An open letter to the Fellows of the American Section of the Theosophical Society by H.P. Blavatsky. Refuting the false and malicious reports and insinuations by M.A. Lane, a thoroughly dishonest man and a wicked slanderer. I felt every time Mr. Lane’s name was mentioned a cold disagreeable sensation in me, which I could not conquer. I have proofs that Mr. Lane is only one of a regular band of conspirators bent upon destroying our Society. As to his natural deception, it is absolutely sickening. He had come to find out fraud, evil, interested motives, humbug or charlatanry, and he found instead half-a-dozen of the most earnest men and women, working with an unselfishness and singleness of purpose he is unable to understand, let alone to emulate. The purpose of this letter to the American Section is to forewarn our Fellows about Mr. Lane, and to tell him to his face that he lies.

Theosophy is the philosophy of the rational explanation of things, not hollow tenets. It is the Beacon-light of Hope guiding humanity on its true path. Its mission is to unite men of all nations in brotherly love and noblest acts of charity, beyond kith and kin, to all that lives and feels, and needs help and kindness. Theosophy seeks to develop the human nature in man in addition to the animal, and at the sacrifice of the superfluous animality which modern life and materialistic teachings have developed to a degree which is abnormal for the human being at this stage of his progress. Theosophists are of necessity the friends of all movements in the world, whether intellectual or simply practical, for the amelioration of the conditions of mankind. Their function is to open men’s hearts and understandings to charity, justice, and generosity — attributes which belong specifically to the human kingdom and are natural to man when he has developed the qualities of a human being worthy of the name. Theosophy teaches the animal-man to be a human-man; and when people have learnt to think and feel as truly human beings should feel and think, they will act humanely, and works of charity, justice, and generosity will be done spontaneously by all. On the day when Theosophy will have accomplished its most holy and most important mission — namely, to unite firmly a body of men of all nations in brotherly love and bent on a pure altruistic work, not on a labour with selfish motives — on that day only will Theosophy become higher than any nominal brotherhood of man.

These study notes are about a Fellow of the Theosophical Society in Paris, who asserted that Theosophy is a doctrine without proof, without authority, and without prestige in its origin; who accused Brother Theosophists of teaching pseudo-Theosophy and preaching annihilation of the spiritual ego; who talked about the yugas like a blind man about colours; who invented apocryphal Codes in order to discredit Oriental Theosophy; who was not aware of the relation between the sacred sound and the ether of space, or that the Yajur-Veda is “black” when recited by whose accent is impure.

A carping critic of heterodoxy cut to size is a response by H.P. Blavatsky to certain attacks by G.W. Foote, exposing his bigotry and “innocent” aberrations. Intellectually, Mr. Foote is on a far lower plane than Mrs. Besant. A noble heart like Mrs. Besant’s listens to no voice, save that of the inner voice of Truth — that of man’s divine nature, to which Mr. Foote is deaf and blind. Since Mr. Foote dares not ventilate his senseless rage upon Mrs. Besant, he turns round and, like a coward, slanders another woman because he hopes to have nothing to fear from her. A noble example of Freethought, indeed! He is a poor imitator of all those Dissenters and Sectarians of the unctuously hypocritical type. They, at least, have the merit of original invention, while he only repeats what he hears others say, and even that he must, of necessity, mix up and confuse! His work is that of an accomplished charlatan. While Mr. Foote regards the ethics of Theosophy as detestable, Theosophists regard the teachings of Materialism as despicable. Materialism, with all its arrogance, can hardly claim possession of the last word of science, its negative views being simply the result of the collective experiences of sceptics in every age. The doctrine of reincarnation, flippantly called metempsychosis, is as old as the world. Our materialistic critic seems quite innocent of the distinction between theoretical and practical altruism but proud to claim kinship with the gorilla. He is a very brutal but not skilful fencer, and his arguments are as blunt as the fencer’s foils which hit but hurt not. Mr. Foote shows himself absurdly ignorant of the subjects of his insane attacks. It is, however, Freethought alone that he injures by such language, Theosophy being too invulnerable to be wounded by such poor logic as seems to be at his disposal. In his philological achievements, Mazzini Wheeler, the other apostle of Freethought, seems unable to recognize one Buddhist name from another, quoting and repeating parrot-like information culled from Schlagintweit and Sarat Chandra.

Since the mind of every religionist of whatever faith, is firmly impressed with the superiority of his own creed, his mind is firmly closed to the truths of other beliefs. This is the root-cause of sectarianism and intolerance. Theosophists, instead of preaching they own religion, they implore everyone to first study his own and remain in it, whatever it is — for Theosophy is not only compatible with every religion, nay, being the pristine stream from the Mother-Source, it is the informing life and creed of all religions — pure and convincing in its simplicity. While modern science has no knowledge of an “Intelligent Being” or “Spirit,” the science of metaphysics rejects entirely the possibility of the Infinite having any relation whatsoever with the finite, whether conscious or otherwise.