The letter from which the following pages are translated—and which was never meant for publication—was recently addressed to one of the Editors by Madame Camille Lemaitre, the friend of our late and regretted brother Louis Dramard, and a most worthy member of the T.S. in France. The tone and spirit of the writer’s remarks are so eminently noble, theosophical and altruistic, and the suggestions made so desirable, that permission has been obtained from the lady for their translation and publication. It is hoped that the seed thus sown will bear fruit in the minds of our readers.—Ed. [H.P.B.]
[Here followed the letter, translated from French. The following notes and Editor’s Note are from the pen of H.P.B.]
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But how is the true to be distinguished from the false, the good man from him who hides under a simple exterior the same gross needs, the same selfish desires, the same longings, the same brutality and cruelty as the satisfied, the possessors, those in power, and who, if tomorrow they held the place of these, would be the same oppressors of the feeble as those they seek to overthrow today? In this difficulty we have only to imitate nature; to cast myriads of seeds on the wind to obtain one plant. According to the ancient parable of esoteric wisdom, re-edited like so many other things by our relatively modern evangelists: “one third will be trodden under foot, one third will be eaten by the birds, and the third part will sprout and bear fruit an hundred fold.”1
1. This is just the policy of the T.S. from its beginning. Its visible leaders are unable to always distinguish the good from the bad, to see still dormant evil in the hearts of those who apply to join our Society, and the real Founders—those behind the screen—will denounce or accuse no living man. All are given a chance. Gladly would our Society abolish even the small entrance fee, had it any funds, however small, to carry on the work which increases daily, and many branches have already done so. For several years no initiation fees were paid; but our scanty and even joint means were found insufficient to maintain the Headquarters, pay the stationery, and the ever increasing postage, and feed and lodge all those who volunteered to work gratis for theosophy. Thus, the fees were re-established. Other Societies beg for, and are given large sums of money, but the T.S. never does. Nevertheless, the taunt that the Founders sell theosophy, creating theosophists for £1, or twenty shillings, a head, is being repeatedly thrust into our faces! And yet the poor are never made to pay anything at all. And if those who have the means will refuse to help to do good to the disinherited and the suffering, what are those who have given all they had, and have nothing now to give but their services, to do?—Ed. [H.P.B.]
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The following was Dramard’s idea: Form a closed nucleus of attraction, however small, of tried theosophists, and accept anyone who, whether from idleness, from curiosity, or any other vain feeling, comes to ask anything. That which is of importance in this open group is to bring together the largest possible number of adherents, in view of their clubbing together as means for propagandising in the way we desire.2
2. We are glad, however, to hear on the testimony of our correspondent, an old and trusted friend of M. Louis Dramard, the late President of our T.S. in Paris, that such were his ideas, as we had been assured of the contrary. We may have something to say of this at some future time.—Ed. [H.P.B.]
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I repeatedly begged the “Isis Branch” to work in this direction, to print, for instance, the Abbé Roca’s articles and your luminous and crushing replies. Nothing is better calculated to strike the mind of the French people, and to assist it to find its orientation, than the work you have there done.3
3. Reference here is made to the late “Isis,” the Branch of the T.S. in Paris, and a controversy in the Lotus between the Abbé Roca and one of the Editors of Lucifer.—Ed. [H.P.B.]
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I see in the October Number of Lucifer that some members of the T.S. are possessed with the desire to form “Lodges of Magic.” Poor things! What are they thinking of? They are but wasting their time. If they are tormented by the desire to progress on the spiritual plane, let them first work at rendering healthy the physical and moral atmosphere in which they live, so as to develop some spiritual faculties. To that end, let them enlighten the whole, let them employ their strength, their intelligence, their need of activity, their money, in pushing a propaganda such as I propose. They ought to have the means, these people whom the devil tempts by suggesting to them thus to throw themselves haphazard, without training, without preparation, into a path so dangerous, so little trodden; and surely the daily struggle for a livelihood must be unknown to them. If they have leisure, let them help to teach those who have none. It will be the first step on the road of Initiation.
Adeptship, i.e., knowledge, and the power it gives, is what turns the heads of weak mortals and keeps them back from the goal for long; since, in their haste, full of covetousness and egoism, they completely lose their way.
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Let the Theosophists who want to found a lodge of Magic meditate upon these words, and let them make themselves able to find the truths upon which the world is based, and there will be no further danger for them in gratifying their desire. . . .
Editors’ Note. [H.P.B.]—It is to preserve Theosophists from such dangers that the “Esoteric Section” of the T.S. has been founded. Its Preliminary Rules and Bye-Laws prove that the way to the acquisition of occult powers and the conquest of the secrets of Nature leads through the Golgotha and the Crucifixion of the personal Self. The selfish and the faint-hearted need not apply.