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National secular sor—v
MRS. BESANT’S
THEOSOPHY
BY
G. W. FOOTE.
Price Twopence.
LONDON:
PROGRESSIVE PUBLISHING COMPANY,
28 Stonecutter Street, E.C.
1889.
�MRS. BESANT’S THEOSOPHY.
For a considerable time I have seen that Mrs. Besant
was gradually drifting away from Secularism. I said
nothing, because I had no right to, nor would it have
been useful to do so. I was not in her confidence, so
that I could not speak with her on the subject ; and
my conviction of the change which was coming over
her was not grounded on anything that could be laid
before the public ; it was forced upon me by a hundred
indications, as though a hundred fingers, at different
times and places, all pointed in the same direction.
This conviction filled me with pain for many reasons.
I admired Mrs. Besant’s eloquence and abilities, and
still more her generous and enthusiastic character.
These are naturally of great service to whatever cause
she espouses. She was also a woman, and that fact
weighed even more heavily. There is no other lady of
the first rank on the Freethought platform, and in the
present transition state of society women are the best
missionaries. Until both sexes take an equal part in
public affairs, and in the promotion of principles, and
while audiences chiefly consist of men, a lady speaker
will exercise an influence quite out of proportion to
her intellect and information ; for difference of sex
tells unconsciously, and from the lips of a woman,
especially if young or engaging, even commonplaces are
apt to pass with men as revelations, and faulty logic is
wonderfully convincing.
Buc what I most admired in Mrs. Besant was her
courage. I regard this as the supreme virtue, and by
no means a simple one, for it includes many high
qualities. Mrs. Besant is a brave as well as a good woman.
I have special reasons for saying so, and the writing of
this pamphlet is one of the most painful duties I have
ever undertaken. Much
I respect Mrs. Besant, I
�Mrs. Betant’s Theosophy.
3
have a higher respect for truth ; much as I regard her
feelings, I have a deeper regard for the interests of
the Freethought party. There are times, and this is one
of them, when persons must yield to principles ; and
in such cases it is both honest and merciful to speak
with the utmost plainness.
Although the change I observed in Mrs. Besant gave
me pain, I will now say that it gave me no surprise.
Among all her fine qualities she has not the gift of origi
nality. She seems to me very much at the mercy of her
emotions, and especially at the mercy of her latest friends.
A powerful engine, she runs upon lines laid down for her.
Only on this theory can I account for the suddenness
of her changes. Nothing could exceed the vehemence
with which she attacked Socialism and Socialists after
the Bradlaugh-Hvndman debate, but what a brief time
elapsed before she was a thorough convert to what she
so denounced I Still more sudden is her latest revo
lution. The news fell upon the Freethought party
like a bolt from the blue. Without a word of warning,
without a public sign of change, Mrs. Besant printed
an article in the National Reformer, which, while it
puzzled most of its readers, showed them conclusively
that she had renounced the greater part of her previous
teaching. There was apparently no gradation in the
change. At one leap she left Atheism and materialism
and plunged into the depths of the wildest Pantheism
and spiritualism. Reviewing anonymously Madame
Blavatsky’s “ Secret Doctrine ” in the Pall Mall Gazette
of April 25, she concluded by saying “ Of the truth in it
our superficial examination is insufficient to decide.”
Yet in less than six weeks—or two months at the out
side—she was a Fellow of the Theosophical Society I
Surely no intellect like Mrs. Besant’s could undergo
such rapid changes by itself. Madame Blavatsky on
the one side, and Mr. Herbert Burrows on the other,
may supply the explanation.
Mrs. Besant said nothing on this subject at the
National Secular Society’s Conference on June 9,
although she must have contemplated, and perhaps,
written, her Theosophical article in Lucifer. Appa
rently she did not even take Mr. Bradlaugh into her
�4
Mrs. Besant’s Theosophy.
confidence. He speaks of her conversion to Theosophy
as wrought “ with somewhat of suddenness, and with
out any interchange of ideas with myself.”*
I must also express my opinion that Mrs. Besant has
treated the Freethought party very cavalierly. Men
and women with whom she had worked so long were
entitled to an explanation. Those she had for years
misled, if her new opinions were true, were even
entitled to hear her regret the misfortune. But she
recognised no such obligation. “ It is not possible,”
she simply said, “ for me here to state fully my reasons
for joining the Theosophical Society.”! Yet only a
few days afterwards she wrote “ Why I Became a
Theosophist ” in the Star.
I turned to this article with eagerness ; I read it
with disappointment. The “ Why ” .was a complete
misnomer. Mrs. Besant afforded not the slightest ex
planation. I do not want her to tell me what Theo
sophy is—for that is all she does, and very inadequately,
in the Star article. I do not want her to restate as
though they were true, positions she formerly assailed
as false. Both parties know there is an inside and an
outside of every position. I want to|know why Mrs.
Besant passed over from one side to the other. All she
does is to show me a map.
Suppose, for instance, I went over to Christianity.
Would it explain why /believed in the Resurrection if
I put forward the stock arguments in its favor ? My
friends would be entitled to know what change had
taken place in me. They would expect to be informed
why an argument once looked false and now looks true.
Was something overlooked? Has a new light fallen
upon the subject ? These are questions demanding an
answer, and they might be answered honestly even if
unsatisfactorily.
Amidst all her changes Mrs. Besant remains quite
positive. It does not occur to her that a person who has
been mistaken once may be mistaken twice or thrice.
The fact that she held one thing yesterday, and holds
the opposite to-day, does not shake her self-assurance.
* National Reformer, June 30, 1889 (p. 409).
t Ibid
�Mrs. Besant’s Theosophy.
o
She does not pause and let time decide whether her
new views are permanent. Previous mistakes do not
suggest hesitation and self-mistrust. Every time she
changes her course she asks others to follow her with
perfect confidence.
It is unpleasant to write thus, and I would hold my
hand if I were not apprehensive that Mrs. Besant
might lead Freethinkers astray. Her procedure on her
conversion'to Socialism was a warning. She used the
Freethought platform, as I think, in an unjustifiable
manner. Shethad not made it ; none of us made it;
it has been made by hundreds of workers through
more than one generation. Yet Mrs. Besant insisted
on using it to the uttermost for the ventilation of her
new views, on the principle, I suppose, that the end
justifies the means.
She advocated Socialism in
Secular halls, but not Secularism in Socialist meeting
places. I feel, therefore, the danger which now
threatens our party, and I speak out simply from a
desire to guard it, as far as I may, from this deadly
peril. If we are to have a Theosophical agitation
carried on in our midst there will be discord and
division; and I, for one, even at the risk of being mis
understood, or incurring Mrs. Besant’s enmity, prefer
to take time by the forelock on this occasion.
From the terms of her eulogy on Madame Blavatsky,
I infer that this lady is (at present) Mrs. Besant’s
guide, philosopher and friend. She takes Theosophy
on trust from “the most remarkable woman of her
time one\who asks for no reward but “ trust,” which
is what every mystery-monger starts with, and leads to
everything else ; one who has “ left home and country,
social position and wealth,” in order to bring us lessons
from “ the Wise Men of the East.”
Has Mrs. Besant made inquiry into these things, or
has she succumbed, body and soul, to the spell of the
sorceress ? Where is Madame Blavatsky’s home, what
is her country, what was her social position, and what
the extent of her wealth ? Many persons would like
these questions answered.^ Twenty years ago Madame
Blavatsky was practising as a spiritist “ mejum ” in
America. In 1872 she gave seances in Egypt. Three
�6
Mrs. Besa/nt’s Theosophy.
years later she started the Theosophical Society. In
India she was cordially welcomed, and many signs and
wonders attended her steps. None of them, it is true,
were of the slightest use to mankind. Cigarettes and
broken saucers played a leading part in the “ mani
festations.” The miracles were investigated on behalf
of the Society for Psychical Research by Mr. R. Hodg
son, who went out for the purpose, and reported them
as “ part of a huge fraudulent system.”* A fuller
exposure is the pamphlet by Madame Coulomb, one of
Madame Blavatsky’s friends.f This lady reveals the
whole mystery of sliding panels, hidden holes, and
secreted articles whose position was indicated by the
spirits who placed them there! The letters from
Madame Blavatsky to her chere amie are those of a
thorough-paced adventuress. She repudiated them as
forgeries, but she does not vindicate herself in the
law courts, and the letters certainly came from a more
clever and fertile brain than Madame Coulomb’s.
What has passed between Mrs. Besant and Mde.
Blavatsky I know not, nor am I anxious for informa
tion ; but the fact is public that the neophyte has been
greatly influenced by The Secret Doctrine, a bulky
work in two quarto volumes, containing nearly 1500
pages. An admirable review of this ponderous first
half of the new revelation has been written by my
colleague, Mr. J. M. Wheeler, whose knowledge of
Brahminism and Buddhism, as well as of general
“ occult ” literature, it would take Mrs. Besant many
years of close study to rival. For my own part, I
cannot say that I have read these volumes ; but I have
looked through them, and read some portions carefully.
Where it touches upon matters I am more or less
familiar with, the work seems a terrible jumble of
second-hand knowledge and first-hand pretence. How
ever Mrs. Besant could read some of it without a
guffaw at Mde. Blavatsky’s credulity, or disgust at her
arrogance, passes my comprehension. The mysterious
* Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. iii., p. 210.
t Some Account of my Intercourse with Madame Blavatsky from
1872 to ISSp dy Madame Coulomb. London: Eliot Stock.
t Freethinker, July 14, 1889.
�Mrs. Besant’s Theosophy.
7
Book of Dzyan, which forms the basis of this revela
tion, and from which seven enigmatic stanzas are
translated as a sample, and as much as the feeble
Western intellect can stand at present, is boldly
declared to be of such antiquity that a later book, 5,000
years old, is juvenile in comparison. We are intro
duced to a Thibetan monastery, far away among hills
that no European foot has ever trodden, with sub
terranean galleries and halls containing books which
£ould not “ find room even in the British Museum.”
This mistress of Theosophy assures us that monsters
are still “ bred from human and animal parents,” and
refers us for proof to unspecified “ medical records.”
She denounces Darwinism, and will not hear of our
ape-like ancestry. Her theory of apes is that they are
the offspring of bestiality between men and animals !
The pineal gland is the atrophied “ third eye,” a fact
apparently not discovered by Theosophists until
scientific speculation had arisen on the subject. But
this third eye was really the first. Man had one eye
to begin with, somewhere at the top or the back of his
head ; the two eyes in front were developed after
wards, and the original optic atrophied away. But if
man had at first only one eye, he was compensated by
Having four arms. Such is the biological wisdom of
this amazing book!
Mde. Blavatsky banters the geologists smartly on
ffieir chronological differences. She could tell them
the true chronology “ an she would.” Meanwhile she
does something safer ; she reveals the chronology of
the future. The Americans are the founders of the
coming race. About 25,000 years hence they will
really begin business. Europe and the whole Aryan
race will be destroyed, and after “ many hundreds of
milleniums ” the Sixth-Root Race will be perfected.
Mde. Blavatsky and Prophet Baxter are in the same
line, but two of that trade never agree.
Natural Selection, we are told, is an exploded doc
trine. Haeckel, Huxley and Btichner, whom Mrs.
Besant has translated, are “ the intellectual and moral
murderers of future generations.” Haeckel, indeed, is
more than wicked ; he is “ idiotic.” Atheists and
�8
Mrs. Besant’s Theosophy.
materialists, if versed in anatomy, are “hopelessly
insane.” This statement, I presume, after Mrs. Besant’s
conversion, will be modified in any future edition.
Mde. Blavatsky speaks of the “materialised forms
which are sometimes seen oozing out of the bodies of
certain mediums.” This was a primeval mode of
sexless procreation, before the race fell into carnality,
and it “ cannot fail to be suggestive to the student.”
Indeed it cannot ! If Mrs. Besant has swallowed this
Wisdom of the East, it is no wonder that Mr. Bradlaugh
“looks to possible developments of her Theosophic
opinions with the very gravest misgiving.”
Leaving Mde. Blavatsky’s book for the present, I
come to what Mrs. Besant herself says about Thesophy.
In the first place it is Oriental. But that is not special,
for all our Western religions came from the East.
Many years ago Mrs. Besant rejected the Oriental
creed in which she was nurtured. She now accepts
another, and I fear just as blindly. Yet she thought
herself out of the first, and perhaps she will think
herself out of the second.
“ The Orient,” Mrs. Besant tells us, “begins to study
the universe just where the Occident ceases to study,”
which is a pretty way of saying that the Orient has an
insatiable appetite for metaphysics, while the Occident
has developed a taste for science and positive methods.
The result is that while the East is searching with the
patience of a million jackasses for hidden wisdom,
the West is master of scientific knowledge and practical
wisdom, and is thus able to rule the East with striking
facility. The grip of fact is the secret of mastery.
All this Eastern philosophy, except in some of its
ethical aspects, is like the German’s account of the
camel, developed from his inner consciousness. Only
the poverty of the human imagination prevents there
being a thousand different theories of the universe, past,
present, and to come, all equally sound, and all equally
hollow. That Theosophy, or Esoteric Buddhism, hangs
together, goes for nothing. Catholicism hangs together,
Calvinism hangs together, Swedenborg’s elaborate
mysticism hangs together; and for the same reason
that a drama, a novel, or a romance hangs together;
�Mrs. Besant’s Theosophy.
9
because the imagination has its laws as well as the
intellect, and construction is construction whether the
materials are fancies or facts.
Western positive philosophy discourages the spinning'
of systems, spider-like, out of ourselves. It deals with
the How, not with the Why, and takes its stand on the
relativity of knowledge. Every sentient being learnswhat it does learn by using its intelligence upon the
evidence of its senses. All knowledge, therefore, is
necessarily phenomenal. What noumena, or things in
themselves, may be, or whether they exist at all, are
idle and indifferent questions. Sugar is sweet, and if
we know nothing, and can know nothing of substance,
the sweetness is all the same.
Mrs. Besant has been satisfied with this philosophy
hitherto, but now she yearns for something higher.
She is impatient at the thought that “ the Why
ever eludes us,” that “causes remain enwrapped in
gloom.” She follows a vibration along a nerve until
she comes to a sensation in the brain. Formerly she
was satisfied with the phenomenal succession ; now
she asks for “ the causal link.” She admits that science
cannot give it ; and she might have added that since
the days of David Hume it has been obvious to experientialists that the “causal link” is a figment of
imagination. She regards its absence, or rather its
occultness, as a chasm and as a blank wall ; but the
latter metaphor has her preference, for she presently
sees Theosophy coming down (where from ?) as “ a
fairly long ladder,” and tries hex- “ luck at scaling it.”
I hope she will pardon me for leaving her there.
Scaling the Infinite is a pretty long climb. According
to a more commonplace metaphor, Mrs. Besant is trying
to get out of her own skin.
She admits as much, indeed, for the sublime investi
gation of causal links requires “ further mental equip
ment than that normally afforded by the human body.”
This is enough to daunt common people, but Mrs.
Besant introduces her “ Eastern sages ” who have
superior faculties, and can see through millstones and
into the middle of next week. They wield mysterious
powers “miraculous to the ordinary person.” Mrs.
�10
Mrs. Besant’t Theosophy.
Besant instances clairvoyance, mesmerism, and hypno
tism as abnormal faculties ; but clairvoyance has never
been established as a fact, and nothing has transpired
in mesmerism and hypnotism which goes beyond the
power the operator exerts through the patient’s
imagination.
These “ Eastern sages,” or Mahatmas, dwell on such
lofty planes of thought and power that, like men on
mountains, they have to be very careful what they
drop down. A big truth might floor us all, so they
dribble out a little at a time. “ Ultimately,” says Mrs.
Besant, “ in the course of myriad generations, the
whole race will reach this higher plane.” What an
elevation it must be ! Three hundred thousand years,
at least, must elapse before the mass of us will arrive
there! Theosophy cuts up the cake of Time in
remarkably big slices.
Some of the hidden wisdom of the Initiates, Adepts,
Arhats, Mahatmas, or Masters, has “ filtered out during
the last few years,” and here it is in The Secret
Doctrine. Mr. Wheeler describes it as “ a complete
hodge-podge of Yogi philosophy, Esoteric Buddhism,
Ignatius Donelly, Ragon and Eliphas Levi.” Mde.
Blavatsky is widely read in the barren literature of
occultism, has a good memory, a ready command of
her resources and a facile pen. But we look in vain
for method and lucidity. Dr. Tylor’s Primitive Culture
is a work of scientific genius ; Mde. Blavatsky’s Secret
Doctrine is the work of an accomplished charlatan.
Hidden wisdom is an easy thing to boast of. The
showman may enjoy a boundless reputation who is
never obliged to draw the curtain. Were the Adepts
to speak out, the world would see whether they are so
much wiser than Homer, JEscyhlus, Plato, Aristotle,
Virgil, Lucretius, Dante, Spinoza, Bacon and Shake
speare. The really great and wise men have poured
fourth their wisdom royally, like the sovereign sun
that sheds its glorious rays on all, leaving everything
to profit as it can.
As a matter of fact, except for its pretentious orient
alisms, there is nothing in Theosophy, as Mrs. Besant
has accepted it, which she could not have picked up
�Mrs. Besant’s Theosophy.
11
in the benighted West. That man’s Ego is immortal
is the current doctrine of Christendom. That Nature
is the manifestation of intelligence is taught almost
universally. Mesmerism is a commonplace of evening
entertainments Second-sight once abounded in the
Scotch highlands. Materialised spirit forms turn up
at ordinary seances. “ Mejums ” carry on daily commu
nication with the spirit world. The mystic number
seven flourishes in the Bible. Karma itself, with
out the doctrine of transmigration, is taught by
every great moralist; thoughts and deeds become habits,
■and habit is second nature.
Freethinkers will note the immense change in Mrs.
Besant’s views. She has “ no personal God,” but, “ the
universe is essentially Intelligence.” Matter is Maya,
illusion ; the Theosophist, like the Berkleyan idealist,
■“ seeks in the mental and spiritual planes of being the
causes of the material effects.” Mrs. Besant has turned
right about face ; and, once started on this new path,
there is no saying where she will go.
Besides her “ essentially Intelligence ” universe, or
perhaps I should say in it, Mrs. Besant has now a
multitude of “ intelligent beings ” other than mankind,
whose operations we mistake for “ the forces of nature.”
After death our Ego re-incarnates itself, again and again,
until it has purified itself from desire, when re-incarna
tion is no longer neccessary, and “ a man passes on to
higher planes of being.” Those who have thus passed
■on are a part of the “ intelligent beings ” aforesaid.
Spiritism, of course, is the logical issue of this fanci
ful philosophy. Theosophists seem all infected with
this melancholy superstition, which flourishes in gross
luxuriance among savages ; and it is to be feared that
Mrs. Besant will not escape the contagion.
Spiritism was not brought in by Theosophy, nor
was the doctrine of re-incarnation. Mrs Besant might
have learned it without the aid of Mde.' Blavatsky.
The transmigration of souls was a special feature of
the religion of ancient Egypt. It was taught by Plato.
It was received among the Jews ; witness Herod’s
exclamation about Jesus—“This is John the Baptist,
whom I beheaded.” The demons who took up their
�12
Mrs. Besant’s Theosophy.
abode in “ possessed ” persons were also supposed to be
the souls of deceased wicked men. Metempsychosis
was gravely satirised in the seventeenth century by Dr.
Donne in a remarkably learned and powerful poem.
The pre-existence of the soul, which is an aspect of
the same doctrine, is insisted on in Wordsworth’s
great Ode on Immortality, where the poet adopts Plato’s
doctrine of reminiscence. Tennyson refers to the
forgetfulness in one incarnation of our experience in
previous ones.
Some draught of Lethe doth await,
As old mythologies relate,
The slipping through from state to state.
These literary references are not recondite, and I cannot
help feeling surprised at Mrs. Besant’s being struck,
through the agency of the Theosophic sorceress, with
the charming novelty of very ancient doctrines.
Still less do I understand her deception as to the
sacred number seven, which is so frequent in Theoso
phy. Mrs. Besant accepts the “ sevenfold nature of
man ” from the Wise Men of the East through the
prophetess Blavatsky ; and, having swallowed one
seven, I suppose she will not scruple at the rest. This
seven business, like lunacy, comes from the moon.
Early men found out the lunar twenty-eight days ; they
halved that number and found fourteen ; they halved
this and found seven ; they tried to halve that and
failed. This indivisible number was also connected
with sexual periodicities, and thus it became mysterious
and sacred. This accounts for its constant recurrence
in religious systems.
According to Mde. Blavatsky “ the number of
Monads is necessarily finite and limited.” They
arrived on this earth (from somewhere) in emigrant
streams long ago, but in time this planet got stocked.
Mr. Sinnett indulges in an innocent speculation as to
their number. This is still undecided, though it is
agreed that the number is large enough to necessitate
an interval of centuries between one incarnation and
another. Mde. Blavatsky says “ many centuries.” Mr.
Sinnett says “ fifteen hundred years at least.” Theo
�Mrs. Besant’s Theosophy.
13
sophy, it appears, though, supernally wise, is rather
vague in its arithmetic.
A principal doctrine of Buddhism is Karma, and
this is a leading tenet of Theosophy. “ Karma,” Mrs.
Besant says, “ is the expression of eternal justice,
whereby each reaps exactly as he has sown. It is the
impersonal law of retribution, distributing the fruit of
good and bad actions. During one incarnation is
Wrought the Karma which shall mould the circum
stances of the next, so that each man beautifies or mars
his own future. None can escape from the operation
of Karma, nor modify it save by the creation of fresh.
Karma presides, so to speak, over each re-incarnation,
so that the Ego passes into such physical and mental
'©nvironment as it deserves.”
Thus the problem of evil no longer disturbs Mrs.
Besant. She now sees nothing but “ eternal justice.”
Karma, says Mde. Blavatsky, reconciles us to “ the
terrible and apparent injustice of life.” According to
Mr. Sinnett “ the great inequalities of life ” are per
fectly explained. Each of us gets exactly what he
deserves, aud grumblers should reflect that suffering
and degradation are simply “ a new way to pay old
debts.” The subtle Sinnett relaxes, however, in the
■case of accidents. Cripples, and children injured at
birth, are victims of those little disorders that will
happen in the best regulated families ; but there is
■consolation in the thought that “ the undeserved suffer
ing of one life is amply redressed under the operation
of the Karmic law in the next, or the next.” Beautiful!
“ Blessed are ye that mourn now, for ye shall be com
forted.”
How Mrs. Besant reconciles Karma with Socialism
I leave her to explain. I am not a devotee of Socialism
myself, but I respect its objects if I dissent from its
policy. But if each man “reaps exactly as he has
■sown,” if each Ego goes into “ such physical and mental
environment as it deserves,” the Socialist—and, indeed,
■.every social reformer—is fighting against Karma ;
while denunciation of landlords, capitalists, and all
privileged persons, is silly screaming against “ eternal
justice.” Thus, at least, it appears to me. But I do
�14
Mrs, Besant’s Theosophy.
not dogmatise ; I am open to learn ; and I will listen
to what answer Mrs. Besant brings me from the WiseMen of the East.
Theosophy, of course, like every other system, has
its moral aspects, and Mrs. Besant deems them super
latively beautiful. I do not share her admiration ; on
the contrary, I regard the ethics of Theosophy as
detestable.
Mrs. Besant gravely tells us that Altruism “ differen
tiates ” Theosophy from “ all other systems as though
disinterestedness and self-sacrifice were not heard of
before the gospel of Blavatsky ; as though, indeed, she
had not herself written a pamphlet on Auguste Comte,,
whose maxim was Vivre Pour Autrui—Live For
Others. Altruism has existed in every ethical system.
No sane person thinks of neglecting its august claims.
Religious systems, however, have a knack of carrying
everything to excess, and Theosophy is no exception to
the rule. Mrs. Besant is not satisfied with giving
society as well as the individual its rights. Self is not
only to be subordinated to the general good, it is “ to
be destroyed.” We must be “ wholly selfless,” we
must “ kill out all personal desires.” Could anything
be more grotesque ? Could anything be more perni
cious ? Such a philosophy, if carried out, would reduce
its devotees to the flabbiest sentimentality and the most
hopeless impotence. Fancy, for instance, the attempt
to perpetuate the race, not by sexual desire, but by
altruistic principles! It is individual passion that
moves us. Without it we should stagnate, decay, and
perish. Every individual is necessarily the centre of
his own world. The difference between good and bad
men is a question of circumference. How many are
included in the range of one’s sympathies ? The selfish
man includes few, the unselfish man many, the true
saint all. Even then the imagination, which again is
individual, interposes its limitations. Thus we are
profoundly moved by calamities at home, and read of
calamities in distant, and especially alien countries,
with scarcely a sigh.
We may liken the individual and the social instincts
to the centrifugal and centripetal forces which keep
�Mrs. Besant’s lheosophy.
15
the earth revolving in its orbit. Mrs. Besant would
abolish the centrifugal force and shoot the earth into
the sun. This magnificent imperialism may have its
charms, but the majority of sensible people prefer a
compromise in the shape of Home Bule.
“ Identifying the individual with the all ” is a finesounding phrase. The doctrine, however, is that of
ascetics in all ages and climes. As a mood it has its
value ; it is suicidal as a philosophy. The mystics who
cut themselves off from society, immured themselves
in cells or hermitages, sought for “ purification,”
trampled upon “ self,” and tried to extinguish all
“personal desire,” were identifying themselves with,
God. Theosophy substitutes “ the all ” for God, but it
is the same old process with a new name.
The final ethical developments of Theosophy are
suggested by Mrs. Besant, and they should be carefully
noted. Within the Theosophical Society there is an
“inner circle” of those who desire to enter on “the
Path.” For “obvious reasons” Mrs. Besant says little
about this doubly esoteric circle. The reasons may be
“ obvious ” to her, but twenty people, I venture to say,
would give twenty different guesses. However, we
must take what is vouchsafed. The inner circle, it
appears, must “ abstain from all intoxicants ”—not in
cluding Theosophy ; and “ the use of meat is dis
countenanced.” So far there is nothing very “ occult ”
in the prescription. Teetotalism is at least as old as
the Nazarites, and is a rule of Mohammedanism ; while
Vegetarianism, also a very ancient practice, is spreading
quite independently of Theosophy.
The third point is the critical one. Those who
mean to pursue the Path “ must lead a celibate life.”
That is the centre of gravity of all these “ spiritual,r
systems. The poor flesh is to be mortified, whipped,
and suppressed. The spirit is to be all in all. At a
single bound Mrs Besant reaches the sexual doctrine
of St. Paul. All her old teaching on this pc int is cast
to the winds. Page on page of her pamphlet on Mar
riage must be cancelled to bring it into conformity
with the new doctrine. Marriage is now a mere con
cession to human weakness. Celibacy is the counsel
�16
Mrs. Besant’s Theosophy.
of perfection. The sacred names of husband and wife,
father and mother, are to be deposed as usurpers. At
the very best they are only to be tolerated. It is idle
to reply that celibacy is only for the “ inner circle.”
If it be the loftiest rule of life, it should be aimed at
by all.
Celibacy is not the loftiest rule of life. Physically,
mentally, and morally, it is attended with the gravest
dangers. What it has led to in pietist circles is only
too well known. Turned out of doors, nature climbs
in at the window. The frustration of honest instinct
makes men and women flighty and feverish, or fills
them with the malaise of unsatisfied yearning. Dis
used functions avenge themselves, and the body
becomes a hospital or a churchyard of effete, vicious,
nr cadaverous organs.
Spiritism on the one side, and celibacy on the other,
are the evil angels of Theosophy. I will not venture
to speculate on where they may lead an ardent and
devoted nature like Mrs Besant’s. She is not an adven
turess, and is more likely to be the victim than the
mistress of this superstition. Others may be only
partially deluded, and sufficiently free to find influence
and profit in ministering to the credulity of their dupes.
But Mrs Besant is made of different stuff. She will go
on “ the Path ” with perfect confidence ; she will
preach and proselytise. What will be will be ; the
end I cannot foresee or avert. Yet I will cherish a
hope that a lady so gifted, so eloquent, so devoted, and
so brave, may some day see that Theosophy itself is
Maya, or illusion, and return to the sound and bracing
philosophy that once guided and inspired her.
Printed and Published by G. W. Foote, 28 Stonecutter Street, London, E.C.;
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Mrs Besant's theosophy
Creator
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Foote, G. W. (George William) [1850-1915]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 16 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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Progressive Publishing Company
Date
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1889
Identifier
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N254
Subject
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Theosophy
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Mrs Besant's theosophy), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Annie Besant
NSS
Theosophy