St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-06-10

under which in each of five centuries past,
earnest, but feeble efforts have been made in
Europe to spread its knowledge. The
Theosophists affirm that while under cyclic
laws prevailing in the course of evolution, it
was inevitable that those unavailing efforts
should be made, their futility was well known
beforehand to the lofty intelligences-vari-
onsly styled "Adepts," Masters, "Avahats,"
"Mabatmas'' or "Rishis"-who are the con-
SENATORS of the Ancient Wisdom, and whose
mission it is to eventually make it the COM
mon knowledge of the human race. But the
present era, the last quarter of this nine
teenth century, was known to them as the
time when the world would be ripe for re-
ceiving these truths and so far accepting
them that permanent barrier would be
raised against the avalanche of materialism
which threatened to crush spirituality out Of
the heart of the race. Just why this partic-
ular point in time should have been fixed
upon, this ending of one of the secondary
cycles in the "Kali Yuga," or Dark Age $50
called because in it the domination of matter
over spirit is greatest), would be difficult of
explanation without such philosophic and
metaphysical elaboration as would be out OF
place in this article. But, in an age wherein
things are judged solely by their results, the
wisdom. of selection will hardly admit of
question when the achievements and pres
emit status of theosephy are realized. Al
ready, five years ago the eminent French
author, Burnouf, recognized ''the Theosophic
as one of the three great movements Of the
world" And it's spread. since then, has been
astonishing, it's influences stupendous.
MI For
Parliament of Religions in Chicago, only a
small hall, one of the smallest, was assigned
to the Theosophists "That will be as much
as they can fill,' was said. But it was speed
lily found that the vast .sHall of Washington
their largest, was insufficient to hold the
thousands interested in the new cult, and an
other of the big halls had to be given for an
"overhow" meeting. The incident was sig
nificant and Illustrative of the place theos-
ophy has made for itself among the worlds
beliefs.
The agent employed by the Adopts to start
the movement in the Western world-accept-
ing the theosorhic view of events-was
Helena P. Blavatsky, Russian woman en-
dowed with mighty energy, indomitable will,
indefatigable perseverance and truly Won
drous resources of learning. Many persons
conversant with her extraordinary powers,
credited her with high degree of adeptship,
but she never admitted that she was anything
more than a "chela"-or student assigned
as messenger to do the Masters will. tits
not easy to imagine that her great books
Isis Unveiled" and "The Secret Doctrine,
were the work of any woman, or indeed of
any human mind, even the most cultured
known in all the ages and there seems to be
in them at least inherent probability of in
SEPARATION from the mysterious source to
which she credited all her work.
The first meeting for organization Of a
theosophical society was held in New York
on September 8, 1875. W. Q. Judge, now
general secretary of the American section of
the society, was temporary chairman of that
meeting, at which only sixteen persons were
present, and upon his motion Colonel Henry
s. Olcott was made permanent chairman
and subsequently president of the society.
Now, in a little over eighteen years the
society has 1922 active branches" lin Amer
ica Sc; Europe, 4S; Australia, 10; ASIA 175),
and in addition, 80 ''centers,' or nuclei Of
branches. New ones are also forming con-
stantly in all parts of the world. But the
number of avowed believers in the philosophy
taught as theosophic is by no means limited
to the membership in the society, which is
comparatively small while those whose pre-
conceived beliefs have been insensiby modi-
fed and moulded to conformity with its
teachings, are yet more numerous. Inf1a-
ftely various reasons exist in many minds
for hesitancy in openly assuming the respon-
sibility of belonging to an organization which
is in some regards radical departure from
orthodoxy, but the enormous demand for
theosophie literature, the large audiences
attracted to expositions of theosophic beliefs
by public speakers, and the very noticeable
influence of these teachings upon pulpit
utterances, literary thought, and even direc-
ton OF scientific research, all evidence that
the worlds interest finds no measure Of ex-
preston in the growth of the Theosophical
Society, phenomenal as that is.