free ; another plain, of medium size, and very legible ; and one scratchy and hard to read, with its queer, foreign-shaped a"s and x's and e's. There was also the greatest possible difference in the English of tliese various styles. Sometimes I would have to make several corrections in each line, while at others I could pass manj" pages with scarcely a fault of idiom or spelling to correct. Most perfect of all were the manuscripts which were written for her while she was sleeping. The beginning of the chapter on the civilisation of Ancient Egypt (vol. i., chap, xiv.,) is an illustration. We had stopped work the evening before at about 2 a.m. as usual, both too tired to stop for our usual smoke and chat before parting ; she almost fell asleep in her chair while I was bidding her good-night, so I hurried ofif to ray bedroom. The next morning, when I came down after my breakfast, she showed me a pile of at least thirty or forty pages of beautifully written H. P. B. manuscript, which, she said, she had had written for her by well, a Master, whose name has never yet been degraded like some others. It was perfect in even,respect, and went to the printers without revision.

Now it was a curious fact that each change in the H. P. B. manuscript would be preceded, either by her leaving the room for a moment or two, or by her going off into the trance or abstracted state, when her lifeless eyes would be looking beyond me -into space, as it were, and returning to the normal waking state almost immediately. And there would also be a distinct change of personality, or rather personal peculiarities, in gait, vocal expression, vivacity of manner, and, above all, in temper. The reader of her Caves and J^ungles of Hindustan remembers how the whirling pythoness would rush out from time to time and return under the control, as alleged, of a different goddess ? It was just like that — bar the sorcery and the vertiginous dancing — with H. P. B. : she would leave the room one person and anon return to it another. Not another as to visible change of physical body, but another as to tricks of motion, speech, and manners ; with different mental brightness, different views of things, different command of English orthography, idiom, and grammar, and different — very, very different command over her temper ; which, at its sunniest, was almost angelic, at its worst, the opposite. Sometimes my most stupid incapacity to frame in writing the ideas she wished me to put would be passed over with benevolent patience ; at others, for perhaps the slightest of errors, she would seem ready to explode with rage and annihilate me on the spot ! These accesses of violence were, no doubt, at times, explicable by her state of health, and hence quite normal ; but this theory would not, in the least, suffice to account for some of her tantrums. Sinnett admirably describes her in a private letter as a mystic combination of a goddess and a Tartar, and in noticing her behaviour in these different moods, sa)'s : * " She certainl\' had none of the superficial attributes one might have expected in a spiritual teacher ; and how she could, at the same time, be philosopher enough to have given up the world for the sake of spiritual advancement, and yet be capable of going into frenzies of passion about trivial annoyances, was a profound mystery to us for a long while, etc." Yet, upon the theory that when her body was occupied by a sage it would be forced to act with a sage's tranquillity, and when not, not, the puzzle is solved. Her ever-beloved aunt, Mme. X. A. F., who loved her, and whom she loved passionately to her dying day, wrote Mr. Sinnett that her strange excitability of temperament, still one of her most marked characteristics, was already manifest in her earliest youth. Even then she was liable to ungovernable fits of passion, and showed a deep-rooted disposition to rebel against every kind of authority or control. "... The slightest contradiction brought on an outburst of passion, often a fit of convulsions." She has herself described in a family letter {Oj>. cit., p. 205) her psychical experience while writing her book :  

" When I wrote Isis I wrote it so easily, that it was certainly no labour, but a real pleasure. Why should I be praised for it ? Whenever I am told to write, I sit down and obey, and then I can write easily upon almost anything — metaphysics, psychologj^, philosophy, ancient religions, zoology, natural sciences, or what not. I ne\ er * Incidents in the Life of Madame Blai'atsky, p. 224. put myself the question : ' Can I write on this subject ?' ... or, ' am I equal to the task ? ' but I simply sit down and write. Why ? Because somebody who knows all dictates to me. My Master, and occasionally others whom I knew on my travels years ago. Please do not imagine I have lost my senses. I have hinted to you before now about them . . . and I tell you candidly, that whenever I write upon a subject I know little or nothing of, I address myself to them, and one of them inspires me, /. e., he allows me to simply copy what I write from manuscripts, and even printed matter that pass before my eyes, in the air, during which process I have never been unconscious one single instant."

She once wrote her sister Vera about the same subject — the manner of her writing :

" You may disbelieve me, but I tell you that in saying this I speak but the truth ; I am solely occupied, not with writing Isis, but with Isis herself. I live in a kind of permanent enchantment, a life of visions and sights, with open eyes, and no chance whatever to deceive my senses ! I sit and watch the fair goddess constantly. And as she displays before me the secret meaning of her longlost secrets, and the veil becoming with every hour thinner and more transparent, gradually falls off before my eyes, I hold my breath and can hardly trust to my senses ! . . . For several years, in order not to forget what I have learned elsewhere, I have been made to have permanently before my eyes all that I need to see. Thus, night and day, the images of the past are ever marshalled before my inner eye. Slowly, and gliding silently like images in an enchanted panorama, centuries after centuries appear before me . . . and I am made to connect these epochs with certain historical events, and I know there can be no mistake. Races and nations, countries and cities, emerge during some former century, then fade out and disappear during some other one, the precise date of which I am then told by . . . Hoary antiquity gives room to historical periods ; mj'ths are explained by real events and personages who have really existed ; and every important, and often unimportant event, every revolution, a new leaf turned in the book of life of nations — with its incipient course and subsequent natural results — remains photographed in my mind as though impressed in indelible colours. . . When I think and watch my thoughts, they appear to me as though they were like those little bits of wood of various shapes and colours, in the game known as the casse-tite : I pick them up one by one, and try to make them fit each other, first taking one, then putting it aside until I find its match, and finally there always comes out in the end something geometrically correct . . . T certainly refuse point-blank to attribute it to my own knowledge or memory, for I could never arrive alone at either such premises or conclusions. . . I tell you seriously I am helped. And he who helps me is my Guru." (Op. cit., 207).

She tells her aunt that during her Master's absence on some other occupation, —

" He awakens in me, his substitute in knowledge . . . At such times it is no more /who write, but my inner Ego, my ^ luminousself ,' who thinks and writes for me. Only see . . . you who know me. When was I ever so learned as to write such things ? Whence was all this knowledge ? "  

Readers, whose taste leads them to probe such unique psychical problems as this to the bottom, should not fail to compare the above explanations that she gives of her states of consciousness, with a series of letters to her family that was begun in the Path magazine (N. Y. 144 Madison Ave.) for December, 1894. In those she plainly admits that her body was occupied at such times, and the literary work done by foreign entities who taught me through her lips and gave out knowledge of which she herself did not possess even a glimmering in her normal state.

Taken literally, as it reads, this explanation is hardly satisfactory ; for, if the disjointed thought-bits of her psychical casse-titc always fitted together so as to make her puzzle-map strictly geometrical, then her literary work should be free from errors, and her materials run together into an orderly scheme of logical and literary sequence. Needless to say, the opposite is the case ; and that, even as Isis Unveiled came off the press of Trow, after Bouton had spent above $600 for the corrections and alterations that she had made in galley, page, and electroplate proofs,* it was, and to this day is, without a

definite literary plan. Volume I. professes to be confined to questions of Science, Volume II. to those of Religion, yet there are many portions in each volume that belong in the other ; and Miss Kislingbury, who sketched out the Table of Contents of Vol. II. on the evening when I was sketching out that of Vol. I., can testify to the difficulty we had in tracing the features of a plan for each of our respective volumes.

* He writes me, May 17th, 1887, " the alterations have already cost $280.80, and at that rate, by the time the book appears it will be handicapped with such fearful expense that each copy of the first 1000 will cost a great deal more than we shall get for it, a very discouraging state of affairs to begin with. The cost of composition of the first volume alone (with stereotyping) amounts to $1,359-69. ^nd th's for one volume alone, mind you, without faper, press work or binding ! Yours truly, J. W. Bouton." Not only did she make endless corrections in the types, but even after the plates were cast, she had them cut to transpose the old matter and insert new things that occurred to her ur that she had come across in her reading. Then, again, when the publisher peremptorily refused to put any more capital into the venture, we had prepared almost enough additional MS. to make a third volume, and this was ruthlessly destroyed before we left America ; H. P. B. not dreaming that she should ever want to utilise it in India, and the Theosophist, Secret Doctrine, and her other subsequent literary productions, not even being thought of. How often she and I mingled our regrets that all that valuable material had been so thoughtlessly wasted !

We had laboured at the book for several months and had turned out 870-odd pages of manuscript when, one evening, she put me the question whether, to oblige (our " Pdramaguru "), I would consent to begin all over again ! I well remember the shock it gave me to think that all those weeks of hard labour, of psychical thunder-storms and head-splitting archaeological conundrums, were to count — as I, in my blind-puppy ignorance, imagined — for nothing. However, as my love and reverence and gratitude to this Master, and all the Masters, for giving me the privilege of sharing in their work was without limits, I consented, and at it we went again. Well for me, was it, that I did ; for, having proved my steadfastness of purpose and my loyalty to H. P. B., I got ample spiritual reward. Principles were explained to me, multifarious illustrations given in the way of psychical phenomena, I was helped to make experiments for myself, was made to know and to profit by acquaintance with various Adepts, and, generally, to fit myself — so far as my ingrained stubbornness and practical worldly self-sufficiency would permit — for the then unsuspected future of public work that has since become a matter of history. People have often thought it very strange, in fact incomprehensible, that, of all those who have helped in this Theosophical movement, often at the heaviest selfsacrifice, I should have been the only one so favoured with personal experiences of and with the Mahdtmas that the fact of their existence is a matter of as actual knowledge as the existence of my own relatives or intimate friends. I cannot account for it myself. I know what I know, but not why many of my colleagues do not know as much. As it stands, many people have told me that they pin their faith in the Mahatmas upon my unchanging and unimpeached personal testimony, which supplements the statements of H. P. B. Probably I was so blessed because I had to launch the ship " Theosophy " with H. P. B. for H. P. B.'s Masters, and to steer it through many maelstroms and cyclones, when nothing short of actual knowledge of the sound basis of our movement would have influenced me to stick to my post. Let us next attempt to analyse the mental state of H. P. B. while writing her book, and see if any known hypothesis will give us the clue to those marked differences in personality, handwriting, and mentality above mentioned. The task is one of so delicate and complicated a nature that I doubt if such a psychical problem, save Shakespeare's, has ever been presented before ; and I think that, after reading what I have to say, my fellowstudents in Theosophy and Occult Science will concur in this opinion. CHAPTER XIV. DIFFERENT HYPOTHESES. WHILE I may well despair of proving the exact degree in which the complex personality, H. P. B., may be said to have written Isis Unveiled, yet I think it clear and beyond dispute that she digested and assimilated all the material, making it her own and fitting it into her book like bits of stone into a mosaic. As Prof. Wilder recently wrote me : " Few books are absolutely original. That these volumes were in her peculiar style is as plain as can well be. People only demand that Mr. Henry Ward Beecher's principle be applied : ' When I eat chicken, I do not become chicken ; the chicken becomes me ! ' "

Nothing would be easier than to shirk the whole inquiry, and chime in with those who simply declare H. P. B. to have been, so to say, divinely inspired, and guiltless of errors, contradictions, exaggerations, or limitations ; but I cannot do this, having so well known her, and the truth only will serve me. As for shrinking from the closest inquiry into her occult and mental gifts, it is not to he tho-.;_:-: of. I, cert;unly. am not going to shut my eyes to tacts, and thus .-.bandon her and her work to those -n-ho would rejoice in destroying the pedestal upon which we ov.i'.t to place her, and degrading her into the dangerous impostor which the leaders of tJie S. P. R. tried to show her to be. The ver^question of the alleged resemblances between her own handwriting and that of a Master — one of the counts in their indictment — properly comes within the lines of our present discussion of the MS. of Isis C'.rn/^.i,  

One canno: fail to see. after reflection, that as regards the case in point, at least these several hypotheses must be considered :

1. Was the book written by H. P. B. entirely as an independent, conscientious amanuensis, from the dictation of a Master ?

2. Or whollv or in part bv her Higher Self while controlling her physical organism ?

;. Or as a medium obsessed by other living persons ;

4. ^''r partly under any two or more of these three conditions ?

;. Or as an ordinai-\spiriraal medium, controlled by intelligences disincamate ?

6. Or was it written by several alternately latent and active personalities of herself ?

7. Or simplv by her as the uninspired, uncontrolled and not obsessed Russian lady. H. P. B.. in the usual state of waking consciousness, and ditlenng in no way from anv author doing a work of this class ?

Let us begin with the last alternative. We shall discover very readily and unmistakably that H. P. B.'s education and training were quite incongruous with the idea that she was erudite, philosophical, or in the least degree, a book-worm. The memoirs of her life, as communicated by her family to Mr. Sinnett, her biographer, and to myself, * show that she was a rebellious pupil with no love of serious literature, no attraction for learned people, no tendency to haunting libraries : the terror of her governesses, the despair of her relatives, a passionate rebel against all restraint of custom or conventionality. Her early years were passed in the company of " hunchback goblins " and sprites, with whom she spent days and weeks together, and in playing disagreeable tricks upon, and clairvoyantly telling disagreeable secrets to, people. The only literature she loved was the folk-lore of Russia, and at no period of her life before she began to write Isi's, not even during the year she lived in New York before being sent to hunt me up, did the family or any of her friends or acquaintances hear of her displaying bookish habits or tastes. Miss Ballard and other ladies who knew her in her several New York lodging-houses, and were familiar with her habits and mode of life, never knew her to have visited the Astor, the Society, the Mechanics', the Historical, the American Institute, the Brooklyn, or the Mercantile library : no one has ever come forward to recognise her as a frequenter of those alcoves of printed

* Cf. Chapter VII.

thought. She belonged to no scientific or otherwise learned society in any part of the world ; she had published no book. She hunted up thaumaturgists in savage and semi-civilised countries, not to read their (non-existent) books, but to learn practical psychology. In short, she was not a literary person up to the time of writing Isis. This fact was equally clear to each of her New York intimates as it was to myself ; and the opinion is confirmed by herself in the last Lucifer article, " My Books," that she wrote before her death.* In it she says that the following facts are " undeniable and not to be gainsaid :

"(1). When I came to America in 1873, I had not spoken English — which I had learned in my childhood colloquially — for over thirty years. I could understand when I read it, but could hardly speak the language.

" (2). I had never been at any College, and what I knew I had taught myself ; I have never pretended to any scholarship in the sense of modern research ; I had then hardly read any scientific European works, knew little of Western philosophy and sciences. The little which I had studied and learned of these disgusted me with its materialism, its limitations, narrow cut-and-dried spirit of dogmatism and air of superiority over the philosophies and sciences^of antiquity:

" (3). Until 1874, I had never written one word in

*The article in question is very inaccurate, as was shown in this chapter as originally published in the Theosophist, May, r8g3. Space does not permit its repetition here. English, nor had I published any work in any language. Therefore :

" (4) I had not the least idea of literary rules. The art of writing books, of preparing them for print and publication, reading and correcting proofs, were so many close secrets to me.

" (s) When I started to write that which developed later into Isis Unveiled, I had no more idea than the man in the moon what would come of it. I had no plan ; did not know whether it would be an essay, a pamphlet, a book or an article. I knew that I had io write it, that was all. I began the work before I knew Colonel Olcott well, and some months before the formation of the Theosophical Society."

The last sentence is misleading, for she did not begin it until we were well acquainted and in fact, were close friends. In fact, the whole article ought to have been entirely re-written if it was to have been her last.

The endless substitutions of new for old " copy " and transportations from one Chapter or one Volume to another, in Isis Unveiled, were confined to such portions of the work as, I should say, were done in her normal condition — if any such there was — and suggested the painful struggles of a " green hand " over a gigantic literary task. Unfamiliar w^th grammatical English and literary methods, and with her mind absolutely untrained for such sustained desk-work, yet endowed with a courage without bounds and a power of continuous mental concentration that has scarcely been equalled, she floundered on through weeks and months towards her goal, the fulfilment of her Master's orders. This literary feat of hers surpasses all her phenomena. The glaring contrasts between the jumbled and the almost perfect portions of her MS. quite clearly prove that the same intelligence was not at work throughout : and the variations in handwriting, in mental method, in literary facility, and in personal idiosyncracies, bear out this idea. At this distance of time and with her MS. destroyed, it is impossible for me to say which of her shifting personalities is mainly responsible for her alleged unacknowledged use of quotations. Whatever came into my hands that seemed as if taken from another author I, of course, would put between inverted commas, and it is quite possible that their blending with some of her own original ideas is chargeable to me ; the passages in question reading as if somebody's else. When she wrote other people's words into her current argument without break of the continuity, then, naturally enough — unless the passages were from books I had read, and that were familiar to me — I would go on correcting it as H. P. B.'s own " copy." I have said above that I got my occult education in the compilation of Isis and in H. P. B.'s teaching and experiments ; I must now add that my previous literary life had taken me into other and much more practical fields of study than the literature which is synthesised in Isis, viz., Agricultural Chemistry and Scientific Agriculture generally. So that she might have given me " copy " entirely made up of passages borrowed from Orientalists, Philologists, and Eastern Sages, without my being able to detect the fact. Personally I have never had plagiarisms in Isis pointed out to me, whether verbally or otherwise, nor do I know there are such ; but if there are, two things are possible,(a) that the borrowing was done by the untrained, inexperienced literary beginner, H. P. B., who was ignorant of the literary sin she committed, or {f) that the passages had been so worked into the copy as not to draw my editorial attention to their incongruity with what preceded and succeeded them. Or — a third alternative — might it be that, while writing she was always half on this plane of consciousness, half on the other ; and that she read her quotations clairvoyantly in the Astral Light and used them as they came a propos, without really knowing who were the authors or what the titles of their books ? Surely her Eastern acquaintances will be prepared to think that a plausible theory, for if ever anyone lived in two worlds habitually, it was she. Often — as above stated — I have seen her in the very act of copying extracts out of phantom books, invisible to my senses, yet most undeniably visible to her.

Now let us consider the next hypothesis, the 6th, viz., that the book was written by several different H. P. B. personalities, or several personal strata of her consciousness capable of coming seriatim into activity out of latency. Upon this point the researches of our contemporaries are not yet so far advanced as to unable us to dogmatise. In his Incidents in the Life of Mme. Blavatsky (P147). ^^^Sinnett quotes a written description of hers of a '■ double life " she led throughout a certain " mild fever." which was yet a wasting illness, that she had when a 3'oung lady in Mingrelia :  

"AVhenever I was called by name, I opened my eyes upon hearing it, and was ni\selt, my own personality in even,particular. As soon as I was left alone, however, I relapsed into my usual, half-dreamy condition, and became jwa^AvV c7jy (who, namely, ^Nlme. B. will not tell). In cases when I was interrupted, when in my other si\Y, by the sound of my present name being pronounced, and while I was conversing in my dream-life, — say at half a sentence either spoken by me or those who were with my second mcat the time, — and opened my eyes to answer the call, I used to answer \ery rationally, and understood all, for I was never delirious. But no sooner had I closed my eyes again than the sentence which had been interrupted was completed by my other self, continued from the word, or even the half word it had stopped at. When awake, and mysi-//. I remembered well u'/h^ I :..\7s in my second capacity, and what I had been and was doing. When spmc'^i-'Jy else, i. e., the personage I had become, I know I had no idea of who was H. P. Blavatsky 1 I was in another far-off country-, a totally different individuality from myself, and had no connection with my actual life.'

In view of what has since been seen, some might say that the only H. P. B. was the conscious entity which inhabited her physical body, and that the " somebody else " was not H. P. B., but another incarnate entity, having an inexpHcable connection with H. P. B.'s body and H. P. B. True, there are cases known where certain tastes and talents have been shown by the second self which were foreign to the normal self. Prof. Barrett, for instance, tells of a vicar's son in the North of London who, after a serious illness, became two distinct personalities. The abnormal self " did not know his parents, he had no memory of the past, he called himself by another name, and, what is still more remarkable, he developed musical talent, of which he had never shown a trace." So there are many cases where the second self, replacing the normal self, calls itself by a different name and has a special memory of its own experiences. In the well-known case of Lurancy Vennum, her body was completely obsessed by the disincarnate soul of another girl named Mary Roff, who had died twelve years before. Under this obsession her personality changed entirely ; she remembered all that had ever happened to Mary Roff prior to her decease, but her own parents, connexions, and friends became total strangers. The obsession lasted nearly four months.*** The body occupied seemed to Mary Roff " so natural that she could hardly feel it was not her original body born nearly thirty years ago." The Editor of the Watseka Wonder pamphlet copies from Harper's Magazine for May, i860, the Rev. Dr. W. S. Plummer's account of

* See The Watseka Wonder. To be had of the Manager, Theosophist Office.

a certain Mary Reynolds' double personality which lasted, with intervals of relapse to the normal state, from her eighteenth to her sixty-first year. During the last quarter centurjof her life, she rcTnained wholly in her second abnormal condition : the normal self, that was the conscious owner of that body, had been v,iped out, as it were. But, observe the strange fact that all she knew in the second self had been taught her in that state. She began that second life at eighteen (of the body's life) oblivious of Marj' Reynolds, of all she had known or suffered ; her second state was precisely that of a new-bom infant. " All the past that remained to her,  was the faculty of pronouncing a few words : until she was taught their significance, they were unmeaning sounds to her." — ( Watseka Wonder, p. 42.)

In the IncideTits, etc. (p. 146), is an explanation of the way in which H. P. B. would give the Gooriel and Mingrelian nobility, who came to consult her, answers to their q-iestions about their private affairs. She would simply, while in full consciousness, clairvoyantly see their thoughts " as they evolved out of their heads in spiral luminous smoke, sometimes in Jets of what might be taken for some radiant material, and settled in distinct pictures and images around them." The following is especially suggestive :

" Often such thoughts and answers to them would find themselves impressed in her o'Jjn brain, couched in words and sentences in the same way as original thoughts do. But, so far as we are all able to understand, the former visions were always more trustworthy, as they are independent and distinct from the seer's own impressions, belonging to pure clairvoyance, not ' thought transference,' which is a process always liable to get mixed up with one's own more vivid mental impressions."

This seems to throw light upon the present problem, and to suggest that it is thinkable that H. P. B., while quite normal as to waking consciousness, saw clairvoyantly, or by thought-absorption — a better word than thought-transference in this connection — the stored-up wisdom of the branch of literature she was examining, and so took it into her own brain as to lose the idea that it was not original with herself. Practical Eastern psychologists will not regard this hypothesis so unreasonable as others may. True, after all, it is but a hypothesis, and her enemies will simply call her a cribber, a plagiarist. With the ignorant, insult is the line of least resistance.  

The supporters of this theory should, however, recollect that H. P. B.'s most ardent and passionate wish was to gather together as many corroborations as possible, from all ancient and modern sources of the theosophical teachings she was giving out ; and her interest all lay on the side of quoting respectable authorities, not in plagiarising from their works for her own greater glory.

I have read a good deal and known something about this question of multiple personality in man, but I do not remember a case where the awakened latent personalities, or second personality, was able to quote from books :h-:Tii: :he :-ck ^v . rv-::;ry H. P. B, II. -vi ; e-s.f: f:^r ry s:.;;, ru: :there is a third personality which is aware of both the other two, and apparently superior to both. . . Mme. B. can be put to sleep at almost any distance, and when hypnotised completely changes her character. There are two well-defined personalities in her, and a third of a more mysterious nature than either of the two first. The normal waking state of the woman is called Ldonie I., the hypnotic state L6onie II. The third occult unconscious personality of the lowest depth is called L^onie III. L^onie I. is a ' serious and somewhat melancholy woman, calm and slow, very gentle and extremely timid.' L^onie II. is the opposite — ' gay, noisy, and restless to an insupportable degree : she continues goodnatured, but she has acquired a singular tendency to irony and bitter jests. In this state, she does not recognise her identity with her working self. " That good woman is not I," she says : " She is too stupid." ' ' Ldonie II. gets control of Leonie I.'s hand when she is in an abstracted mood ; her face calm, her eyes looking into space with a certain fixity,' but not ' cataleptic, for she was humming a rustic tune ; her right hand wrote quickly, and, as it were, surreptitiously.' When recalled to herself and the writing shown her, ' of the letter which she was writing she knew nothing whatever.' When Ldonie I. (the waking self) was effaced and Leonie II., the second self, was aroused in the hypnotic condition, and rattling on with her usual volubility and obstreperousness, she suddenly showed signs of terror ; hearing a voice as if from another part of the room.

which scolded her and said : ' Enough, enough, be quiet, you are a nuisance.' This was a third personality, which awakened and took full possession of the patient's organism when she had been plunged into a deeper stage of lethargy. She unhesitatingly confessed that it was she who had spoken the words heard by L^onie II., and that she did it because she saw that the Professor was being annoyed by her babble. The imaginary voice which so terrified L6onie II. because it seemed supernatural, proceeded " — says Mr. Stead — " from a profound stratum of consciousness in the same individual."

Our present purpose being only to superficially examine the subject of multiple personality in connection with the hypothesis that H. P. B. might have had no other aid in writing Isis than her own several personalities, we need not go deeper into a problem to sound which one must turn to the Hindu philosophical and mystical authorities. The ancient theory is that the " Knower " is capable of seeing and knowing all when he has been disburthened of the last veil of the physical consciousness. And this knowledge comes to one progressively as the fleshly veils are raised. In common, I suppose, with most extemporaneous public speakers, I have by long practice acquired, in some degree, the habit of triplex mental action. When lecturing in India extemporaneously, in English, and being interpreted, sentence by sentence into some other tongue, I find one part of my mind following the translator and trying to guess from the behaviour of the audience, often aided by the hearing of familiar words, whether my thoughts are being correctly rendered ; at the same time, another part of my mind will be observing individuals and making mental comments upon their peculiarities or capabilities — sometimes I may even address side remarks to some acquaintance sitting near me on the platform ; the two mental activities are distinct and independent. The instant my interpreter has uttered his last word, I catch up the thread of my argument and proceed through another sentence. Simultaneously with the progress of these two functions, I have a third consciousness, as of an observant third, and higher self, which notes the other two trains of thought, yet without becoming entangled with them. This represents, of course, a rudimentary stage of psychical development, the higher degrees of which are indicated in some of the aspects of H. P. B.'s spiritual endowments ; yet even so much experience as this helps one to comprehend the problem of her mental phenomena : it is a feeble, yet sure, sign that the Knower can observe and know.

If I were a Mussulman, I should probably affirm with Mahommed himself, that the writing of the Koran in such classical Arabic by so uneducated a man as himself was the greatest of psychical miracles, a proof that his spiritual Ego had burst through trammels of flesh and drawn knowledge directly from its heavenly source. If H. P. B. had been an ascetic, mistress of her physical self and her waking brain, able to write pure English without having acquired it, and to have formed and fashioned her book after a consistent plan, instead of messing up her materials as she did, I might believe the same thing of her, and ascribe that wonder-book of entrancing interest to her own developed individuality. As it is, I cannot ; and I must pass on to discuss our other theories.  

CHAPTER XV.

APPARENT POSSESSION BY FOREIGN ENTITIES.

OUR next question is, did she write Isis in the capacity of an ordinary s])iritu;il medium, /'. e., under the control of spirits of the dead ? I answer. Assuredly not. If she did, then the power controlling her organism worked differently from any tluit is recorded in books or that I, jicrsonally, ever saw operating during the many years in which I was interested in that movement. I have known mediums of all sorts — speaking, trance, vvriling, phenomena-making, medical, clairvoyant, and materialising; have seen tlicni at work, attended their s(5ances and observed the signs of their obsession and possession. H. P. 7!.'s case resembled none of them. Nearly all they did she could do ; but at her own will and pleasure, by day or by night, without forming " circles," choosing the witnesses, or imposing the usual conditions. Then, again, I had ocular proof that at least some of those who worked with us were living men, from having seen them in tlie flesh in India after having seen them in the astral body in America and Europe ; from having touched and talked with them. Instead of telling me that thev were spirits, they told me they were as much alive as myself, and that each of them had his o\vn peculiarities and capabilities ; in short, his complete individuality. They told me that what they had attained to, I should, one day, myself acquire : how soon, would depend entirely upon myself ; and that I might anticipate nothing whatever from favour : but, like them, must gain every step, every inch of progress hv my own exertions.

One of the greatest of them, the Master of the two Masters about whom the public has heard a few facts and circulated much foul abuse, wrote me on Tune 22, iS;-; : "The time is come to let you know who I am. I am not a disembodied spirit. Brother, I am a living man ; gifted with such powers by our Lodge as are in store for vourself some day. I cannot be with you otherwise than in spirit, for thousands of miles separate us at present. Be patient and of good cheer, untiring labourer of the sacred Brotherhood 1 Work on and toil too for yourself, for self-reliance is the most powerful factor of success. Help vour needy brother and you shall be helped yourself in virtue of the never-failing and ever active Law of Compensation " : the law of Karma, in short, which, as the reader perceives, was taught me from almost the beginning of my intercourse with H. P. B. and the Masters.

And yet. despite the above, I was made to believe that we worked in collaboration with at least one disincarnate entity — the pure soul of one of the wisest philosophers of modern times, one who was an ornament to our race, a glory to his country. He was a great Platonist, and I was told that, so absorbed was he in his life-study, he had become earth-bound, i. e., he could not snap the ties which held him to the Earth, but sat in an astral library of his own mental creation, plunged in his philosophical reflections, oblivious to the lapse of time, and anxious to promote the turning of men's minds towards the solid philosophical basis of true religion. His desire did not draw him to taking a new birth among us, but made him seek out those who, like our Masters and their agents, wished to work for the spread of truth and the overthrow of superstition. I was told that he was so pure and so unselfish that all the Masters held him in profound respect, and, being forbidden to meddle with his Karma, they could only leave him to work his way out of his (Kimalokaic) illusions, and pass on to the goal of formless being and absolute spirituality according to the natural order of Evolution. His mind had been so intensely employed in purely intellectual speculation that his spirituality had been temporarily stifled. Meanwhile there he was, willing and eager to work with H. P. B. on this epoch-making book, towards the philosophical portion of which he contributed much. He did not materialise and sit with us, nor obsess H. P. B., mediumfashion ; he would simply talk with her psychically, by the hour together, dictating copy, telling her what referin common with the Alsatians, I have grave doubts. I remember that one evening, at about twilight, while we lived in West Thirty-fourth Street, we had been talking about the greatness of Paracelsus and the ignominious treatment he had had to endure during his life and after his apparent death. H. P. B. and I were standing in the passage between the front and back rooms, when her manner and voice suddenly changed, she took my hand as if to express friendship, and asked, " Will you have Theophrastus for a friend, Henry ? " I murmured a reply, when the strange mood passed away, H. P. B. was herself again, and we applied ourselves to our work. That evening I wrote the paragraphs about him that now stand on p. 500 of Vol. II. of Isis. As for his being dead, the odds are always against any given Adept's having actually died when to ordinary men he seemed to. With his knowledge of the science of mayavic illusion, even his seeming corpse screwed into a coffin and laid away in a tomb, would not be sufficient proof that he was really dead.

Barring accidents, which may happen to him as well as to a common man if he be off his guard, an Adept chooses his own place to die in, and his body is so disposed of as to leave no trace behind. For example, what became of the gifted, the noble-souled Count St. Germain, the " adventurer " and " spy " of the encyclopaedias, who dazzled the courts of Europe a century ago, moved in the highest and the most erudite circles, was admitted to the intimacy of Louis XV., built hospitals and otherwise lavished vast sums in charities, took nothing for even the greatest personal services, retired to Holstein, and — disappeared as mysteriously as lie had appeared ?* Apres Jious le Deluge, said the King's mistress ; after St. Germain came the French Revolution and the upheaval of mankind.

Rejecting the idea that H. P. B. wrote Isis as an ordinary spirit medium " under control," we have seen, however, that some portions of it were actually written to a spirit's dictation : a most extraordinary and exceptional entity, yet still a man out of the physical body. The method of work with him as above described tallies closely with that she described in a family letter, when explaining how she wrote her book without any previous training for such work.

* No one ever knew his origin or his real name. The >rarecha]e de Belle Isle, who met him in Germany, induced him to come to Paris. He had a noble personal appearance and polished address, ' ' considerable erudition and a wonderful memory, spoke English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese to perfection, and French wth a slight Piedmontese accent. . . . He occupied for many years a remarkable social position at the French Court. . . . He was in the habit of telling the credulous that he had lived 350 years, and some oldjnen, who p7-£iended to have knowji him ui tlieir youth ^ declared that in 60 or 70 years his appearance had in no zuise chavgcd. Frederic the Great, having asked Voltaire for some particulars respecting this mysterious person, was told that he was ' a man who never dies and who knows ever)' thing. ' " No one knowing his motives or the sources of his wealth, they settled it to their own satisfaction in the same way as that which Hodgson, the spy of the S. P. R. , resorted to in the case of H. P. B. to explain herpresence in India ; he was alleged ' ' to have been employed during the greater part of his life as a spy at the courts at which he resided " (Am. Cyc, Ed. 1S6S, vol. xiv., pp. 266-7). But, all the same, no evidence whatever to support this calumny has ever been forthcoming. The Encychpcedia Britannica takes the same view cf St. Germain, and the Dictionnaire Uuiversel d'Histoireei de Ceographie echoing the falsehood, says that "this will account for his riches and the mystery with which he enwrapped himself ! " If Mme. de Fadeef — H. P. B.'s aunt — could only be induced to translate and publish certain documents in her famous library,the world would have a nearer approach to a true history of the preRevolutionary European mission of this Eastern Adept than has until now been available.

" Whenever I am told to write, I sit down and obey, and then I can write easily upon almost anything — metaphysics, psychology, philosophy, ancient religions, zoology, natural sciences, or what not. . . . Why ? Because somebody who knows all dictates to me. My Masters, and occasionally others whom I knew on my travels years ago." (Incidents, page 205.)

This is exactly what happened between her and the old Platonist, but he was not her "Master," nor could she have met him on her travels on this physical plane, since he died before she was born — this time. Then arises the question whether the Platonist was really a spirit disincarnate, or an Adept who had lived in that philosopher's body and seemed to, but really did not, die out of it on September 1, 1687. It is certainly a difficult problem to solve. Considering that the ordinary concomitants of spirit-possession and spirit-intercourse were wanting, and that H. P. B. served the Platonist in the most matter-of-fact way as amanuensis, their relation differing in nothing from that of any Private Secretary with his employer, save that the latter was invisible to me but visible to her, it does look more as if we were dealing with a living than with a disincarnate person. He seemed not quite a " Brother " — as we used to call the Adepts then — yet more that than anything else ; and as far as the literary work itself was concerned, it went on exactly as the other parts of it did when the dictator, or writer, as the case might be, was professedly a Master (Cf. Theory 1). The dictator or writer, I say, and this requires some explanation.

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