THEO. I am bound to answer you the truth. In Europe about half-a-dozen in all, out of more than that number of Branches.
ENQ. Then it is not true that the Theosophical Society has a large capital or endowment of its own?
THEO. It is false, for it has none at all. Now that the entrance fee of £1 and the small annual due have been abolished, it is even a doubtful question whether the staff at the headquarters in India will not soon be starved to death.
THEO. We are not the Salvation Army; we _cannot_ and _have never_ begged; nor have we ever followed the example of the Churches and sects and “taken up collections.” That which is occasionally sent for the support of the Society, the small sums contributed by some devoted Fellows, are all voluntary donations.
ENQ. But I have heard of large sums of money given to Mdme. Blavatsky. It was said four years ago that she got £5,000 from one rich, young “Fellow,” who went out to join them in India and £10,000 from another wealthy and well-known American gentleman, one of your members who died in Europe four years ago.
THEO. Say to those who told you this, that they either themselves utter, or repeat, a gross falsehood. _Never has_ “Madame Blavatsky” _asked or received_ ONE PENNY from the two above-named gentlemen, nor anything like that from anyone else, since the Theosophical Society was founded. Let any man living try to substantiate this calumny, and it will be easier for him to prove that the Bank of England is a bankrupt than that the said “Founder” has ever made any money out of Theosophy. These two calumnies have been started by two high-born ladies, belonging to the London aristocracy, and have been immediately traced and disproved. They are the dead bodies, the carcases of two inventions, which, after having been buried in the sea of oblivion, are once more raised on the surface of the stagnant waters of slander.
ENQ. Then I have been told of several large _legacies_ left to the T.S. One—some £8,000—was left to it by some eccentric Englishman, who did not even belong to the Society. The other—£3,000 or £4,000—were testated by an Australian F.T.S. Is this true?
THEO. I heard of the first; and I also know that, whether legally left or not, the T.S. has never profited by it, nor have the Founders ever been officially notified of it. For, as our Society was not then a chartered body, and thus had no legal existence, the Judge at the Court of Probate, as we were told, paid no attention to such legacy and turned over the sum to the heirs. So much for the first. As for the second, it is quite true. The testator was one of our devoted Fellows, and willed all he had to the T.S. But when the President, Colonel Olcott, came to look into the matter, he found that the testator had children whom he had disinherited for some family reasons. Therefore, he called a council, and it was decided that the legacy should be refused, and the moneys passed to the legal heirs. The Theosophical Society would be untrue to its name were it to profit by money to which others are entitled virtually, at any rate on Theosophical principles, if not legally.