Quotes:Hardinge-Britten, Mrs. Emma

Boris de Zirkoff

Hardinge-Britten, Mrs. Emma (?-1899). An English woman who in her youth had gone to New York with a theatrical company, and had remained there with her mother. Being strictly Evangelical, she was strongly repelled by what she considered the unorthodox views of the Spiritualists, and fled in horror from her first seance. In 1856, she was again brought into contact with the subject, and received proof which made it impossible for her to doubt any longer. She soon discovered that she was herself a powerful medium. One of the best attested cases in the early history of Spiritualism was that in -which she received intimation that the mail steamer Pacific had gone down in mid-Atlantic with all aboard; she was threatened with prosecution by the owners of the ship for repeating what had been told her by an alleged returned spirit of one of the crew. The information, however, proved to be correct, and the vessel was never heard of again. Eventually the young lady became a prominent orator, writer and traveller in the cause of Spiritualism. She returned to England in 1866, where she wrote her work: Modern American Spiritualism (New York, 1870). Mrs. Emma Hardinge married a second time in 1870 and became Mrs. Britten. Dr. W. Britten was also a Spiritualist. For many years, Mrs. Britten travelled the length and breadth of the United States proclaiming the doctrines of Spiritualism amid much opposition, for she was militant and anti-Christian in her views. Some adherents of Spiritualism have considered her as the female St. Paul of that movement. In 1878, she and her husband went together to New Zealand as missionaries of the cause, and stayed there several years. During this period, Mrs. Britten wrote her Faiths, Facts and Frauds of Religious History.

One of the most important contributions of Mrs. Britten to the history of modern Spiritualism is her large work entitled Nineteenth Century Miracles (Manchester, 1883) which is copiously documented and illustrated with rare portraits. It is in this work (pp. 296 and 441) that occurs an account of the formation of The Theosophical Society in which both the Brittens took part from the very first.

In 1876, while still working in America, Mrs. Britten published in New York a work called *Art Magic; or, Mundane, Sub-Mundane and Super-Mundane Spiritism. She affirmed that this work had been written by an Adept of her acquaintance whom she had first met in Europe, and for whom she was but acting as “Translator” and “Secretary.” His name, she said, was Chevalier Louis. This work, whatever may have been its actual origin, deals with some of the subjects outlined later at far greater length in Isis Unveiled, but contains also a great many errors and curious misstatements. We refer the student to the fascinating and important chapter XII of Col. H. S. Olcott's Old Diary Leaves, Vol. I, wherein the author gives the full background concerning this strange work. This account is well worth a careful perusal.

Mrs. Britten published also Ghost Land; or Researches into the Mysteries of Occultism (Boston, 1876) and founded the magazine The Two Worlds at Manchester, England. She left an indelible mark upon modern Spiritualism.

Mrs. Britten left the Theosophical Society fairly soon, although she had some contact with its leaders until 1890. Her reputation was somewhat clouded, however, when she joined Prof. Coues and others in spreading the calumny that Isis Unveiled had been written by Baron de Palm. Unfortunate and needless as such circumstances are, and however much they may be regretted, they seem to occur from time to time in many lives otherwise dedicated to truth, as far as it can be realized; and there can hardly be any doubt that Mrs. Britten's endeavor was to voice a great many spiritual ideas and noble precepts for the benefit of others, even though her own personal Karman led her to do so through a purely psychic movement where truth and error are often sorely confused.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 1, pp. 466-467