Quotes:Sotheran, Charles

Boris de Zirkoff

Sotheran, Charles. Author, Bibliographer and Scholar, b. at Newington, Surrey, England, July 8, 1847; d. in New York in 1902. Son of Charles and Frances Elise (Hirst) Sotheran, and relative of the famous London Booksellers of the same name. Educated in England in private schools and St. Marie’s College, Rugby. Married Mrs. Alice (Hyneman) Rhine, Oct. 17, 1893. Came to the U.S.A. in 1874, and began reportorial work on the New York World. Was literary Editor of the New York Recorder and Star, and Editor of the New York Echo, a short-lived journal which he published for a time. Was connected with Sabin and Sons, Booksellers in New York, in the editing of their journal, The American Bibliopolist. Later he was connected editorially with several other journals both in U.S.A, and England. Sotheran was a prominent Mason and representative in U.S.A, of the Swedenborgian Rite. He was the author of the following works: Alessandro di Cagliostro, Impostor or Martyr?, 1875; Percy Bysshe Shelley as a Philosopher and Reformer, New York, 1876; Horace Greeley, and Other Pioneers of American Socialism, N. Y., 1892 and 1915; The Theatres of New York, 1893. Also numerous separate bibliographies.

His rather fiery temperament kept him and his friends in a turmoil. He took active part in the founding of the Theosophical Society, hut only three months later made some inflammatory speeches at a political street meeting, to which H.P.B. strongly objected. Sotheran resigned from the T.S. in a huff, but six months later apologized for various critical and unfriendly remarks he had made, and was reinstated. This episode, however, should not prejudice the reader against Sotheran. He was a remarkable man in more ways than one, and his role in the work of the Society in its early stages of growth should not be judged by the above mentioned unfortunate episode. We have a source of interesting information about Sotheran as a man and thinker in Mrs. Laura C. Langford-Holloway’s account entitled “Helena Petrovna Blavatsky: a Reminiscence,” published in The Word, New York, Vol. XXII, December, 1915, pp. 136-153, wherein she writes as follows:

“. . . Knowing as I did of the friendship existing between herself [H.P.B.] and Mr. Chas. Sotheran, one of the ablest newspaper writers ever in New York, a man of broad culture and a rarely noble character, I have sometimes wondered that her biographers have not manifested more interest in the man and his services to her. Mr. Sotheran was a member of the Rosicrucian Society, a Mason of exalted rank, and a writer versed in the history of all Oriental systems of religious thought. He was the originator of the word “Theosophy,” as the name for the new society, and he it was who introduced to Madame Blavatsky the scholarly men whose names are mentioned in connection with Isis Unveiled. He was the most influential champion Madame Blavatsky possessed while living in New York, and he was an ideal friend—royally true and unvaryingly helpful. He was eager that she should be identified with the circle of literary people about her, for he felt a real admiration for her great mental ability, and desired that others should appreciate her. A spirit of self-depreciation that decreased her influence, he had noted, and this he tried to help her overcome. It was a defect in her character, this tendency to underrate her ability, and he urged her to combat it. He had little success in this effort, for she cared not at all for her accomplishments and only sought recognition in her occult work.

“It was often asserted—on what basis of proof I never knew —that Mr. Sotheran was acquainted with one, at least, of the Brotherhood of Adepts, and was, in some way, identified with their broad aims for the betterment of the race. And it was generally understood that he had met Madame Blavatsky abroad, and knew of the task she was undertaking in this country. He, at least, held an exalted view of her genius, and urged her to write, and deprecated her interest in religious “fads” as he characterized spiritism. He opposed public séances in an uncompromisingly bitter way. So strong was his hostility to the subject, that he would never engage in conversation on it, or kindred themes. Nor did he ever concur in the claim that Madame Blavatsky’s position required that she should investigate the matter thoroughly.

“His attitude was that she was a genuine occultist, with reasonable powers of mind, and had been trained to use them. And he often asserted that occultism was a noble study, and one about which the West did not know anything whatever.

“The services of this man to the Theosophical Society in its beginnings have never been justly recognized. He was a helper, without whom the work of society organization, of research work in connection with Isis Unveiled, of securing a publisher for this work, and then of having it properly placed before the public, would not have been half so efficiently performed.

“Mr. Sotheran knew New York, and had a position among men that was unique. His life was singularly free of entanglements; he was most fortunately situated to enjoy his advantages as a man of great ability and attainments, of ample financial resources, a bachelor, and one of a group of New Yorkers who lent character and dignity and prestige to the best circle of society.

“He was an admitted occultist, but was opposed to the prominence given occult phenomena on the ground that it could but add to the burdens imposed by the ignorant upon those who demonstrated laws they could not master. And he deplored the tendency of many about Madame Blavatsky to have her become the miracle-worker of the age. He spoke of her intellectual ability as of far greater value to the new Society than any mere psychic power she possessed, and he tried to counteract the influence of those who, appreciating her less, would have had her waste her time upon phenomena. A wise friend he was, and a true prophet, for he counseled her to discourage those who expected her to entertain them with signs and wonders, and to insist upon the serious study of the hidden forces of nature...”

This description, while showing ignorance of certain facts which pertain to the orders received by H.P.B. from her Superiors to work for a time with the outward Spiritualistic, Movement, gives nevertheless an interesting picture of Sotheran’s many-sided character and should be recorded here for posterity.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 1, pp. 525-527