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I may be now permitted to examine, in detail, the adverse criticism to which this work has been subjected. It is necessary, however, that I should preface my remarks with a few words regarding the circumstances under which Mr. Sinnett came to write his book, and the sources from which the doctrines, therein embodied, were derived.
After Messrs. Hume and Sinnett were introduced to, and put in communication with, the Mahatmas, they commenced asking them questions on various subjects, first to satisfy their own curiosity, and probably also to gauge the depth of the knowledge, possessed by them, respecting religious and scientific subjects. It was not, and could not have been, their intention, at first, to construct a complete system of philosophy from the meagre answers elicited.
The questions were first asked through Mme. Blavatsky, who, fearing to commit herself by treading upon forbidden ground, submitted them to our Guru, Mahatma M—, who checked off most of the questions proposed, as subjects to be explained only to regular Chelas at later initiations, and permitted very little information to be given upon most of the queries. This restriction and secrecy provoked much discontent. Neither Mr. Sinnett nor Mr. Hume could understand such a "policy of selfishness" that allowed them only "painfully doled out glimpses of the hidden higher knowledge," it was "a sin in the Teachers not to communicate to the world all the knowledge they possess...' which "they are bound to give..." &c., &c., as Mr. Hume thought. Such accusations expressed publicly in the Theosophist (see Sept. 1882, p.324-6), raised, from the first, a great discontent among the Hindu Chelas, and called forth a Protest from them, in the same number of our Magazine. After much solicitation, Mahatma K. H., who had nothing to do with the instructions at first received, promised to give Mr. Sinnett such information and explanation as would be permitted by the strict rules of the Brotherhood. The idea of publication being an after thought, questions were often put at random. They were not certainly
