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H.P. Blavatsky As I Knew Her

By Alice Leighton Cleather

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Foreword

EXACTLY a year ago in May 1922 I wrote the substance of my part of this book as a contribution to Mrs. Laura Langford's Helena Petrovna Blavatsky: Personal Recollections by Old Friends. We had hoped that her book would have been in the hands of the public about the same time as two books of my own, designed to justify H. P. B. and her Works, which were published last November. Owing, however, to unforeseen and unavoidable delays, Mrs. Langford's book is not yet in the hands of the publishers. 
But these apparently unavoidable delays would now seem to have been providential in their nature ; for at the end of last year a posthumous work by Mr. A. P. Sinnett1 who died in 1921 was given to the world by the Theosophical Publishing House, Ltd., London, which is, of course, under the aegis of Mrs. Besant. The nature of the book itself makes the fact of its publication by this House a surprising and somewhat anomalous one, since it obviously aims at destroying entirely the bona fides of H. P. Blavatsky, and of holding her up to the scorn and reprobation of posterity as nothing more than an ordinary medium, and a fraudulent one at that. From Mrs. Besant's point of view, however (for we may, I think, dismiss the preliminary " Note "as a clumsy piece of camouflage), its appearance at this juncture in the history of her " Theosophical Church," as Lord Ronaldshay has called it, 1 is far from inopportune and, from that point of view, explains much. This " Back to Blavatsky "Movement is becoming a substantial and growing menaceto " Neo-Theosophy."
As Mrs. Langford is mentioned by Mr. Sinnett several times, under her then name of Mrs. Holloway,she will owing to the delay in the publication of her book be able to deal with his incorrect and misleading statements concerning herself, and situations in whichshe played a prominent part, far more effectively thancould anyone else.
 It has, however, been thought advisable, in these circumstances, to issue my contribution to her book in advance, in a modified and curtailed form. For it will at once be seen that much that I wrote, a year ago, has a direct bearing on the numerous malicious and untrue statements made by Mr. Sinnett about H. P. B., andserve also to prove his utter incompetence to pronounceeven the most superficial judgment on one whomhe was inherently incapable of understanding. I have, however, asked Mr. Basil Crump, Barrister-at-Law, one of my colleagues in this work, to deal withMr. Sinnett's abominable production in an Addendum.He knew neither H. P. B. nor her latest traducer personally, and is consequently better fitted to treat the wholequestion from an impartial point of view. His long journalistic and legal training (he was Editor of the London Law Times for eleven years) have given him, moreover, the necessary experience in forming a balanced judgment of men and things. 
This book will, it is hoped, form a fitting companionvolume to my H. P, Blavatsky: Her Life and Work for Humanity, consisting, as it does, mainly of some of my own personal experiences with that great Soul, and therefore being complementary to the more general and world-wide aspect of her Work. Three of the illustrations are taken from photographs which have long been in my possession: The fourth is explained in the text. 
KUMAON HIMALAYAS A. L. C. May, 1923.
NOTE. Just as these pages go to press, I hear from Mrs. Langford that her book is now completed, and will be in the printer's hands not later than July. The special importance of Mrs. Langford's work lies in the fact that, owing to Mr. Sinnett's posthumous attack on H. P. B., she has felt it to be her duty to add documentary and personal evidence of the greatest value, Which otherwise she would never have given to the world.