Alice Gordon was an English Theosophist
who met Blavatsky when she lived in India, and when Blavatsky died Mrs. Gordon
wrote the following article remember her.
REMINISCENCES OF MADAME
BLAVATSKY
It was in December, 1879, that I had
the pleasure of first seeing Madame Blavatsky, when she was on a visit to Mr.
and Mrs. Sinnett, and I am glad to say that the friendship which ensued lasted without
diminution until the day of her death. I had, while in England in 1878,
investigated the phenomena of spiritualism, and a lady spiritualist whom I had
met while investigating, suggested, when writing to me in India, that I should
make Madame's acquaintance if opportunity offered.
Curiosity, and a desire to meet Mr.
and Mrs. Sinnett —the former of whom I had corresponded with as Editor of the
Pioneer— induced me to take a long journey of about thirty hours to Allahabad
for this purpose; and no journey in my life has ever repaid me so well, or been
the source of so much and such permanent satisfaction.
So many Theosophists
have written eulogies on our late friend and teacher —H.P.B., as she preferred being
called— that I feel it will be preferable for me to confine myself to a short
account of my impressions of her character and of some of the incidents which
occurred during this brief visit to Allahabad, and afterwards when we again met
at Simla.
Eastern philosophy has now, very
rightly, taken the chief place in connection with the Theosophical Society, and
her name will be handed down to posterity rather as the exponent of these
doctrines, than as a wonder worker; but at the time of which I am writing it
was the phenomena which were associated with her name that attracted us to her. But it must be acknowledged that she always deprecated this craving for wonders,
and spoke of such phenomena as "psychological tricks''.
Still our wish, and perhaps a
little interest she herself had in proving her powers, induced her to show us
some of these "psychological tricks'', even while assuring
us they were of no real value in comparison with the teaching which lay at the
back of them.
Mr. Sinnett's book, The Occult World, gives so full an
account of our early experiences, that I do not propose to go into any detail,
but I feel that it is only due to her memory to say, in the face of the abuse
which has been showered upon her both in life and after death, that I never saw
anything, or have heard anything, which has led me for a moment to doubt the
reality of the phenomena which occurred in her presence.
And I also can say with
perfect frankness, that although she was the most intellectual woman I have
ever known, she was, I consider, so constituted that in her case systematic
deceit was impossible. She had neither the cunning nor the self-control needful
for plotting and concealment; and she lived so openly among her friends that
the many falsehoods about her are absurd to those who have lived in the same house
with her.
She had the kindest of hearts, the most generous of dispositions, and
without contending that she was perfect, she was one of those persons who are loved
and respected most by those who know them most intimately. And you cannot pay
anyone a greater compliment than this, I think.
Her very failings, some of
them, arose from a too open and generous nature, a too great readiness to
accept every one who came to her and trust them.
To myself and others it
sometimes appeared strange that she seemed to have so little discernment of
character; but in some cases at least, it was a hope of doing good which
probably induced her to tolerate and even appear friendly to those who
afterwards turned against her and tried to injure her.
How keenly she felt the
shameful attacks upon her character we who knew her well, realized and
regretted; and I often tried to reason her into a feeling of indifference for
the opinions of those who knew nothing of her except what they gathered from
garbled and prejudiced accounts in newspapers.
But although she personally felt
these slanders, a large part of her suffering arose from a fear that the Cause
which she had at heart, and for which she worked as I have never seen anyone
else work in any other cause, would be injured by the calumnies against her.
I
always felt astonished at the untiring energy which she displayed; even when
ill she would still struggle to her writing-table and go on working. It fills one
with contempt and anger to think that even when she was beyond the reach of
slander some of the papers degraded their pages with abuse, and republished the
falsehoods which have found credulous audience among a class who pride
themselves on their incredulity.
I have, I find, left myself but
little space for saying anything about the many interesting occurrences during
our early intimacy, and perhaps on second thought a repetition of these is
unnecessary, as they can be read elsewhere to better purpose.
Still to show
that I had ample opportunities for knowing her well, I will mention that during
both her visits to Simla I saw her almost daily, in fact I was in the same
house for three months, in and out of her room at any and all times of the day.
She was always affectionate towards me, and I had a real affection for her, and
shall always, as hitherto, defend her before the world. And we who know what a wonderful
woman she was, and how interesting and profound is the philosophy which she has
brought prominently forward, know also that a day will come when the world will
acknowledge her greatness, and will realize that we who defend and reverence
her memory are not such foolish and gullible people, as the conceited and
usually ignorant public of to-day assume.
(This
article was first published in Lucifer
magazine, July 1891, p.374-375; and later in the book HPB: in memory of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, 1891, p.67-68)
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