Quotes:Olcott, Henry Steel

Zirkoff, Boris

Olcott, Henry Steel. President-Founder of The Theosophical Society. Born at Orange, N. J., August 2, 1832. Eldest son of Henry Wyckoff Olcott and Emily Steel who were married October 19, 1831, and had six children. Henry Steel married Mary Epplee Morgan, April 26, 1860, her father being the Rev. Richard U. Morgan, D.D., Rector of Trinity Parish, New Rochelle, N. Y. They had three sons and a daughter; the youngest son and daughter died in infancy. Olcottss two surviving sons kept in contact with him even after his divorce and his identification with the Theosophical Society. His sister, Isabella (Belle) Buloid (married in 1860 to William Hinckley Mitchell of New York), remained his staunchest friend throughout his life.

Around 1630 a number of well-to-do Puritan families had migrated to New England from their homeland. Two men by the name of Thomas Olcott are known to have settled in the New World at this time. One was a prosperous farmer, but he lived in Boston. The earliest record of him dates from 1630. The other whom Col. Olcott believed was most probably his American ancestor was first heard of in 1635. He then lived in Newtown (now Cambridge, Mass.). In June of that year he left for Hartford, Conn., where he became a prosperous merchant. He founded a center for trade and commerce for the Colony of Connecticut.

Col. Olcott was greatly interested in genealogy and did a good deal of research, particularly in regard to his own ancestors. He came across a book by Nathaniel Goodwin (1782-1855) entitled The Descendants of Thomas Olcott, etc., published at Hartford, Conn. in 1845, giving detailed biographical information concerning the Puritans and early settlers. Col. Olcott edited and published a new edition of this book at Albany, N. Y. in 1874, in which he included various pertinent information he had gathered himself. He also investigated the English progenitors of his family, but did not find any absolute proof that any of the six families he traced were his ancestors. There were different names which doubtless indicated a close relationship, such as Alcock, Alcocks, Alcocke, Allcocks, Allcox, Alcot, Alcott, Ollcot, Olcot, and Olcott. The Heraldic Crests consisted of a cock standing on a crown, a globe or a single bar, in some cases crowing and in others silent.

One of these possible ancestors was Nathan Alcock, who received his medical degree in 1737 and became an M.D. in 1741 at Jesus College, Cambridge. The man whom Olcott himself believed was his most likely ancestor was Dr. John Alcock who was born at Beverley, Yorkshire, about 1430, and died Oct. 1, 1500. He was Dean of Weslminster, Bishop of Rochester and Worcester, and in 1486 succeeded the celebrated Morton as Bishop of Ely. He founded in 1486 a school at Kingston-upon-Hull, and in 1496 Jesus College at Cambridge, which he established on the site of the former convent of St. Radigund.

The family name was a corruption of two Saxon words: eald (German ald, alt) meaning old, and coc, a male bird. The coat of arms used by Thomas Olcott consisted of three cocks’ heads, showing similarity to that of the von Hahn family from which H.P.B. was descended. Olcott later placed a bas-relief over the door of the Western Library at Adyar combining the two symbols.

Limited finances curtailed Olcott’s education. His father's business failed in 1851, thus compelling Henry to take up farming. He had studied at the College of the City of New York and later at Columbia University. He now worked a small farm on a share basis for two years, then returned to New York where he devoted himself to the scientific study of agriculture. When most young men are beginning their career, Olcott had already won, at the age of twenty-three, international recognition as an outstanding scientist of agriculture for his work on the Model Farm of Scientific Agriculture at Newark, N. J. He became cofounder with Henry C. Vail, of the Westchester Farm School, near Mt. Vernon, N. Y., which pioneered the present system of agricultural education in the U.S. based on the Swiss model, and was the only private school exclusively devoted to agriculture. His work attracted the attention of the Greek Government which offered him the chair of Agriculture at the University of Athens, an honour which he declined. His research in sorgum, just then imported into the U.S.A., and his recognition of its economic importance, resulted in the publication of his first book, Sorgho and lmphee, the Chinese and African Sugar-Canes (New York: A. 0. More, 1858), which ran through seven editions, was ordered to be placed in the libraries of the State of Illinois and prescribed as a school text. The Government of the United States offered Olcott the Directorship of Agriculture, and two private owners offered him the managership of two immense properties; Olcott declined these offers, as he preferred to carry on independently.

In 1858, Olcott paid his first visit to Europe, aimed at the improvement of agriculture, and his Report of what he saw was published in the 1858-64 edition of Appleton’s New American Cyclopaedia. Recognized as an expert, he became the American correspondent of the well-known Mark Lane Express and Associate Agricultural Editor of the famous New York Tribune. This phase of Olcott's life concluded with the outbreak of the American Civil War.

On December 2nd, 1859, Olcott was present at the hanging of John Brown at Charlestown, Va. This man had been a fervent advocate for the abolition of slavery, but had taken matters into his own hands in occupying a small town with a band of his followers. He was captured and sentenced to be hanged. The Virginians were determined that no Northerner should witness the hanging, but the New York Tribune wanted someone on the spot. Olcott volunteered to go. When he got to Charlestown, he realized he had forgotten to claim his trunk which had a New York label with his initials. Baggage had to be examined by the Provost Marshal. The situation was desperate but fortunately a young officer who was a brother Mason recognized a secret sign which Olcott gave and fetched the trunk from the Court House. Some fourteen years later, Olcott wrote a spirited account of what he had witnessed, which is a masterpiece of reportorial writing.

Olcott’s passion for liberty drove him to enlist in the Northern Army; he went through the whole of the North Carolina Campaign under General Burnside, and was invalided to New York, having contracted dysentery, which periodically plagued him later in life. As soon as he recovered, he prepared to start again for the front, but the Government, noting his great ability and courage, chose him to conduct an inquiry into fraud, corruption and graft at the New York Mustering and Disbursing Office. He was made Special Commissioner of the War Department. Every means was tried to stop his resolute investigation, but neither bribes nor threats could check the determined young officer in his conduct of a campaign more dangerous than in combat. He fought through four years of opposition and calumny, and rounded up every criminal, sending the worst one to Sing Sing for ten years. The Government expressed its appreciation on this occasion by writing that the “conviction was as important to Government as the winning of a great battle,” and rewarded Olcott by promoting him to the rank of Colonel.

Soon the Navy Department applied for the use of Olcott’s services, to eradicate abuses in the Navy Yards. With resolute and unsparing zeal he cleansed the Department, and reformed the sys· tern of accounts. The extent of the Government’s appreciation of his work is seen in the letter Col. Olcott received from the Secretary of the Navy, wherein he writes:

“I wish to say that I have never met with a gentleman entrusted with important duties, of more capacity, rapidity, and reliability than have been exhibited by you throughout. More than all, I desire to bear testimony to your entire uprightness and integrity of character, which I am sure have characterized your whole career, and which to my knowledge, have never been assailed. That you have thus escaped with no stain upon your reputation, when we consider the corruption, audacity and power of the many villains in high position whom you have prosecuted and punished, is a tribute of which you may well be proud, and which no other man occupying a similar position and performing similar services in this country has ever achieved.”

Col. Olcott received similar acknowledgements from the Judge Advocate-General of the Army and other Officials.

Resigning his Commission in 1865, Olcott devoted himself to the study of Law. The New York Bar Association confirmed in a recent letter that he was admitted to the Bar in May of 1868. On the other hand, the University of New York, in a letter dated April 16, 1964, stated that there is no record of where Olcott studied Law. They suggested that he probably studied in some law office and was admitted to the Bar on the strength of his work and experience. With his customary energy, Olcott grappled with the intricacies of barely formulated insurance law, codifying anarchic practices. He became a specialisl in Customs, Revenue and Insurance cases, and soon acquired a large and prosperous clientele. The Treasury of the City of New York retained him as its attorney to handle large suits against the City. As Secretary of the first National Insurance Convention, he prepared Notes which were published in two volumes. They have served as a standard work on insurance and the Insurance Journal’s opinion was that “no addition to insurance literature more valuable than this compact octavo has yet been published.” He drafted an insurance statute which was accepted by ten States of the Union and enacted into law. The Life Mutual Insurance Company of New York also retained him to represent the insurance profession in the State Legislature.

In spite of his preoccupation with agriculture, Government duties and legal work, Olcott felt a deep fascination for the occult and mystical. He had followed with keen interest various psychic phenomena, such as those connected with the Steel Sisters, from 1851 onwards; he studied whatever books were available on the subject of mesmerism, hypnotism and allied research, and discovered that he had himself a ce1tain amount of mesmeric power which he once successfully tried on the daughter of a friend who was about to undergo a dental operation. But his interest in such matters occupied but a subordinate position to his professional duties until, in 1874, his attention was attracted to some remarkable Spiritualistic phenomena.

One day in July of 1874, while working in his New York law office, Olcott had a sudden urge to investigate contemporary Spiritualism. He purchased a copy of the Boston Banner of Light and read in it the account of the curious phenomena which were then taking place at the Eddy farmhouse in the township of Chittenden, Vt., and decided to go there to see for himself. He secured an assignment as special reporter for the New York Sun, for that purpose and left for Chittenden. After a brief stay there he wrote articles which created a sensation and were republished by other leading papers of the country.

Upon his return to New York, Olcott was persuaded by the New York Daily Graphic to return to Chittenden and to write a series of articles for that paper, with sketches to be made by an artist. Olcott returned to the Eddys’ Homestead Sept. 17th; his articles appeared twice a week for twelve weeks, and the papers containing his stories were sold for as much as a dollar a copy. A number of Publishers competed for the right to put these. reports in book fo1m, and they were finally published in March, 1875, under the title of *People from the Other World by the American Publishing Company of Hartford, Conn., illustrated by Alfred Kappes and T. W. Williams.

Olcott stayed at Chittenden until early November, 1874, and, as is well known, met H.P.B. who had come there on October 14th accompanied by a French Canadian lady.

Such was the background of the future President-Founder of The Theosophical Society. Olcott brought to his Theosophical task an unsullied record of public service, a keen capacity, a great ability to work, and an altruism which H.P.B. declared at a later date she had never seen equalled outside the Asrama of the Masters.

Col. Olcott’s life-story from 1874 on is almost identical with the history of the T.S. itself, from its founding to his death in 1907. His many journeys and the chief events in his Theosophical career, from 1874 to after H.P.B.’s passing in May of 1891, are chronologically listed (with source references) in the special Chronological Surveys appended to every Volume of the Collected Writings, and therefore will not be repeated here. A few special points, however, require elucidation, as they cannot be clearly outlined in any brief Chronological Survey.

The role played by Col. Olcott in the production of Isis Unveiled is fully explained in the Introductory portion of the edition of this work which is part of the present Series of Collected Writings. The Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, First and Second Series, transcribed and annotated by C. Jinarajadasa, should also be consulted for various sidelights on the early period of Theosophical work in U.S.A.

During that period Col. Olcott had many problems to solve other than those of a Theosophical nature. His wife did not approve of his new activities, as they obviously interfered with his professional work as a breadwinner for the family. On the eve of his departure for India he evidently lost a fee of ten thousand dollars for some legal work, which he might have salvaged had he remained in America.

When Col. Olcott was about to leave for India, he received from the President of the U.S. a signed letter to all American Ambassadors and Consuls, while the Secretary of State had issued to him a special diplomatic passport, charging him with the duty of promoting cultural and other relations between the U.S. and other countries of the world.

On Indian soil, Col. Olcott found poverty, disease and ignorance, and plunged at once into far flung activity aimed at an over-all regeneration of India. He travelled-both alone and with H.P.B.-far and wide lecturing to thousands of people; he organized the first Swadeshi Exhibition of Indian arts and crafts, urging the people to protect their national arts and industries; he founded a school for the Panchamas, the untouchables, the first one of its kind in India; he gave a great impetus to the revival of Sanskrit, established a unique Library at Adyar and started collecting palm-leaf manuscripts which today number 15,000 or more. He pleaded for the reformation of social life become decadent with age and aroused the patriotism of the people, which resulted in the formation of the Indian National Union in 1884, changed the following year to the Indian National Congress in which A. 0. Hume was so active. A considerable number of his lectures on the great religions and allied subjects were issued as A Collection of Lectures on Theosophy and Archaic Religions (publ. by A. Theyaga Rajier, F.T.S., Madras, 1883. 218 pp.); a revised and enlarged ed. under the title of Theosophy, Religion and Occult Science was published by Geo. Redway in London in 1885.

Olcott's contribution towards the revival of Buddhism in Ceylon is one of the most significant by-products of his Theosophical activity, repercussions of which are heard even today in various parts of the Buddhist world.

We should bear in mind that in the second half of the nineteenth century, the British, following the Portuguese and Dutch domination, had firmly established themselves in Ceylon and their language, religion and customs had taken firm root. People used English for their routine work and thought it degrading to use Sinhalese or Tamil. Education in missionary schools was geared to produce clerks for Government service and British mercantile firms. Local cottage industries and paddy cultivation-the mainstay of earlier economy-were regarded as inferior occupations. Ancient dagobas and viharas were in ruins. In order to obtain a post in the Government service one had to embrace Christianity. Except for two or three pirivenas, there were only two Buddhist schools. Western customs took precedence over Sinhalese, and Western modes of dress were considered a sign of respectability. Native customs and traditions were eclipsed and their value ignored.

After the arrival of H.P.B. and Olcott in Ceylon, in 1880, and the formation of the first branch of the T.S., things began to change in a very extraordinary manner. Shortly after the commencement of their work, a marked transformation in the national life of the country took place, in the form of a resurgent love for the native religion, language and culture. This was mainly due to the Buddhist school-movement, the Sinhalese newspaper Sarasavi Sandaresa and the English journal The Buddhist which had been started. On his three successive trips to Ceylon, Olcott organized educational institutions where Buddhist children would not be forced to study Christianity and attent chapel services. Ananda College for boys and Musaeus College for girls are the result of his inspiration, and he invited educated men and women from America and Europe to come to serve in these institutions. From this small beginning there grew a vast educational movement directed by the Buddhists themselves. Through Olcott's initiative they obtained Government grants, such as were given to schools of other faith. Today there are over 400 Buddhist schools in Ceylon, and portraits of Col. Olcott hang in each of them. In 1962, the Ceylonese Government introduced legislation to nationalize the schools, and most of them now are operated by the State.

So many years after, it is difficult to picture the tremendous vigor and persistence of Col. Olcott in this work. Accompanied by an interpreter, usually D. B. Jayatileke (later, Sir and Chief Minister of the Ceylon Government), and the young Hewavitarne Dharmapala, he jounced through jungle roads by bullock cart at night and lectured to the villagers during the day, collected funds for schools and roused the spirit of the people to a national rebirth along various lines.

His most outstanding work for the sake of Buddhism was the writing of a Buddhist Catechism which was first published in Sinhalese on July 24, 1881. It was acceptable to the various sects of the religion and became a standard text for teaching Buddhism to children on approved lines-a book that has gone through more than fifty editions in English and possibly an equal number in various languages of the Buddhist countries of Asia.

In his defence of Buddhists in Ceylon, Olcott established friendly relations with the British Governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, later Lord Stanmore, who was sympathetic and helped redress various grievances which were brought to his attention. Later Col. Olcott, representing the Ceylonese Buddhists, went to London to obtain various reforms from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, where he was highly successful. The declaration of the Vesakha, May Full Moon Day, as a public holiday in Ceylon, was directly due to Col. Olcott's efforts.

Another great service to Buddhism was rendered by Col. Olcott’s two very successful visits to Japan, during which he addressed thousands of people. As a result of these trips, he was able to formulate Fourteen Fundamental Propositions as a basis of union between all the schools of Buddhism-a Code of Conduct which was unanimously approved at a Buddhist Congress at Adyar in 1891.

Another most valuable achievement was the designing of flag for the Buddhists from the colors traditionally known as those in the aura of Gautama the Buddha. In due time this flag came to symbolize the unity of the entire Buddhist world. It was adopted as the common flag of Buddhism by the World Fellowship of Buddhists which met for the first time in Ceylon in 1950, and its acceptance was confirmed by the Fellowship meeting in Japan in 1952. It is now used in some sixty countries during festivities of various kinds.

Small wonder that the people of Ceylon should honor the day of Col. Olcott’s passing every year as a holiday, and that during his lifetime seven leading Buddhist Priests of Ceylon should have given him a Letter of Authorization to admit people to Buddhism, an honor never before or since conferred upon a Westerner!

As has often been the case with many prominent students of occultism and active workers in the Cause, Olcott’s character exhibited some curious contradictions and marked duality. He had some striking limitations, one of them being his long established habit of judging from externals. He shared with other “Yankees” an innate love “to show off” upon occasion, and his remarkable organizing ability made him prone at times to exaggerate the organizational aspect of the Movement to the disadvantage of the underlying spirit. In one of the most important letters received by him from K.H., he is flatly warned against permitting his suspicions and resentment against some of H.P.B.’s “follies” to bias his intuitive loyalty to her. He is reminded that “With occult matters she has everything to do... She is our direct agent...”

The careful perusal of the correspondence between Olcott and H.P.B. over a period of years would show any impartial student that Olcott often misunderstood H.P.B.’s motives and aims, instead of suspending judgment when his mind was temporarily confused. When Olcott permitted himself to be influenced by subtle forces emanating from insidious origins through Brahmanical channels, he imagined that a “Blavatsky cult” or something of that nature was about to be established within the Movement and set about to counteract it. This proved to be quite superfluous. The impact on him of the Coulomb troubles resulted in his trying to play down the existence of both the Masters and occult phenomena, a fact which was pointed out by K.H. in a message to H.P.B.

On the positive side of Olcott’s character, we must bear in mind his many outstanding and rare qualities which are not frequently met with. No one knew more about these than H.P.B. herself. On several distinct occasions, she came out forcefully in defence of Olcott. “It would be desirable for the cause of theosophy and truth,” she said, “were all the critics of our President in general, less learned, yet found reaching more to the level of his all-forgiving good nature, his thorough sincerity and unselfishness. Further on in the same manuscript she says that

“... ‘truth does not depend on show of hands’; but in the case of the much-abused President-Founder it must depend on the show of facts. Thorny and full of pitfalls was the steep path he had to climb up alone and unaided for the first years. Terrible was the opposition outside the Society he had to build-sickening and disheartening the treachery he often encountered within the Head-Quarters. Enemies gnashing their teeth in his face around, those whom he regarded as his staunchest friends and coworkers betraying him and the Cause on the slightest provocation. Still, where hundreds in his place would have collapsed and given up the whole undertaking in despair, he, unmoved and unmovable, went on climbing up and toiling as before, unrelenting and undismayed, supported by that one thought and conviction that he was doing his duty. What other inducement has the Founder ever had, but his theosophical pledge and the sense of his duty toward Those he had promised to serve to the end of his life? There was but one beacon for him-the hand that had first pointed to him his way up: the hand of the Master he loves and reveres so well, and serves so devotedly though occasionally perhaps, unwisely.....for cleverer in administrative capacities, more learned in philosophy, subtler in casuistry, in metaphysics or daily life policy, there may be many around him; but the whole globe may be searched through and through and no one found stauncher to his friends, truer to his word, or more devoted to real, practical theosophy-than the President-Founder; and these are the chief requisites in a leader of such a movement-one that aims to become a Brotherhood of men...”

Col. Olcott was a natural healer; he had that gift from early youth, and had studied mesmerism in the then available works which were mainly from French sources. When he travelled up and down India, he rediscovered that power within himself which had remained latent and unused for many years. He began to heal the sick and to alleviate their sufferings. His success was phenomenal, and hundreds of people trailed behind him seeking relief. This of course contributed substantially to his success in publicizing the work and the teachings of the Society. After some years, his vitality began to ebb due to the immense strain upon his natural powers, and his Teacher ordered him to cease his ministrations.

When in 1888 H.P.B. organized the Esoteric Section, Col. Olcott at first opposed its formation because he feared it would become an empire within an empire and would militate against the basic principles of the Theosophical Constitution. His attitude-which theoretically had some justification-was modified when he received a Letter from Master K.H. while on his way to Europe, but his doubts on this subject were never altogether resolved. His own individual relation to the E.S. is fully clarified by the following passage from the E.S.T. Circular of November 1894, entitled "By Master's Direction" wherein on page 3 W. Q. Judge writes:

“....Colonel Olcott is the old standard-bearer, and has been the medium for teaching, himself having Chelas whom he has instructed, but always on the lines laid down by the Master through H.P.B. ∴ He was selected by the Master to do a certain and valuable work not possible for anyone else, and he was never taken into the E.S. by a pledge, for, like myself, he was in the very beginning pledged directly to the Master.”

Col. Olcott’s own testimony is quite explicit. On September 13, 1890, he wrote from Adyar:

“The Esoteric Section was created by Mdme. Blavatsky with my concurrence, to gather together under a common bond of pupilage all such of our Colleagues as were anxious to study the Esoteric Philosophy under Mdme. Blavatsky’s teachership. Already nearly 1,000 persons, scattered over the world have enrolled themselves in her list. She is the Chief of that Sectionas—as Mr. Harte truly says--and its sole Manager; to her alone her pupils have to look for results. After watching results for a whole year and finding a great satisfaction expressed with her teachings I consented last summer while in London, to be her intermediary for Asiatic countries, to forward documents and correspondence. This is all my connection with the Section, and this in my private, not my public capacity. The Society is quite neutral in all such matters.”

Circumstances connected with Olcott’s attempted resignation from the Presidency of the T.S., some time after H.P.B.’s passing, and the vicissitudes of the so-called “Judge Case” have already been explained in the biographical outline of Judge’s life and work to which the reader is referred for the chief facts of that period.

Olcott’s lecturing and administrative activities continued practically unabated for a number of years beyond the lifetime of H.P.B. He travelled widely, promoted the cause of Buddhism and the growth of the Theosophical Society, and kept in constant touch with a great variety of people throughout the world. His executive abilities continued to be felt everywhere, yet the passing of H.P.B. meant a lessening of his contact with the Adept-Brothers who by then communicated but rarely with anyone—a circumstance which should be regarded as a natural closing of a temporary cycle of direct contact between them and their most promising agents and pupils.

Soon after H.P.B.’s death Olcott decided to begin publishing in The Theosophist-the oldest Theosophical Journal-monthly installments of a historical outline intended to describe the formation of the T.S., his early association with H.P.B. in the U.S.A., and the gradual growth of the Movement. The first installment of these reminiscences which were to be entitled Old Diary Leaves appeared in The Theosophist, Vol. XIII, March, 1892, and the First Series was concluded in Vol. XV, September, 1894, with the description of the Founders' departure for India. An “Oriental Series” began the very next month, and the consecutive installments of this historical outline continued with great regularity into the years of the twentieth century, and were eventually published in book form, running into six volumes.

Rightly or wrongly, Olcott felt that a strong tendency to hero-worship was setting in with regard to H.P.B., and one of the main objectives of his outline was to counteract it. In doing so, he allowed himself to deal rather flippantly with certain phases and aspects of H.P.B.’s life and character, and laid himself open to severe criticism for having “belittled” his old colleague and friend. Certain passages of the First Series were construed by some of his co-workers as irreverent and were resented by them to such an extent that when Olcott asked Countess Wachtmeister to have the First Series published as a book by the H.P.B. Press in London, she refused unless he expunged portions distasteful to her. This he declined to do, and the volume was published in 1895 by G. Putnam's Sons, London and New York.

Old Diary Leaves, in spite of many shortcomings and errors, must be considered Col. Olcott’s magnum opus. Without this work, little would have been known of the history of the Theosophical Society. Most of the text was written several years after the events described, but on the basis of his personal Diaries, now in the Adyar Archives. Volume One, however, was largely written from memory as his Diaries for the period of 1874-78 had mysteriously vanished. Nevertheless, the first volume remains the most important and well written of them all.

When in 1906 Col. Olcott visited America for the last time, he wrote to an old friend, most likely William Mitchell, the husband of Belle Mitchell, Olcott’s sister, who had passed away in 1896, suggesting a long-delayed visit together. Olcott was rather sad and depressed when they met. He felt very keenly the absence of H.P.B. and, realizing his own infirmities and advancing age, experienced loneliness and homesickness. In the course of the conversation, the subject of William Quan Judge was brought up and Olcott’s friend asked him whether he did not mourn him at all. To quote from the narrative:

“’Yes, yes,’ he interrupted, ‘I know how you feel about him and always have felt.’ Then, taking my hand in his, he gave my face a searching glance, before he answered, in a manner subdued and most impressive:

“’We learn much and outgrow much, and I have lived much and learned more, particularly as regards Judge.’ ...

“’I know now, and it will comfort you to hear it; that I wronged Judge, not wilfully or in malice; nevertheless, I have done this and I regret it.’ ...”

On September 25, Olcott embarked for India. When the ship was outside Genoa, Italy, he had a fall which injured his right knee and caused severe bruises. He was carried ashore and taken to a hospital where he stayed for twenty-eight days. He continued his voyage to India on November 7th, going first to Colombo, Ceylon, and later, on December 3rd, to Adyar.

The physicians declared him seriously ill with heart trouble and evidently did not hold out much hope for recovery. He set about his most important tasks, but early in February, 1907, had to remain in bed. He passed away on the 17th of February, at 7:17 a.m.

Some of those who attended him just before his passing testified to the appearance of three of the Adept-Brothers around his deathbed, which, as usual, is something which can neither be proved nor disproved. It is, however, safe to say that the passing of the old warrior could not have remained unnoticed by his superiors whom he served so well.

As a superb organizer, devoted to his Teachers and to the interests of the Society which he left behind, Col. Olcott is undoubtedly the man to whom we owe the world-wide structure of the organized Movement. Without his dynamic activities, the esoteric work of H.P.B., the direct Messenger of the Adept-Brothers, would not have been as potent as it proved to be. Col. Olcott's figure is better known in the Buddhist world than it is in the West, although time helps to bring him into correct historical perspective even in the Occident.

On February 17, 1962, on the fifty-fifth anniversary of Col. Olcott's passing, tribute was paid to him at the United Nations · Headquarters in New York by Dr. G. P. Malalasekera, permanent representative of Ceylon to the United Nations, who lighted a lamp of the type lit in thousands of homes throughout Ceylon, when yearly he and his work are honoured with religious ceremonies through the length and breadth of the Island. The flame of the lamp stands as a symbol of the love and gratitude which the Buddhist people feel for the man who restored their privileges and their right to a Buddhist education, and renewed their national consciousness which today has created a new and independent nation.

Offering flowers and burning incense, thousands of Ceylonese meditate on this yearly occasion and pray:

“May the merit we have gained by these good deeds pass on to Col. Olcott, and may he gain happiness and peace.”

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 1, pp. 503-518

Olcott, Col. Henry Steel (1832-1907). *People from the Other World. Ill. by Alfred Kappes and T. W. Williams. Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Co., March, 1875.—*Old Diary Leaves. First Series. London & New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1895. Second ed. publ. by The Theos. Publ. House, Adyar, Madras, 1941.— *Diaries. Original volumes of Col. Olcott’s daily entries now in the Adyar Archives.

Consult Vol. I (Appendix) of the present Series for a comprehensive biographical sketch of Col. Olcott’s life.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 2, p. 538

Olcott, Col. Henry Steel (1832-1907). *Diaries. From 1878 to his death, now in the Adyar Archives.—*Buddhist Catechism, 1881.—*Theosophy, Religion and Occult Science, 1885,—*Old Diary Leaves, New York and London, 1895; 2nd ed., Adyar, 1941.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 3, p. 516

Olcott, Col. Henry Steel (1832-1907). *A Buddhist Catechism, according to the Canon of the Southern Church. English and Sinhalese. Colombo, Ceylon: Buddhist Theosophical Society, 1881. — *Posthumous Humanity (See Assier, Adolphe d’). — *Old Diary Leaves. The True History of The Theosophical Society. Vol. I. New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons; Madras: The Theosophist, 1895. x, 2, 491 pp., pl.; Vols. II, III, IV, V and VI, publ. by the Theos. Soc. (Adyar), 1900-1935.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 5, p. 379

Olcott, Col. Henry Steel (1832-1907). *A Buddhist Catechism, according to the Canon of the Southern Church. English and Sinhalese, Colombo, Ceylon: Buddhist Theosophical Society, 1881. Many subsequent editions.—*Diaries. Col. H. S. Olcott’s Diaries in the Adyar Archives. 30 vols.—*Letter to Miss Francesca Arundale, dated February 2, 1885. The Theosophist, September, 1932. *Old Diary Leaves. The True History of The Theosophical Society. Vol. I. New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons; Madras: The Theosophist, 1895. x, 491 pp. pl. Vols. II, III, IV, V, and VI, publ. by the Theos. Society (Adyar), 1900-1935.—*People from the Other World. Ill. by Alfred Kappes and T. W. Williams, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Co., 1875. 492 pp.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 6, p. 442

Olcott, Col. Henry Steel (1832-1907). *Old Diary Leaves. The True History of The Theosophical Society. Vol. I. New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons; Madras: The Theosophist, 1895. x, 2, 491 pp., pl.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 9, p. 446

Olcott, Col. Henry Steel (1832-1907). *Old Diary Leaves. Series II and III. London: Theos. Publ. Society; Madras: The Theosophist Office, 1900 and 1904 resp. Later editions also.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 10, p. 426