264
ISIS UNVEILED
[It is here chronologically that the two volumes of H.P.B.’s first great work, Isis Unveiled, belong. In a letter addressed to her friend, Alexander Nikolayevich Aksakov, and dated October 2, 1877, she says: “. . . My work has appeared. It was born, the dear thing, last Saturday, September 29 . . .” [1] She also says that the first edition—most likely the first printing or “run” —consisted of 1,000 copies, and these were sold in two days, so that some of the subscribers had to wait a week or more until another “run” could be made ready.
Isis Unveiled was published in Two Volumes by J. W. Bouton, 706 Broadway, New York, and also bears the imprint of Bernard Quaritch, London. Its subtitle is: “A Master Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology.” The original edition has a dark red binding with the title, author’s name and a symbolic figure of Isis on the spine in gold.
Consult Col. Olcott’s Old Diary Leaves, First Series, for his interesting account of the manner in which this work was written. And the more comprehensive outline appended to the edition of Isis Unveiled as part of the present Series.—Compiler.]
[In H.P.B.’s Scrapbook, Vol. IV, p. 83, there is a cutting concerning Dr. J. M. Peeble’s travels in India and Africa. He looks upon Buddhists as being Spiritualists, and suggests that millions of Spiritualistic tracts be distributed among them to enlighten them on the subject of “angel ministry.”
To this H.P.B. added the following remarks in pen and ink:]
Heaven save the mark! It is not enough for the poor Hindus to be pestered with Christian missionaries, but they must have the affliction of being bombarded with tracts and lectures of modern Spiritualism. Of Spiritualism of which they and their forefathers were just masters and professors for the last several millenniums.
Footnotes
- ↑ Translated from the Russian original in the work of Vsevolod S. Solovyov, Sovremennaya Zhritsa Isidi (Modern Priestess of Isis), St. Petersburg, 1904, p. 287. Cf. English transl. by Walter Leaf, London, 1895, p. 276.