Spurned the Substance and Clutched the Shadow

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Theosophy and Theosophists Series · 24 pages

Twenty-four pages with a contents page of key concepts, arranged in *short headed sections, most of them a page or two* — which makes it one of the more readable long files in this section and something close to a collection of aphorisms with commentary.

The first half is headed Wisdom of Truth versus sham Theosophy and its section titles carry the argument: shall we winnow the corn but feed upon the chaff; the wise man courts truth, the fool flattery; a weird tale which may have a sequel in court; ye spurned the substance and have clutched the shadow; ignorance not altogether bliss; the genus infidel and its varieties; and do not start two hares at once. The mixture of the mordant and the practical is characteristic, and the reference to a possible sequel in court is a reminder of how bitter some of these disputes became. The second half is headed The Spirit of Truth can never lie or die and is dedicated, with some edge, to those members of the Society whom the cap may fit. Its sections include an observation that great professors love pontificating, and the line that is the shrewdest thing in the file and applies well beyond its own quarrels: a wicked, groundless slander is often forgiven and even forgotten, but a truth told is never forgiven. Because every section is separately headed and paginated, the file can be dipped into rather than read straight through, and a reader looking for Blavatsky at her most trenchant will find her here.

Read the full text (PDF, 1.4 MB, 24 pages)