theos-talk.com

[MASTER INDEX] [DATE INDEX] [THREAD INDEX] [SUBJECT INDEX] [AUTHOR INDEX]

[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]

RE: Annie Besant: May 4, 1891 testimony compared to Oct 25, 1926 testimony

Aug 23, 2002 04:52 PM
by dalval14


Aug 23 2002

Re S D Vol. III evidence: Mrs. Besant vs Mrs.
Besant's memory(?)

Dear Daniel:

You are quite correct the written evidence contradicts the
statement Mrs. Besant is said to have made (as reported by
and in the unsigned typed transcript of an "interview" with
W. Mullies. (Oct 25, 1926) which I sent to you a few days
ago.

As I wrote, we're trying to discover if this was ever
published at or around that date.

So, to me the matter is moot. I hold no brief in that
regard.

Others have observed that her memory was not always clear as
to what she may have said or done in the past. [ THE TEN
LIVES OF ANNIE BESANT (2 Vols.) Dr. A. R. Nethercot --
published by the Chicago Univ. Press in 1960 speaks of
this. ] But, there again, opinions flourish. Of such are
"history" made. It is my view one should be content with
narrating facts and leaving conclusions to the readers.
Since contradictory evidence may easily arise at later
dates, one has nothing to defend. New evidence is then added
to the older pile.

Best wishes,

Dallas

==================================

-----Original Message-----
From: danielhcaldwell
[mailto:comments@blavatskyarchives.com]
Sent:	Thursday, August 22, 2002 5:32 PM
To:	theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject:	Theos-World Annie Besant: May 4, 1891 testimony
compared to Oct 25, 1926 testimony

Dallas, you write:

"In another interview in 1926, Oct. 25 with a reporter W.
Mulliss ( Mullies ?) we find her [Annie Besant] declaring
she had
never read or encountered the manuscripts of THE SECRET
DOCTRINE,
Vols 3 and 4 during H P B's life time. . . . "

But compare the above with the following.

On May 4, 1891, Annie Besant gave testimony in HPB's case
against
Elliott Coues and the New York Sun. Notice what Mrs. Besant
says
about the third volume of THE SECRET DOCTRINE:

"There is one other work of hers [Blavatsky's], which I have
seen in
manuscript, still unpublished; a third volume of 'The Secret
Doctrine' which is now being got ready for the press under
my own
eyes. Madame Blavatsky has also in preparation a glossary of
Sanscrit
and Eastern tongues; those are both in preparation. . . . "
[Quoted
from Michael Gomes, ed., Witness for the Prosecution: Annie
Besant's
Testimony on Behalf of H. P. Blavatsky in the N. Y.
Sun/Coues Law
Case, 1993, page 23.]

>From other sources that confirm Mrs. Besant's above account,
we know
that HPB in early 1891 was actually working on the third
volume of
the SD. For example on January 7, 1891, Claude Falls Wright
wrote:

"H.P.B. has within the last week or so begun to get together
the MSS.
(long ago written) for the Third Volume of The Secret
Doctrine; it
will however, take a good twelve months to prepare for
publication."
[Quoted from The Path, February 1891, 354]

[Also see: http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/sdiiipt5.htm
for other
relevant testimony from the year 1891.]

Daniel H. Caldwell
BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://hpb.cc






























Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/





[Back to Top]


Theosophy World: Dedicated to the Theosophical Philosophy and its Practical Application