Old Diary Leaves – Volume III 1883 – 1887
By Henry Steel Olcott (1832 - 1907).
460 Pages | First printed 1904, second edition 1929, reprinted in 1972 | Hardcover | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 0835674800.
The first Volume of these historical sketches covered the period from the meeting of Madame Blavatsky (1831 - 1891) and myself, Henry Steel Olcott, in 1874, to our departure from New York for Bombay in December, 1878. The second Volume tells of our adventures in India and Ceylon, the formation of Branches, the giving of lectures, healings of the sick by hundreds, occult phenomena produced by H.P.B. etc., and brings us down to the Autumn of 1883: at this time we take up the thread of narrative, and go forward to the Month of May, 1887.
I think the reader will agree with me that the subject-matter of this third Volume possesses absorbing interest, quite equal to that in its two preceding Volumes, if not greater. Accounts are given among other things of my meetings with several of the 'Masters' in the course of my travels, and of the results of the same, of our removal of the Society's Headquarters from Bombay to Madras, of H.P.B.'s last departure from her beloved Indian home into exile of an European residence. The troublous time of the Coulomb conspiracy are dealt with in this Volume and the true story of the S.P.R.
From Chapter XXVII - 'The Opening Ceremony' (p. 403):
" We are together, Ladies and Gentlemen, upon an occasion that is likely to possess an historical interest in the world of modern culture. The foundation of a Library of such a character as this is among the rarest of events, indeed, it be not unique in modern times. We need not enumerate the great libraries of Western cities, with their millions of Volumes, for they are, rather, huge storehouses of books; not the collections of Oriental literature at the India Office, and in the Royal and National Museums of Europe; nor even the famed Saraswati Mahal, of Tanjore: all these have a character different from our Adyar Library, and do not compete with it. Ours has a definite purpose behind it, a specific line of utility marked out for it from the beginning. It is to be an adjunct to the work of the Theosophical Society; a means of helping to effect the object for which the Society was founded, and which is clearly stated in its constitution. Of the three declared aims of our Society, the first is to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, or color. The second is to promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions and sciences. "
Old Diary Leaves – Volume III 1883 – 1887
By Henry Steel Olcott (1832 – 1907).
460 Pages | First printed 1904, second edition 1929, reprinted in 1972 | Hardcover | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 0835674800.
The first Volume of these historical sketches covered the period from the meeting of Madame Blavatsky (1831 – 1891) and myself, Henry Steel Olcott, in 1874, to our departure from New York for Bombay in December, 1878. The second Volume tells of our adventures in India and Ceylon, the formation of Branches, the giving of lectures, healings of the sick by hundreds, occult phenomena produced by H.P.B. etc., and brings us down to the Autumn of 1883: at this time we take up the thread of narrative, and go forward to the Month of May, 1887.
I think the reader will agree with me that the subject-matter of this third Volume possesses absorbing interest, quite equal to that in its two preceding Volumes, if not greater. Accounts are given among other things of my meetings with several of the ‘Masters’ in the course of my travels, and of the results of the same, of our removal of the Society’s Headquarters from Bombay to Madras, of H.P.B.’s last departure from her beloved Indian home into exile of an European residence. The troublous time of the Coulomb conspiracy are dealt with in this Volume and the true story of the S.P.R.
From Chapter XXVII – ‘The Opening Ceremony’ (p. 403):
” We are together, Ladies and Gentlemen, upon an occasion that is likely to possess an historical interest in the world of modern culture. The foundation of a Library of such a character as this is among the rarest of events, indeed, it be not unique in modern times. We need not enumerate the great libraries of Western cities, with their millions of Volumes, for they are, rather, huge storehouses of books; not the collections of Oriental literature at the India Office, and in the Royal and National Museums of Europe; nor even the famed Saraswati Mahal, of Tanjore: all these have a character different from our Adyar Library, and do not compete with it. Ours has a definite purpose behind it, a specific line of utility marked out for it from the beginning. It is to be an adjunct to the work of the Theosophical Society; a means of helping to effect the object for which the Society was founded, and which is clearly stated in its constitution. Of the three declared aims of our Society, the first is to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, or color. The second is to promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions and sciences. “