red her for the work she had to do; how in due course They sent
her to America to search there for a comrade who would supply what was
lacking in herself--the power of organisation, the power of speaking
to men and gathering them around him, and shaping them into a movement
in the outer world. And you all know the story of how they met; you
all know how they joined hands together. One of them has put the whole
thing on record, for the instruction of the younger members of the
Society now and in centuries to come. The movement began, as you know,
closely watched over, constantly protected by those two who had taken
this burden of responsibility upon Themselves. And you may read in
many of H.P.B.'s letters, how continual in those days was the touch,
how constant the directions; and it went on thus year after year--for
the first seven years at least of the Society's life, and a little
more; you may read in the issue of the _Theosophist_ (June) a letter
from one of these same Teachers, showing how close was the interest
taken, how close the scrutiny which was kept up in all the details of
the Society's work. In publishing that letter I thought it only right
to strike out the names which occur in the original. It would not be
right or fair to print those publicly yet, as you can perfectly well
see when you are able to supply the blanks which are left for names.
You may read in that letter how the Master who wrote it had been
watching the action of a particular branch, how He had marked in
connection with another branch some of the members of the branch who
were working ill or not well; how He pointed out that such-and-such
members would be better out of the branch than in it, were hinderers
rather than helpers--all going to show how close was the watch which
They then kept upon the branches of Their infant Society. And so again
you may read in other letters than that, suggestions of writing
letters to newspapers, and so on, which would strike you as very
trivial if they came from the Masters at the present time; how a
letter might be written here, an article answered there; how a leading
article ought not to be allowed to remain with its false suggestions
to the injury of the Society, and so on. But there came a time, with
the increase of the numbers in the Society, when many came in who had
not the strong belief of the outer founders in the reality of the life
of the Masters and Their connection with the Theosophical Society,