Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett - 1925
By A. T. Barker
COMPILERS PREFACE
The letters here presented to the reader, written by the Founder of the Theosophical Society between the years 1880-1888, are intended to form a companion volume to the recently published Mahatma Letters, and should be read in conjunction with that work. They have been transcribed direct from the originals and without omission except for the occasional deletion of a name where-ever for obvious reasons it was absolutely necessary to do so. Contrary to the method employed in The Mahatma Letters, the compiler has permitted himself to correct obvious errors of spelling and punctuation, as these were too numerous to ignore, and no useful purpose could be served by leaving them unedited. Here and there in the text a word appears in square brackets. This always indicates that the word is either superfluous, or has been added by the compiler to make the sentence comprehensible. It should be understood that all footnotes are part of the original letters, unless signed "Ed.," in which case they have been added by the compiler. With these necessary exceptions the letters are presented to the reader, as already stated, unaltered.
In Section I are to be found exclusively the Letters of Madame Blavatsky arranged as far as possible in chronological order.
Section II contains all the Miscellaneous Letters of interest left by Mr. Sinnett, arranged under the names of the different writers in numbered sub-sections. Some of these have additional value owing to the marginal comments by the Mahatmas M. and K. H.
In Sub-section VIII are included some short notes from M. and K. H. which were overlooked in preparing The Mahatma Letters. They are now published not so much for their intrinsic value, but because in his Introduction to that volume the compiler stated that the whole of the Mahatma Letters left by Mr. Sinnett were then published, and his statement, inaccurate to this extent is hereby made good.
The Appendixes contain: I. An Article by Eliphas Levi on "Death," which is of particular value because it has comments in Master K. H.'s writing in the margin of the printed page of the magazine in which it originally appeared.
II. Cosmological Notes from Mr. Sinnett's MS. Book. One version of these notes which does not agree exactly with the MS. book from which his copies were presumably drawn, has already been published by Mr. Jinarajadasa. Although the differences may possibly not be regarded as serious, it is thought that students would be glad to have the opportunity of reading them just as they were left by Mr. Sinnett, and for that reason they are included in the present volume. The material contained in the two volumes was left all together in one box by Mr. Sinnett, and the whole of its contents are now in print with the exception of some miscellaneous correspondence by various writers which is not of sufficient interest to warrant publication. There must be, however, scattered about the world a number of H.P.B.'s letters in the keeping of different people, and it is greatly to be hoped that in the interest of the Movement steps will be taken to publish them.
The compiler takes this opportunity of acknowledging his indebtedness to several friends for painstaking and careful work in checking the originals with the printed proofs, and also for the compilation of the Index.
A. T. B.
