Yours with sincere affection,
K. H.
Letter No. 78 (ML-51) Rec. August 22, 1882
The opening sentence refers again to the two portraits of the Mahatma K.H. which DK was attempting — or had attempted — to do.
Received 22-8-82.
Private.
My good friend,
Remember that in the phenomenon intended for Colonel Chesney there was, is, and will be but one real phenomenal thing, or rather — an act of occultism — the likeness of your humble servant, the best of the two productions of D. Khool, I am sorry to say — for you. The rest of the performance is, notwithstanding its mysterious character, something but too natural, and of which I do not at all approve. But I have no right to go against the traditional policy however much I would like to avoid its practical application.
Keep this strictly within your own friendly heart until the day comes to let several persons know that you were warned of it. I dare not say more. The probations are hard all round and are sure not to meet your European notions of truthfulness and sincerity. But reluctant as I do feel to use such means or even to permit them to be used in connection with my chelas, yet I must say that the deception, the lack of good faith, and the traps (!!) intended to inveigle the Brothers, have multiplied so much of late; and there is so little time left to that day that will decide the selection of the chelas, that I cannot help thinking that our chiefs and especially M. may be after all right. With an enemy one has to use either equal or better weapons. But do not be deceived by appearance. Would that I could be as frank with Mr. Hume whom I as sincerely respect for some of his genuine, sterling, qualities as I cannot help blaming for some others. When will any of you know and understand what we really are, instead of indulging in a world of fiction!
In case Col. Chesney speaks to you of certain things tell him not to trust to appearances. He is a gentleman, and ought not to be allowed to labour under a deception never meant for him but only as a test for those who would impose themselves upon us with an unclean heart. The crisis is near at hand. Who will win the day!
K. H.
Letter No. 79 (ML-116) Rec. August 1882
This is written on the front of an envelope, 4" x 5", addressed to Sinnett.
A.P. Sinnett.
My dear Friend,
I am tired and disgusted with all this wrangling to death. Please read this before giving it to Mr. Hume. If, as a debt of gratitude, he would exact but a pound of flesh, I would have naught to say — but a pound of useless verbiage is indeed more than even I can stand!
Yours ever,
K. H.
Letter No. 80 (ML-118) Rec. early fall 1882
This is a fraudulent intrusion into private correspondence. No time to even answer your queries — will do so to-morrow or next day. For several days I have noticed something like anxiety in your lady's thoughts about "Den." Children's diseases are seldom dangerous even when somewhat neglected, if the child have naturally a strong constitution; the pampered ones falling naturally victims to contagion.
I remarked her fear of carrying the germs of the disease home with her at Mr. Hume's the other day, as my attention was drawn to her by the "Disinherited" who was on the watch. Fear not in any case. I hope you will pardon me if I advise you to sew up the enclosed in a small bag — a part of it will do — and hang it on the child's neck.
Unable as I am to carry into your homestead the full magnetism of my physical person I do the next best thing by sending you a lock of hair as a vehicle for the transmission of my aura in a concentrated condition. Do not allow anyone to handle it except Mrs. Sinnett. You'll do well not to approach Mr. Fern too near for a time.
Yours,
K. H.
Say nothing of this note to anybody.
Letter No. 81 (ML-52) Rec. in fall 1882
The events leading up to and surrounding the writing of this letter are extremely complicated. The letter is important because it marks the beginning of the end of Hume' s association with the Mahatmas. He did not formally resign from the Theosophical Society until about two years later, although he resigned as President of the Simla Eclectic T.S. sometime during this period. It may be that the events connected with this letter influenced his decision. It is necessary to go back a month or so to the receipt of the "Devachan" letter.
In the June 1882 issue of The Theosophist a letter was published under the heading "Seeming Discrepancies." It was signed "Caledonian Theosophist." There is a hint in Letter No. 81 that this was a man by the name of Davidson, or Davison, who at one time was a secretary of Hume's.
The writer called attention to what seemed to him discrepancies between what was said in one of the "Fragments" (articles written by Hume and Sinnett) and what H.P.B. had written several years earlier in Isis Unveiled. When the Caledonian's letter was published in The Theosophist, H.P.B. accompanied it with a long editor's note in which she explained the points at issue in some detail and concluded with the words:
But there never was, nor can there be, any radical discrepancy between the teachings in "Isis" and those of this later period, as both proceed from one and the same source — the ADEPT BROTHERS.
This editor's note came under attack by C.C. Massey, a member of the T.S. in London. He was also an ardent spiritualist. He drew the reader's attention to what he considered the fallacy of H.P.B.'s statement by quoting from Sinnett's review of the book The Perfect Way by Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland. The discrepancy, he attempted to show, concerned comments on the subject of reincarnation.
In her editor's note accompanying Massey's letter, H.P.B. said: "When writing Isis, we were not permitted to enter into details; hence — the vague generalities. We are told to do so now — and we do so as we are commanded."
After this was published, Hume took up the cudgels. He wrote a letter to H.P.B. in which he practically tore her (and Isis) to pieces and said some very insulting things about the Mahatmas. He signed this letter "H.X." It is the famous H.X. letter about which most students of the ML have read or heard.
Hume began by saying that Isis teemed with errors and misconceptions. Then he went on to criticize the Mahatmas severely for the manner in which they had given the teachings — or, as he maintained, had not given them — and said that their methods were so repulsive to him that he had "more than once been on the point of closing my [his] relations with them for good."