(Besides these I have referred to other Mahatma letters or endorsements on letters, on bank-notes, &c.; but those enumerated will do for the present.)

Out of all these Mr. Judge disputes only two. As regards the “Note the Seal” missive, all that he denies is the statement that it was he who drew the special attention of the Inner Group to the seal upon it—a denial which I shall deal with presently. He denies the whole story of the Cabinet missive, and in regard to the “Judge is not the Forger” missive, he denies that it was fabricated by him, but suggests that it was fabricated by some other Theosophist.

The facts about the whole of the remaining thirteen (and more) missives he thus implicitly admits, using such general phrases as these:—“Several of the contested messages are genuine ones”; “they were all good and true”; “they were from the Master”; “I have not admitted her [Mrs. Besant’s] contention” [that they were only psychically from the Master, and were written in Mahatmascript by Judge]; and, finally, “I will not tell how or by what means they were produced.” The “Grave Danger Olcott” missive, by the way, he admits explicitly.

It is for the Theosophists, therefore, now to consider whether the substance of these admitted missives (to say nothing of this “Reply,” in which also Mr. Judge asserts the Master’s collaboration) squares with their conception of “the Master of Wisdom,” that “god-like” exemplar of “the perfectibility of man,” as his own “Messenger” describes him.

The Two Contested Missives.

The reason why Mr. Judge selected just these two for denial is, no doubt, the damaging suggestiveness of the contents of the one and of the circumstances under which the other was produced. I for my part applaud his choice, because it will bring him into sharp conflict, as regards the one missive, with Mrs. Besant, and as regards the other, with Colonel Olcott.

(1) The Cabinet Missive: Judge v. Besant.

In regard to all those missives which were palmed off on Mrs. Besant herself, my account is based, as regards generalities, on Mrs. Besant’s own statements and Mr. Judge’s own admissions. As regards details, however, I have had to rely on intimates and colleagues at Avenue-road, to whom Mrs. Besant told the wondrous tale at the time.

The story of the Cabinet missive is briefly this (see “Isis Very Much Unveiled,” p. [28]). Mr. Judge suggests to Mrs. Besant that they should put a question to the Masters by writing it on paper, and placing this in a certain cabinet in “H.P.B.’s” room. The result was the endorsement of the paper with the words, “Yes,” “And hope,” in the red script used in all these communications, and also the impression of what Madame Blavatsky called the “flap-doodle” seal, under circumstances which demonstrated either psychic precipitation on the part of the Master, or else vulgar trickery on the part of Mr. Judge.