Theosophical Society,
THE
LIFE OF
H P Blavatsky
Mr Bertram Keightley’s Account
of
The Writing of "The Secret Doctrine."
This
account was first published in “Reminiscences of H.P. Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine” by the Countess Constance Wachtmeister. 1893
The
first I saw of The Secret Doctrine manuscript was on a visit paid to H.P.B. at
During
the few days I then spent at
On
a second visit a week or two later, this impression was confirmed by further
examination; but as H.P.B. then consented to come and settle in or near London
as soon as arrangements could be made for her reception, nothing further was done about it at the time.
Not
long after my return to
The
move was effected without any untoward event, though the packing up of her
books, papers, MSS., etc., was a truly terrible undertaking, for she went on
writing till the very last moment, and as sure as any book, paper, or portion
of MSS. had been carefully packed away at the bottom of some box, so surely
would she urgently need it, and insist upon its being disinterred at all costs.
However, we did get packed at last, reached Maycot, and
before we had been two hours in the house, H.P.B. had her writing materials out
and was hard at work again. Hr power of
work was amazing ; from early morning till late in the
evening she sat at her desk, and even when so ill that most people would have
been lying helpless in bed, she toiled resolutely away at the task she had
undertaken.
A
day or two after our arrival at Maycot, H.P.B. placed
the whole of. the so-far completed MSS. in the hands of.Dr. Keightley and myself,
instructing us to read, punctuate, correct the English, alter, and generally
treat it as if it were our own - which we naturally did not do, having far too
high an opinion of her knowledge to take any liberties with so important a
work.
But
we both read the whole mass of MSS. - a pile over three feet high - most
carefully through, correcting the English and punctuation where absolutely
indispensable, and then, after prolonged consultation, faced the author in her
den - in my case with sore trembling, I remember - with the solemn opinion that
the whole of the matter must be re-arranged on some definite plan, since as it
stood the book was another Isis Unveiled, only far worse, so far as absence of
plan and consecutiveness were concerned.
After
some talk, H.P.B. told us to go to Tophet and do what
we liked. She had had more than enough of the blessed thing, had given it over to.us, washed her hands thereof entirely, and we might get
out of it as best we could.
We
retired and consulted. Finally we laid before her a plan, suggested by the
character of the matter itself, viz., to make the work consist of four volumes,
each divided into three parts: (I) the
Stanzas and Commentaries thereon; (2) Symbolism; (3) Science. Further, instead
of making the first volume to consist, as she had intended, of the history of
some great Occultists, we advised her to follow the natural order of exposition,
and begin with the Evolution of Cosmos, to pass from that to the Evolution of
Man, then to deal with the historical part in a third volume treating of the
lives of some great Occultists; and finally, to speak of Practical Occultism in
a fourth volume should she ever be able to write it. This plan we laid before H.P.B., and it was duly sanctioned by her.
The
next step was to read the MSS. through again and make a general re-arrangement
of the matter pertaining to the subjects coming under the heads of Cosmogony
and Anthropology, which were to form the first two volumes of the work. When
this had been completed, and H.P.B. duly consulted, and her approval of what
had been done obtained, the whole of the MSS. so arranged was typewritten out
by professional hands, then re-read, corrected, compared with the original
MSS., and all Greek, Hebrew, and Sanskrit quotations inserted by us. It then
appeared that the whole of the Commentary on the Stanzas did not amount to more
than some twenty pages of the present work, as H.P.B. had not stuck closely to
her text in writing. So we seriously interviewed her, and suggested that she
should write a proper commentary, as in her opening words she had promised her
readers to do. Her reply was characteristic: "What on earth am I to say ? What do you want to know? Why it's all as plain as the
nose on your face! ! !" We could not see it; she
didn't - or made out she didn't - so we retired to reflect.
As
an interpolation, I had better state here that in the autumn of 1887 - October,
if I remember aright - we all moved into London, to 17, Lansdowne Road, Notting Hill, where the Countess Wachtmeister,
who had been on a visit to Sweden ever since H..P.B. left
The
solution was this: - Each sloka of the stanzas was
written (or cut out from the type-written copy) and pasted at the head of a
sheet of paper, and then on a loose sheet pinned thereto were written all the
questions we could find time to devise upon that sloka.
In this task Mr. Richard. Harte helped us very
considerably, a large proportion of the questions put being of his devising.
H.P.B. struck out large numbers of them, made us write fuller explanations, or
our own ideas - such as they were - of what her readers expected her to say,
wrote more herself, incorporated the little she had already written on that
particular sloka, and so the work was done.
But
when we came to think of sending the MSS. to the printers, the result was found
to be such that the most experienced compositor would tear his hair in blank
dismay. Therefore Dr. Keightley and myself set to work with a type-writer, and alternately
dictating and writing, made a clean copy of the first parts of
Then
work was continued till parts II. and III. of each volume were in a fairly advanced condition, and we
could think of sending the work to press.
It
had originally been arranged that Mr. George Redway
should publish the work, but his proposals not being financially satisfactory,
the needful money was offered by a friend of H.P.B.'s,
and it was resolved to take the publication of Lucifer into our own hands. So
the Duke Street office was taken, and business begun there, the primary object
being to enable the T, S. to derive the utmost possible benefit from H.P.B.'s writings.
Of
the further history of The Secret Doctrine there is not much more to say -
though there were months of hard work before us. H.P.B. read and corrected two
sets of galley proofs, then a page proof, and finally a revise in sheet,
correcting, adding, and altering up to the very last moment: - result: printer's bill for corrections alone over 300
[pounds].
Of
phenomena in connection with The Secret Doctrine, I have very little indeed to
say. Quotations with full references, from books which were never in the house
- quotations verified after hours of search, sometimes, at the
In
verifying them I found occasionally the curious fact that the numerical
references were reversed, e.g., p. 321 for p. 123, illustrating the reversal of
objects when seen in the astral light. But beyond such instances of clairvoyant
vision, I have no further phenomena directly bearing upon the production of The
Secret Doctrine to record.
Finally
I must not omit the valuable assistance which was rendered by Mr. E. D.
Fawcett. Before I went to
Of
the value of the work, posterity must judge finally. Personally I can only
place on record my profound conviction that when studied thoroughly but not
treated as a revelation, when understood and assimilated but not made a text
for dogma, H.P.B.'s Secret Doctrine will be found of
incalculable value, and will furnish suggestions, clues, and threads of
guidance, for the study of Nature and Man, such as no other existing work can
supply.
Theosophical Society,