The
following text is a letter that William Judge wrote to Boston Index newspaper
in which he details how wrong was the investigation that Richard Hodgson
carried out to prepare the report that he presented against Blavatsky:
THE SO-CALLED EXPOSÉ OF MADAME BLAVATSKY
Editors of the Index:
Will you give me a little space in
your valuable paper for a few words regarding the so-called expose of Madame H.P.
Blavatsky, and the report of the Society for Psychical Research of London upon
theosophic phenomena?
This report extends over several
hundred pages, and is called scientific. But it must not be forgotten that,
first, the investigation was self-constituted, and not requested by the
Theosophical Society; and, secondly, that it related to a part of the history
of theosophy which is not of great importance, nor dwelt on much by its
members. We are a society devoted to Universal Brotherhood and Philosophy. It
was true that Col. Olcott, the President, related to Mr. Hodgson nearly all the
phenomena he had ever seen; but that was only injudicious, for they were not
performed publicly nor for the public.
Now, I was the third person engaged
in founding the society here, in 1875. Have been very active in it ever since. Went
to India, via London, in 1884. And yet Mr. Hodgson did not interrogate me, nor
did he get the facts he relates in his report at first hand.
He says, among other things, that
“Mr. Judge, an American, was at Adyar, and was not allowed to see the shrine or
its room.” This is false. I went to India expressly to be concerned in the
coming exposure by the Coulombs, and I took charge of everything the moment I
arrived there. I had the final and exhaustive examination made. I myself
removed the shrine to an adjoining room, from which that night it disappeared.
This was months before Hodgson arrived in India. If he saw what he thought was
a part of the shrine, it was a joke put on him by Dr. Hartmann, who would be
pleased to lead such a wild investigator into a trap. No part of it was
retained by Hartmann.
Again, he describes a hole in the
wall behind the shrine. There was none, and he gets it all at second hand.
There was an unfinished opening in the second wall, behind the shrine, having
jagged projections of lath ends all around it, just as Coulomb had to leave it,
when we stopped him. The cupboard put up against it was unfinished, and the
false door thereof could only be opened with mallet and pryer. All this was
Coulomb’s concoction, ready to be opened to Missionary Patterson at the proper
time. But the proper time never arrived, and I will tell you why.
I was in Paris in April, 1884; and,
while there, a message was received —in the very way which Hodgson thinks he
has exploded— informing us that the Coulombs had begun operations, and that,
unless someone went and stopped them, they would get their traps finely
finished, with a due appearance of age and use to carry out the conspiracy.
So I started for Adyar, with full
authority. But, while on the way, the people had received there a similar
intimation, so that I found the Coulombs just out of the place when I arrived.
At once, a register was opened there. Over three hundred people examined the
place, who signed their names to a declaration of the condition and appearance
of things; and then a resolution prohibiting further prying by the curious was
passed.
The very next day Missionary
Patterson, expert Gribble & Ca., came to examine. It was too late. The law
was already in existence; and Mr. Gribble, who had come as an “impartial
expert,” with, however, a report in full in his pocket against us, had to go
away depending on his imagination for damaging facts. He then drew upon that
fountain.
I tell you, Mr. Editor, the report
of Hodgson is only half done work. No account has been taken of the numerous
letters received by me and others, during these years between 1874 and 1884,
from various adepts, under circumstances entirely free from Blavatskyism. And
he has failed to get the evidence regarding things at Adyar, of the only person
who went there free from excitement, and who remained cool while the rest were
wild. An experience of ten years had placed my mind where the puerile traps of
missionaries, or resemblances of letters from adepts to Blavatsky’s writing, could
not affect it.
Far I will divulge to you this, sir,
that, if an adept wanted to write to you, the curious circumstance might be
found that the writing would resemble your awn. lance saw a message thrown upon
the leaf of a book; and it was in the handwriting of him holding it, who was as
much amazed as any one else.
One word more. Mr. Hodgson’s
argument an the evidence proceeds thus: Damodar says, in a separate
examination, that the figure of the adept “went over a tree and disappeared,”
while Mohini says, “The figure seemed to melt away.” Ergo, they lie, because
they disagree as to the disappearance. This is sheer folly. Then he goes
through what happened in Paris when I was present, asking Mohini and Keightley
if a man might not have entered the window. They had forgotten the window. I
say the window was in my room; and its height from the stone courtyard was over
twenty feet, with no means of reaching by climbing.
Finally, I received in Paris several
letters from American friends, ignorant of adepts; and inside were pencilled
notes in the familiar handwriting which Hodgson has exploded and proved
“fraudulent.”
The report is valuable as a
contribution to history; and when Mr. Hodgson has gained same acquaintance with
the several adepts, of whom he does not dream, who are engaged with the
society, he and your readers may be pleased to revise conclusions, as science
has so often been compelled to do.
Yours,
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
New York, February, 1886
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
New York, February, 1886
(This letter was published in Boston Index, March 11, 1886)
A SECOND WILLIAM JUDGE’S LETTER
Blavatsky was devastated by this
slanderous report that had deeply destroyed her reputation, and to support her,
William Judge wrote her the following letter in which he made several ironical
commentaries about Richard Hodgson's accusations.
« [New York]
February 5, 1886.
My Dear H.P.B.,
So they have reported on you. You are a corpse. You are squelched, you
are a mere Mahatma fabrication. But they praise you too, for you must ever
remain the chief, the most interesting, the hugest, the most marvellous and the
most able impostor and organiser of great movements, who has appeared in any
age either to bless or to curse it.
Not Cagliostro had such honour as
this! Well you deserve honour; I only wish it were not accompanied by such vile
lies and trash as they put on you. You revisit these glimpses of the moon, and
these madmen forthwith assail you and while they admit you have no motive they
will not if they can help it permit you to do the great work which without you,
might have waited longer yet for its beginning.
I shall have written before you
get this a letter to the Boston Index which
reprinted the report. You must have observed that Hodgson has left me out. And
yet I am an important factor. I was there. I examine all, I had all in charge,
and I say there was no aperture behind
the shrine.
Then as to letters from ⁂, you know I have many that came to me which resemble my
writing. How will they explain that? Did I delude myself? And so
on.
(Observation: three dots in the
form of a triangle are a reference to a Master.)
You can rely on me at this point for all the help that may be thought necessary.
You will remember that I was at Enghien with you the day of one of the
phenomena. They did not get those times when I got letters from the postman
with messages inside. I have here some old letters, and one of them relates to
the cremation of De Palme.
(Note: Baron Joseph Henry Louis
de Palm was the first man in the history of the United States to be cremated in 1876.)
But people here are not
distressed by this report. They see that truth runs through our whole movement
and they are not so hidebound by reports and authority as in other places.
Gebhard is my pupil! He and I
have been crowding the mourners, and in Boston and Cincinnati great interest is
growing. They find me back from India still a believer and still explaining
away what they call your “impostures”.
Mr. and Mrs. E. Forbes Waters of
Boston, have returned to the field. I reinitiated them the other night. They
control many intellectual people and we expect to do something in Boston,
great. We had meetings there night after night and you can imagine them plying
poor Gebhard with questions who referred to me when they desired to know all
the laws of Occultism, the residences of Mahatmas, how they appear, all the
fine “ramifications” of Karma etc. etc. Well, as they know nothing the little I
do know seemed much to them. By the time they find themselves with the same
amount of knowledge perhaps I will have acquired more.
Now as to me will you ask if
there be anything to say to me. I work all the time. How does he explain the
meaning of his message through you that I “showed intuition by leaving India”?
If you do not care to bother with [it] it will not make any difference. If 10
years have not made any change certainly failure to get this will not.
As ever yours,
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE. »
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