Franz Hartmann: Introduction to
"Theosophy and Theosophists"
In July 1895, Franz Hartmann had published in the pages of Borderland magazine a letter detailing his experiences and understanding of Theosophy and Theosophists. This letter was in response to various acquaintances of H.P. Blavatsky who had commented in Borderland on her work and her character. All this was precipitated by a review of Lillie's Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophy, and a review of the translation of Solovyoff's A Modern Priestess of Isis. These reviews and commentaries displayed much ignorance and lost faith towards Theosophy and its founder, to which Dr. Hartmann felt need to respond. One of the commentators, St. George Lane-Fox spoke of his time at Adyar with Hartmann when the Coulomb affair was unfolding. Dr. Hartmann uses this commentary as a means to present the other side. His letter, printed in full, follows this.
After detailing his appointment to a "Board of Control" along with Hartmann and several others, to make day to day decisions at Adyar during Olcott's and Blavatsky's absence, Lane-Fox tells us of Blavatsky's distrust of the Coulombs and of his own discovery of Madame Coulomb's mercenary nature. Lane-Fox then goes on to say:
On their expulsion from the Society, the Coulombs proceeded to make terms with the Madras Christian College Magazine for the publication of a series of articles attacking Madame Blavatsky and the Society. In these articles it was stated that the Coulombs had, on their own confession, conspired with Madame Blavatsky in the fraudulent production of "Occult Phenomena." To what extent this story of the Coulombs is correct I am unable exactly to say; but of this there can be no doubt that they were manifestly untrustworthy witnesses; and that their motives for making the attack were of the lowest. It was no love of truth or justice that actuated them; they appealed for support to sectarian prejudice and hatred; and they traded on that vulgar superstition which assumes that all abnormal psychic phenomena are obviously impossible, and that it is only fools that could ever think them otherwise.
With regard to Madame Blavatsky's character, I maintain to this day that she had many noble qualities and aspirations; that in spite of numerous aberrations her purpose was in the main, lofty and benevolent. Her life presented many striking paradoxes, for she had but imperfectly broken loose from the bonds of conventional usage, thus losing its guidance and support without having previously gained the strength of character or purity of heart necessary to enable her to steer a clear course independently. By her strange experiences her mind had become unbalanced; while she was so imbued with the Eastern doctrine of the illusory nature of the phenomenal world, that she had brought herself to believe that a little deception, more or less, was a matter of no great consequence. I maintain, moreover, notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, that she was a "physical medium"; that she had to deal at times with psychic phenomena of an extraordinary kind, and she not infrequently fell a victim to an error of which she was fond of warning others, that of assuming all abnormal communications from an unseen world to be, of necessity, infallible revelations from on high. All these are considerations which make me pause before proceeding to judge her. . . . The point, therefore, upon which I wish to insist is this, Madame Blavatsky's career as a spiritual teacher was a failure merely, not a living lie.
Let me add a few words about "The Talking Image of Urur," from which Mr. Lillie quotes largely in his book. I saw a good deal of Dr. Hartmann, both before and after I left the society -- soon after the Coulomb business. I tried to persuade him that he ought properly to leave the society, as I had done. I pointed out that my faith in Madame Blavatsky as a philosopher had been completely shattered, and I could, therefore, no longer accept her as a guide. I pointed out that inasmuch as the society and Madame Blavatsky were inextricably mixed up, they must stand or fall together. Dr. Hartmann, however, said that, for his part, he should stick to the society, as he thought it might yet be redeemed and become a great power for good; and it was with this purpose in view that he was then writing the amusing satire from which you have quoted. When finished, "The Talking Image of Urur" was sent by the author to Madame Blavatsky, and, indeed, it is to her credit that she should have had the courage to publish it in Lucifer, a monthly magazine of which she was the editor and founder.
The vagaries of the Theosophical Society have, no doubt, been instrumental in disgusting many earnest seekers after spiritual light; no doubt, too, that superficial thinkers have found in them additional reasons for proclaiming all spiritual inquiry, mischievous or futile; but I cannot help thinking that, in spite of all this, the work of the society and of its exposers, has done much to prepare the ground for a new movement with similar aims, which, let us hope, will be conducted by nobler and purer methods.
Franz Hartmann remained faithful to the Theosophical Cause as founded by H.P.B. and to his friendship with her right up to his death. He wrote prolifically and worked tirelessly in order to encourage people to start their own journey along the Path.