Blavatsky died on May 8, 1891, and in the
following days, weeks, and even months, there was a barrage of articles
published by different newspapers and magazines talking about her, some were
positive but many others were negative, taking up the slander that her enemies
had invented against her; and that is why the main disciples of Blavatsky in London
published the following protest:
THE PRESS
During the last month we have simply
been inundated with cuttings. Upwards of 500 have been received from Great
Britain alone; in fact the whole press of the country has had something to say
of H.P.B. and Theosophy. The majority of the cuttings are favorable and many
papers re-produced the life of H.P.B. from Men
and Women of the Time. A few were eulogistic and some had the bad taste to
vilify the dead, heaping on her the most shocking imputations. With regard to
these the following protest was drawn up and appeared in quite a host of papers:
“We, the undersigned members of the
Theosophical Society, who have known intimately the late H.P. Blavatsky, have
read with surprise and disgust the extraordinary and baseless falsehoods
concerning her life and moral character circulated by a portion of the press.
We do not propose to attempt any
answer in detail to libels as monstrous as they are vile, libels which deal,
moreover, with supposed events laid in distant quarters of the world, without
any evidence being adduced to substantiate the allegations. Is it right, even
for the sake of soiling a dead woman's memory, to ignore the ordinary rule of
law that the onus of proof lies on
the accuser? What character can be safe if any unsupported slander is to be
taken for proved fact? We content ourselves with staking our honor and
reputation on the statement that her character was of an exceptionally pure and
lofty type, that her life was unsullied and her integrity spotless. It is
because we know this that we were and are proud to follow her guidance, and we
desire to place on public record the fact that we owe to her the noblest
inspirations of our lives.
As regards the curious idea that
Madame Blavatsky’s death has given rise to any contest for her ‘vacant place’,
will you permit us to say that the organization of the Theosophical Society
remains unaffected by her death. In conjunction with Col. H.S. Olcott, the
President of the Society, and Mr. William Q. Judge, a prominent New York
lawyer, Vice-President and leader of the movement in America, Madame Blavatsky
was the founder of the Theosophical Society, and this is a position that cannot
well be carried either by a coup d’état
or otherwise. Madame Blavatsky was Corresponding Secretary of the Society, a
purely honorary post, which, under the constitution, it is unnecessary to fill
at her decease. During the last six months, in consequence of the growth of the
Society, she temporarily exercised the presidential authority in Europe by
delegation from Colonel Olcott, in order to facilitate the transaction of
business, and with her death the delegation naturally becomes void.
Her great position in the movement
was due to her knowledge, to her ability, to her unswerving loyalty, not to the
holding of office; and the external organization remains practically untouched.
Her special function was that of teacher, and he or she who would fill her
place must have her knowledge.
(Signed)
Annie Besant.
C. Carter Blake, Doc. Sci.
Herbert Burrows.
Laura M. Cooper.
Isabel Cooper-Oakley.
Archibald Keightley, M.B. (Cantab.)
G.R.S. Mead, B.A. (Cantab.) Sec. European Section T.S.
Walter R. Old, Sec. British Section T.S.
Constance, Condesa Wachtmeister
W. Wynn Wescott, M.B. (Lond.)”
London, May 19 th, 1891
On the whole the newspaper men have shown
a desire for fair play: in fact one prominent journal which had devoted several
columns in two succeeding issues to a rehash of the personal opinion that made Mr.
Hodgson so notorious, and was so foolishly endorsed by a learned society (perhaps
to enliven their otherwise deadly dull reports) sent a representative to visit the
Blavatsky Lodge, and gave us an excellent notice in one of its columns.
We have also received many cuttings from
the United States, India and the Continent, and have to report on them also as
above. It is to be remarked that the press of all these countries, perhaps we may
say of the world, has not been contented with a few lines of notice or comment.
Many of the leading papers have devoted editorials to the subject, and some contain
articles of several columns in length. On the whole, the world imagines that the
members of the Theosophical Society are long-haired mystics or credulous imbeciles;
we wonder how they will take it when they find out that we are somewhat business-like
people, only a little more in earnest than the majority!
(This article was first published in Lucifer magazine, June 1891 p.319-320; and later in the book HPB: in memory of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, 1891, p.95-96)
EXAMPLES
Below, I am going to put the articles
published by newspapers that I find:
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