The Society's Objects and Early Accomplishments

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Theosophy and Theosophists Series · 17 pages

Seventeen pages with a contents page and central ideas, *arranged as seven numbered sections* so a reader can go straight to the part they want. It covers much the same ground as "The aims and mission of the Theosophical Society" in this batch, but from the other end: where that file reviews the objects, this one lists the accomplishments.

The grievance comes first, and it explains the file's existence. The declared objects and principles are, she says, not merely unobjectionable but admirably calculated to do good to mankind — yet assorted conspirators and calumniators have kept a multitude of religiously inclined persons from the happiness they would have had by understanding theosophy as it really is and making it the guiding rule of their conduct. The seven sections then set out the record. The first is loyalty to the objects and principles. The second, the rekindling of religious feeling and aspiration. The third states the three officially declared objects of the Society, which is useful to have in one place. The fourth and fifth divide the achievements geographically, in India and the Far East and then in Europe. The sixth is the revival of oriental literature — the work of translation and publication that this whole website is in some sense a continuation of. The seventh is the investigation of hidden forces in nature and man, which was the third object and always the most contested. Because each section is separately headed and paginated, the file works as a reference: someone wanting to know what the Society claimed to have accomplished by the late 1880s, and in what order it ranked those claims, will find the answer here more quickly than anywhere else in this section.

Read the full text (PDF, 0.8 MB, 17 pages)