Only whatever you do let me advise you not to stop midway: it may prove disastrous to you.
So far my friendship for you remains the same as ever — for we never were yet ungrateful for services rendered.
K. H.
Letter No. 127 (ML-133) Written July, 1884
This letter is from H.P.B., written soon after July 18, 1884. She had returned to London for a time. Apparently Sinnett had written to her — or had protested to her in person — following receipt of the letter last considered (Letter No. 126 [ML-62]), in which the Mahatma K.H. said that he had never approached Sinnett or anyone else through Mrs. Holloway. Sinnett felt that the letter could not be genuine, for he believed implicitly that the Mahatma K.H. had spoken through and even possessed Mrs. Holloway at a meeting on July 6.
The letters also speak of Olcott's behavior. This probably refers to the unconventional dress in which he appeared when guests were present, and embarrassed everyone. Sinnett was inclined to want only the "elite" as members of the Theosophical Society; both men and women dressed formally for meetings of the London Lodge. The reference may, however, have to do with statements made by Olcott to representatives of the Society for Psychical Research, since H.P.B. mentions that organization. In ODL 3:p. 99-101, Olcott tells how a meeting with these individuals came about. He and H.P.B. had been quite friendly with members of the SPR and met them socially and with entire cordiality on numerous occasions. Finally, Olcott agreed to be examined by a Commission of the SPR — F.W.H. Myers and Mr. Herbert Stack. There was considerable curiosity concerning the Mahatmas and the many phenomena which had been performed. However, it is said that Olcott made some statements which his interviewers considered unscientific. As a result of this, and of a further faux pas committed by Olcott, SPR decided to send an investigator to Adyar.
My dear Mr. Sinnett,
It is very strange that you should be ready to deceive yourself so willingly. I
have seen last night whom I had to see, and getting the explanation I wanted I am now settled on points I was not only doubtful about but positively averse to accepting. And the words in the first line are words I am bound to repeat to you as a warning, and because I regard you, after all, as one of my best personal friends. Now you have and are deceiving, in vulgar parlance, bamboozling yourself about the letter received by me yesterday from the Mahatma. The letter is from Him, whether written through a chela or not; and — perplexing as it may seem to you, contradictory and "absurd," it is the full expression of his feelings and he maintains what he said in it. For me it is surpassingly strange that you should accept as His only that which dovetails with your own feelings, and reject all that contradicts your own notions of the fitness of things. Olcott has behaved like an ass, utterly devoid of tact; he confesses it, and is ready to confess it and to say mea culpa before all the Theosophists — and it is more than any Englishman would be willing to do. This is perhaps why, with all his lack of tact, and his frequent freaks that justly shock your susceptibilities and mine too, heaven knows! going as he does against every conventionality — he is still so liked by the Masters, who care not for the flowers of European civilization. Had I known last night what I have learnt since — i.e. that you imagine, or rather force yourself to imagine that the Mahatma's letter is not wholly orthodox and was written by a chela to please me, or something of the sort, I would not have rushed to you as the only plank of salvation. Things are getting dark and hazy. I have managed last night to get the Psychic Research Society rid of its nightmare, Olcott; I may manage to get England rid of its bugbear — Theosophy. If you — the most devoted, the best of all Theosophists — are ready to fall a victim to your own preconceptions and believe in new gods of your own fancy dethroning the old ones — then, notwithstanding all and everything Theosophy has come too early in this country. Let your L.L.T.S. go on as it does — I cannot help it, and what I mean I will tell you when I see you. But I will have nothing to do with the new arrangement and — retire from it altogether unless we agree to disagree no more.
Yours,
H.P.B.
Letter No. 128 (ML-63) Rec. Summer 1884
Apparently Sinnett had asked the Mahatma K.H. about the possibility of publishing the letters received from him and from the Mahatma M. Herein we find the most specific prohibition against this course to be found in the book.
Received London, Summer, 1884.
Good friend —
When our first correspondence began, there was no idea then of any publications being issued on the basis of the replies you might receive. You went on putting questions at random, and the answers being given at different times to disjointed queries, and so to say, under a semi-protest, were necessarily imperfect, often from different standpoints. When the publication of some of these were permitted for the Occult World, it was hoped that among your readers some might be able, like yourself, to put all the different pieces together and evolve out of them the skeleton, or a shadow of our system, which, although not exactly the original — this would be an impossibility — would be as near an approach to it as could be made by a non-initiate. But the results have proved quasi-disastrous! We had tried an experiment and sadly failed! Now we see that none but those who have passed at least their third initiation are able to write upon those subjects comprehensively. A Herbert Spencer would have made a mess of it under your circumstances. Mohini is certainly not quite right, in some details he is positively wrong, but so are you, my old friend, though the outside reader is none the wiser for it and no one, so far, has noticed the real vital errors in Esoteric Buddhism and Man; nor are they likely to. We can give no further information on the subject already approached by you and have to leave the facts already communicated to be woven into a consistent and systematic philosophy by the chelas at the Headquarters. The Secret Doctrine will explain many things, set to right more than one perplexed student.
Therefore, to put before the world all the crude and complicated materials in your possession in the shape of old letters, in which, I confess, much was purposely made obscure, would only be making confusion worse confounded. Instead of doing any good thereby to yourself and others it would only place you in a still more difficult position, bring criticism upon the heads of the "Masters" and thus have a retarding influence on human progress and the T.S. Hence I protest most strongly against your new idea. Leave to the Secret Doctrine the task of avenging you. My letters must not be published, in the manner you suggest, but on the contrary, if you [would] save Djual K. trouble, copies of some should be sent to the Literary Committee at Adyar — about which Damodar has written to you — so that with the assistance of S.T.K. Charya, Djual K., Subba Row and the Secret Committee (from which H.P.B. was purposely excluded by us to avoid new suspicions and calumnies) they might be able to utilise the information for the realization of the object with which the Committee was started, as explained by Damodar in the letter written by him under orders. It is neither new "Kiddle developments" that I seek to avoid, nor criticism directed against my personality, which indeed can hardly be reached; but I rather try to save yourself and Society from new troubles which would be serious this time. The letters, in short, were not written for publication or public comment upon them, but for private use, and neither M. nor I will ever give our consent to see them thus handled.