if their verbose pages were not lightened by associations of that White Magic which lends a creepy interest even to such avowed works of fiction as “Zanoni” and “Mr. Isaacs.” With belief in the Mahatmas must go any believing of “H.P.B.,” who swore to them; and, with “H.P.B.” and her authorities must go those two volumes of solemn farrago, which remain the society’s only contribution to philosophical knowledge. For all that is new in them, if there is anything new except the blunders, is explicitly given on the authority of “the Masters.”
The published “Objects” of the society run thus:—
(1) To form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour.
(2) To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions, and sciences.
(3) A third object—pursued by a portion only of the members of the Society—is to investigate unexplained laws of nature and the psychical powers of man.
It will thus be seen that the “phenomenal” side of the society’s activities has all along had a place, though guardedly, even in its published Objects. In point of fact, as I have elsewhere insisted, this third Object is the only one in pursuit of which the society has any substantial achievement to point to. As to the first Object, my narrative will presently suggest the same sort of remark on the brotherliness of the Universal Brothers as has sometimes been made by scoffers on the sociability of Socialists. As to the second Object, it is observed that there are people who study Oriental literatures, and there are people who belong to the Theosophical Society; but they are not the same people. Professor Max Müller has edited the only series of English translations of the Sacred Books of the East with which I am acquainted, and Professor Max Müller lately published some University lectures under the title of Theosophy. But his preface explained that he did so in order to rescue that respectable and ancient philosophical term from the associations of sciolism and miracle-mongering with which the Theosophical Society have linked it in the public mind. In point of fact, there is no reason to believe
