HPB-SB-8-102

H. P. Blavatsky Scrapbooks

from Adyar archives of the International Theosophical Society

T i

vol. 8, p. 102	volume 8, page 102 vol. title: Vol Four of The Theosophical Society of The Arya Samaj of Arya-wart vol. period: Sept 1878 – Sept 1879 pages in vol.: 350
Legend HPB note HPB highlighted HPB underlined HPB crossed out <Editors note> <Archivist note> Lost or unclear SBT, DT Restored

<<   ☰   >>

eng • рус

new york herald. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1878.

Mme. Blavatsky

The Author of Isis Unveiled Preparing To Go To India

Auction Sale of Curios

What a Theosophist Relates About the Society in New York

A red flag waving yesterday in the rain, at the door of No. 302 West Forty-seventh street, was the visible token of the breaking up of one of the best known and one of the most remarkable places of social resort in New York. The household goods of Mme. H. P. Blavatsky were sold at auction, and the Lamasery of the Theosophical Society to-day is no more. To a Herald reporter one of the members of this remarkable society related the story of its organization in this city about as follows:—

Mme. Blavatsky, the author of “Isis Unveiled,” is a lady of Russian birth, who has been a resident of New York for over five years. Her life has been passed mostly in Eastern countries and she is one of the few Europeans of liberal education who have become thoroughly Oriental, not only in tastes and manners, but in religion. At the time of her coming to America she was appointed by the Imperial University of St. Petersburg a commissioner to investigate Spiritualism, which subject had at that time attracted great notice in Russia. Accepting the appointment, she was at once thrown in contact with nearly all the more prominent Spiritualists in the country, as well as the believers in what ordinary people term the supernatural. From this circumstance it happened that her house for two years past, has been the centre of a movement in modern thought which has attracted attention all over the world. The scores of tricksters who, under the name of Spiritualism, were imposing on the credulous and making a purse and fame by clumsy charlatanry found in her one who had studied Eastern psychology together with Eastern religion and who could by no means be imposed upon. To the investigators of Spiritualism she became known as one who, accepting many of the phenomena as genuine, explained them by a still more surprising philosophy than that of the Spiritualists themselves.

the theosophical society.

A little time went by and the lady became known to many people of the first culture. It was evident that she was in America for a purpose. One and another who met her, became convinced through talking with her that there was truth in what she maintained. Then the surprising feature of her sojourn in this country was made manifest. Practically under her leadership a society was formed embracing people who actually believed in magic, and some of whom professed to have learned its principles. The story of the Rosicrucians was told over in New York. The society was of course a secret one, but enough of its objects and beliefs was made public to excite the bitter opposition of many different classes and the ridicule, bitter or good natured, of many others. While perhaps the most of those who read of the Theosophical Society, laughed at it as a convention of lunatics, there were many others, men of science as well as men of letters, who did not disdain controversy with Theosophists, and who found that whether lunatics or not, they certainly were not fools. The inner circle of the society was always veiled in mystery. The Theosophists themselves did not know which of their number were among the initiated. After the first few months of its existence the society had no stated meetings. Many of the original members dropped away, and those who joined afterward had always the privilege of keeping to themselves the fact of their membership, not even their brother members knowing it.

all creeds abjured.

So curious an association would necessarily have an object. It was, as the name of the society itself implies, a religious motive, or an irreligious one, as the reader chooses to interpret it. Bitterly in opposition to Christianity the creed of Theosophy—or rather the plan, for it acknowledges no creed—is more nearly in accord with the Buddhist belief than with any other known religion of the present age. The society was kept together by correspondence and by the social influence of Mme. Blavatsky’s Salon.

Taking a French flat at Eighth avenue and Forty-seventh street she furnished it in the most curious manner and crowded every room with strange trophies of travel. Oddities of all kinds, from Siamese idols to Parisian toys, filled her parlor, while stuffed beasts and tropical leaves and grasses adorned the corners. The house was always open to her friends and their friends, and it was Liberty Hall. A freedom that never became license marked the talk, and religious and philosophical controversy was always in order. To this parlor came strangers from all parts of the world, and some of the best known citizens of New York were frequent visitors.

in the “lamasery.”

“Isis Unveiled,” the book published a year ago, which became well known as an attack on dogmatic religion and modern science, was the means of attracting great numbers of scholars to the place which was named the Lamasery by one of the society, after the Thibetan monasteries and colleges. Not only the peculiar people who pass their lives apparently in studying oddness, but recognized scholars were to be found among her guests. Dr. John A. Weisse, the philologist, and Professor Alexander Wilder are among her warmest friends, and the Princess Rockovatz, (now the wife of a New York journalist) and the Countess Paschkoff have been among her honored guests. General Doubleday, of the United States army; John L. O’Sullivan, the ex-Minister to Portugal, and wife, met there with Methodist bishops, Catholic priests, artists, actors, infidel writers, journalists, spiritualists, physicians, Freemasons and other notable people.

Colonel Chaillé Long, the African explorer, is a friend of Mme. Blavatsky’s uncle, General Faydoyeff, the Russian soldier and diplomatist and favorite of the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia, and has been a frequent visitor at the Lamasery. Masons of the highest degree were there often, for the lady, with her other attainments, numbers a knowledge of Masonry not excelled by many grand masters, and she possesses a diploma from England, sent by John Yarker, of the highest degree of the rite of Memphis.

a remarkable character.

The social nature of the evenings spent in the little parlor was a great element of the success (if it be a success) of the movement, for among those who went to see the woman there were many who fell under the spell of her eloquence and became, for the time at least, theosophists. The society itself has achieved a world-wide notoriety. English, French, German, Turkish, Hindoo and Russian papers abound in allusions to it, and while branch societies have been established all over the world, a coalition has been formed between the Theosophical Society and the Arya Samaj of India, which is the great reform Vedic Society. Mme. Blavatsky is reticent regarding her connection with secret societies in the East and has said for a long time that so soon as she should have done what she came to America to do she would return to India. This time, she now says, has arrived, and she is making her arrangements to depart at no distant day.

Therefore it was that yesterday the auctioneer’s flag waved at her door, and the curios not already disposed of at private sale were sold to the highest bidder. The sale itself was uninteresting, as the weather was bad and few buyers were present. Little money was realized in comparison to the value of the articles sold, but the lady herself, as she sat in an inner room and smoked a cigarette, declared she was glad it was over.

Whether the Theosophical Society will survive the return of the lady to the heathen, whom she proposes to Christianize, remains to be seen.

–––––––

the national republican. WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 6, 1878.

The remarks of the President in his message, the resolutions of inquiry introduced by Mr. Wood in the House and Mr. Ferry in the Senate, and the avidity with which paragraphs are taken up by the press all point to the interest felt in the subject of increasing our exports. The highway to national wealth is seen to lead in great degree through foreign markets. Hitherto we have been struggling with austere conditions for self-support. Necessity has begotten a class of inventors who have won the admiration of the world for their ingenuity. We have accumulated capital by saving, and the point of equilibrium between consumption and production is already passed. We are already to enter the world’s markets in competition with England. We have the enterprise to do it; we will do it; we are doing it now. American goods are not only crowding British goods out of China, Australia, New Zealand, Southern Africa, and Canada, but our hardware, cottons, and machinery are going in large bulk to English home markets. As English manufacturers are just feeling the pinch of hard times our own are beginning to see the brightest dawn in their sky. Our latest venture was into the South American field, where the prospects seem very inviting. There are other markets to be explored as occasion offers, among them the East Indies, which have enriched Great Britain, and are taking immense quantities of goods from France, the German States, and other nations less able to supply them than our…

The World. NEW YORK, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8.

“The World” Ballads

The Mariana of the Next Generation

I. You come not; ah, you come not; I watch with a weary eye From my window as the crowded Balloons go floating by. Each bears its human lading, But bears it from me aloof, And never rattles a grapnel Upon our lonely roof. II. Along its rails of iron, An hundred miles an hour, The ex-steam-horse is hurried By the Keely motor’s power; It flashes past the station, And away, outspeeding the storm; But in the passenger catcher I do not see your form. III. The trees are red with autumn, But in the leaf-strewn mead I miss the old, familiar tracks Of your velocipede. Only the streamlet’s sighing I hear, and the forest’s moan, Though the ears of love are keener Than any microphone. IV. When the children toy at twilight Sometimes with the phonograph, I hear again your well-known voice, Again your merry laugh; Then I start up and listen, But I catch no further tone, Though north and south, and east and west I sweep my megaphone. V. The carbon points are lighted, The opal globe ’gins glow. O, my absent lover’s colder Than is the Alpine snow. Barriers more fell than oceans Have severed us apart, And the tasimeter finds no warmth Within his icy heart. VI. Upon the wall of my chamber The instrument I see Through which in happier moments You used to whisper me. But never the call-bell ringeth, Nay, so many days have flown That the silly spider has built her web O’er the rusting telephone! VII. O, that we two were lying— That we in death might join, To impalpable ash cremating In the furnace of Le Moyne; That we from the self-same Brahmin’s Identic finger and thumb Might be sprinkled upon the waters Till the Great Pralaya come! VIII. But, hark! what is that music Comes o’er the distant hill? Hush, tumult of my bosom; My beating heart, be still. Hark! nearer, dearer, clearer Comes the familiar tone. It is my lord, my life, my love!— I know his xylophone.

New York, December, 1878.

Editor's notes