or by using an Elemental; others by reading in the Astral Light, and so on.  But the proof of the reality of her mission from those whom she spoke of as Masters lay not in these comparatively trivial physical and mental phenomena, but in the splendour of her heroic endurance, the depth of her knowledge, the selflessness of her character, the lofty spirituality of her teaching, the untiring passion of her devotion, the incessant ardour of her work for the enlightening of men.  It was these, and not her phenomena, that won for her our faith and confidence—­we who lived beside her, knowing her daily life—­and we gratefully accepted her teaching not because she claimed any authority, but because it woke in us powers, the possibility of which in ourselves we had not dreamed of, energies of the Soul that demonstrated their own existence.

Returning to London from Paris, it became necessary to make a very clear and definite presentment of my change of views, and in the Reformer of August 4th I find the following:  “Many statements are being made just now about me and my beliefs, some of which are absurdly, and some of which are maliciously, untrue.  I must ask my friends not to give credence to them.  It would not be fair to my friend Mr. Bradlaugh to ask him to open the columns of this Journal to an exposition of Theosophy from my pen, and so bring about a long controversy on a subject which would not interest the majority of the readers of the National Reformer.  This being so I cannot here answer the attacks made on me.  I feel, however, that the party with which I have worked for so long has a right to demand of me some explanation of the step I have taken, and I am therefore preparing a pamphlet dealing fully with the question.  Further, I have arranged with Mr. R.O.  Smith to take as subject of the lectures to be delivered by me at the Hall of Science on August 4th and 11th ’Why I became a Theosophist.’  Meanwhile I think that my years of service in the ranks of the Freethought party give me the right to ask that I should not be condemned unheard, and I even venture to suggest, in view of the praises bestowed on me by Freethinkers in the past, that it is possible that there may be something to be said, from the intellectual standpoint, in favour of Theosophy.  The caricatures of it which have appeared from some Freethinkers’ pens represent it about as accurately as the Christian Evidence caricatures of Atheism represent that dignified philosophy of life; and, remembering how much they are themselves misrepresented, I ask them to wait before they judge.”

The lectures were delivered, and were condensed into a pamphlet bearing the same title, which has had a very great circulation.  It closed as follows:—­