What possible effect could that have on the sensible
part of the jury? But this sort of logic has been displayed by Mrs.
Besant ever since; indeed, she seems to have a dim perception of her
weakness, for she dares not discuss Theosophy, or any part of it, with
an out-and-out Freethinker--one who would subject it to the critical
tests with which she herself was familiar when she stood upon the
Secular platform.

There is one aspect of Mrs. Besant's advocacy of Theosophy which we
censured at first, and which we now think is something short of honest.
Mrs. Besant used to present Secularism in its naked truth, to be
embraced or rejected; but she follows a different course in regard to
Theosophy; she puts its plausible features forward and conceals the
rest, so that people who have heard her are positively astonished when
they are told of some of her printed teachings. This seems especially
the case when she addresses meetings, somewhat too chivalrously
organised by Freethinkers. Now this is not fair, it is not really
honest; though it may be in accord with the ethics of those who
divide truth into "exoteric" and "esoteric." To our mind, it is rather
suggestive of the spider and the fly. "Will you walk into my parlor?"
"Oh yes," says the giddy fly, "it looks so nice, positively inviting?"
But what of the other rooms in your house; your garret near the sky,
where you do star-gazing, and your basement, where crawl the foul things
of savage superstition?

Many of our readers have heard Mrs. Besant in the sweet persuasive vein,
and felt pleased if rather muddled. For their sakes, and not for our
own satisfaction, we shall criticise her little volume on _Death--and
After?_ just issued as No. III. of a series of Theosophical Manuals.
When we have done they will know more about Theosophy than if they had
listened to Mrs. Besant (especially from Freethought platforms) for ten
thousand years.

First, let us notice Mrs. Besant's attitude. Her devotion to the
Blavatsky is complete; she mentions the great woman with profound
veneration, swears to all she taught, and, in fact, just stews down the
Blavatsky's voluminous nonsense. Mrs. Besant is also a patient disciple
of the Masters--to wit, the Mahatmas. These Masters of Wisdom never
appear for inspection. They lurk in the secret fastnesses of Tibet,
which is a very unexplored part of the world, large enough to hide a
good many things, even things that do not exist. They know a lot, b