Note 16 — Mrs. Besant's latest Assertions and claims examined.

Mrs. Besant's "Spiritual Viceroy" has certainly nothing to do with Those who were directing H. P. B. when she founded the Indian T. S. OR U. B. in 1879; for a special clause was included in the Constitution stating that "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...." H. P. B. also wrote in the Theosophist, for October, 1879—"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 sluggishness against honest labour; the Society cares but little about the outward human management of the material world. The whole of its aspirations are directed toward the occult truths of the visible and invisible worlds. Whether the physical man be under the rule of an empire or a republic, concerns only the man of matter. His body may be enslaved; as to his Soul, he has the right to give to his rulers the proud answer of Socrates to his Judges. They have no sway over the inner man." There speaks the true Mystic whose "Kingdom is not of this world." Three years later H. P. B. and Colonel Olcott published a further disclaimer, in which they said—"Before we came to India, the word Politics had never been pronounced in connection with our names; for the idea was too absurd to be even entertained, much less expressed...."