Legend
< Buddhism and Spiritualism Vindicated; (continued from page 8-181) >
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Madame Blavatsky
Sir,—I have cut out a passage from the Revue Spirite of October, 1878, which is referred to by Madame Blavatsky in her letter to yon of March 21st, and I have appended the cutting to this page, by which you will see that Madame Blavatsky’s words, as published in the Revue, were “Je n’ai pas ‘passe plus de trente ans dans l’Inde,’ C’est justement mon age,—quoique fort respectable tel qu’il est,—il s’oppose violemment a cette chronologic,” &c., which I translated thus, “I have not ‘passed more than thirty years in India.’ It is exactly my age—although very respectable such as it is—it is in violent opposition to this chronology,” &c. In this last letter to you Madame Blavatsky tells you that the words were “C’est justement mon age—quoique fort respectable tel qu'il est—qui s’oppose violemment a cette chronologic,” &c. Madame Blavatsky adds, “I reproduce the sentence exactly as it appears, with the sole exception of restoring the period after ‘l’Inde.' in place of the comma, which is simply a typographical mistake.” Madame Blavatsky will pardon me, I hope, for saying that her sentence does not appear in her letter to you as it did in the Revise; for, as you will see, in the Revue itself her words were “il s’oppose,” while in her letter to yon they are “qui s’oppose,” which substitution of the word qui for the world il makes all the difference to the translator. After this it is a little strange for Madame Blavatsky to send me to study French on account of her own error. It is also rather severe to accuse me of an error of punctuation, which I actually amended in my translation by putting a full stop after the word “India,” instead of the comma after “l’Inde.” That error, whose ever it was, was not mine, as any one could easily see by referring to my letter of January 31st.
It pains me to be regarded as a Nemesis. I would rather be looked on as one who, like others, upholds principles in which he believes. With regard to masking my face, I only wish that circumstances would allow me to show it a little oftener than I do; and with regard to my humble name, as I have before intimated to the Editor, I do not wish it to be concealed either from Madame Blavatsky or from any other person with whom I am in conference in The Spiritualist.
Editor's notes
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 344, March 28, 1879, p. 154