LBS-193A May 1882
LBS-194 1882
LBS-195 Mar. 1882
LBS-198 Rec. 1881
LBS-199 July 24, 1882
LBS-200 Feb. 1882
LBS-201 Rec. Aug. 22, 1882
LBS-202 Jan., 1883
LBS-203 Jan. 7, 1882
LBS-204 Nov. 25, 1880
LBS-205 Oct. 24, 1880
LBS-206 No date
LBS-207 No date
LBS-Appendix I October 1881
LBS-Appendix I October 1881
LBS-Appendix II Jan. 1882
LBS-Appendix III
Notes
THE MAHATMA LETTERS
to
A. P. SINNETT
from the Mahatmas M. & K. H.
Transcribed, Compiled, and with an Introduction
by
A. T. BARKER
Second Edition, 1926;
published
by
Theosophical University Press
Foreword
It is a privilege and an honor to write this Foreword to a book which seems to me a significant addition to the publishing history of The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, one of the most important volumes in theosophical literature.
First of all, a tribute must be paid to Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., President of the Theosophical Society in the Philippines, for his initiative, determination, and the enormous amount of work he has done in making the volume available.
My contribution to this new edition of the Letters consists of Notes compiled while I was conducting several terms of study in the subject at the Krotona School of Theosophy in Ojai, California. These courses completed, it occurred to me that it might be helpful in promoting a wider study of the Letters if my class Notes were put in more readable form and copies sent to several of the major theosophical libraries. This was done.
Among those who received a copy was Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., who immediately felt that they should be published for a still wider distribution. At the same time, he was considering the possibility of publishing the Letters in chronological order, rather than under the topical headings as used in the three editions already available.
Students of the Letters are deeply indebted to George E. Linton for the chronology which he developed from prolonged study of the original letters in the British Museum and which was used in the Readers' Guide to the Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (George E. Linton and Virginia Hanson, 2nd ed., 1988). Serious study has been made of a number of previously developed chronologies, but it is believed that this arrangement is as nearly accurate as it is possible to be.
As every student of the Letters knows, they were seldom dated. A.P. Sinnett, to whom most of them were addressed, often noted the date of receipt, but even this was occasionally overlooked, and apparently dates were sometimes inserted after considerable time had elapsed. Sinnett commented that had it been apparent from the beginning that the correspondence would develop as it did, he would have kept more careful records. His wife, Patience Sinnett, kept a diary which ran into 37 volumes over the years, but unfortunately these volumes have disappeared. It has been speculated that they may have been destroyed in bombings during World War I. The letters, themselves, however, have been kept safely in the British Museum under irrevocable deed. Steps have been taken to preserve them; also, George Linton has had them microfilmed and these films are on file in several places, including the headquarters of the American Section of the Theosophical Society.
A final word of appreciation to Vicente Hao Chin, Jr. is certainly in order. It seems not too much to hope that this edition will be the most widely used and studied in the years to come.
VIRGINIA HANSON
Preface to the Chronological Edition
I
The present edition was conceived to respond too a long-felt need of students of the Mahatma Letters arising from two difficulties: (1) The letters are hard to follow in the previous editions since the issues and events mentioned in the letters are not in their proper sequence. The significance of the Mahatmas' words on such issues is therefore often missed by the reader. (2) The reader is often left in the dark regarding the circumstances surrounding the letters, in addition to the fact that many names and references are obscure to the modern reader.
As a result, relatively few theosophists have been encouraged to study the Mahatma Letters. This is a pity because this is one of the most important theosophical sourcebooks.
The publication of the Reader's Guide to the Mahatma Letters by George Linton and Virginia Hanson has greatly helped in filling this gap. And we are grateful to both of them for their valuable efforts. Still, it is cumbersome to read the Mahatma Letters while constantly referring to one or two other books at the same time. Hence the need for a chronological edition with annotations.
In this edition, the letters are numbered and arranged according to the probable dates of receipt. The original numbers are placed alongside the chronological number. Short annotations have also been added before each letter to acquaint the reader with the events and circumstances that surround the letter.
These annotations were written by Virginia Hanson, who has devoted years of study of the Mahatma Letters, and who has written a number of books on the subject, primarily Masters and Men, the Reader's Guide to the Mahatma Letters (with George Linton), and Introduction to the Mahatma Letters. In 1986, after many years of handling classes on the Mahatma Letters, Mrs. Hanson collected her copious notes on the letters and bound them under the title "Notes on the Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett." The present editor discussed with her about the use of "Notes" in a chronological edition of the Mahatma Letters. She strongly supported the idea and gave permission to use any part of her "Notes" for this purpose. The new footnotes of this edition (identified by a "C-ED." at the end of each footnote) are also primarily based on the "Notes." Some of them are based on the Readers' Guide to the Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett compiled by George Linton and Virginia Hanson. The notes preceding the letters in the Appendices, however, were supplied by the present editor.
The text of the letters in this edition follows that of the Third Edition of the Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett (edited by C. Humphreys and E. Benjamin), including the footnotes. No change has been made except obvious typographical errors (e.g., "kowledge" instead of "knowledge", "of couse" instead of "of course"). Other than these, this edition has faithfully retained all spellings and punctuations of the third edition.
In this edition, the following text formats were adopted:
(a) Letters not written by the Mahatmas are set in sans serif type to distinguish them from the Mahatma letters. In previous editions, same types were used, which can sometimes cause confusion.
(b) The Mahatmas occasionally underline certain words in letters written by others. These are similarly underlined in the present edition, instead of using bold italics as in previous editions.
(c) The footnotes of the previous editions that refer to letter numbers, pages, or typestyles were corrected in this edition to conform with the revised format and pagination of the new edition. These corrections are always placed in brackets.
New appendices have been added here to include all known letters or notes to A.P. Sinnett or A.O. Hume that were not included in the Mahatma Letters. These are: (a) the first letter of Mahatma K.H. to Hume, reprinted from Combined Chronology by Margaret Conger (Theosophical University Press, Pasadena); (b) letters found in Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, Series I, edited by C. Jinarajadasa (Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar), and (c) those found in Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to A.P. Sinnett, transcribed and compiled by A.T. Barker (Theosophical University Press, Pasadena).