The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-07-02
a THEQsOpH1aT.
A Sober English Journals Opin-
ion of the Woman of
Mystery.
Nine. Blavatsky, the Founder of
tha strange ReliRion--Ori-
entail Occultlsm-Vril
and the Thibet
Spirit Lore.
[pall Mall Gazette

Who is Madame Blavatsky? Nine.
Blavatsky is a woman of mystery,
OF her life in the past no q can
speak. Ali that is known is that she
is the neice of General Fayadeff, the
well known PaDslavonic leader, who
died the other day at Odessa, and is
related to the Dolgourki family, one
OF the Oldest families in Russia.
Mime. Blavatsky. however, is noble,
not on account of her aristocfatic or
igin or high descent, but from the
part she has played in the establish
ment OF theosophy in India. There
Is something inexpressiblv bizarre
aud paradoxical about the strange
religious movement of which Nine.
Blavatsky is the founder. That a
womau-and that woman a Russian
should he the appointed agent for
the revival Of Occultism as a practical
religious faith / n our Indian empire
is n of the strangest phenomena of
our time.
Altogether apart from her peculiar
claim as leader of q. religious move
ment, which within the last few
years has displayed an astonishing
vitality, and, while numbering its
followers in ever capital in Europe, is
rapidly extending in Hindoslan,
Mme. Blavatsky is a figure we'll de-
serving attention. One of the great.
est travellers in the world there is
hardly any country which she has
not visited-there are few languages
which she does not speak. Her Eng
fish is not less fluent than if she had
been born in Westminster, and prob
ably a good deal more correct. Her
reading is extensive, aud her knowl,
edge even of the minutest details of
English speculative and religious
controversies is extraordinarily exact.
Her book, Isis Unveiled" is writ~
ten in English, and displays a vigor>
u grasp of our language as well as
a very great controversial vehe.
mence. She is contributing to the
leading Russian review, studies of
Indian social life and character, and
che has long been known as a learned |
correspondent of the Moscow Ga |
zette.
But all these mundane distractions
are as nothing compared with those
those mysterious attributes with !
which. in the opinion of believing
theosophists, she is invested. For
Nine. Blavatsky ia a woman who has
stood nearer than any other among
mortals outside Thibet-tothe secret
the universe. She it is who, after
passing through a long and toiIsome
novitiate, has been selected as the
chosen vessel by which their myste-
rlous Mahatmas have determined to
communicate some portion of their
Iealously guarded hoard of spirit lore
10 a generation which as vet dimly
perceives the need OF it. If we be-
lieve n quarter of the stories conf
1ently repeated by those who have
honor of Mme. Blavatsky's &C.
kuaintance, she lives in constant
communion with the unseen. Time
md space have no existence for her.
she is sitting on the divan in
MI. Sinnetts drawingroom, smoking.
Ter accustomed cigarette, she is hold
ng converse with her chiefs and
eachers who in actual flesh are riesid-
ng in the remotest glens of the
.lmalayas; nor is this communion ,
spiritual. At times the mes
age OF the Mahatma will be commit
ed to writing, and a small triangular
tote neatly folded, bearing the
Thibetan characters will
[lcker into existence from the i'm. /
air and fall at her feet. I
10 talk to Nine. Blavatsky is like l
eading 'Zanoni," with this differ +
nee, that Bulwer Lytton's hero is t
be creation of the romancing brain. Z
7hereas Nine. BIavatsky in flesh L
nd blood stoutly asserts that she her. u
Eli mas witnessed Or exercised all the n
Mysterious powers after which 8
'anonl sought. As for vriI, the fatal Il
ssence with which the coming RAGS 8
to be armed. Nine. Blavalsky is 81
ware not only of its properties and b
he conditions under which it can be r.
np]oyed, but she sees potential vril n
q every side and can employ it d
1ould the need arise for any bene. Il
clenG purpose. To the unin- II
lated and to those who 81
} yet are cropping darkly about Ii
le outer portal of the Theosophic G
ample. Nine. Blavatsky can nec> 1
sarily speak but in enigmas. Even IT
MI. Sinnett, the chief T%heosophjst pi
the London branch of the trna al
9llevers, b Is out allowed to COM SO
In part. Secrets too vast to
communicated to him lie hidden
ner soul, nor dare she venture to
l1old those occult mysteries which.
grasped by persons whose fitness
such powers has not been tested o
q long series of probationary tn
'ges. might prove disastrous 10 ths ~
'rld. she moves among men much ~
q who knew the secret of dvra. NJ
tie might haye lived in the middle ~
es. and she trembles as she thinks IL
the possibility that this dread seS -;
may some time fall into unhaI- "a
we'd hands, unnaA- tn
LOU