Herbert Burrows
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ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
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]
He further had to say of Madame Blavatsky:
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]
Editorial work and writing
Burrows wrote articles for periodicals including Justice, ...
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.