Theos-Talk Archives (August 2002 Message tt00170)

In 1897, G.R.S. Mead wrote the following regarding the newly 
published Volume III of The Secret Doctrine:

"It is somewhat a novel experience for the present writer, who has 
edited, in one form or another, almost all that H.P.B. has written in 
English, with the exception of Isis Unveiled, to find himself turning 
over the leaves of Volume III of The Secret Doctrine as one of the 
general public, for with the exception of pp. 433-594 [consisting of 
H.P.B.'s Esoteric Papers] he has seen no word of it before. . . . 
What, then, is the first impression. . . [of this Volume III]? We 
cannot disguise the fact that the first feeling is one of 
disappointment. The spirit of the stanzas and commentaries, which for 
the theosophist make the two first volumes stand out a head and 
shoulders beyond all other theosophical literature, is entirely 
absent. The pages [of Volume III] are eagerly scanned for the 
discovery of a new gold-mine of the nature of stanza or commentary, 
but with the exception of one or two paragraphs none is to be found. 
In fact, until we come to p. 359 and 'The Mystery of the Buddha,' the 
sections on which fill pp. 359-432, we find but disjecta membra-
sections, the majority of which were evidently excluded from Volumes 
I. and II. because of their inferiority to the rest of the work. The 
editor [Mrs. Besant] was bound to publish these, but . . . it would 
have been better to have printed them as separate articles in 
Lucifer, than to have included them as part of The Secret Doctrine. 
One thing is almost certain, that had Mme. Blavatsky lived, these 
sections in their present form would not have formed part of her 
great work. They represent her in her least important capacity." 
Lucifer, July, 1897, 353-54.

In light of what I have presented in a number of postings including 
my latest at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/7757
are there any fallacies in Mead's thinking?

Daniel H. Caldwell
BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://blavatskyarchives.com/introduction.htm
"...Contrast alone can enable us to appreciate things at
their right value; and unless a judge compares notes and
hears both sides he can hardly come to a correct decision."
H.P. Blavatsky. The Theosophist, July, 1881, p. 218.