I hope, my dear friend, that you will undertake to impress upon Mr. Hume the following facts: — Though the work done by him for the Society would become ultimately most important, and that it might have borne the most useful fruits, yet his denunciatory article has nigh upset the labour done by him. People will now regard him more than ever a lunatic — Hindu members will blame him for years, and our chelas can never be made to look upon him but in the light of an iconoclast, a haughty intruder, incapable of any gratitude, hence — unfit to be one of them. This you must give out as your personal opinion — of course not unless it meets your own views, and may be given as the expression of your real feelings in the matter — for I, personally am ordered not to break with him until the day of the crisis comes.
If he desires to retain his official position in the Eclectic, help him to do so. If not, I beg you most urgently to accept the position of President yourself. But I leave all this to your tact and discretion. Let him also know that the Protest of the Chelas is no work of ours, but the result of a positive order emanating from the Chohan. The Protest was received at the Headquarters, two hours before the postman brought the famous article, and telegrams were received from several chelas in India on the same day. Together with the foot-note sent by Djual Khool to be appended to W. Oxley's article, the September Number is calculated to create a certain sensation among the mystics of England and America, not only among our Hindus. The "Brothers" question is kept up pretty alive, and may bear its fruit. Mr. Hume's graphic pen spurts, under the mask of philanthropy, the bitterest gall, assailing us with weapons which, for being represented or rather imagined as lawful and legitimate, and used for the most honest of purposes — wield by turns ridicule and abuse. And yet he has so preserved the semblance of a sincere belief in our knowledge, that we are more than likely to be thenceforth remembered as he has painted us, and not as in reality we are. What I once said of him, I maintain. He may, outwardly, sometimes sincerely forgive, he can never forget. He is that which Johnson is said to have much admired, "a good hater."
Oh, my friend, with all your faults, and your rather too lively past, how much, how immeasurably much higher you stand in our sight than our "I am," with all his high "splendid mental capacity," and outwardly pathetic nature concealing the inward absence of anything like real feeling and heart!
M. wants me to tell you that he refuses most decidedly to take any precaution of the nature you suggest. He despises H. thoroughly; yet in a case of any real danger would be the first to protect him for the pains and labour given by him for the T.S. He says that in case H. comes to know of his ridiculous blunder, he will be ready to prove to others the existence of occult powers, but will not leave H. one leg to stand upon. His punishment must be allowed to be complete or else it will have no effect upon him, and he will only retaliate upon innocent victims. H. has shown us to the world as dishonest and lying, before he ever had one single undeniable proof that we were that, and that he was justified in his denunciation by even an appearance, a semblance of dishonesty. If H. chooses to-morrow to represent us as murderers M. will try to raise a maya to make the words good, and then destroy it, and show him a calumniator. I am afraid he is right, from the standpoint of our rules and customs. They are anti-European, I confess. With the exception of the telegram, M. never wrote Fern but one letter, the five or six other letters in his handwriting emanating from the Dugpa who has charge of Fern. He hopes that you will not spoil his work, and that you will ever remain a loyal and true friend to him, as he will be one to you. Fern will never repeat any experiment à la napkin, for the simple reason that he will be trusted with no more letters.188
I have received a letter from Colonel Chesney and will answer it in a few days with a young chela who will deliver it to your care with my respectful greeting. Do not frighten the boy. He is ordered to answer all the questions he can answer, but no more. From Simla he will proceed to Buddha Gaya and Bombay, on business, and will be back home about November.
With sincere friendship,
Yours,
K. H.
Letter No. 82 (ML-32) Rec. Fall 1882
This letter deals further with the HX letter and contains some further explanations. See notes to Letter No. 81.
I am sorry for all that has happened, but it was to be expected. Mr. Hume has put his foot in a hornet's nest and must not complain. If my confession has not altered your feelings — I am determined not to influence you and therefore will not look your way to find out how the matter stands with you, my friend — and if you are not entirely disgusted with our system and ways; if in short it is still your desire to carry on a correspondence and learn, something must be done to check the irresponsible "Benefactor." I prevented her sending to Hume a worse letter than she wrote to yourself. I cannot force her to transmit his letters to me nor mine to him; and since it is no longer possible for me to trust Fern, and that G.K. can hardly be sacrificed with any sense of justice, to a man who is utterly unable to appreciate any service rendered except his own, — what shall we do about it? Since we have mixed ourselves with the outside world, we have no right to suppress the personal opinion of its individual members, nor eschew their criticism, however unfavourable to us — hence the positive order to H.P.B. to publish Mr. Hume's article. Only, as we would have the world see both sides of the question, we have also allowed the joint protest of Deb, Subba Row, Damodar and a few other chelas — to follow his criticism of ourselves and our System in the Theosophist.
I gave you but hints of what at some other time I will write more at length. Think in the meantime of the difficulties that lie naturally in our way, and let us not, if your friendship for me is sincere, — by struggling with our chains, make them straiter and heavier. For my part I will run willingly the hazard of being thought a self-contradicting ignoramus, and criticized in unmeasured terms by Mr. Hume in print, provided you really profit by the tuition, and share from time to time your knowledge with the world. But to give you my thoughts without disguise I am never like to risk myself again with any other European but yourself. As you now see, connection with the outside world can bring but sorrow to those who so faithfully serve us, and discredit to our Brotherhood. No Asiatic is ever likely to be affected by Mr. Hume's egotistical thrusts against us (the result of my last letter, and of the promise exacted that he will write to me more rarely and less than he has done) but these thrusts and criticisms that the European readers will accept as a revelation and a confession, without ever suspecting from whence they have arisen and by what a deeply egotistical feeling they have been generated — these thrusts are calculated to do a great harm — in a direction you have not hitherto dreamt of. Resolved not to lose so useful a tool (useful in one direction, of course) the Chohan permitted himself to be over-persuaded by us into giving sanction to my intercourse with Mr. Hume. I had pledged my word to him that he had repented, — was a changed man. And now how shall I ever face my Great Master, who is laughed at, made the object of Mr. Hume's wit, called Rameses the Great, and such like indecent remarks? And he used terms in his letters, the brutal grossness of which prevents me from repeating them, which have revolted my soul when I read them; words so filthy as to pollute the very air that touched them, and that I hastened to send to you with the letter that contained it, so as not to have those pages in my house, full of young and innocent chelas, that I would prevent from ever hearing such terms.