st celebrated of European
prestidigitateurs. Many members of the Society have visited India--many
were born there and have themselves witnessed the "sorceries" of the
Brahmans. The founders of the Club, well aware of the depth of modern
ignorance in regard to the spiritual man, were most anxious that
Cuvier's method of comparative anatomy should acquire rights of
citizenship among metaphysicians, and, so, progress from regions
physical to regions psychological on its own inductive and deductive
foundation. "Otherwise," they thought, "psychology will be unable to
move forward a single step, and may even obstruct every other branch of
Natural History." Instances have not been wanting of physiology poaching
on the preserves of purely metaphysical and abstract knowledge, all
the time feigning to ignore the latter absolutely, and seeking to class
psychology with the positive sciences, having first bound it to a Bed
of Procrustes, where it refuses to yield its secret to its clumsy
tormentors.

In a short time the Theosophical Society counted its members, not
by hundreds, but by thousands. All the "malcontents" of American
Spiritualism--and there were at that time twelve million Spiritualists
in America--joined the Society. Collateral branches were formed in
London, Corfu, Australia, Spain, Cuba, California, etc. Everywhere
experiments were being performed, and the conviction that it is not
spirits alone who are the causes of the phenomena was becoming general.

In course of time branches of the Society were in India and in Ceylon.
The Buddhist and Brahmanical members became more numerous than the
Europeans. A league was formed, and to the name of the Society was
added the subtitle, "The Brotherhood of Humanity." After an active
correspondence between the Arya-Samaj, founded by Swami Dayanand, and
the Theosophical Society, an amalgamation was arranged between the
two bodies. Then the Chief Council of the New York branch decided upon
sending a special delegation to India, for the purpose of studying, on
the spot, the ancient language of the Vedas and the manuscripts and
the wonders of Yogism. On the 17th of December, 1878, the delegation,
composed of two secretaries and two members of the council of the
Theosophical Society, started from New York, to pause for a while in
London, and then to proceed to Bombay, where it landed in February,
1879.

It may easily be conceived that, under these circumstances, the members
of the d