Countess Wachtmeister asked several
people to tell her about the experiences they had with Blavatsky when she was
writing her book The Secret Doctrine,
and Blavatsky's niece (Vera Johnstone) sent her a letter telling her the
following:
« Dear Countess Wachtmeister,
In June, 1886, I stayed with my aunt
in Elberfeld (Germany) and then in Ostend (Belgium).
It was her habit to read out in the
afternoon what was written of The Secret
Doctrine in the preceding night. Not knowing much English then I am sorry
to say I was seldom present at these readings and only half understood the
conversations that ensued, so that my contribution to your interesting book
must be very small.
Generally on coming down in the morning
from the bedroom I occupied in the house of Madame Gebhard together with my
mother, I found my aunt deep in her work. So far as I know, she never wrote at
that time in the morning, but carefully went over what was written the previous
night.
One day I saw evident traces of perplexity
written on her face. Not wishing to disturb her I sat down quietly and waited
for her to speak. She remained silent a long time with her eyes fixed on some point
on the wall, and with a cigarette between her fingers, as was her custom. At
last she called out to me:
-
"Vera," she
said, "do you think you could tell me what is a pi?"
Rather
astonished at such a question, I said I thought a pi was some kind of an
English dish.
-
"Please don't
make a fool of yourself," she said rather impatiently, "don't you
understand I address you in your capacity of a mathematical pundit. Come and
see this."
I looked at the page that lay before
her on the table, and saw it was covered with figures and calculations, and soon
became aware that the formula π = 3'14159 was put down wrongly
throughout them all. It was written π =31'4159. With great joy and
triumph I hastened to inform her of her mistake.
- "That's
it!" she exclaimed. "This confounded comma bothered me all the
morning. I was rather in a hurry yesterday to put down what I saw, and to-day
at the first glance at the page I intensely but vaguely felt there was
something wrong, and do what I could I could not remember where the comma
actually was when I saw this number."
Knowing very little of Theosophy in
general and my aunt's ways of writing in particular at that time, I of course was
greatly struck with her not being able to correct such a slight mistake in the
very intricate calculations she had written down with her own hand.
- "You are very green," she said, "if you think that I actually
know and understand all the things I write. How many times am I to repeat to you and your
mother that the things I write are dictated to me, that sometimes I see manuscripts,
numbers, and words before my eyes of which never knew anything."
On reading The Secret Doctrine several years later I recognized the page. It
was one of the pages which discuss Hindu astronomy.
Later on, when we three went to Ostend,
it was I who put aunt's things and books in order, so I can testify that the
first month or two in Ostend she decidedly had no other books but a few French
novels, bought at railway stations and read whilst travelling, and several odd
numbers of some Russian newspapers and magazines. So that there was absolutely
nothing where her numerous quotations could have come from.
Yours very sincerely,
Vera Johnstone
P.S.: I append a letter received by
me from Dr. Franz Hartmann. »
« Hallein,
June 2ndy 1893.
My Dear Mrs. Johnstone,
With regard to our conversation
referring to the way in which The Secret Doctrine was written, I beg to say
that in April, 1885, when I accompanied H.P. Blavatsky from Madras to Europe,
while on board of the S.S. "Tibre" and on the open sea, she very
frequently received in some occult manner many pages of manuscript referring to
The Secret Doctrine, the material of
which she was collecting at that time.
Miss Mary Flynn was with us, and
knows more about it than I; because I did not take much interest in those
matters, as the receiving of "occult correspondence" had become
almost an everyday occurrence with us.
Yours very truly,
F. Hartmann. »
(Reminiscences of H.P. Blavatsky and “The Secret
Doctrine” by Countess Wachtmeister and others, appendix I-5, p.107-109)
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