Criticism and Authorities, by an Unpopular Philosopher

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Blavatsky Speaks Series · 8 pages

One of three pieces in this section published under the byline An Unpopular Philosopher, and printed in Lucifer in September 1892, more than a year after her death. Its subject is the advice she was constantly given: that theosophists and the editors of theosophical periodicals should beware of giving offence to authorities, scientific or social, because public opinion is the most dangerous of all foes and criticism of it is fatal.

The counter-argument is short and rests on reciprocity. It is precisely because theosophists would themselves be judged, and court impartial criticism, that they begin by rendering that service to others. Mutual criticism she calls a most healthy policy, which helps establish final and definite rules in life — practical rules, not merely theoretical ones, of which she says we have had enough. The observation she uses to close the point is characteristically double-edged: that the Bible is full of wholesome advice, and that few are the Christians who have ever applied any of its ethics. The frontispiece is Pere Borrell del Caso's trompe-l'oeil Escaping Criticism, which is a better joke than it first appears.

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