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{{Style P-Title level|0|introductory.}}
{{Style P-Title level|0|introductory.}}


{{Style P-Epigraph|“ Gently to hear, kindly to judge.”
{{Style P-Epigraph custom|“ Gently to hear, kindly to judge.”
|— Shakespeare.
|— Shakespeare.
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{{Style S-Small capitals|Since}} the appearance of Theosophical literature in England, it has become customary to call its teachings “ Esoteric Buddhism.” And, having become a habit — as an old proverb based on daily experience has it — “ Error runs down an inclined plane, while Truth has to laboriously climb its way up hill.”
{{Style S-Small capitals|Since}} the appearance of Theosophical literature in England, it has become customary to call its teachings “ Esoteric Buddhism.” And, having become a habit — as an old proverb based on daily experience has it — “ Error runs down an inclined plane, while Truth has to laboriously climb its way up hill.”


Old truisms are often the wisest. The human mind can hardly remain entirely free from bias, and decisive opinions are often formed before a thorough examination of a subject from all its aspects has been made. This is said with reference to the prevailing double mistake ''(a) ''of limiting Theosophy to Buddhism : and ''(b)'' of confounding the tenets of the religious philosophy preached by Gautama, the Buddha, with the doctrines broadly outlined in “ Esoteric Buddhism.” Any thing more erroneous than this could be hardly imagined. It has enabled our enemies to find an effective weapon against theosophy ; because, as an eminent Pali scholar very pointedly expressed it, there was in the volume named “ neither esotericism nor Buddhism.” Th esoteric truths, presented in Mr. Sinnett’s work, had ceased to be esoteric from the moment they were made public ; nor did it contain the religion of Buddha, but simply a few tenets from a hitherto hidden teaching which are now supplemented by many more, enlarged and explained in the present volumes. But even the latter, though giving out many fundamental tenets ''from the'' {{Style S-Small capitals|Secret Doctrine}} ''of the East,'' raise but a small corner of the dark veil. For no one, not even the greatest living adept, would be permitted to, or could — even if he would — give out promiscuously, to a mocking, unbelieving world, that which has been so effectually concealed from it for long æons and ages.
Old truisms are often the wisest. The human mind can hardly remain entirely free from bias, and decisive opinions are often formed before a thorough examination of a subject from all its aspects has been made. This is said with reference to the prevailing double mistake (''a'') of limiting Theosophy to Buddhism : and (''b'') of confounding the tenets of the religious philosophy preached by Gautama, the Buddha, with the doctrines broadly outlined in “ Esoteric Buddhism.” Any thing more erroneous than this could be hardly imagined. It has enabled our enemies to find an effective weapon against theosophy ; because, as an eminent Pali scholar very pointedly expressed it, there was in the volume named “ neither esotericism nor Buddhism.” Th esoteric truths, presented in Mr. Sinnett’s work, had ceased to be esoteric from the moment they were made public ; nor did it contain the religion of Buddha, but simply a few tenets from a hitherto hidden teaching which are now supplemented by many more, enlarged and explained in the present volumes. But even the latter, though giving out many fundamental tenets ''from the'' {{Style S-Small capitals|Secret Doctrine}} ''of the East,'' raise but a small corner of the dark veil. For no one, not even the greatest living adept, would be permitted to, or could — even if he would — give out promiscuously, to a mocking, unbelieving world, that which has been so effectually concealed from it for long æons and ages.


“ Esoteric Buddhism” was an excellent work with a very unfortunate  
“ Esoteric Buddhism” was an excellent work with a very unfortunate  
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{{Style P-No indent|upon Buddha or his “ Good Law,” the loss of nearly 76,000 ''tracts'' does seem miraculous. Had it been ''vice versâ,'' every one acquainted with the natural course of events would subscribe to the statement that, of these 76,000, five or six thousand treatises ''might have been'' destroyed during the persecutions in, and emigrations from, India. But as it is well ascertained that Buddhist Arhats began their religious exodus, for the purpose of propagating the new faith beyond Kashmir and the Himalayas, as early as the year 300 before our era, * and reached China in the year 61 {{Style S-Small capitals|A.D}}. † when Kashyapa, at the invitation of the Emperor Ming-ti, went there to acquaint the “ Son of Heaven ” with the tenets of Buddhism, it does seem strange to hear the Orientalists speaking of such a loss as though it were really possible. They do not seem to allow for one moment the possibility that the texts may be ''lost'' only for West and ''for themselves'' ; or, that the Asiatic people should have the unparalleled boldness to keep their most sacred records out of the reach of foreigners, thus refusing to deliver them to the profanation and misuse of races even so “ vastly superior ” to themselves.}}
{{Style P-No indent|upon Buddha or his “ Good Law,” the loss of nearly 76,000 ''tracts'' does seem miraculous. Had it been ''vice versâ,'' every one acquainted with the natural course of events would subscribe to the statement that, of these 76,000, five or six thousand treatises ''might have been'' destroyed during the persecutions in, and emigrations from, India. But as it is well ascertained that Buddhist Arhats began their religious exodus, for the purpose of propagating the new faith beyond Kashmir and the Himalayas, as early as the year 300 before our era, * and reached China in the year 61 {{Style S-Small capitals|A.D}}. † when Kashyapa, at the invitation of the Emperor Ming-ti, went there to acquaint the “ Son of Heaven ” with the tenets of Buddhism, it does seem strange to hear the Orientalists speaking of such a loss as though it were really possible. They do not seem to allow for one moment the possibility that the texts may be ''lost'' only for West and ''for themselves'' ; or, that the Asiatic people should have the unparalleled boldness to keep their most sacred records out of the reach of foreigners, thus refusing to deliver them to the profanation and misuse of races even so “ vastly superior ” to themselves.}}


Owing to the expressed regrets and numerous confessions of almost every one of the Orientalists (See Max Müller’s ''Lectures'' for example) the public may feel sufficiently sure ''(a)'' that the students of ancient religions have indeed very few data upon which to build such final conclusions as they generally do about the old religions, and ''(b)'' that such lack of data does not prevent them in the least from dogmatising. One would imagine that, thanks to the numerous records of the Egyptian theogony and mysteries preserved in the classics, and in a number of ancient writers, the rites and dogmas of Pharaonic Egypt ought to be well understood at least; better, at any rate, than the too abstruse philosophies and Pantheism of India, of whose religion and language Europe had hardly any idea before the beginning of the present century. Along the Nile and on the face of the whole country, there stand to this hour, exhumed yearly and daily, fresh relics which eloquently tell their own history. Still it is not so. The learned Oxford philologist himself confesses the truth by saying that “ Though . . . we see still standing the Pyramids, and the ruins of temples and labyrinths, their walls  
Owing to the expressed regrets and numerous confessions of almost every one of the Orientalists (See Max Müller’s ''Lectures'' for example) the public may feel sufficiently sure (''a'') that the students of ancient religions have indeed very few data upon which to build such final conclusions as they generally do about the old religions, and (''b'') that such lack of data does not prevent them in the least from dogmatising. One would imagine that, thanks to the numerous records of the Egyptian theogony and mysteries preserved in the classics, and in a number of ancient writers, the rites and dogmas of Pharaonic Egypt ought to be well understood at least; better, at any rate, than the too abstruse philosophies and Pantheism of India, of whose religion and language Europe had hardly any idea before the beginning of the present century. Along the Nile and on the face of the whole country, there stand to this hour, exhumed yearly and daily, fresh relics which eloquently tell their own history. Still it is not so. The learned Oxford philologist himself confesses the truth by saying that “ Though . . . we see still standing the Pyramids, and the ruins of temples and labyrinths, their walls  


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