POSTHUMOUS HOMAGE TO BLAVATSKY BY ALICE GORDON

 

Alice Gordon was an English Theosophist who met Blavatsky when she lived in India, and when Blavatsky died Mrs. Gordon wrote the following article remember her.

 

 

 

REMINISCENCES OF MADAME BLAVATSKY

 

It was in December, 1879, that I had the pleasure of first seeing Madame Blavatsky, when she was on a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Sinnett, and I am glad to say that the friendship which ensued lasted without diminution until the day of her death. I had, while in England in 1878, investigated the phenomena of spiritualism, and a lady spiritualist whom I had met while investigating, suggested, when writing to me in India, that I should make Madame's acquaintance if opportunity offered.

 

Curiosity, and a desire to meet Mr. and Mrs. Sinnett —the former of whom I had corresponded with as Editor of the Pioneer— induced me to take a long journey of about thirty hours to Allahabad for this purpose; and no journey in my life has ever repaid me so well, or been the source of so much and such permanent satisfaction.

 

So many Theosophists have written eulogies on our late friend and teacher —H.P.B., as she preferred being called— that I feel it will be preferable for me to confine myself to a short account of my impressions of her character and of some of the incidents which occurred during this brief visit to Allahabad, and afterwards when we again met at Simla.

 

Eastern philosophy has now, very rightly, taken the chief place in connection with the Theosophical Society, and her name will be handed down to posterity rather as the exponent of these doctrines, than as a wonder worker; but at the time of which I am writing it was the phenomena which were associated with her name that attracted us to her. But it must be acknowledged that she always deprecated this craving for wonders, and spoke of such phenomena as "psychological tricks''.

 

Still our wish, and perhaps a little interest she herself had in proving her powers, induced her to show us some of these "psychological tricks'', even while assuring us they were of no real value in comparison with the teaching which lay at the back of them.

 

Mr. Sinnett's book, The Occult World, gives so full an account of our early experiences, that I do not propose to go into any detail, but I feel that it is only due to her memory to say, in the face of the abuse which has been showered upon her both in life and after death, that I never saw anything, or have heard anything, which has led me for a moment to doubt the reality of the phenomena which occurred in her presence.

 

And I also can say with perfect frankness, that although she was the most intellectual woman I have ever known, she was, I consider, so constituted that in her case systematic deceit was impossible. She had neither the cunning nor the self-control needful for plotting and concealment; and she lived so openly among her friends that the many falsehoods about her are absurd to those who have lived in the same house with her.

 

 

She had the kindest of hearts, the most generous of dispositions, and without contending that she was perfect, she was one of those persons who are loved and respected most by those who know them most intimately. And you cannot pay anyone a greater compliment than this, I think.

 

Her very failings, some of them, arose from a too open and generous nature, a too great readiness to accept every one who came to her and trust them.

 

To myself and others it sometimes appeared strange that she seemed to have so little discernment of character; but in some cases at least, it was a hope of doing good which probably induced her to tolerate and even appear friendly to those who afterwards turned against her and tried to injure her.

 

How keenly she felt the shameful attacks upon her character we who knew her well, realized and regretted; and I often tried to reason her into a feeling of indifference for the opinions of those who knew nothing of her except what they gathered from garbled and prejudiced accounts in newspapers.

 

But although she personally felt these slanders, a large part of her suffering arose from a fear that the Cause which she had at heart, and for which she worked as I have never seen anyone else work in any other cause, would be injured by the calumnies against her.

 

I always felt astonished at the untiring energy which she displayed; even when ill she would still struggle to her writing-table and go on working. It fills one with contempt and anger to think that even when she was beyond the reach of slander some of the papers degraded their pages with abuse, and republished the falsehoods which have found credulous audience among a class who pride themselves on their incredulity.

 

 

I have, I find, left myself but little space for saying anything about the many interesting occurrences during our early intimacy, and perhaps on second thought a repetition of these is unnecessary, as they can be read elsewhere to better purpose.

 

Still to show that I had ample opportunities for knowing her well, I will mention that during both her visits to Simla I saw her almost daily, in fact I was in the same house for three months, in and out of her room at any and all times of the day.

 

She was always affectionate towards me, and I had a real affection for her, and shall always, as hitherto, defend her before the world. And we who know what a wonderful woman she was, and how interesting and profound is the philosophy which she has brought prominently forward, know also that a day will come when the world will acknowledge her greatness, and will realize that we who defend and reverence her memory are not such foolish and gullible people, as the conceited and usually ignorant public of to-day assume.

 

 

(This article was first published in Lucifer magazine, July 1891, p.374-375; and later in the book HPB: in memory of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, 1891, p.67-68)