Category: The Key To Theosophy (1889): H. P. Blavatsky

"Enq:  Cannot you give more details about these, so that I may know what to answer when asked - a brief history of the Society, in short; and why the world believes all this?   Theo:  The reason is simple. Most outsiders knew absolutely nothing of the Society itself, its motives, objects or beliefs. From [...]

"Enq:  And are they known to many of you, or to yourself alone?   Theo:  I never said I knew them. I may or may not know them - but I know of them, and this is sufficient; and I defy them to do their worst. They may achieve great mischief and throw confusion into [...]

"Enq:  If Theosophy is even half of what you say, why should there exist such a terrible ill-feeling against it? This is even more of a problem than anything else.   Theo:  It is; but you must bear in mind how many powerful adversaries we have aroused ever since the formation of our Society.   [...]

"Enq:  Yes;  but I have heard you congratulate yourself at the ever-increasing number of the Agnostics and Atheists in our day, so that it appears that even people trained in the system you abuse so heartily do learn to think and reason for themselves.   Theo:  Yes;  but it is rather owing to a healthy [...]

"Enq:  But surely he is taught something besides "dead vocables", and much of that which may lead him direct to Theosophy, if not entirely into the Theosophical Society?   Theo:  Not much. For of history, he will attain only sufficient knowledge of his own particular nation to fit him with a steel armour of prejudice [...]

"Enq:  Well, but you cannot assert that of our great public schools, at any rate?   Theo:  Not exactly, it is true. But though the form is different, the animating spirit is the same:  untheosophical and unchristian, whether Eton and Harrow turn out scientists or divines and theologians.   Enq:  Surely you don't mean to [...]

"Enq:  That is all very fine as generalities, but I should like a few facts, and to learn also how this can be remedied.   Theo:  Very well, I will try and satisfy you. There are three great divisions of scholastic establishments, board, middle-class and public schools, running up the scale from the most grossly [...]

"Enq:  I must admit you are right there.   Theo:  And what are these examinations - the terror of modern boyhood and youth? They are simply a method of classification by which the results of your school teaching are tabulated. In other words, they form the practical application of the modern science method to the [...]

"Enq:  So be it; go on.   Theo:  What is the real object of modern education? Is it to cultivate and develop the mind in the right direction; to teach the disinherited and hapless people to carry with fortitude the burden of life (allotted them by Karma); to strengthen their will; to inculcate in them [...]

"Enq:  One of your strongest arguments for the inadequacy of the existing forms of religion in the West, as also to some extent the materialistic philosophy which is now so popular, but which you seem to consider as an abomination of desolation, is the large amount of misery and wretchedness which undeniably exists, especially in [...]