Zirkoff B. - The Hiraf Club and its Historical Background: Difference between revisions

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[Mention has already been made of the names of William M. Ivins and William S. Fales, two attorneys at law who represented H.P.B. in her court-case at Riverhead, Long Island, N. Y. As these two individuals, together with several of their friends, played an important part in H.P.B.’s literary activity at its very inception, the following excerpt from the work of Charles R. Flint, Memories of an Active Life, from which we already had occasion to quote, will be of interest to the reader. Mr. Flint writes:

(The two upper photographs are from Charles R. Flint’s Memories of an Active Life, New York and London, 1923. The portrait of W. M. Ivins is from The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. XXX. Consult pp. 95-100, and the Bio-Bibliographical Index for biographical data.)

“H stood for Frederick W. Hinrichs, the man who probably ran for more important public offices, without being elected, than any man in the United States. In 1896 he ran for {{Page aside|98}} Lieutenant-Governor of New York on the Gold Democratic ticket; in 1897 for President of the Borough of Brooklyn, on the Seth Low Fusion ticket; in 1898 for Attorney-General of the State of New York, on a Citizens’ ticket which was to have been headed by Theodore Roosevelt; in 1903 for Comptroller of the City of New York, on a Fusion ticket, headed by Seth Low for mayor. In 1904, he was nominated for Governor of New York by a faction of the Democratic Party, and the nomination was seconded by his brother Miltonian, A. Augustus Healy. He is generally known for his independent speech and his consistent opposition to political machines.

“I stood for William M. Ivins, who was one of the ablest lawyers in New York. He became City Chamberlain, and was one of the leaders who brought about the adoption of the secret ballot. Governor Charles T. Hughes appointed him chairman of a charter commission, and he was most active in drawing a proposed new charter for Greater New York—which a prominent politician told me was ‘the best charter that could have been drawn for the people, but the worst for the politicians, and, therefore, would never be adopted.’ At the request of Governor Hughes, Ivins drew the laws under which the public utilities commissions have been appointed. On behalf of the City he acted as counsel in the investigations of Tammany Hall; and he also ran for Mayor of New York City.

“R stood for James C. Robinson, whose part in the activities of the ‘Hiraf’ is evidenced by a letter which I will quote on a succeeding page.

“A stood for Charles Frederick Adams, an able and learned lawyer practicing in New York.

“F stood for William E. S. Fales.

“That evening we learned from Ivins that the ‘Hiraf’ in its efforts to test human credulity and to contribute to behavioristic psychology, conceived the idea of sending an article to a Boston magazine, the Spiritual Scientist, which was one of the most important spiritistic publications in the United States. The article was prepared by four members of the ‘Hiraf,’ who without consultation with one another, wrote psychic and esoteric sentences which were transmitted to Fales, who was known as the ‘conjunctor,’ and whose duty it was to combine into a more or less consistent whole the efforts of the various contributors . . . . . .

“Whatever adverse opinion may still be entertained as to Madame Blavatsky and her cult, it cannot be denied that her teachings contain much that is interesting, even elevating, and that she has managed to affect many, many thousands, from India in the east to California in the west.”<ref>C. R. Flint, Memories of an Active Life, pp. 115-32.</ref>

“. . . . We young men had little reverence, some learning and some power of expression, and, at the meeting referred to, jocularly suggested to one another the writing of a mystic article on Theosophy, esoteric science and what not. I had been reading Zanoni, a book on Rosicrucianism, and the life of Paracelsus,—so that I wrote, especially, along those lines. The Madame [H.P.B.] claimed to be a Rosicrucian and, when Fales received my contribution and Ivins’ contribution (this latter on recent phases of philosophical thought), he (Fales), without any consultation with either Ivins or myself, dubbed the article, which he compounded out of our three or four separate unrelated contributions—‘Rosicrucianism.’ Fales also created the acrostic ‘Hiraf’ out of our initials, and added five stars, probably suggested by three stars appended to an article which has previously appeared in the Madame’s paper. We all laughed heartily over the compounded article and sent it to the Madame in Boston. She published it in two numbers of her periodical, as I recall it, and wrote two very flattering editorials on ‘Hiraf.’ Our production provoked considerable comment, and called forth some correspondence from different widely separated quarters, some of which correspondence appeared in the Madame’s paper.

“I have been told by Theosophists here, that we young men had written better than we knew, and that we were probably inspired by higher powers. Of this, I know nothing, although this may be so. Certain it is, that ‘Hiraf’ has been quite extensively quoted as authority in various printed publications . . . .”

Such were the curious circumstances which provided the background to the publication of the article entitled “Rosicrucianism” in the Spiritual Scientist, Vol. II, July 1 and 8, 1875, pp. 202 and 212-13 respectively.

The article drew from H.P.B. an immediate reply which was her first major contribution on the subject of Occultism, a literary production which she herself called “My first Occult Shot.” The text of this reply, in the words of Col. Olcott (Old Diary Leaves. I, 103), “laid open the whole field of thought since ploughed up by the members, friends, and adversaries of the Theosophical Society.” —Compiler.]