Herbert Burrows: Difference between revisions
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== Editorial work and writing == | == Editorial work and writing == | ||
Burrows wrote articles for periodicals including ''Justice'', ... | Burrows wrote letters to the editors and articles for periodicals including ''Justice'', ''The English Theosophist'', ''Borderland'', and others. | ||
=== Pamphlets=== | |||
* '''''Theosophy and Roman Catholicism'''''. Pamphlet. | |||
=== Books === | === Books === | ||
Revision as of 17:05, 8 January 2025
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Herbert Burrows (June 12, 1845 – December 14, 1922) was a British socialist activist and a Theosophist. He had a longstanding friendship with Annie Besant with whom he organized the famous London matchgirls strike of 1888.
Personal life
Social activism
Theosophical Society involvement
On May 10, 1889, Burrows accompanied his friend Annie Besant in a visit to Madame Blavatsky, who was then living at Landsdowne Road.[1] He was admitted to the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society in London on May 21, 1889.[2] Later that year, he and Annie Besant attended a labor congress in Paris, and had a memorable visit with HPB in Fountainebleau:
In 1889 Annie Besant and I were with her in France at the Forest of Fountainebleau, and while there she went over with us in manuscript part of The Voice of the Silence. Looking back on that time, I remember that the passages over which she was most impressive were those which describe the toilsome ascent of the pilgrim-soul. In the copy of the book which she gave me and which will never leave me, she has written, "To Herbert Burrows, my old friend in another and better incarnation, from his ever-loving H.P.B." It may be that in those words lie part of the key to the life that we knew.[3]
For several years he spent time with Madame Blavatsky and the people in her household. He had to say of her:
Her absolute indifference to all outward forms was a true indifference based upon her inner spiritual knowledge of the verities of the universe. Setting by her when strangers came, as they often did from every corner of the earth, I have often watched with the keenest amusement their wonder at seeing a woman who always said what she thought. Given a prince and she would probably shock him, given a poor man and he would have her last shilling and her kindliest word.[4]
After HPB's death in 1891, however, Burrows gradually became disenchanted with the Theosophists. He found his own interpretations for events and the motivations of his coworkers:
Mrs. Besant Knows that both Col. Olcott and Mr. Sinnett believe Madame Blavatsky to have been fraudulent; but she has had as yet neither the moral courage nor the honesty to say so. On the contrary, she quotes them in Lucifer as the all-round staunch and firm upholders of H.P.B., while at the same time she upbraids those who wish the real truth known as besmirchers and practical traitors.[5]
He could not cite evidence that Annie Besant "knew" such a thing, or that Olcott ever failed in his devotion to and comradely love for Madame Blavatsky. Sinnett was jealous of the Mahatmas' favor for HPB, but did not consider her to be a fraud. Burrows repeated these same nebulous charges in Borderland [6]
In another letter to The English Theosophist dated October 2, 1895, Burrows accused Col. Olcott of "grave immorality," and of having an affair with Henrietta Muller, which was highly improbable. Burrows put his own spin on things.
Editorial work and writing
Burrows wrote letters to the editors and articles for periodicals including Justice, The English Theosophist, Borderland, and others.
Pamphlets
- Theosophy and Roman Catholicism. Pamphlet.
Books
- The Future of Woman. London: Twentieth Century Press, 1909.
- Zola. Biography of novelist Emile Zola.
Notes
- ↑ Alexander Fullerton, "Reminiscences of the Early Days of American Section T. S. " The Theosophic Messenger 10 no.2 *November 1908): 37.
- ↑ Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 4986 (website file: 1B/54).
- ↑ Lucifer 8 (June, 1891): 301-302.
- ↑ Daniel H. Caldwell, The Occult World of Madame Blavatsky (Tucson, Arizona: Impossible Dream Publications, 1991), 272-273.
- ↑ Letter to the editor of The English Theosophist, quoted in The Path 10 No.10 (January, 1896): 328.
- ↑ "To the Editor of Borderland" The Light of the East 4 no.3(November, 1895): 67.