Quotes:Lippitt, General Francis J.

Boris de Zirkoff

Lippitt, General Francis J. Born in Providence, R.I., July 19, 1812; d. in 1902. Son of Joseph F., and Caroline S. Lippitt. Graduated from Brown, 1830. Captain 1st N.Y. volunteers in Mexican War; served in Civil War as Colonel 2nd Calif. Inf. and Bvt. Brig.-Gen. U.S. volunteers. Married, Sept. 25, 1865, Mrs. Pickering Dodge. Counsel for U.S. in Dpt. of Justice, 1877-82. Was guest of Lafayette at La Grange, 1832, and present at his burial, 1834. Assisted De Toqueville in preparing his La Democratic aux Etats-Unis, 1834. Attached to American Legation in Paris, 1834-35. Member, State Constitutional Convention, Calif., 1894. Lecturer at Boston Univ. Law School, 1873-74, and at Naval War College, Newport, 1896, 1897, 1900. Author of several military works, law treatises and musical compositions.

General Lippitt was greatly interested in Spiritualism, and became an intimate friend of both Col. Henry S. Olcott and H. P. Blavatsky in the very early days of The Theosophical Society in the U.S.A. Strangely enough, he does not refer to this association in his Reminiscences (Providence, R.I.: Preston and Rounds Co., 1902) written “for his Family, his near relatives and intimate friends.” In 1888, Gen. Lippitt published a pamphlet under the title of Physical Proofs of Another Life. A few years prior to this, a rich Spiritualist, Henry Seybert, died ai Philadelphia, Pa., leaving a considerable sum of money by will to the University, on condition that a committee of respectable and impartial scientists should be formed to investigate the mediumistic phenomena and report upon the same. The trust was accepted, the committee appointed, and their report appeared in due time. It was most unsatisfactory. Thousands of intelligent men and women could have done the work, and done what this committee did not do-given the facts of mediumship as they are. Among a host of indignant protests appeared Gen. Lippitt's pamphlet, able, conclusive and scathing. In the words of Col. Olcott: “General Lippitt is a gentleman held in high esteem throughout America for his blameless character and excellent scholarship, as well as for his courageous support of his convictions. The present pamphlet, which embraces a series of letters to the Seybert Commission, embodying narratives of highly interesting personal tests and experiences with phenomena, is worthy of his literary reputation, and shows how different might have been the report if the members of the Commission had cared as much to get at the truth of spiritualism as to boycott it.” (The Theosophist, Vol. X, Nov. 1888, p. 132.)

A number of letters written by H.P.B. to Gen. Lippitt during the period of March to July, 1875, exist in the Adyar Archives. Presumably Gen. Lippitt returned them to Col. Olcott after H.P.B.’s death in 1891. They have been published in the Series known as H.P.B. Speaks, Vols. I and II (Adyar: Theos. Publ. House, 1950 and 1951). During this period, H.P.B. resided in Philadelphia, and the letters contain most interesting information concerning her views about the mediums of the day and the character of Spiritualism.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 1, pp. 496-497