BOOK "OLD DIARY LEAVES V" - CHAPTER 25: CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION

 

(This is the chapter 25 of Henry Olcott book "Old Diary Leaves" Volume 5.)

  

CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION

(1895)

The disingenuous policy of Mr. Judge in trying to shirk responsibility for his misdeeds under cover of technicalities with respect to the nature of the Vice-Presidential office and the limitations of the incumbent’s responsibility, had made it clear that we would have to make various changes in our Rules, and the matter seemed of such grave importance that I had decided to convene a meeting of the General Council at London in the month of July (1895). The text of my Executive Notice appears in the Supplement to the Theosophist for May, 1895. It reads as follows:

“The General Secretaries of Sections are notified to attend, in person or by proxy, a meeting of the General Council, at the Headquarters of the European Section, 19 Avenue Road, Regent’s Park, London, N. W., at noon on the 7th day of July next, to consider the case of the Vice-Presidency, and the several issues that will be made by the undersigned, and vote upon the constitutional questions involved.”

In pursuance of this appointment I had left Bombay for Marseilles on the 10th of May—as noted in the preceding chapter—reached Marseilles on the 30th and then got the first news of Judge’s secession. This, of course, put a new aspect upon the whole question of the business that was to be brought before the General Council: the secession of the American Section was an accomplished fact—so far as a majority vote could make it so. I had acted upon it officially in my Executive Notice of June 5th, from Zumarraga, and the Council had now to take action upon this document in addition to the subjects for the consideration of which the meeting was called. It must be borne in mind that this meeting was not called after the Judge secession, but before it, and while the question was pending whether or not he should be forced to retire from office. It was in our mind to make alterations in the language of the Rules as it affected the terms on which the Vice-Presidency could be occupied and vacated, with or without the consent of the incumbent. The crisis of the Secession precipitated matters so that, instead of meeting in London on the 7th of July, the General Council met at the London Headquarters on the 27th of June. The Indian, European, and Australasian Sections were respectively represented by Messrs. B. Keightley and G. R. S. Mead, General Secretaries of the first two, and Mr. Sinnett as proxy for Mr. J. C. Staples, General Secretary of the third. Of course, as President-Founder, I presided. The American Section was then in the transition stage from the old to the new Charter, and under the management of the special Committee designated in the Zumarraga Executive Notice. The Scandinavian Section did not come into existence until a few weeks later. The Chair appointed Mr. Mead as Secretary to the meetings. He then, with a few prefatory remarks, submitted his recent action for the consideration of the General Council in the following term:

“TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL, T. S.,

“The undersigned hereby places before you a copy of his Executive Notice of June 5th instant, in which the separation of the American Section from the mother Society is recognised; its Charter, those of all assenting Branches, and the diplomas of all Members or Fellows who have voted for the Act of Secession, and declared the Theosophical Society to have had no existence, de jure, since the year 1878, cancelled. The matter is before you for such action as you may see fit to take, under Sec. 1 of Art. VI, of the Rules.”

It was then moved by Mr. Sinnett, seconded by Mr. Keightley, that the President’s Executive Notice of June 5th, 1895, be approved and ratified by the General Council, and so notified to the Sections. Carried unanimously. This legalised the Presidential action in the matter of the American Section and the provisions for carrying on the business of the Section until its new Charter could be issued and a General Secretary recommended for appointment.

The President-Founder then read the following paper to the Council for its information, and the same was, upon motion, ordered to be included in the published report of the meeting:

“TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL,

“I wish to lay before you a few remarks about the proposals recently put forward for a change in the Constitution of the Theosophical Society. It is not necessary that I should deal with them in detail, since I am concerned only with the general principle involved. Should we, or should we not, essentially alter the Constitution under which we have worked fairly well for so many years? If so, should we do it hurriedly, under the pressure of a momentary outbreak of feeling, or should we proceed slowly and deliberately? I incline to the latter policy, as I do not see any sufficient reason for haste, which is always injudicious, and often fatal to a good cause. Our present Constitution has been a bridge strong enough for us to cross upon, and has not been found radically defective. At the same time it may be improved and, as President, I am more interested than anybody else to see the improvement made, for the ultimate burden of responsibility falls on my shoulders. I should regard as an improvement any new clauses which should make it easier for me to deal executively with crises like that through which we have just passed in the Judge case, and which has been effectually ended by his withdrawal from office and from membership.

But for the clumsy and expensive expedient of a Judicial Committee, I might have settled the whole matter long ago, and thus saved a vast amount of friction, ill-feeling, partisanship, and expense. Executive powers of the amplest scope were held and exercised by me from a very early period in our Society’s history, i.e., before we left New York for India, and to the recent date when tinkering of the Constitution, alteration of the Rules, and binding the President in coils of red tape, began. My experience in Governmental affairs and private societies and corporations, has convinced me that, with an honest and capable man as manager, the fewer Rules and the less obstructive formalities there are, the better will work be done and the more prosperous and successful be the Society, bureau, department, or company. With a dishonest or inefficient manager in control, the multiplication of Rules does no good; the only remedy is in change of the administration. It should also be borne in mind that in our Society, Presidential action is subject to the approval of the General Council, and hence is not autocratic. Pray do not suppose that my remarks are prompted by any personal considerations whatever, for such is not the case. I have always been ready to yield my office to a better man; I am so to-day: I do not wish to remain President one day longer than my services seem necessary for the best interests of the Society. That has become the life of my life, the dearest object of my heart, and far be it from me to omit doing anything, or to hesitate from making any sacrifice, by which its welfare may be promoted.

“Among the criticisms of the Constitution which seem to have a certain weight, I will specify that of the wording of our Third Object. It has been urged that, by encouraging inquiry into ‘the psychical powers latent in man,’ we have fed a craving for phenomena, and opened the door to abuses which have drawn upon us the curse of many troubles. When one sees how easy it is for self-deluded psychics and cunning pretenders to draw crowds after them in a blind quest after ‘powers,’ and a more open intercourse with unseen teachers, one can sympathise with the views of those who would alter the phraseology of our Third Object. I, myself, would be glad if it should be made a serious offence henceforth for any person in our Society to give out any teachings as by authority; for it has always been my belief—and I can point to printed records as far back as 1853 to prove my assertion—that the value of any given teaching is not augmented in the least degree by attaching to it an authoritative name. Holding these opinions as I do, I should be glad rather than sorry to see some change made in the wording of the Third Object. There are other changes that it would doubtless be well to make, as for example, to eliminate the idea of geographical boundaries in constituting a Section. There are others still, but, as said before, I should be distinctly opposed to taking precipitate action, and should not recommend any changes that had not been considered and voted upon in all the Sections, and finally ratified by the constitutional majority vote in General Council (Art. V, Secs. 1, 2, and 3).

“Some, I see, have erroneously supposed it necessary to alter the Constitution that new Sections with autonomy may be created. A glance, however, at Art. III, Secs. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and the last sentence in Section 4 of same Article, will satisfy anyone that the President has full power, ‘for valid reasons,’ to form new Sections, prescribe their territorial limits, grant them autonomy, confirm their By-laws, and empower them to issue, under his authority and in his name, charters and diplomas. Under my present powers I can, if it should appear to me judicious, create one or a dozen new territorial Sections within the present area of anyone of the existing Sections, as easily as I can create them in Africa, South America, or any other continent not at present sectionally chartered. The only prerequisite is that seven chartered Branches of the Society within the specified area, shall join in petitioning me to issue such a charter in each case. The modification I would suggest is to strike out the words ‘territorial’ and ‘geographical area’ where-ever they occur in connection with the idea of a Section.

“While upon this subject, it is best that I should make very clear the difference between an autonomous Section of the Society and a seceded Section. A Section of any public body is a part of it; subordinate to its Constitution; under the government of its Executive and Council; incapable of exempting itself from its Constitutional restrictions which include the results of any decisive vote that may be constitutionally cast by its highest governing assembly. A Section of our Society may, therefore, be autonomous in the full meaning—self-law-making—of the word; that is to say, may make its own by-laws and rules with the President’s approbation, but (vide Art. III, Sec. 10) with the proviso that they ‘do not conflict with the Objects and Rules of the Theosophical Society’. Now, the General Secretary of a Section is, ex-officio, a Secretary of the Society and a member of the General Council; which (vide Art. V. Sec. 1) is invested with ‘the general control and administration of the Society,’ and (Sec. 2) decides its action by ‘a majority of votes’. If he is outvoted in Council he has no choice but to submit, as would any other member in any other question introduced by him. Then, again, the Section being, not a separate body, but only a part of the one international body known as the Theosophical Society, which has been organised in a given territory or country for convenience of administration, it has no right to alter its subject relationship with the Society; to change the wording of its by-laws without Presidential warrant; to elect a ‘President’ of the Section, either temporary or permanent; to give an illegally chosen Executive (in violation of Art. II, Sec. 7), an unlawful title or a longer term of office than that prescribed by law; or to repudiate the de jure character of the Society, and thus declare invalid the charters which it has issued and the diplomas or certificates of membership granted by it to its Members or Fellows. These are severally acts of rebellion, of independent sovereignty, of defiance; and these steps having been taken by the late American Section, in convention lawfully assembled, as reported to me by Mr. Judge in an official letter signed by him in his new Presidential capacity I had no alternative but to accept the situation, recognise the revolt as an accomplished fact, and officially suppress the Section, discharter its revolting Branches, and cancel the diplomas of those Fellows who had, by their votes, declared them invalid instruments—mere waste paper. I need not say how sad I was for the necessity of taking this summary action, for the ties of personal affection and respect bind me to many of our late American colleagues. But duty demanded this sacrifice of feeling and I could not hold back. Our Association being of a purely voluntary character, I could not exercise the least coercion to keep the members loyal; I could only give effect to their declared personal independence by relieving them pro forma of their membership. Moreover, the majority in a Branch being the voice of the Branch—its governing power and lawful representative for the time being—I was compelled to accept a Branch majority vote in favor of the Boston Act of Secession as the expression of the Branch’s sovereign will that it should cease to be a part of the Theosophical Society of 1875, and thenceforth be a part of the new American society of 1895, and cancel its old charter. Similarly, when the majority of any Branch had voted to remain loyal and repudiate secession, it was my duty to officially recognise and affirm the fact, and leave the Branch charter in the hands of the loyal majority. Of course, the minority would in any case have the clear right of leaving the majority in possession and reorganising themselves as a new Branch of the Society of their choice. It has given me pain to come to know that this self-evident rule of parliamentary and ethical procedure has not been grasped by some of our late American colleagues, who now find themselves, to their surprise, deprived of membership in the Society which they had come to love, and for which many of them had made large sacrifices. To all such, whether as individuals or as Branches, the door will always be open for return.

“Now the case would have been quite different if the Boston Convention had proceeded within Constitutional lines. They might, for instance, have pointed out desired modifications of their sectional by-laws and rules, and under Art. III, Sec. 10, have submitted them to me for ratification. I should have felt myself obliged to approve and confirm all amendments which did not conflict with the constitutional solidarity and international character of the Theosophical Society as a whole; there would have been increased autonomy and no revolt. But I should never have confirmed any proposed change which would make the American Section and its General Secretary more independent of the General Council, the President, or the Theosophical Society’s Constitution than are the other Sections and General Secretaries; or which gave it a President, a misleading title, a new seal, or a new form of diploma. To do so, would be equivalent to my consenting to the upsetting of the Constitution and the splitting of the Society into fragments. Though fifty new and autonomous Sections should be chartered by me, the Society would not be weakened: it might, perhaps be bettered, although I have always believed that ‘in union is strength’; but to permit one Section to set itself up as independent of the central control, to deride its authority and pronounce illegal its charters and diplomas, would have been as bad statesmanship as for Great Britain to ratify the secession and independence of Scotland, England, or Ireland, or for the United States to have permitted Virginia or any other State to set itself up as an independent sovereignty, contrary to the provisions of the Federal compact between the States of the Union. The pernicious example set at Boston is bearing its natural fruit in one or more pro-positions which are now being circulated for signatures, and upon which no other interpretation can be put than that the formation of new Theosophical Societies is contemplated. I hope that the promoters of these schemes may look at the questions without prejudice, from both sides, before pressing them to an issue.

“If seven European Branches are discontented with remaining in the present European Section, they can join in petitioning me to form them into a separate Section, and I shall do so if, as above explained, their proposed By-laws are formed in such a way as to agree with the provisions of the Theosophical Society’s Constitution and By-laws now in force. I am also willing to charter new Sections in specified countries as, for instance, Sweden, Holland, Germany, etc., etc., if pressed to do so, and valid reasons are brought to my notice.At the same time I wish it to be made plain to your respective Sections that, for the same reason that I dischartered the American Section and its revolting Branches, and cancelled the diplomas of its consenting members, I shall discharter every other Branch in any part of the world which, by a majority vote of its fellows, accepts and endorses the Secession Act of the Boston Convention, and shall cancel the diplomas of those who vote with the majority.

“This, you must observe, is quite irrespective of the personal worth of the recalcitrant members; a simple act of constitutional procedure, imposed upon the President and General Council, and for neglect to do which we might be impeached. It is the confirmation of the right of each member to free private judgment and liberty of action: he revolts against our authority, denies the legal status of our Society, repudiates the validity of our charters and diplomas; we let him depart in peace with our kindest wishes for his spiritual welfare, and that is the end of our mutual relationship.”

As the office of Vice-President had been declared in the Zumarraga Executive Notice to have been vacated by Mr. Judge by his act of secession, the President-Founder, before the close of the Council meeting, announced the appointment of Mr. Alfred Percy Sinnett to fill the vacancy, and Mr. Sinnett having accepted the nomination, the Secretary was instructed to publish for general information the proceedings of the meeting.

The General Council then adjourned sine die.

To complete the legal formalities an Executive Notice of Mr. Sinnett’s appointment was issued at London on the 27th of June and circulated to the General Secretaries of Sections, with the following request: “You are hereby requested to take the vote of your respective Sections upon the above nomination, and to communicate the result to me within the next three calendar months, as prescribed by the By-laws.”

By the 17th of September the affirmative votes of the four then existing Sections having come in, an Executive Notice was issued at London declaring him “to be the constitutionally chosen Vice-President, subject to the conditions prescribed in our By-laws”. At the present time, as experience proves, it takes about six months to get a vote of the General Council upon any question submitted to the members by the President-Founder: when our contemplated Sections in South America, Cuba, South Africa, and other distant territories are added to our rolls, the time required will be even longer.

Note

1. In point of fact, this principle has since been applied, and with the best results, Charters for the Dutch, Scandinavian, French, German, and Italian Sections having been issued by me.

BOOK "OLD DIARY LEAVES V" - CHAPTER 26: MORE DETAILS OF THE SECESSION

 

(This is the chapter 26 of Henry Olcott book "Old Diary Leaves" Volume 5.)

  

MORE DETAILS OF THE SECESSION

(1895)

This timely action saved the situation, snatched the coveted prize from the Secessionists, and forced them outside the walls of our fortress, where they had only scope for guerilla tactics. The plot had been deliberately hatched and they seem to have expected to carry the whole Society with a rush, as they had the American Section. I do not wish to use any harsh terms, for I am convinced that, barring Judge and a few others, the mass of seceders were as s n ere in their beliefs as were the Confederates who took up arms against their Government. But they made certain fatal miscalculations, among which was the popular strength of Mrs. Besant. Judge probably thought himself more influential then she, and knew that she would never resort to the deceptive policy which he had used succesfully with her and some of her associates in the European Section; by trickery he would get the better of her, as he had in the matter of putting off her Indian visit, and compel her to keep silence if he could not neutralise her. Another mistake was in ignoring members of strong character, and not his followers, like Sinnett, George Wright of Chicago, Mead, Sturdy, Staples, Fullerton of New York, Oliver Firth, the leading men in the Indian and Australian Sections, the strong partisans of Mrs. Besant in Great Britain, like B. Keightley, and elsewhere, who would naturally stand by her in a comparison of characters and condemn him for his whole behaviour. Lastly, myself, plus the strength behind me, the strength of the Truth, Justice, and Integrity of our cause, the unshakable constitutional basis of the Society and, greatest of all, the Masters, whom I have so long known, so long served, and who have approved of my official management, even when our London people were boycotting me.

How the Secession scheme was pushed through the Boston Convention was reported to me by some of the loyal minority, among them Dr. La Pierre, of Minneapolis. We are indebted to them for their narratives, from which I am now compiling this story. My informants say that Mr. Judge made use of the power he had over the members of the E.S.T. (Eastern School of Theosophy), the confidential group of special disciples which H.P.B. formed and which, after her death was directed by Mrs. Besant and Judge. He had issued the manifesto referred to in “Old Diary Leaves” for August, 1903, [Chapter XIX] in which he farcically deposes his coadjutor, declares himself the only head of the School, in apostolic succession to H.P.B., and the only living agent of the Adepts. The Branches of this School in America were circularised by him and it was arranged that they should manage to be chosen as Delegates to the Boston Convention.

As I wish to be perfectly fair and impartial, I must say that Dr. Buck, in a letter to me of May, 1895, indignantly denied the truth of the charge that the machinery of the E.S.T. had been employed by Judge and his friends to control the Boston Convention. Still it cannot be denied that the E.S.T. circular, briefed for my chapter in the August Theosophist, [Chapter XIX] was issued by him as a secret document, for it says as much. Dr. Buck, moreover, sent me in another letter (of May 31st, a month after the Secession), a copy of his own Circular (undated) addressed to the “Members, Branches, and Sections of the Theosophical Society”. This is a notable document, as will appear from the following extract:

“There is a ready and efficient method of ending the bitter strife which has already made our Society a laughing-stock. That is, the separation of the Sections, the abolition of the offices of President and Vice-President, the giving of complete autonomy or ‘home rule’ to every Section. In other words, to be like Canada, self-governing in every particular, with its own laws, legislature and Governor, though still in the Empire. As the chief of those in opposition to Mr. Judge have done their best to drive both President and Vice-President out of office, they can find no reasonable ground for complaining of our deciding as above suggested and asking them to cooperate by voting in the same way. This will give the American Section the opportunity to stand by Mr. Judge and continue the work with him which has been so successful and satisfactory in the past. No duties whatever devolve upon the office of Vice-President until the death of the President, why should we wreck the movement for an empty name?

“The Sections being so widely separated, the present dissensions and strife will go on for years, and even then result in no settlement satisfactory to all parties. Some will believe Mr. Judge guilty, others will believe him persecuted and much abused. This was demonstrated in the effort made in London last July. Several thousand dollars were expended in travel from the remotest quarters of the globe, and three weeks’ time were employed in efforts for final adjustment. A conclusion was reached, the best possible under the circumstances, accepted unanimously without protest, and delegates including prosecutors and defendant departed their several ways. Yet here we have the whole matter again revived with accusations more bitter, denunciations more general, feeling intensified, and in the face of all this, other meetings and trials proposed. Under the circumstances, and with the history already made before us, this is utter folly.

“I do not ask any member or Branch of the T.S. to pass judgment on Mr. Judge or his accusers, for I am well aware that such judgment would be worthless without the possession of all the facts to the last analysis, including what part, if any, the Masters may have had in our affairs. But I do ask the Branches and members of the American Section to speedily put an end to strife in the only way now possible.

“The T.S. has grown so large, and is becoming so unwieldy that a separation of Sections even without our present trouble, would soon, in my judgment, become imperative. Let each Section retain the present organisation and name, but simply manage its own affairs. No executive or general officer can exercise jurisdiction all over the globe.

“The honorary title of President-Founder belongs alone to Colonel H.S. Olcott, and the American Section should in the future, as in the past, recognise this and bestow upon him all honorary considerations, fraternal regard, and the appreciation of his long and untiring services ⁽¹⁾.

“Instead of promoting strife among the Sections, the action proposed is the only possible way to secure harmony. We can then without official constraint, vie with each other, as individuals, Branches, and Sections, in all good words and work. We can affiliate as sections, on the same basis, and help each other then, as now, in that peace of brotherly emulation that is devoid of strife.

“I therefore urge the American Section to pass unanimously a vote of Secession, and declare their entire autonomy, and to proceed to organise this Section on this basis, and make it effectual in the best sense for the promotion of the real brotherhood of man on the lines laid down by the Master and H.P.B.”

The reader who has followed me in my narrative will give its proper value to this circular, for it foreshadows the exact course which was followed by the seceders in the Boston Convention. It was circulated to the Branches (or to the Branch officers who could be relied upon to make good use of it, for officers of a certain influential Branch tell me that it never came to their knowledge before the Convention, but was kept from them by the recipients), in ample time to influence the selected delegates. In fact my former friend Dr. Buck in sending me the copy above quoted from, writes me (May 31st) that this was the campaign document which brought about the action in Boston. With benevolent candor he advises me—as did Judge, Patterson, Rambo, Neresheimer, and other of their leaders, to accept the action as a fait accompli, ratify the Secession and recommend the other Sections to do likewise: then we should have peace. Judge goes so far as to ask me in one of his letters, to declare that I knew him to have been in relations with the Masters and possessed of psychic powers. If I would do all this, it was intimated that I might count on pecuniary support for Headquarters as in the past. Truly a compliment to my lamb-like innocence! The real scheme in view was kept secret except from certain chosen leaders; the other delegates walked like sheep into the pen to be branded.

On the evening of April 20th a private meeting was held at which Mr. Judge, Dr. and Mrs. Keightley, of London, Messers. Fussell, Claude Wright, Patterson, and the Presidents of Branches in the New England Theosophical Corporation (a federation) made up the programme for the Convention, drafted resolutions of Secession, a new form of Constitution and By-Laws, and called themselves a Committee on Resolutions. At another private meeting on the 27th of April, the day before the Convention, Dr. Buck, of Cincinnati, assisted, and also such of the “faithful” delegates as could be collected together. This illegal meeting ratified the proceedings of the previous meeting. When the Convention assembled Dr. Buck was, of course, elected Chairman and two other conspirators (as I must call them), Messrs. Wright and Fussell, Secretaries; a nominal Committee on Credentials passed upon the qualifications of Delegates! All the proxies of absent delegates were, naturally, held by the bodyguard of Judge. The delegate from the Ishwara T. S. voted for Secession, contrary to his instructions from the Branch. But, that did not matter since it was known in advance just how things were to be made to go. Letters from sympathisers in Europe provoked cheers for Judge, among them one said to have been unusually scurrilous against Mrs. Besant, from Dr. Franz Hartmann, which was so violent that, as alleged, Dr. Keightley suppressed part of it in the reading, and the demand for its publication by the loyal minority was, at the suggestion of Mr. Judge, overwhelmingly denied by the majority.

A resolution of the Ishwara Branch condemning Secession and signed by about 90 persons was thrown out ⁽²⁾. Then came the immaculate and constitutional Report of the pretended “Committee on Resolutions” and with it the psychological moment! When the clause providing for the election of Mr. Judge as Perpetual President of the “Theosophical Society of the Western Hemisphere” (sic) was read, the delegates, led by the managers, “shouted themselves hoarse”. The election was carried by 195 yeas to 10 nays. The meeting then went mad. Mr. Fullerton had previously made an eloquent speech, in which he showed most conclusively—says my correspondent’s report (of date, May 5th)—that there was “no occasion for the proposed Secession except to relieve Mr. Judge from replying to the charges against him. But his words fell upon deaf ears; the delegates were there for a purpose and they were bound to carry it through.” In conclusion, my friend suggests that I, as President, should issue a proclamation asking the members of the Society in the United States and Canada to unite and resume the form of the “American Section of the T.S.” I do not recollect when or where this important letter reached my hand, but it seems to have been sent through Mrs. Cooper-Oakley. Possibly I got it on landing at Marseilles, possibly at London on my return from Spain.

Of course, the loyal members of our Society throughout the United States took active steps to save the Section from wreck. Mr. George E. Wright, President of the Chicago Branch, proved a pillar of strength at the time and he was energetically supported and helped by Miss N. E. Weeks, the Branch Secretary. To them was largely due the prevention of the secession of their Branch, and the arousing of a hopeful feeling in other Branches. I find in my archives the following paper which goes to support this view:

CENTRAL STATES COMMITTEE OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

“26 Van Buren St., Room 48

Chicago, June 1st, 1895.

“To H. S. Olcott, President of the Theosophical Society and Chairman of the Executive Council.

“Dear Sir,—

“The undersigned regularly organised and constituted Branches of the Theosophical Society, by their duly authorised officers do hereby make application to be officially recognised as the American Section of the Theosophical Society. In case this request is granted we desire to appoint Mr. Alexander Fullerton to act as General Secretary pro tem., of the American Section until the election of officers at the next regular Convention in April, 1896.”

CHICAGO BRANCH W. J. Walters, Sec.

Geo. E. Wright, Pres. MUSKEGON BRANCH

Netta E. Weeks, Sec. F. A. Nims, Pres.

ISHWARA BRANCH S. E. Sherman, Sec.

J. W. B. La Pierre, Pres. PORT TOWNSEND

pro tem. BRANCH

Ruth P. Clawson, Sec. Robert Lyall, Pres.

pro tem. (Per Louise Thomas, in

BOISE BRANCH absence of Pres. and

Mrs. C. C. Wood, Vice- Vice-President)

Pres. Louise Thomas, Sec.

Mrs. E. E. Athey, Sec. NARADA BRANCH

GOLDEN GATE LODGE Ida S. Wright, Pres.

D. J. Lamoree, Pres. Arthur L. Knight, Sec.

WILLAMETTE BRANCH INDRA BRANCH

Lewis A. Ward. Pres. John Healess, Pres.

E. Edwina Powell, Sec. Wm. J. Ward, Sec.

Dr. Mary Weeks Burnett, then as always one of the most active workers in our Society, was sent to London to represent in the Convention the loyal minority and to present the above document; but so much time was lost in circulating it for signatures that she had to come over without it, and Mr. Wright’s covering letter to myself was not posted until the 26th of June. Meanwhile, however, besides the nine signatory Branches, he had received notices of concurrence from those at Toledo, Toronto, Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, and Las Vegas (N.M.). Mr. Wright reports that he had turned over the record book and letter files of the Section to Mr. Fullerton, who would act as General Secretary. It was very gratifying to me to find that the Executive Notice from Zumarraga, Spain, covered the whole ground traced out in the important document above cited. The presence of Dr. Weeks Burnett at the Convention of the European Section, gave much pleasure to everybody; and she was made the bearer of fraternal and appreciative messages to Mr. Wright and the other loyalists whom she represented.

The new Charter for the American Section, promised in my Zumarraga Executive Notice, was issued by me at London on the 7th July, but ante-dated to the 28th of April, 1895—(vide Theosophist, August, 1895, p. xiv, Supplement) and sent to Mr. Fullerton as General Secretary ad int. Thus was the hiatus closed up and the re-chartered Section sent on its way.

Compared with the overwhelming majority of Secession, this was a very weak phalanx, but still a working and effective nucleus, as it was composed of men and women in deadly earnest—the truth of which has been proved by events. Little remains to recount. How we withstood the shock, how the Society has gone on strengthening and extending itself year by year, is matter of common knowledge. Poor Judge, with a fatal disease wearing away his life, enthroned in his seat of coveted power and elected “President for Life,” survived less than one year. He found himself eating but Dead Sea fruit—fair to look upon, ashes within. He did his best with the help of his chief stimulatress, Mrs. Tingley, to make his Society a strong rival of ours, issuing among others, persuasive circulars like the following:

“NOTICE TO MEMBERS-AT-LARGE

New York, May 4, 1895

“Dear Friend,

“1. At the Ninth Annual Convention of the American Theosophical Societies (Branches) held in Boston, on the 28th and 29th of April, 1895, the COMPLETE AUTONOMY of the said Societies was declared and the title “The Theosophical Society in America,” adopted together with a Constitution. The Resolutions declaring such autonomy are as follows:

“Whereas, the growth of the Theosophical Movement has been phenomenal in America, and its origin, aim, and method of work is unlike any movement of modern times, and,

“Whereas, the different forms of organisation through which the body known as ‘The Theosophical Society’ has passed since the year 1878 were solely the result of growth, and not the result of votes, and were thus adopted from time to time to suit the exigencies of the moment and have been merely de facto and not de jure, and,

“Whereas, on the other hand, the Confederated Branches in America were regularly organised in 1886-87, and,

“Whereas, we have outgrown the present form of organisation of the Theosophical Society, and,

“Whereas, the duties pertaining to the general offices of the said Theosophical Society have not been essential to the real work of any Section or to the Movement as a whole, its federal and general officers residing at remote distances from each other and being necessarily unfamiliar with the exact conditions and needs of Sections other than their own, and,

“Whereas, a federation of all Branches of the world is not essential to the real work of any Section or to the Theosophical Movement as a whole, and,

“Whereas, conditions contrary to the principle of Universal Brotherhood have arisen within the Theosophical Society which would prove fatal to the continued existence of said Movement; therefore be it 

“Resolved, First, that the American Section, consisting of Branches of the Theosophical Society in America, in Convention assembled, hereby assumes and declares its entire autonomy and that it shall be called from and after this date ‘The Theosophical Society in America,’

“Second, that the administration of its affairs shall be provided for, defined, and be under a Constitution and By-laws which shall in any case provide for the following;

“(a) A federation of Branches for the purpose of the formation of a nucleus of Universal Brotherhood without any distinctions whatever, this being its principal aim and object; its subsidiary objects being the study of ancient and modern religions, sciences, and philosophies; the declaration of the importance of such study; and the investigation of the unexplained laws of nature and the psychical powers latent in man,

“(b) That William Q. Judge shall be President for life, with power to nominate his successor; and a, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Executive Committee, elected yearly.

“(c) Autonomy for Branches in local affairs.

“(d) An yearly Convention with equitable representation.

“(e) Territorial Committees for propaganda, without power to legislate.

“(f) The declaration that every member has the right to believe or disbelieve in any religious system or philosophy consistent with Universal Brotherhood and declare such belief or disbelief, without affecting his standing as a member of this Society, each being required to show that tolerance for the opinion of others which he expects for his own.

“Resolved, that until the final adoption of a Constitution and By-laws the President is empowered to issue charters and diplomas for this Society.

“Resolved, that the Branches in America shall retain their present charters, the President being directed to endorse them as valid under the Constitution within a period to be defined.

“Resolved, that the books, records, lists, monies, funds, and property of every kind belonging to us as the American Section of the Theosophical Society be and hereby are turned over to and declared to belong to the Theosophical Society in America, their custodian to be William Q. Judge; but all members of the present federation not wishing to continue their membership under the new name shall on demand be entitled to their per capita share of the said monies and funds.

“Resolved, that until the said Constitution is written and adopted, the affairs of the Theosophical Society in America shall be administered under the Constitution of the American Section of the Theosophical Society, where that does not conflict with the above preamble and resolutions, and wherever such conflict occurs the said Constitution is hereby repealed, but all provisions relative to the Theosophical work and propaganda shall stand valid.

“Resolved, that the Theosophical Society in America hereby recognises the long and efficient services rendered to the Theosophical Movement by Col. H. S. Olcott, and that to him belongs the unique and honorary title of President-Founder of the Theosophical Society, and that, as in the case of H. P. B. as corresponding Secretary, he can have no successor in that office.

“Resolved, that the permanent organisation of this Convention remains as, and is hereby declared to be, the permanent organisation of the first Annual Convention of the Theosophical Society in America.

“Resolved, that all Branches of the Theosophical Society in America that do not vote for the autonomy of this Society may ratify the action of this Convention within three months from this date and such ratification shall constitute such Branches members of said Society.

“2. You have the right to accept or reject the above noted action of the Convention, and in either case I beg to request that you will inform me of your decision. In case you accept, you will please send me, to the above address, your diploma, in order that it may be endorsed as valid and continued in this Society. I will return it at once. All this is necessary in order to make the records regular and complete.

“3. The Constitution and By-laws are being made up, and when printed will be ready for distribution. A verbatim report of the Convention will be issued as soon as possible.

“4. Dues of members-at-large. These have been raised to $2 a year instead of $1 as heretofore.

“Fraternally yours,

“WILLIAM Q. JUDGE,

“President of T. S. in America.”

I think we may profitably close this chapter at this point and see if something pleasanter will not offer itself for our consideration next. Our ship has been struggling through a sort of Sargasso Sea of floating weeds, but there is clear water beyond.

Notes

1. Viz., send him about his business with a complimentary certificate and no means of support. But Judge to be “President for Life,” of his Section, and each other Section to be similarly fitted out.

2. Resolutions adopted by the Ishwara Branch of the T.S. at a Regular Meeting held Tuesday evening, March 19, 1895.

Whereas; In consequence of certain charges being brought against our Vice-President, Mr. W. Q. Judge, and that said charges have not been answered to the satisfaction of the majority of the members of the Theosophical Society, and

Whereas; These charges together with the pamphlet Isis Very Much Unveiled are of such serious nature as to disturb the unity of the T.S., and bring discredit on the true aims of the Society.

Be it therefore Resolved; That while the Ishwara Branch of the T.S. has always recognised the long and earnest work done for the Society by the Vice-President, Mr. Wm. Q. Judge, we feel that it is but right that he should free himself from this accusation of untruth now pending over him, even if such accusation did not contain the shadow of a probability, and especially as the motto of our Society is, “There is no Religion Higher Than Truth,” and

Be it further Resolved: That although the Ishwara Branch of the T.S. does not constitute itself a Court to decide whether or not Mr. Wm. Q. Judge is guilty, and furthermore, as we have the strongest hope that he will clear himself of the accusation now pending, therefore, we, the members of Ishwara Branch of the T.S. in Convention assembled, demand that Mr. Wm. Q. Judge delay no longer the call that has been made upon him by the European, Australasian, Indian, and the minority of the American Section, to immediately resign the Vice-Presidency of the Theosophical Society until such time as circumstances will make it possible to refute the charges made against him, and

Be it further Resolved: That these resolutions be presented to the American Section of the T.S. in Convention assembled, by our Delegate or his proxy, that the same be spread upon the minutes of this Branch and a copy thereof be sent to the President-Founder, H. S. Olcott.

(Signed by fifteen yeas and seven nays).

BOOK "OLD DIARY LEAVES V" - CHAPTER 27: MRS. MITCHELL AND HYPNOTIC EXPERIMENTS

 

(This is the chapter 27 of Henry Olcott book "Old Diary Leaves" Volume 5.)

  

MRS. MITCHELL AND HYPNOTIC EXPERIMENTS

(1895)

We have now seen the unsavory Judge case pass through the Judicial Committee and the General Council, so that only one stage remains before this page of our history can be turned down, viz., the European Section Convention. Of course the Convention had no jurisdiction over the matter, being the representative only of its own territorial area, but, for its information, the proceedings of the General Council had to be reported. Shortly after I had taken the Chair and called the meeting to order, a paper was handed in by Dr. Keightley and other representatives of the secession party, which proved to be an address of an apparently fraternal character, offering to co-operate with all bodies that were organised with the object of helping mankind. But when I came to read it, its real underlying motive was clearly exposed. It was not addressed to me as President of the Society and Chairman of the Convention of the European Section, but to “The European Theosophists in Convention assembled as the ‘European Section of the Theosophical Society,’” that is to say, the self-styled European Section, etc., thus implying that there was no properly formed European Section but only a conclave of individual members. The discourtesy intended and expressed is too evident to require further notice, and, of course, as the responsible Chairman I had no choice but to have the paper laid, unread, upon the table. The vote on this was unanimous. In history there is no record, to my knowledge, of any such paper having ever been admitted to a reading by any sober assembly or convention. Yet it is amusing to note in the various complaints made against us by the seceders, one of unbrotherliness and discourtesy because of its exclusion. The fact is that it was simply a continuation of the impertinent tone adopted by the Boston Convention when it declared that the great international movement which H. P. B. and I had engineered for so many years, so successfully, “was solely the result of growth, and not the result of votes,” that the different modifications adopted “to suit the exigencies of the moment” were “merely de facto and not de jure”. The Judgeites offered in the Convention several resolutions of like tone, which were rejected, of course; whereupon they rose, to the number of 43, and departed from our midst: then came a huge sigh of relief and thenceforward the proceedings went on in the greatest harmony. And now let this whole black mephitic fog of secession be swept out to sea by the fresh breeze that is ever filling the sails of our richly freighted bark. That beloved Quaker poet, Whittier, has said in a few golden words all that we needed to have said:

The clouds, which rise with thunder, slake

Our thirsty souls with rain;

The blow most dreaded falls to break

From off our limbs a chain.

By way of contrast with the diagreeable sensations caused by the episodes in question I had the joy of a re-union with my sister, after a number of years—the one who was so kind and considerate to H. P. B. during the old Lamasery times at New York. It was a delightful change to be able to withdraw one’s thoughts from present surroundings and recall the days of our youth and the many years of our happy family life with our noble parents. I took her to various interesting places in and about London, often with Dr. Mary Weeks Burnett, and once or twice with Madame Le Roux, a French nun, Mother-Superior of a Spanish Convent, who had been converted to Theosophy by a perusal of our literature, supplemented with the persuasive arguments of my friend Xifré. The first volume of these DIARY LEAVES being in the press I had to give a good deal of time to proof-reading. On the 9th of July my wanderings about town were interfered with by an attack of gout, but by the next afternoon I had got well enough to drive to the house of my friends, the Earl and Countess of Jersey, for luncheon.

I do not recall any visit which gave my sister more leasure than one on the 11th to see a beloved friend of mine at Streatham Hill, whose tranquillity of mind and beauty of life is matched by the charms of the grounds about his country place.

Among my notable visitors of that time was Miss Brich, F.T.S., of Southampton, now so widely known as the wife of my good friend, Alan Leo, editor of Modern Astrology, and one of the most interested members of our Society in London. The lady has a decided gift for palmistry and, I believe, for psychometry as well. I know quite a number of persons who have been astonished at her power to trace out the varying incidents of their lives in the lines of their hands. It is useless for anyone to say that there is nothing in palmistry, or psychometry, or phrenology, or physio-gnomy, or even Dr. Buchanan’s Sarcognomy, for each and all of these are severally indications of the fact that the body of man is constructed by Nature after a plan in which the power of the indwelling entity is commingled with the plastic matter of flesh in such a way that the study of the latter, or rather of the body as a whole, is rewarded by glimpses more or less perfect, according to our developed discriminative powers, of the character of the dweller. The reader will remember that Professor Buchanan in announcing his system of Sarcognomy affirms that if a man’s head be removed, his character may be as accurately read from the developments of the body, as before. For my part, I hold to the idea which I have expressed before, that, seeing that the Eastern and Western systems of palm-readings are quite different, and yet that equally successful tracings of the subject’s life events have been made by proficients in both of the schools, it is not so much the hard-and-fast system of interpretation of the palm-lines as the possession of a psychical insight which enables the palm reader to trace out the vicissitudes of the subject’s life. This Mrs. Leo seems to have.

I took my sister one day to Maskeleyn & Cook and saw that infamous libel on our Society, the play of “Modern Witchcraft,” about which I have spoken already. As she had a strong personal attachment to H. P. B. and a lasting friendship had been con-tracted between them, she was as indignant as myself in seeing our mutual friend caricatured in such an unpardonable manner.

Richard Harte, who was a New York acquaintance of my sister as well as myself, came for dinner on the 16th of July and discussed metaphysics in his usual eccentric style, with Mr. Mead, Mrs. Mitchell, Dr. Weeks Burnett, and myself. On the 17th, my friend Xifré arrived from Spain, via Paris, and charmed our ladies by his finished courtesy and cheerful conversation. Mrs. Mitchell and I left London on the 18th for Margate where Mrs. Holmes, the animating genius of our local group, extended to us her hospitality, and at 8 o’clock that evening I lectured and answered questions afterwards until bedtime. On the following morning we sat on the jetty enjoying the balmy sea breezes and watching the invalids and other visitors. While the season lasts, no summer resort offers a more delightful atmosphere than this famous place. I was interested in seeing my old American acquaintance J. L. Toole, the comedian, with whom we members of the Lotus Club used to pass many joyous hours at New York. Watching him being wheeled about in his bath-chair, a man stricken in years and seemingly feeble, one would never suppose that throughout a whole generation he had held without dispute so commanding a position as he did in the world of dramatic art.

On the afternoon of the same day we all went by train to Ramsgate, where Miss Hunter, our local leader, had arranged a meeting of members and inquirers to hear me discourse. The next day my sister and I left for France, via Boulogne, our kind hostess accompanying us across the channel for the sake of the excursion. We reached Paris at 11 p.m. and put up at my usual place, the Hôtel Gibraltar, then situate in the Rue St. Hyacinthe, but now and for several years past at the corner of the Rue de Rivoli and Rue St. Roch.

During the ten days that Dr. Burnett, my sister, and myself were together, we did much sight-seeing and profited by every opportunity to gain information about hypnotic science and the phase of therapeutics that was specialised by Professor Charcot at La Salpétrière. The headquarters of our movement in Paris was then in the Rue d’Estrées in charge of Madame Kolly, a most enthusiastic F.T.S., whose face is familiar in some of the group photographs of delegates present at London Conventions. She kept our rooms so tidy that it was a pleasure to visit them. Mr. Xifré also turned up in Paris and we had the pleasure of his company for four or five days until he left for Carlsbad to take his usual course of the waters. He took me one day to see a village of Soudanese negroes, that had been set up in the Jardin des Plantes, and a more dirty, stupid, and brutal group of human beings I never saw; despite their being Moslems, it seemed to me that they must be capable of every cruelty and treachery in their own country, and one visit was quite enough to satisfy our curiosity. On the 25the my nemesis of accumulated work overtook me, and while the ladies went to the various paradises of the Paris shops, I stayed at home, read thirty galleys of my book and wrote some twenty letters.

On the 26th we all went to call on our old colleague, Lady Caithness, Duchesse de Pomar, at her palace in the Avenue Wagram. We met there the gifted Madame de Morsier, who had been for years Lady Caithness’ indispensable Private Secretary and literary aid on the Theosophical magazine, L’Aurore, which she published for several years. Madame de Morsier and I were intimate friends and I was always very glad to meet her again. On the day in question she took me to call on Dr. Baraduc, who showed us some remarkable photographs of what purported to be astral light, human auras, and cosmic matter in the process of differentiation. Whatever it might have been, the photographs were certainly very interesting. They have been engraved for one of his books on the subject, which have succeeded his first one, La Force Vitale, of which he presented me a copy. That evening I dined with Xifré and saw him off to Carlsbad.

On the 27th, armed with an introductory note from my acquaintance, Dr. Babinski, to his successor as Chef de Clinique, Dr. Souques, we visited La Salpétrière, and Dr. Souques was obliging enough to give my lady companions the opportunity of seeing some of the hypnotic experiments which Professor Charcot and his chief aid, Dr. Babinski, had shown me on the occasion of other visits. He also made with us an appointment for a second visit two days later.

Meanwhile I went on the 28th to the Ecole Polytechnique, on invitation, to see Colonel de Rochas make some hypnotic experiments for the edification of some of his scientific friends. I have seen him give demonstrations of the sort more than once and have found them invariably instructive. Being disembarrassed of the necessity of thinking about curing a patient and following out a medical routine, he dashes boldly into the subject from the standpoint of the student of psychology who has no ulterior motive beyond learning something new about psychology. It is a great loss, to us, his fellow-inquirers, that he should have taken pension lately and so broken up his laboratory at the Polytechnique. The several books which he has published are important contributions to this branch of science, and I hope that in his retreat he may produce other books embodying more of his notes of experiment, with the comments which his ripe experience and present freedom from official interference enable him to make.

According to appointment, then, the ladies and I made a second visit to La Salpétrière to see Dr. Souques experiment with one of Professor Charcot’s most famous subjects, known as “Blanche,” and with a fresh one. Among several successes the doctor made a failure in a case where I suggested that he should, before calling the sensitive into the room, gaze fixedly at a bright coin laid on the table, and try to keep the picture of it fixed in his mind until the hypnotic girl had entered, when he should attempt to transfer to her mind his visualised picture of the coin, and tell her that she might have the coin lying there as a present if she would pick it up. As remarked, the experiment failed and, as I told the doctor, because he had failed to keep vivid in memory the coin-image.

We all lunched with the Duchesse that day and in the evening a friend of Madame de Morsier, le Comte de Constantin, a very old experimentalist in mesmerism and clairvoyance, brought to my hotel at her request one of his mesmeric subjects. The best thing she did on that occasion was to read print and writing while her eyes were gummed and bandaged securely.

On the 30th our good friend, Dr. Weeks Burnett, left us for England and I took my sister about to see more objects of interest. All this time the publishers were daily sending me rolls of page proofs of my book, which had to be read and returned at once so as not to keep the press waiting. On the afternoon of the day in question we made a call on a cousin of ours whom I had not seen for forty years, and who, naturally, brought up a thousand and one souvenirs of our childhood. At 9 p.m. on that day Mrs. Mitchell and I attended a séance at Lady Caithness’ palace, of what she called her “Star Circle”. There was a beautifully decorated little chapel quite in the old Gothic style, with a full-length and beautifully painted picture of the hapless Mary, Queen of Scots, in a sort of recess or chancel at the end of the room. Masked sidelights illuminated it so as to impress one with the idea that a living woman was waiting there to receive our salutations: the rest of the chapel was darkened. The Duchesse had been having this performance going on for a long time and seemed to be thoroughly convinced of the genuineness of her relations with the deceased queen through the paid mediums. One of these was a snuffy old woman in a rumpled bombazine dress, who gave messages by raps and table-tippings. One, to my address, purported to be from H.P.B. herself, and the Duchesse with an air of perfect conviction asked me if I did not think it was genuine. “Why, Duchesse,” said I “you knew Madame Blavatsky intimately, as well as I, and you certainly must be willing to admit that if she were indeed present, rather than give such a stupid performance, she would fling the table to one end of the room and the medium to the other!” Our hostess and I were on such terms of friendship that she took no offence at my candor, but still seemed as if she were not ready to abandon her faith in her employée. The other medium was a rather pretty young woman who wrote very rapidly at a side table while the other performance was going on. When I came to read her essay I found it good enough to put into the Theosophist as a sample of the best of the matter which was being given in this famous circle. Here is a paragraph from the paper, which, under the title of “Clairvoyance” will be found in the number of our magazine for April, 1896:

“What more staggering fact is there for human intelligence than that the immensity of the heavens reflects itself accurately at the sensitive end of the optic nerve, and that all the worlds which rush through the starry spaces, with the races which cover their surfaces, may be contained in the human eye, while man sees the creation merely because he condenses and contains it within himself. Thus in each human eye the same phenomenon repeats itself and immeasurable space faithfully come to each of us and mirror themselves in this luminous spark.”

The next day, on our way back from a visit to Versailles, my sister and I visited a splendid panorama called “L’Histoire du Siêcle” a visual presentation of the history of France within the past century. The painting was so well executed and the portraits of the chief personages of the several epochs were so accurate, that one got a very vivid idea of the course of events since the pre-Revolutionary days of the eighteenth century and down to the current epoch, the Republic of Carnot (who was subsequently assassinated). I wish that the time might come when history would be taught in schools by this method, for I am sure that it would be more efficacious than any course of cramming out of dull books.

At the hotel on the evening of the 1st of August we had a second hypnotic séance with Mme. V. . . , M. de Constantin’s best clairvoyant. The results this time were much better than on the former occasion. Besides reading with gummed and bandaged eyes, she was made to exemplify the power of fascination by the unspoken command of the mesmeriser, her bodily weight was sensibly increased, and her nervous sensitiveness was changed so that, while her skin was insensible to pinches, touchings, and even pricks of a pin, or the point of a knife-blade, she could feel acutely every finger-touch or pin or knife-prick on the surface of a glass of water placed behind her and out of the range of her sight, after she had held it in her hands in her lap a few moments, so that the water might become saturated with the aura given off from her person. This is always a very interesting and instructive experiment. At the séance in question, not only the Count but I myself also tested the subject. She showed no sign of consciousness when I was pricking her arm and shoulder with a pin, but the moment that my sister, obeying my gesture, thrust a pin into the surface of the glass of water, the woman started and gave a little scream as she would naturally have done when the skin was pricked while she was in her normal waking state. I tested over and over again the power of attracting and repelling her by a mental command. The reader will bear in mind that the mesmeriser in this case was a private gentleman, and that his researches for so many years had been solely for the purpose of gaining scientific information.

The next day was the 2nd of August, and my 63rd birthday. With Madame Savalle, Jules Bois, the author, and M. Bailly, the publisher, we went to Aulnay-s-Bois to breakfast with M. Arthur Arnould, President of our chief Parisian Branch, and a very well-known journalist. The breakfast was itself worth remembering because of the superb omelet given us by our hostess. The house occupied a small corner of the Forest of Bondy, known to every schoolboy for its connection with the tragedy in which a murdered victim’s dog picks out of a crowd his master’s assassin, who is brought to justice.

On the next day, among other things visited, was the famed Musée Grévin, a collection of Waxworks that is superior to that of Madame Tussaud. Scattered here and there through the different galleries are life-size effigies of individuals and groups, so placed as to deceive the unwary visitor. One seats himself beside a quiet-looking gentleman who holds in his hand a catalogue and who seems to be occupied in looking at the wax group before him. One asks permission to see the catalogue for a moment and, getting no answer, turns to repeat the question when, lo! the silent neighbor proves to be a man of wax. In one corner in a passage, a uniformed attendant seems to be taking a quiet nap but on inspection, he too proves to be wax. So that really one gets a bit bewildered and cannot always distinguish living persons from their ceramic simulacra. As my sister and I were sitting on a bench I noticed that various passers-by scrutinised us closely as if to make out what we were. This provoked my love of fun to try an experiment, so, moving to the other end of the bench and cautioning my sister not to betray me, I assumed a pose and looked at a fixed object with a steady stare; controlling my breath so as to make an almost imperceptible motion of my chest. Presently there came along a party which included a young woman of twenty-odd years, who stopped nearly in front of me, watched me for a couple of minutes, then nudged her cavalier and whispered: “How very lifelike! What a clever piece of modelling. Alphonse, it is really incredible.” Then, always keeping a watchful eye upon me, and encouraged by my immobility, she came timidly forward, stretched out her right arm and with her middle finger touched me on the cheek! This was too much for my gravity and I had to smile, but at the touch of the warm flesh the inquisitive young person gave a little scream, flushed up to her hair, and ran away: my sister, who throughout the scene had with the greatest difficulty resisted the tendency to laugh, now gave way to her mirth, in which all the bystanders joined.

BOOK "OLD DIARY LEAVES V" - CHAPTER 28: FIRST VISIT TO BERLIN

 

(This is the chapter 28 of Henry Olcott book "Old Diary Leaves" Volume 5.)

  

FIRST VISIT TO BERLIN

(1895)

At the house of Dr. Baraduc on the following day I met at lunch one of the most interesting men whom I have seen in France, a Dominican friar, whose white woollen robe and intelligent face reminded me of the description given of that great historical personage, Apollonius of Tyana. And, by the way, how majestically looms up against the background of history this incomparable man. The friar was an intimate friend of the family of my host and discussed with me for hours together and in the most amicable tone, the teachings of Eastern and Western philosophy. There is something about these well-educated ascetics of different religions, a something of unworldliness and high aspiration, which leaves a lasting impression upon the minds of those who come into contact with them. No wonder that princes show them homage and the greatest merchants and other capitalists place themselves at their feet to receive instructions. I have met many in my time—Hindus, Buddhists, Parsis, Mahomedans and Christians, all of whom made me think better of humanity; but towering above them all, and excelling them in sweetness of expression and speech and the resplendency of spirituality, stand our Teachers and Masters.

What stronger contrast could there have been to this encounter with the worthy friar than the pictorial history of one of the most revolting pictures in the annals of the race, the panorama of the Bastille incident of the French Revolution, wherein we saw a glimpse of our humanity in its wildest, most murderous aspect: the mob shouting and fighting, volunteers enlisting, Marat and Hébert, those head devils of anarchy, looking on unmoved at the raging of the storm which they had helped to bring about.

My sister and I went on the same evening to the Robert Houdin conjuring show, originally founded by the great French conjurer himself, and since his death kept up by his pupil and successor, a man with a Scotch name which now escapes me. The tricks shown were extremely good and puzzling. We had table-turning and lifting by unseen agencies, and communications given by a human skull and an artificial detached hand that rapped out what they had to say on squares of thick plate glass brought forward in the aisle among the audience. Of course it was an electrical trick. We sat where we had a good view of the thing but neither of us could form any idea as to the nature of the mechanical appliance used.

I have always been fond of these exhibitions and two days later took my sister to see another show of the kind at the Theatre Isola. The puzzle offered us on this occasion was an exhibition of thought-transference which, though doubtless a humbug, was sufficiently surprising as may be inferred from the test which I gave the performer, M. Albertini. I told him to get his female subject, Mlle. Zmyka, to leave the stage, take her seat in a certain chair in the audience and say “Vive la Republique!” Without any apparent communication between them she obeyed his unspoken order, came and sat in the designated chair and cried, not what I had told him, but “Vive la France!” I fancy that this was really more satisfactory than if the right word had been spoken, for in the latter case some written paper might have been surreptitiously shown her, whereas, in changing the word it would look as if she had caught the thought but not the exact words called for.

Amid our pleasure-seeking I was obliged, now and again, to let my sister find her way about alone while I stopped at home to work off accumulations of office business. Thus, on the 8th of August I stopped at the hotel to write a chapter of OLD DIARY LEAVES. On the 12th my sister and I left Paris for Brussels, that coquettish town whose gay appearance has earned for it the nickname of “Little Paris”. For the information of whom it may concern I may say that living there is cheap and that for a large and comfortable room in a hotel close to the station the charge is only 2.50 fcs. per day. There was another round of sight-seeing for us, notable among them the Museum of Antiquities, in a tower of the fifteenth century, where one can see relics of the ancient time, including household furniture and utensils, which enables the student of history to visualise quite easily pictures of the everyday life of our ancestors. After a successful season at Earl’s Court, London, the proprietors of the “Spectacle of Venice” had brought it over and installed it at Brussels. It was a most realistic reproduction of the “Bride of the Adriatic,” her bridges, canals, gondolas, piazzas, shops, and monuments. The whole was lighted up by electric lights, and there was the splendid band of a Bersaglieri regiment and a superb orchestra from La Scala, with no end of fantoccini (puppet shows), street singers, and processions of gay masqueraders.

The next day came the sobering break of proof-reading of galleys and plates for my publishers. I have travelled so much and in so many lands that I never am content to follow in the beaten track of your “personally conducted” trippers, but wander hither and thither in search of interesting sights, unusual people, cheap restaurants, and cosy hotels where one can live economically: one has only to have command of a couple of languages besides English to get on well in any part of the world. These remarks are apropos of a note that I find in my entry for the 14th of August. I took Mrs. Mitchell to a restaurant patronised by working men where one dines abundantly and in a clean place for 60 centimes—say six annas, or six pence. Then there is a constant amusement offered gratis to the impecunious traveller, in the shape of the street fairs which one sees in almost every continental town. All is noise, movement, and glitter, the shops overrun with articles to eat and to wear, and in side shows are to be found those “freaks” that our former colleague, W.L. Alden, has so humorously described. Pasted in my Diary is a handbill of “The Living Skeleton, Surnamed the Modern Proteus,” whose case, if we may believe the advertisement, “has upset all the savants of the principal Faculties of France and Berlin”. I should think it must or else our men of science must have only rudimentary imaginations, for here is the feast of wonders which he offers, to his patrons:

1. The statue man; 9. The stoppage of the heart-beats and the circulation of the blood in all

2. The abdomen man; parts of the body.

3. The obese man; “The most astounding thing to science is the voluntary stoppage of the beating of the heart while the man is speaking.”

4. The tortured man; [Surely a man who can change himself from a Daniel Lambert to a Calvin Edson,

5. The hanged man; have himself tortured, hanged and killed,

6. The skeleton man; and after all that come up smiling, is

7. The dead man; something to see.]

8. Interruption of the circulation of the blood;

Two days more of sight-seeing and we then went on to Antwerp which we reached in barely an hour by rail. That evening we had the good luck to see the Place Verte, or Green Square, illuminated, and to hear the music of one of those well-trained military bands, which afford so much pleasure to the populace, who on the continent of Europe are quite able to distinguish good from bad music. On the next day we heard mass at the great Cathedral and saw Rubens’ magnificent “Descent from the Cross.” Our friend Dr. Weeks Burnett, attracted by my sister, for whom she had conceived a strong friendship, arrived from London, and during the next three days we made our outings together. Another day of heavy proof-reading followed, and as soon as I was free I took the ladies to see the Steen Museum, a very fine collection of historical and other antiquities. In the evening we all went to a clattering fair, where the usual distractions were offered, but where two of the soberest members of our Society, viz., Dr. Burnett and I, had rides on a gorgeous merry-go-round, to the equal astonishment and amusement of my sober sister, who could never have thought of so compromising her personal dignity. To tell the truth, we others would not have done it but for my prankish fancy to see such an embodiment of high respectability and sobriety of demeanor as Dr. Weeks Burnett flying around on a hobby-horse. It was not so easy a matter for me to persuade her and she made it a condition that the P.T.S. should mount the horse next hers, which I, nothing loath, did, and away we went, to the sound of a screeching steam-trumpet and steam-propelled barrel-organ!

On the 20th we tried to start for Homburg Bad, but on arriving at the station found that we had been deceived as to trains and had, perforce, to pass the night at a neighboring hotel. Dr. Burnett had bade us good-bye at the station and we were sorry to lose the sight of her then fresh and bonny face. We reached Homburg late that evening after changing cars three times, but the welcome we got from our friend Mrs. Tracy, and the delightful supper and beds more than compensated us for the disagreeable experience of the day. At these watering places the best of the daily life is in the early morning when the fashionable invalids throng the parks around the mineral springs of health-giving, pungent waters. Homburg was then in the height of the season and the lovely park was crowded with celebrities of all sorts and kinds, from royalties down. His Majesty Edward VII, then the Heir Apparent, was an assiduous health-seeker, and drank his mineral water from the bubbling spring and promenaded the avenue and mingled with the gay throng with evident zest. The two days spent at this place were full of interest to both of us but, if it had not been for parting with the dear friend who had invited us there, we should have been quite content to put the scene behind us. For the fashionable world is, at bottom, a wearisome and stupid thing; to enjoy it one must be ignorant of what constitutes the real pleasure of life.

On the 25th, in the early morning, we reached Berlin and were put up in the house of a Lutheran Pastor in Grossbeerenstrasse, near what I think is decidedly the most original and effective urban decoration I ever saw. I refer to that artificial hill which has on its summit a church at which special services connected with the army are held. The mound is planted with forest trees, here and there clusters of bright flowers are placed, and a little mountain brook tumbles from the top to the bottom over boulders, through pebbles, and from small shelves of rock the water drops in silvery veils. A stranger would be ready to take his oath that it was a natural hill in the midst of a great metropolis, whereas, in point of fact, every cartload of soil, every tree and flower and every zig-zag turning of the (artificial) streamlet has been placed where it is by the cunning engineers who designed this unique monument to the memory of the brave sons of the Fatherland who had fallen in battle. My illusions as to the hill were all dispelled by the revelations of the engineer himself, a member of our Theosophical Society.

This being my first visit to Berlin ⁽¹⁾ I was naturally led to make the comparison between it and Paris, with whose physical aspect I was so familiar. To summarise my impression I may say, while the former city cannot be compared for magnificent monuments with the latter, and it has nothing to even remotely hold its own with the Avenue des Champs Elysées—no city has that—the impression it gives one is much more restful and domestic than the gay metropolis of France, where domesticity is hidden from public view behind the fronts of enormous apartment houses and so deceives most strangers into the belief that in France the “home” is almost unknown, a most erroneous assumption, for in no country are the domestic ties warmer and stronger than there. To me Berlin seems a town of private residences, and therefore, being an American, most attractive. And yet a pleasure-seeker may find as much amusement as his heart craves, and if one wishes to see amusement shared by the whole family, assuredly one should go to Germany. The beer gardens are an unfailing subject of interest to the traveller for, while the father smokes his pipe and talks his politics, or commerce, or science with his male friends, the mother knits and listens and looks after the children who are playing around her with their toys. Surely this is an immense improvement over our brutish ways of solitary drinking in saloons while the family are left at home to pass the time as best they may. And one of the sights of the world is a German public park, say the Thiergarten, on a Sunday, with every table occupied, every path and avenue crowded with moving throngs, and two superb military bands, stationed at two points, which play alternately the choicest pieces from the operas and minor composers. I was greatly struck by the chest developments of the German women, which offered a very striking contrast with what one sees in England or America: they look like a race of natural mothers and housewives.

On the evening of the 30th there was a full meeting of our Berlin Branch, or rather as full as could be expected in the summer season when many were out of town. I spoke in English and was interpreted in German by a talented young actor named Reicher, son of one of the most distinguished tragedians of the day. He had been partly educated at New York and spoke our language with great correctness. One of my pleasantest acquaintances at Berlin was Mr. B. Hübbe, brother of that dear old friend and colleague, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, whose home it was a charm to visit. Our movement goes slowly in Germany, not because of their lack of capacity to understand our philosophical teaching, but, as I have elsewhere remarked, because mysticism degenerated into a sort of childish pretension unsupported by personal spirituality, and got its death-blow for the moment in the mummeries of a horde of petty societies which aped the spiritual powers that they did not possess. The national mind has now reacted into commercialism and we must, perforce, wait patiently for the German pendulum to swing back to its natural place in the arc of high thinking.

Our visit to Berlin came to an end on the 2nd of September, when my sister and I left for Amsterdam via Hanover, reaching there at 8 p.m. after a dusty and fatiguing ride. Of course, Mr. Fricke, who never neglects a duty but makes it a pleasure to do it, met us at the station and took us to a clean and nice hotel, where we were soon made to feel the affectionate interest of our colleagues in the gift to my sister of baskets of lovely flowers, sent by Mesdames Meuleman and Windust. The next day Mrs. Windust came and took us by train to Haarlem, where we heard the great organ—in my boyhood counted as one of the wonders of the world, but now over-shadowed by sundry others—played, rather badly. And on the 4th Mr. Fricke conducted us on a steamboat ride to a quaint inland Dutch town, where we had refreshments and the amusement of seeing the queer clogs and dresses, and brick-paved streets, and high-peaked gables, and sluggish canals, all of the most pronounced Dutch type. On the 6th I was laid on my back by an insidious enemy that I now recognise as gout, which effectually stopped my gadding about. It seems absurd that I should have anything the matter with me, but until Dr. Nanjunda Row of Madras had the happy inspiration to experiment on me with the new German remedy, Urosine, I was now and again reminded by a swollen and painful foot that not even this granite-and-iron body of mine could be counted on for an indefinite old age. On the day in question, with much pain and the help of some men, I managed to get from my hotel to the Amsteldijk Headquarters, where a large meeting of our members was held in my honor.

We left Amsterdam for London via Hook of Holland on the 6th, I, using a pair of crutches, without which I could not have moved a step. On the boat I slept on deck, as my foot was too bad for me to go below. After an uncomfortable night we got to Headquarters in Avenue Road the next morning and were warmly welcomed. I had to keep my room all day and so was prevented from going to the station to see Mrs. Besant off for the North on a lecturing tour. Gout did not prevent me, however, from reading my book-proofs or carrying on my correspondence. One day I read ninety-two pages, and another two hundred and fifty of the book, which brought me to the end of the main text and left nothing but the Index to prepare. On the 19th all was finished, and now the publisher’s part of the work would begin.

I see that I had a good many visitors in those days and some very interesting discussions and conversations. On the 17th I had the pleasure of sending to the good Dr. Zander, of Stockholm, the engrossed Charter for his Scandinavian Section of the T.S.

I cannot pass over without notice certain experiences at the time, which were very fascinating and yet at the same time open to much criticism from the close student of psychical science; I mean experiments in tracking up past incarnations of some of our leading entities. Nothing could be more probable, to say the least, than that the principal agents in our Theosophical movement, which we have reason to believe to be overlooked and directed by certain Personages, should have had mutual personal relations and with the unseen Personages in question at different epochs of the past. The moment one accepts as reasonable the theories of karma and reincarnation, and at the same time the concept that entities are no more confined to certain countries or families in perpetuo than the individual drops of water in a fountain to the fountain basin, we can see clearly enough how, when an entity develops to the point of potential efficiency as an aid to evolution, it would be directed to reincarnate in that place or family where it could at the same time give most useful help to others and earn for itself the best chances to work out its collective karma. For instance, I have seen a long table of successive reincarnations of a certain entity which had developed a peculiar capacity for art ⁽²⁾; each time that it passed into incarnation it used its innate faculty to produce art forms, thus acquiring more proficiency, and at the next stage taking that faculty into incarnation where it had more or less chance to earn artistic renown as the environment happened to be more or less favorable: this environment changing at each stage according to the moral and intellectual and even spiritual influences which lay behind it. This does not mean that a painter, musician, or sculptor should go on uninterruptedly, becoming greater in his art at each succeeding rebirth, for the entity was not confining itself entirely to the one art faculty, but functioning in the family, the state, or otherwise, according to its developed attractions. So would it be with the religious tendency, or the faculty of invention, of war, of literature, or of Government: the entity, given the necessary circumstances, would fall instinctively into the groove built for it by past experience.

This by way of commentary upon a variety of readings in the âkâshic records which were made for me at London at the time specified. Among others whose evolutionary careers were traced was myself, and it was certainly a fascinating picture that my psychometers painted from the records in the Book of Chitragupta. Far be it from me to pretend to the ability to discriminate between the truth and the delusion in these narratives: not having the developed psychometric gift myself, I can only lay away these stories in a back chamber of my memory and wait for time to show which is right and which wrong. This subject is so interesting that I shall just leave it at this point and make the continuation in the next chapter.

Notes

1. [Colonel Olcott’s first visit to Germany was from July 24 to October 3, 1884, but evidently he did not visit Berlin then.]

2. [This refers to the lives of “Erato” which had been investigated by C. W. Leadbeater in May, 1895. They have been published in the Theosophist, April-September, 1912.—C.J.]