Quotes:Collins, Mabel

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Zirkoff, Boris

Collins, Mabel. English novelist and mystical writer. She was the eldest daughter of Mortimer Collins, the well-known writer, and was born in Guernsey, Channel Islands, September 9, 1851. She was not in any way related to Wilkie Collins, the novelist, as has been erroneously supposed. She was the step-aunt of Basil Crump, whose contributions to Theosophical literature are well known.[1]

Her father, Mortimer Collins (1827-76), was a miscellaneous writer born at Plymouth. His father was a solicitor and a student 425 of mathematics, a tendency which his son inherited. Mortimer married in 1849 Susannah, daughter of John Hubbard, and widow of Rev. J. H. Crump. Soon after marriage, he went to Guernsey, where he had been appointed mathematical master of Queen Elizabeth College. He left there in 1856, to devote himself to literary pursuits for the rest of his life. He settled at Knowl Hill, Berkshire, 1862. His first wife died in 1867, and he married next year Frances Cotton (d. 1886). Mortimer Collins contributed to various newspapers, wrote a number of novels, and enjoyed composing playful verses; he was a lover of Classics, a man of strong religious sentiments, socially unconventional, but conservative in all other respects; he had a strong aversion to freethinkers, and supported the established order in church and state. He died of heart disease.

His best-known works are: Idylls and Rhymes, 1855; Sweet Ann Page, 1868; The Ivory Gate, 1869; The Vivian Romance, 1879, The Secret of Long Life, 1871, which went through five editions; The Marquis and Merchant, 1871, said to be his best novel; Princess Claris, 1872; Transmigration, 1874.[2]

Mabel Collins called herself a “Nine,” because of being a ninth child, born on the ninth day of the ninth month. She was educated at home according to her father’s special ideas of education, and married in 1871 Dr. Kenningale Robert Cook, from whom she became later separated.[3] Starting her literary career early in life, she wrote a number of novels: Blacksmith and Scholar. London: Hurst, 1875. 3 vols.—An Innocent Sinner. A psychological Romance. London: Tinsley Bros., 1877. 3 vols. 8vo.; also F. V. White, 1883.—Our Bohemia. Tales. Ibid., 1879. 3 vols. 8vo.—In this World. A Novel. London: Chapman & Hall, 1879. 2 vols. 8vo.—Too Red a Dawn. London: Tinsley & Bros., 1881. 3 vols. 8vo.—Cobwebs. Tales. Ibid., 1882. 3 vols. 8vo.—In the Flower of her 426 Youth. A novel. London: F. V. White & Co., 1883. 3 vols. 8vo.—The Story of Helena Modjeska (Madame Chlapowska). London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1883.—Viola Fanshawe. A novel. London: F. V. White & Co., 1884. 8vo. She also contributed weekly short stories to Truth, The World, etc.

It was in 1884 that Mabel Collins joined the Theosophical Society and became a Fellow of the London Lodge, then under the Presidency of Alfred Percy Sinnett. Previous to her Theosophical connections, she had written a charming mystical story, The Idyll of the White Lotus,[4] which Mr. I. D. Ewen, a Scottish F.T.S., late of India, showed in manuscript to Col. H. S. Olcott, then in Europe, and introduced him to the author. Mabel Collins told the Colonel that this story had been written either in trance or under dictation by someone whom she described to him.[5] The little book is dedicated: “To the True Author, the Inspirer of this work,” and H. P. B. said that the handwriting of the manuscript was not the ordinary handwriting of Mabel Collins. This was prior to meeting H. P. Blavatsky. She met H. P. B. in London but a short time before H. P. B.’s departure for India on November

MABEL COLLINS
(Mrs. Kenningale R. Cook)
1851-1927
Reproduced from her work, When the Sun Moves Northward (London: Theos. Publ. Society, 1912).

427

1st, 1884; at the time H. P. B. saw her but on a few occasions and had no private interview with her.[6]

Subba Row, reviewing at length the Idyll,[7] speaks of it as an allegorical description of the trials and the difficulties of a neophyte, and says that Sensa, the hero of the story, is intended to represent the human soul. In his own words, “it truly depicts the Egyptian faith and the Egyptian priesthood, when their religion had already begun to lose its purity and degenerate into a system of Tantric worship contaminated and defiled by black magic, unscrupulously used for selfish and immoral purposes.”

In her letter to Light (London), published June 8, 1889, H. P. B. says, inter alia,

“. . . when I met her [Mabel Collins] she had just completed the Idyll of the White Lotus, which as she stated to Colonel Olcott, had been dictated to her by some ‘mysterious person.’ Guided by her description, we both recognized an old friend of ours a Greek, and no Mahatma, though an Adept; further developments proving we were right. . .”

The next important step in the literary and occult career of Mabel Collins was the publication of Light on the Path, prized ever since by several generations of mystical students throughout the world. According to an inscription in an autographed copy of this booklet which was in the possession of Basil Crump,[8] and which is reproduced herewith in facsimile, work was begun on it, under the guidance of the Greek adept known as Hilarion, in October, 1884, the short essay on Karma being written December 27, 1884. It appears that three days before H. P. B. left for India, she was visited by Mabel Collins, who showed her a page or two of her MSS., H. P. B. recognizing in it some very familiar

428

expressions.[9] Light on the Path was finished and published in London (by Reeves & Turner, 196, Strand) in the early part of 1885, after H. P. B.’s departure for India. It is described on the title-page as “A Treatise written for the Personal Use of those who are ignorant of the Eastern Wisdom, and who desire to enter within its Influence”; a Triangle appears in place of the author, and to this is added: “Written down by M. C., A Fellow of The 429 Theosophical Society.” This first edition consists of only 31 small pages, embodying the two sets of 21 rules each, and is bound in a grayish binding.

It appears that H. P. B. did not actually see this booklet until it was given to her by Arthur Gebhard in the summer of 1886, when she had returned to Europe and was living at Wurzburg.

The manner in which Light on the Path was written is told by Mabel Collins herself in the tenth chapter of her booklet called When the Sun Moves Northward,[10] wherein only students with spiritual discrimination will most likely discern between symbolic statements, imaginative superstructure, and actual facts. By the end of 1886, Light on the Path was republished with additional Notes, which, though remarkable in themselves, are not on the same lofty level with the original rules. It was not, however, until the magazine Lucifer was started by H. P. B. in London, in September, 1887, that the “Comments” on Light on the Path began to appear in its pages, in separate installments, all signed by the usual Triangle; they were published in the issues of Sept., Oct., Nov., 1887, and Jan., 1888. Many subsequent editions of this booklet have been published since.

At a later date, Mabel Collins told John W. Lovell that only the 42 rules had been given her in the manner described by her, and that the Notes and Comments were her own, and not dictated by anyone.[11]

Even at an early period in the work of the Movement, objections had been raised to one specific sentence in Light on the Path, in Rule 20 of the First Section, wherein it says: “Seek [the way] by plunging into the mysterious and glorious depths of your own being. Seek it by testing all experience, by utilizing the senses in order to understand the growth and meaning of individuality, and the beauty and obscurity of those other divine fragments which are struggling side by side with you, and form the race to which you belong. . . .”

This was held by some to be unethical advice, even though the “Notes” published later amplify this thought and state: “Seek it by testing all experience, and remember that when I say this I do not say, Yield to the seductions of sense in order to know it. Before you have become an occultist you may do this; but not afterwards..........”

430 Even H. P. B. herself considered the sentence first quoted as dangerous, and spoke of Rule 20 as one “whose Occult venom and close relationship to Tantrika Black Magic has never been suspected by the innocent and sincere admirers of this otherwise priceless little book, the main body of which only was dictated by a true Adept, and the rest added from the inner consciousness of Miss Mabel Collins. ...”[12]

Early in 1887 another priceless booklet from the pen of Mabel Collins, ostensibly from the same source, although, perhaps, not under the same degree of inspiration, made its appearance. It was entitled Through the Gates of Gold: A Fragment of Thought.[13] Its pages contain some profound occult truths and most valuable hints.

When the second edition of this booklet was published, Mabel Collins added to it a brief prefatory Note which said:

“Once, as I sat alone writing, a mysterious Visitor entered my study unannounced, and stood beside me. I forgot to ask who he was or why he entered so unceremoniously, for he began to tell me of the Gates of Gold. He spoke from knowledge, and from the fire of his speech I caught faith. I have written down his words; but alas, I cannot hope that the fire shall burn as brightly in my writing as in his speech.

M.C.”

In a letter to the Editor of The Path, dated from London, July 17, 1887, Mabel Collins says that she intends to add the same Note to subsequent editions of The Idyll of the White Lotus and Light on the Path, to counteract the mistaken impression on the part of some readers that this Note constitutes a separate claim for the “ Gates of Gold ” alone. She says:

“...........That book and the ‘Idyll of the White Lotus’ were written in the same manner. As to ‘Light on the Path’ that is a collection of axioms which I found written on the walls of a certain place to which I obtained admission, and I made notes of them as I saw them. ...”[14]

431 The active association of Mabel Collins with the Theosophical work was but of short duration, and consisted mainly in her being Co-Editor of Lucifer with H. P. B. herself, from the time of its starting, in September, 1887, to approximately late Fall of 1888. Sometime during the year of 1888, differences began to develop between H. P. B. and Mabel Collins, and the latter fell gravely ill. The complete story of these difficulties is not easy to ascertain at this late date. It is reasonable to assume, however, that they were largely due to the unstable temperament of Mabel Collins, her characteristics as a strong “sensitive,” with mediumistic tendency, and also most likely to her own occult tests and trials, as a would-be disciple, as well as to the personal idiosyncrasies of H. P. B. herself, which no honest student will deny.

In July, 1888, H. P. B. had to step in as an anonymous co-author of the story “The Blossom and the Fruit,” which was then running serially in Lucifer over the signature of Mabel Collins. All went smoothly with the story until near the end when H. P. B. observed that the author was beginning to mislead her readers. She saved the situation in the last chapters so skilfully that it is impossible to detect the complete change from the false dénouement Mabel Collins was leading up to. The last two installments of this story are signed “ Mabel Collins and – –.”[15]

In October of the same year H. P. B. assumed sole Editorship of Lucifer, publishing an Editorial Notice to this effect,[16] though Mabel Collins’ name remained on the cover until February, 1889.

After the starting of the Esoteric Section, which had been openly organized in the Fall of 1888, H. P. B. refused at first to accept Mabel Collins as a probationer therein, until the latter implored her to do so. On the evidence of several contemporary co-workers, Mabel Collins was not what might be termed a student of Theosophy, knew in reality very little about the teachings, and had no real understanding of the purposes and aims of H. P. B.’s work. She was placed on probation, and within a very short time failed dismally, on the strength of H. P. B.’s own words to this effect.[17] She was subsequently expelled from the E.S.

It must be said in this connection that towards the beginning of the year 1889, Mabel Collins experienced, it would seem, a complete 432 change of heart and went so far as to deny any special inspiration in regard to her mystical works, stating at the same time that any claim to this effect was made at the request of H. P. Blavatsky. She fell under the insidious influence of Professor Elliot Coues, of Washington, D. C., whose personal ambitions in his Theosophical work finally led to his expulsion from the Society. Acting under this influence, Mabel Collins in July, 1889. brought suit in England against H. P. B. for libel. When the case came for trial in July, 1890, a certain letter written by Mabel Collins was shown by H. P. B.’s attorney to the counsel for Mabel Collins, who thereupon asked the Court to dismiss the case, which was done.[18]

To the period of her life outlined above belong several other novels which came from Mabel Collins’ pen in rapid succession, such as: The Prettiest Woman in Warsaw. London: Ward & Downey, 1885. 3 vols. 8vo.; also New York: G. Munro, 1886, and Lovell Co., 1888.—Lord Vane-court’s Daughter. London: Ward & Downey, 1885; New York: Harper & Bros., 1886.—Ida: An Adventure in Morocco. London: Ward & Downey, 1890. 8vo; also New York: Lovell Co., 1890.—The Confession of a Woman. New York: Lovell Co., 1890.—A Debt of Honour, ibid., 1891; London: Remington & Co., 1892.—The Story of an Heiress. New York: U.S. Book Co., 1892.—Suggestion. A novel. New York: Gestefeld & Co., 1892. She also produced two unfriendly parodies of things Theosophical entitled Morial the Mahatma, New York: Gestefeld & Co., 1892. 270 pp.; and The Mahatma: A Tale of Modern Theosophy. London: Downey, 1895; published anonymously.

It has been asserted by James Morgan Pryse,[19] that H. P. B., when speaking to him in London on the subject of Mabel Collins, harboured no bitterness towards her, but of course regretted the breakdown and defection of a promising pupil and an accomplished writer. When he saw Miss Collins, sometime after H. P. B.’s passing, he assured her that the latter had cherished no grudge against her, and that Mrs. Besant would welcome her return to the Movement. After first having spoken quite harshly of H. P. B., Miss Collins soon changed her attitude, and accepted Pryse’s assurances; she appeared to Pryse to be as repentant as H. P. B. had been forgiving. Mabel Collins was re-instated in the Society but did not stay in it very long.

In later years, there came from her pen a number of novels and other smaller booklets, several of them of a mystical trend. The latter ones, though falling short of those she had produced under special inspiration, contain nevertheless some beautiful thoughts. 433 They should be read, however, with great caution, lest the student accept as truth various imaginative accounts which do not present in a trustworthy manner the occult precepts and teachings of genuine esoteric schools. With the exception of one or two already mentioned, they are:

Juliet’s Lovers. London: Ward & Downey, 1893. 3 vols. 8vo.— Green Leaves. London: Kegan Paul & Co., 1895. 8vo. (Cf. The Theos., Vol. XVI, p. 528).—The Story of the Tear. London: George Redway, 1895. The strange ideas contained in this booklet brought forth a very emphatic protest from the pen of Annie Besant in the pages of Lucifer (Vol. XVII, pp. 435-36), a protest we feel fully justified, as these ideas are not consonant with genuine training for discipleship.—Pleasure and Pain. London: Isis Pub. Co., 1897.—The Star Sapphire. A novel. London: Ward & Downey; New York: Roberts Bros., 1896. 8vo.; also 1902.—A Cry from Afar. To students of Light on the Path. London: Theos. Publ. Soc., 1905. 8vo. 54 pp.; also 1913 and 1954.—Illusions, ibid., 1905. 8vo. 71 pp.—Love’s Chaplet, ibid., 1905. 8vo. 64 pp.—The Awakening, ibid., 1906. 8vo. 102 pp.— The Builders, ibid., 1907. 70 pp.—“The Disciple,” The Theosophist, 1907-08.— One Life, One Law, ibid., 1909. 8vo.—Fragments of Thought and Life, ibid., 1908. 8vo. 121 pp.—The Transparent Jewel. On the Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali. London: Rider & Co., 1912. 8vo. 142 pp.—The Story of Sensa. An Interpretation of The Idyll of the White Lotus. London: Theos. Publ. Soc., 1913. 8vo.; also New York: Lovell Co., 1913.—The Crucible, ibid., 1914. 8vo. 125 pp.—As the Flower Grows. Some Visions and Interpretations. London: Theos. Publ. Soc., 1915. 8vo. 112 pp.—Our Glorious Future. An Interpretation of Light on the Path. Edinburgh: Theos. Bookshop, 1917. 8vo. 115 pp.—The Locked Room. A true Story of Experiences in Spiritualism. London: Theos. Publ. House, 1920, 8vo. 176 pp. Mabel Collins wrote also in collaboration with Helen Bourchier The Scroll of the Disembodied Man. London: J. M. Watkins, 1904. 8vo. 38 pp.;[20] and with Charlotte Despard a work entitled Outlawed, dealing with the woman suffrage question. London: Henry J. Drame, 1908. 8vo. 314 pp.

She had left with Maud Hoffmann, A. P. Sinnett’s executrix, the MSS. of a mystery play in three acts, adapted from The Idyll of the White Lotus. This play, entitled Sensa, was published in 1950 by the Theosophical University Press, Covina, Calif.

For the last twelve years of her life Mabel Collins lived with Mrs. Catherine Metcalf, and for several years suffered from heart trouble. She passed away March 31, 1927.

434 Our appraisal of the mistakes and most unfortunate actions on the part of Mabel Collins should at all times be tempered by the realization that she was a very unusual type of a “sensitive,” endowed with at least some degree of clairvoyant consciousness, and a strongly marked duality. Such people are apt to go to extremes, and to make serious blunders mainly due to their uncontrolled imagination. They are also frequently open to impressions coming from sources that are misleading and treacherous. Her life-story, however, should teach us that it is not invariably the immaculate persons who are selected to perform some specific work for the good of the human race. The self-righteous students of Theosophy who have upon occasion dwelt very harshly upon her failings, would have judged her more charitably if they had really known the many difficult karmic drawbacks and conflicting influences against which she had to contend.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 8, pp. 424-434


  1. ↑ Mortimer Collins was the step-father of Basil Crump’s own father.
  2. ↑ Cf. Frances C. Collins, Mortimer Collins, his Letters and Friendships, with some account of his life, 1877.
  3. ↑ Dr. Kenningale R. Cook was born near Rochdale, Lancashire, England, Sept. 26, 1845, and died June 24, 1886. He got his B.A. at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1866 and was made M.A., LL.B., and LL.D. in 1875. He won the reputation of being a “clever poet and a good scholar.” He was the Editor of the Dublin University Magazine in its last year, 1877-78, having bought it in 1877 from J. F. Waller. His published works include: Purpose and Passion, London; 1870; The Guitar Player, and Other Poems, London, 1881; The King of Kent, a drama in four acts and in verse, London, 1882; Love in a Mist, a romantic drama in three acts, London, 1882; and The Fathers of Jesus, London, 1886.
  4. ↑ London, 1884. 141 pp.; 2nd ed., London: Theos. Publ. Soc., 1896. 135 pp.; also New York: The Metaphysical Publ. Co., 1900; New York: Theos. Publ. Co., 1907; Adyar: Theos. Publ. House, 1919.
  5. ↑ The manner in which this story was written is partly explained by Mabel Collins in her little booklet called The Story of Sensa, and by N. D. Khandalavala in The Theosophist, Vol. L, June, 1929, pp. 220-21.

    Although Col. Olcott intended to tell the story about the writing of this book in his Old Diary Leaves, he did not do so, but seems to indicate, that Mabel Collins’ manuscript of the Idyll was unfinished when she showed it to him, and that she was encouraged to complete it. Khandalavala says that the Colonel recommended her that, if she had ever thought of making money by publishing this book, she should give up this thought and try to finish the manuscript. Mabel Collins did so and the writing of the Idyll was completed.

    According to Madame Isabel de Steiger (Memorabilia, p. 241), whose testimony is not always reliable, Mabel Collins was for a time “a much-admired private medium, and by no means regarded as an ordinary one.” They both frequented Spiritualistic circles in London, and the most likely time for this was somewhere between 1871 and 1880.

    Basil Crump speaks of her (Occult Review, August, 1928) as “a strong Spiritualistic medium,” though not “one of the psychically disorganized unfortunates ...”

  6. ↑ Vide on this and many other points in connection with Mabel Collins a very scarce pamphlet issued by H. P. Blavatsky in 1889 under the title of: To All Theosophists. “The Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society” and Its Enemies. It is dated June 21, 1889, and presents an outline of the troubles which arose in regard to Mabel Collins and Dr. Elliott Coues. It will be found in its correct chronological sequence in the present series.
  7. ↑ The Theosophist, Vol. VII. July and August, 1886. It was also reviewed in The Path, New York, Vol. V, August, 1890, and in The Theosophist, Vol. XIII, Sept., 1892, pp. 757-62, where another mystical interpretation is given from the pages of the German periodical the Sphinx of Jan., 1890.
  8. ↑ Now in the Archives of the “H. P. B. Library,” North Vancouver, B. C., Canada.
  9. ↑ Blavatsky, op. cit.
  10. ↑ London: Theos. Publ. Soc., 1912. 183 pp.; also 1923.
  11. ↑ Cf. John W. Lovell, “Reminiscences of Early Days of the Theosophical Society,” The Canadian Theosophist, Vol. X, June, 1929, p. 106.
  12. ↑ Letter of H. P. B. to J. R. Bridge, sometime in 1889. Cf. The Theosophical Forum, Point Loma, Calif., Vol. XXII, September, 1944, pp. 419-20.
  13. ↑ Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, 1887. 111 pp.; 2nd ed., London: Ward and Downey, 1887. 152 pp.; also J. M. Watkins, 1901.
  14. ↑ The Path, Vol. II, Sept., 1887, p. 188.
  15. ↑ For further data concerning this story, vide pp. 91-93 in the present Volume.
  16. ↑ Vol. II, p. 136.
  17. ↑ Preliminary Memorandum to E.S. Instructions No. 111.
  18. ↑ The Path, Vol. V, August, 1890, p. 154.
  19. ↑ The Canadian Theosophist, Vol. IX, September, 1928.
  20. ↑ Cf. The Theos., Vol. XXV, pp. 567-68, for an analysis.

Collins Mabel (1851-1927). *Light on the Path, London, 1885. See Bio-Bibliographical Index in Vol. VIII, for comprehensive data.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 10, p. 416

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