The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-12-11

was III indo0 In her last incarnation and
only got into an English body for special
mission.
All this has fairly startled the intellectual
world. for her change of base has been bold,
brilliant, and proclaimed from the very
housetops. And each new position taken
has bern defended by logic so acute and
an eloquence so stirring that even her CD
ponents can not class hers as the weather
cock shifting of an empty mind. She has
forced respect IL not acceptance for her
new views.
II is small wonder, in the face of such an
intellectual somersault, that she is talked
about. Adherence to creed and dogma,
once ole has become identified with them,
Is an unwritten bat recogn jzed canon of the
Western world. Even a partial change of
belief is regarded as symptom of cerebral
Soitening by those who mistake mere OBJ
stinaey for frmness and consistency. In
the eyes OF all these Annie Besant has
sinned the objectionable sin,
Her ancestry Is all that the most exscting
wOrshipers of "hlue blo0d" can REQUIRE. On
her mothers side she is Irish, aud traces
lineage 10 those kings which every patriotic
freshman considers a genealogical necessity.
/ he name was Maurice; anglieized Into
Morris i've generations since. On her
fathers side she is half-ITish aud haif-Eng-
lish, and has for blood relatives knights,
baronets. etc, in prOfusiOn. A brother is
Sir Henry Wood-hsr fathers name was
Nood-who IS secretary of the Society of
Arts of London. Another relative was
Lord Mayor of London, and afterward
made baronet for paying the debts of the
Duke ofkent, thus permitting the heir TO
the throne OF England to be born on English
soil. Still another rose to be Lord II gh
Chancellor OF England; another to be q
mamber of Parliament, etc.
IL is not. however, because OF knighty or
even kingly blood in her veins that Annie
Besant is entitled to the respect OF Amert-
cans. but for the yeoman service she has
rendered to the canse of intellectual and
religious liberty. From the hour when she
was forbidden the protection of her hus-
bands home because her conscience would
not permit her to take the sacrament she
has been engaged in a long warfare against
wrong and injustice parading under the
cloak OF both legal aud religious" sane
ton. How much every mother owes her is
shown by the fact that from her were torn
her own children because she, pure,
womanly, untouched by even the breath OF
SANDER. was legally" adjudged unfit to
have them in her charge! This, in the full
blaze OF our nineteenth century enlightened
"civiliZatiOnf' No act of the dark ages was
ever more fiendishly cruel, and the sympa-
thy she aroused has made a repetition of
the cruelty Impossible in England. at least
Deprived OF personal outlet for her large
sympathies. she took up the cause of the
poor and oppressed with all the greater
vlgor. Among the poor of London she has
become an idol. She joined the Secularsts,
ana was for many years the faithful Co
worker OF the English giant, Charles
Bradlaugh. She flooded England with
tracts attacking the creeds OF the church
this work being no doubt made more bitter
By the fact that her unfaIthful husband was
himself clergyman-a brother of the nov
elist, Walter Besant. She made and won
the fight for the London match girls: rose
tn be a member Of the London School
Board; and amidst all these varied expert
ences of her life acquired such reputation
for honesty and sincerity that no one
doubted her word when she declared that
she had received ''precipitated" communi-
cations from the theoSophical Mahatmas,
although since the death OF Nine. Biavatsky
the latter had been charged with fraud ON
this account in all quarters.
She became a theOSOphiSt through re-
viewing. for a London magazine, the "Se-
cret Doctrine" OF Nine. Biavatsky, thus af-
fordng another instance of an enemy be-
eomtnga convert to this philosophy through
investigation for hostile purposes. Yet the
conversion and change of opinion was more
imaginary than real. An honest agnostic.
she was hungry for light and when it came
she accepted Is, for ii was but the beliefs of
science, enlarged and carried over into spir-
itual as well as scientific domains. Between
LIBERAL and advanced agnostics and theo-
sophists there is much in common, and none
can show this more clearly than she.
AS an orator she stands without peer
among her own sex, and is second to 10 liv-
ing man. Her eloauence is logical. master
fui and soul-stirring. She accounts for
this by declaring that she was public
speaker IN her last incarnation. Be this as
II may, that she Is master of her vocation in
this life Is certain. Friend and foe alike
aceede this point. and few care to meet her
on the equality of public rostrum. The
charm of her manner. coupled with her
marvellous eloquence. disarms even those
who most disagree with her views.
The topic of her lectures here will be
theosophy under its various aspects
karma. reincarnation, Mahatmas, Adopts,
Nirvana, aud host OF equally stran ge
things will be handled.
With all her lighting qualities, she is
womauly and sweet, and twenty years upon
the rostrum has not hardened nor unsexed
her, Twice wounded by stones thrown by
opponents, in danger of her life upon many
occasions. she has shown the qualities of
patient courage and endurance which.
coupled with her high intellectual ability
and purity OF character, fully entitle her to
the mantle which is said to have fallen
upon her shoulders at the death of Nine.
blavatsky. JEROME A. ANDERSON.