stupendous achievement of the adept as regards his own
personal interests;" and of course our own interests were all that I or
any of the other _mahatmas_ ever thought of. "He has reached," pursues
our author, "the farther shore of the sea in which so many of mankind
will perish. He waits there, in a contentment which people cannot even
realise without some glimmering of spirituality--the sixth
sense--themselves, for the arrival of his future companions." This is
perfectly true. I always found that the full enjoyment of this sixth
sense among _mahatmas_ was heightened just in proportion to the numbers
of other people who perish, so long as you were safe yourself.

Here among the Sisters, on the other hand, the principle which was
inculcated was, "Never mind if you perish yourself, so long as you can
save others;" and indeed the whole effort was to elaborate such a system
by means of the concentration of spiritual forces upon earth, as should
be powerful enough to redeem it from its present dislocated and unhappy
condition. To this end had the efforts of the Sisters been directed for
so many centuries, and I had reason to believe that the time was not far
distant when we should emerge from our retirement to be the saviours and
benefactors of the whole human race. It followed from this, of course,
that I retained all the supernatural faculties which I had acquired as a
_mahatma_, and which I now determined to use, not for my own benefit as
formerly, but for that of my fellow-creatures, and was soon able--thanks
to additional faculties, acquired under Ushas' tutorship--to flit about
the world in my astral body without inconvenience.

I happened to be in London on business the other day in this ethereal
condition, when Mr Sinnett's book appeared, and I at once projected it on
the astral current to Thibet. I immediately received a communication
from Ushas to the effect that it compelled some words of reply from the
sisterhood, and a few days since I received them. I regret that it has
been necessary to occupy so much of the reader's time with personal
details. They were called for in order that he should understand the
source of my information, and my peculiar qualifications for imparting
it. It will be readily understood, after my long connection with the
Thibetan brotherhood, how painful it must be to me to be the instrument
chosen not merely of throwing a doubt upon "the absolute truth concerning
nature, man, th