ENQ. But why should the clergy be hostile to you, when, after all, the main tendency of the Theosophical doctrines is opposed to Materialism, the great enemy of all forms of religion in our day? THEO. The Clergy opposed us on the general principle that “He who is not with me is against me.” Since Theosophy does not agree with any one Sect or Creed, it is considered the enemy of all alike, because it teaches that they are all, more or less, mistaken. The missionaries in India hated and tried to crush us because they saw the flower of the educated Indian youth and the Brahmins, who are almost inaccessible to them, joining the Society in large numbers. And yet, apart from this general class hatred, the T.S. counts in its ranks many clergymen, and even one or two bishops.
ENQ. And what led the S.P.R. to take the field against you? You were both pursuing the same line of study, in some respects, and several of the Psychic Researchers belonged to your society.
THEO. First of all we were very good friends with the leaders of the S.P.R.; but when the attack on the phenomena appeared in the _Christian College Magazine_, supported by the pretended revelations of a menial, the S.P.R. found that they had compromised themselves by publishing in their “Proceedings” too many of the phenomena which had occurred in connection with the T.S. Their ambition is to pose as an _authoritative_ and _strictly scientific_ body; so that they had to choose between retaining that position by throwing overboard the T.S. and even trying to destroy it, and seeing themselves merged, in the opinion of the Sadducees of the _grand monde_, with the “credulous” Theosophists and Spiritualists. There was no way for them out of it, no two choices, and they chose to throw us overboard. It was a matter of dire necessity for them. But so hard pressed were they to find any apparently reasonable motive for the life of devotion and ceaseless labour led by the two Founders, and for the complete absence of any pecuniary profit or other advantage to them, that our enemies were obliged to resort to the thrice-absurd, eminently ridiculous, and now famous “Russian spy theory,” to explain this devotion. But the old saying, “The blood of the martyr is the seed of the Church,” proved once more correct. After the first shock of this attack, the T.S. doubled and tripled its numbers, but the bad impression produced still remains. A French author was right in saying, “_Calomniez, calomniez toujours et encore, il en restera toujours quelque chose._” Therefore it is, that unjust prejudices are current, and that everything connected with the T.S., and especially with its Founders, is so falsely distorted, because based on malicious hearsay alone.