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own, which enwraps my brain like a cloud. . . . Ah, but I really cannot explain
everything!"13
Again writing to her relatives, she states:
"When I wrote Isis I wrote it so easily that it was certainly no labor but a
real pleasure. Why should I be praised for it? Whenever I am told to write I sit
down and obey, and then I can write easily upon almost anything-metaphysics,
psychology, philosophy, ancient religions, zoölogy, natural sciences or what
not. I never put myself the question: 'Can I write on this subject?' . . .or,
'Am I equal to the task?' but I simply sit down and write. Why? Because someone
who knows all dictates to me. My Master and occasionally others whom I knew on
my travels years ago. . . . I tell you candidly, that whenever I write upon a
subject I know little or nothing of, I address myself to them, and one of them
inspires me, i.e., he allows me to simply copy what I write from manuscripts,
and even printed matter, that pass before my eyes, in the air, during which
process I have never been unconscious one single instant."14
To her aunt she wrote:
"At such times it is no more I who write, but my inner Ego, my 'luminous Self,'
who thinks and writes for me. Only see . . . you who know me. When was I ever so
learned as to write such things? Whence was all this knowledge?"
Whatever the actual authorship of the two volumes may have been, their
publication stirred such wide-spread interest that the first editions were swept
up at once, and Bouton, the publisher, was taken off guard, there being some
delay before succeeding editions of the bulky tomes could be issued.
Professional reviewers were not so generous; but the press critics were frankly
intrigued into something like praise.15
Years after the publication of Isis, Mr. Emmette Coleman, a former Theosophist
and contributor to current magazines, stated that he spent three years upon a
critical and exhaustive examination of the sources used by Madame Blavatsky in
her various works. He attempted to discredit the whole Theosophic movement by
casting doubt upon the genuineness of her knowledge. He accused her of outright
plagiarism and went to great pains to collect and present his evidence. In 1893
he published his data. We quote the following passage from his statement:
"In Isis Unveiled, published in 1877, I discovered some 2,000 passages copied
from other books without proper credit. By careful analysis I found that in
compiling Isis about 100 books were used. About 1,400 books are quoted from and
referred to in this work; but, from the 100 books which its author possessed,
she copied everything in Isis taken from and relating to the other 1,300. There
are in Isis about 2,100 quotations from and references to books that were
copied, at second-hand, from books other than the originals; and of this number
only about 140 are credited to the books from which Madame Blavatsky copied them
at second-hand. The others are quoted in such a manner as to lead the reader to
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think that Madame Blavatsky had read and utilized the original works, and had
quoted from them at first-hand,--the truth being that these originals had
evidently never been read by Madame Blavatsky. By this means many readers of
Isis . . . have been misled into thinking Madame Blavatsky an enormous reader,
possessed of vast erudition; while the fact is her reading was very limited, and
her ignorance was profound in all branches of knowledge."16
Coleman went on to assert that "not a line of the quotations" made by H.P.B.
ostensibly from the Kabala, from the old-time mystics at the time of Paracelsus,
from the classical authors, Homer, Livy, Ovid, Virgil, Pliny, and others, from
the Church Fathers, from the Neo-Platonists, was taken from the originals, but
all from second-hand usage. He charged her with having picked all these passages
out of modern books scattered throughout which she found the material from a
wide range of ancient authorship. The reader of Isis will readily find her many
references to modern authors. Coleman mentioned a half dozen standard works that
she used; it is well worth while glancing at a fuller list. She had read, or was
more or less familiar with: King's Gnostics; Jennings' Rosicrucians; Dunlop's
Sod, and Spirit History of Man; Moor's Hindu Pantheon; Ennemoser's History of
Magic; Howitt's History of the Supernatural; Salverte's Philosophy of Magic;
Barrett's Magus; Col. H. Yule's The Book of Ser Marco Polo; Inman's Pagan and
Modern Christian Symbolism and Ancient Faiths and Modern; the anonymous The
Unseen Universe and Supernatural Religion; Bunsen's Egypt's Place in Universal
History; Lundy's Monumental Christianity; Horst's Zauber-Bibliothek; Cardinal
Wiseman's Lectures on Science and Religion; Draper's The Conflict of Science
with Religion; Dupuis' Origin of All the Cults; Bailly's Ancient and Modern
Astronomy; Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Des Mousseaux's Roman
Catholic writings on Magic, Mesmerism, Spiritualism; Eliphas Levi's works;
Jacolliot's twenty-seven volumes on Oriental systems; Max Müller's, Huxley's,
Tyndall's, and Spencer's works.
It is hardly to be doubted that Madame Blavatsky culled many of her ancient gems
from these works, and she probably felt that it was a matter of minor importance
how she came by them. What she was bent on saying was that the ancients had said
these things and that they were confirmatory of her general theses. Yet
Coleman's findings must not be disregarded. His work brought into clearer light
the meagreness of her resources and her lack of scholarly preparation for so
pretentious a study.
We have adduced the several hypotheses that have been advanced to account for
the writing of Isis Unveiled. It must be left for the reader to arrive at what
conclusion he can on the basis of the material presented. We pass on to an
examination of the contents.
A hint as to the aim of the work, is given in the sub-title: A Master-key to the
Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology. She says:
"The work now submitted to the public judgment is the fruit of a somewhat
intimate acquaintance with Eastern Adepts and study of their science. It is a
work on magico-spiritual philosophy and occult science. It is an attempt to aid
the student to detect the vital principles which underlie the philosophical
systems of old."17
She affirms it to be her aim "to show that the pretended authorities of the West
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