been weakened by a schism which took place in the Order in 1908, when a
number of members who objected to the introduction of Eastern occultism
into Masonry and likewise disapproved of the Grand Orient, formed
themselves into a separate body under Mrs. Halsey and Dr. Geikie Cobb,
working only the Craft Degrees according to the Grand Lodge of England.

It has been shown by this brief resume that Co-Masonry is a hybrid
system deriving from two conflicting sources--the political and
rationalist doctrines of the _Maconnerie Mixte_ and the Eastern
occultism of Madame Blavatsky and Mrs. Besant.

As a professing Buddhist, Madame Blavatsky consistently dissociated
herself from any schemes of material welfare. Thus in the early
Constitution of the Theosophical Society it is stated:

"The Society repudiates all interference on its behalf with the
Governmental relations of any nation or community, confining its
attention exclusively to the matters set forth in the present
document."[710]

These matters relate to the study of Occult Sciences. Again Madame
Blavatsky herself wrote in the _Theosophist_:

Unconcerned about politics: hostile to the insane dreams of
Socialism and Communism, which it abhors--as both are but disguised
conspiracies of brutal force and selfishness against honest
labour; the Society cares but little about the outward human
management of the material world. The whole of its aspirations are
directed towards the occult truths of the visible and invisible
worlds.[711]

It will be seen that this declaration is diametrically opposed to that
of the Maconnerie Mixte. Nevertheless, Madame Blavatsky so far departed
from her purely occult programme after her arrival in India in 1879 as
to reconstruct the society on the basis of "Universal Brotherhood." This
idea was completely absent from her first scheme; "the Brotherhood plank
in the Society's future platform," wrote her coadjutor Colonel Olcott,
"was not thought of."[712] It was over this plank, however, that Mrs.
Besant was able to walk to the Supreme Council of the Maconnerie Mixte,
and adding Liberty and Equality to the principle of Fraternity to
establish Co-Masonry on a definitely political basis as a preparation
for the Socialist doctrines her teacher had "abhorred."

In the matter of esoteric doctrines Mrs. Besant again departed from the
path laid down by Madame Blavatsky, whose aim had been to reh