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understanding of the whole, were not even mentioned in the book so severely criticized by Mr. E. Maitland—simply because they could not be given to Mr. Sinnett.*[1] With these meagre materials, he undertook to write a book, and give the public in general, and the Theosophists in particular, an approximately correct conception of the system of Esoteric Science and Philosophy in the keeping of the "great Teachers of the Snowy Range." That he did as well as he has, is as surprising as it is highly creditable to his acute intelligence. But a complete system of Esoteric Philosophy which may be accepted as "a perfect system of thought and rule of life" must not only be able to explain fully and clearly the nature of the primal causes in the Cosmos and their ultimate effects in the manifested system, and to trace the whole current of evolution, in all its aspects, from its commencement up to the time of Pralaya, but also supply every individual with such a
- ↑ * The specification implied in the second word of the title is itself misleading to all those who are not aware that "Buddhism" in this application refers entirely to the universal secret Wisdom,—meaning spiritual enlightenment—and not at all to the religion now popularly known as the philosophy of Gautama Buddha. Therefore, to set off Esoteric Christianity against Esoteric Buddhism (in the latter sense) is simply to offer one part of the whole against another such part—not one specified religion or philsophy the world over, having now the right to claim that it has the whole of the Esoteric truth. Brahmavidya (which is not Brahmanism or any of its numerous sects) and Guptavidya—the ancient and secret Wisdom-Religion, the inheritance of the Initiates of the inner Temple—have alone such a right. No doubt, Mrs. Kingsford, the gifted author of "The Perfect Way," is the most competent person in all Europe—I say it advisedly and unhesitatingly—to reveal the hidden mysteries of real Christianity. But, no more than Mr. Sinnett is she an initiate, and cannot, therefore, know anything about a doctrine, the real and correct meaning of which no amount of natural seership can reveal, as it lies altogether beyond the regions accessible to untrained seers. If revealed, its secrets would, for long years, remain utterly incomprehensible even to the highest physical sciences. I hope, this may not be construed into a desire of claiming any great knowledge for myself; for I certainly do not possess it. All that I seek to establish is, that such secrets do exist, and that, outside of the initiates, no one is competent to prove, much less to disprove, the doctrines now given out through Mr. Sinnett.—H. P. Blavatsky.
