Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00548)

The TPH published what are often described as "reprints" of Leadbeater's 
books, but which should accurately (and in standard publishing, library 
and bibliographical professional practice) be described as "revised", 
"abridged" or "edited" versions. A typical example is found in "The 
Masters and the Path" which was originally published in 1925. Anyone 
lucky (?) enough to possess every edition of this work published by Adyar 
and who has the patience to compare them will find very interesting and 
careful editing. My copy of the 1953 version (2nd edition, revised and 
enlarged, 4th printing) has those sections marked which are deleted from 
the 1969 edition. For example, one sentence and the five words beginning 
the next sentence in Annie Besant's "Foreword" have been deleted - they 
refer to "the nearness of the Coming of the World Teacher" (which was, 
after all, the reason Leadbeater gave for publishing the book). A few 
further examples: 2 sentences from the opening of Chapter 1; half 
sentence on page 40 referring to "when He comes forth to the world to 
teach His people as He intends so to do very shortly..."; a paragraph on 
page 43 referring to the Coming; one paragraph and part of another on 
page 63 regarding the writing of "At The Feet of the Master"; a large 
paragraph on the Masters' endorsement of Co-Masonry and the Liberal 
Catholic Church on page 67; the whole secton headed "The Coming" from 
page 255-257; the pargraph on Leadbeater's viewing of "Visitors" from 
other solar systems on page 298; and so on.
What is described as the 3rd and 4th editions (1969 and 1983) are 
described on the title page as "An Abridgement"; an abridgement does not 
normally described a work from which particular passages are removed to 
cobceal the original meaning of the author! Nor can an "abridgement" be 
described as an "Edition."
Given that Leadbeater said the material in the book was only made 
generally available bcause of the imminence of the Coming, and that he 
openly, publicly and privately, proclaiming the imminence of the Coming 
(and the details thereof), on what basis can such selective editing be 
justified?

Dr Gregory Tillett