This notice appeared in an E. S. paper issued by Mrs. Besant and Mr. Judge, dated July 18th, 1894, when Mrs. Besant was already implicated in the plot against Mr. Judge.
Mrs. Besant's appointment, given above, was the only official one she ever received from H. P. B. in either the E. S. or T. S. Certainly I never heard of anything else. The absolutely Jesuitical nature of her methods is patent, in that she completely ignores the documentary facts set forth above. To read the present statements it might be imagined that Mr. Judge hardly existed at that time, except as an obscure person who, as Mr. Kunz tactfully (!) puts it, made an "unfortunate blunder." As I have shown elsewhere ([see ante pp 5], [70]); it is the fact that "blunders"—and worse than blunders—were made after H. P. B.'s death ([see ante p. 86]); but Mrs. Besant's "blunders" were far more serious than Mr. Judge's; though both of them were, in the first instance, misled by others, whose real aim was to disrupt the Society and defeat H. P. B.'s work.
I possess a copy of the previously mentioned most valuable "Preliminary Memorandum" to Instructions III, as issued by H. P. B. to her students; and a prefatory note states:—
The following "Preliminary Memorandum" was written by H. P. B. at the time of a grave crisis, or rather series of crises, through which the T. S. passed in 1889-90. Treachery within the E. S. itself, and persistent and relentless attacks on the T. S. from without, especially in America necessitated the striking of a fresh keynote and giving directions for the closing up of the ranks of the E. S. At the time of reprinting the Instructions in London in 1890-91, certain portions of this "Preliminary Memorandum" dealing with the details of the matter were purposely omitted by those of H. P. B.'s pupils who were constituted the editors [Mrs. Besant and Mr. Mead], these portions being deemed by them of too personal a character to remain. This was done when H. P. B. was too ill to supervise, without her sanction, and, as she afterwards said, much against her wishes. [Some of the details omitted related to attacks on Mr. Judge, and the duty of defending him "when the time comes.">[
Similarly, Mr. Mead omitted from his "third and revised edition" of H. P. B.'s Key to Theosophy, published in 1893, most of the part in which the author deals with the Report of the Society for Psychical Research, classing it with "passages of a controversial nature, which are no longer of general interest." Yet the public at large still accept this Report as a proof that H. P. B. was a fraud, a charlatan, and a Russian spy!
Another feature of this edition, as of others of her works produced after her death, is what he calls "a systematic use of italics and capitals." This means that he abandons H. P. B.'s extremely effective use of large and small capitals and italics to emphasise the importance of words like MYSTERIES, OCCULTISM, WISDOM-RELIGION, etc., or SELF, Self, and Self to indicate the three different selves in man, and so robs her text of much of its emphasis and meaning. One has to compare her editions with these posthumos ounes to realise the extent to which this has been done. It is particularly noticeable in The Voice of the Silence, where the exact meaning often depends on the distinctions H. P. B. thus makes. ([See her article on Occultism quoted ante p. 31]).
If the "Back to Blavatsky" movement accomplishes nothing else, let us hope it may succeed in getting rid of all this vandalism and re-establishing H. P. B.'s works on their original basis, that she may go down to posterity on her own merits and not altered and distorted by the brain-mind notions of her followers. Some of this work is already being done by organisations or private enterprise, but it needs to be systematised and co-ordinated.[23] Although the "door" had to be "shut" at the end of 1899, H. P. B. in her last paragraph of the Key to Theosophy expressed the hope that, "when the time comes for the effort of the twentieth century [i.e., in 1975], besides a large and accessible literature ready to men's hands, the next impulse will find a numerous and united body of people ready to welcome the new Torch-bearer of Truth."
It has been my painful task to show how lamentably we have failed to realise her hopes. The "united body" she sacrificed so much to create and hold together, was disrupted barely four years after her death; the main body under the Besant-Leadbeater régime is following strange gods; while the great literary legacy left by H. P. B. has not only been seriously tampered with, but even largely superseded and obscured by books which will certainly not be of any assistance to the next "Torch-Bearer."
Some years ago I founded an H. P. B. Lending Library with my original editions of her works, and others that are reliable and in line with her teaching. It has already done much good, especially among those who have been misled and kept in ignorance of them. If others would do the same we can in time hope to stem the tide of evil and error, and preserve H. P. B.'s message untainted until 1975. It is now within the life-span of our younger students, many of whom, as the children of Theosophists, have been brought up on the teachings and will bridge the gap for us.