hat the
same thing does not take place with us that has taken place with the
different religions of the past; we should take care--especially in an
era wherein ordinary science on the physical plane is pressing onwards
into the higher realms of the physical plane, and on to the very
threshold of the astral plane, and bids fair to cross that threshold
and demonstrate its teaching there--lest we, who claim to be in the
forefront of this great movement, do not fall into the background, and
become unworthy of carrying on the standard of knowledge. Therefore I
would claim for the Society its place as a seeker after new knowledge,
investigation by what we call clairvoyance, the definite and regular
carrying out of the third object, which has been far too much
neglected of late years; practically, where many years ago the Society
was leading the way in the investigation of the hidden laws in Nature
and the hidden powers in man, it now has to take a back seat with
regard to the contributions it is making under that particular object
for which amongst others it was founded. For more work has been done
of late years by the Psychical Research and similar Societies than by
the Theosophical Society, and that is neither right or wise--not
right, because as long as we keep such research as one of our objects
we ought to live up to it; not wise, because the lessons we have
learnt, the various theories we have studied, are better guides to
investigation than anything which the other Societies have, who have
not yet been able to formulate theories but are simply in the state of
collecting phenomena. For that reason it seems to me that the Society
can do work here which the others cannot. They collect and verify with
patient care masses of most interesting and valuable phenomena. The
work done by the late Mr. Gurney and Mr. Myers, and a large number of
their co-workers, is invaluable work from the standpoint of the
Theosophical student. But there is no order in it; there is no reason
in it. It is a mere chaos of facts, and they cannot explain or
correlate them. They cannot classify or place them in order. They have
no world-embracing knowledge which enables them to place each fact in
its own place, and to show the relation of one set of facts to the
other. There are splendid observations, but no co-ordination and
building of them into a science; and it seems to me that it is a duty
of the Theosophical Society, not only to deal with the fac