Mrs Annie Besant.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5084, 18 October 1894, Page 3

Mrs Annie Besant.

» "WHY I BECAME A THEOSOPHIST." The story of the passage of a human soul from materialism to religion should possess deep interest for thoughtful people. Especially attractive should such a story be when told by the person most concerned therein, and that person one who has made such a mark on her time as haß Mrs Annie, Besanfc. The audience at the Theatre Eoyal last night when that lady told the story of her change of view in regard to religion may, therefore, be taken a3 comprising a large proportion of the more thoughtful of our population ; and, for that reason, it would not have been a high tribute to the intelligence of the community had it been a Bin all one. Mrs Besant spoke, as is her wont, without notes. Her address was a methodically arranged, logical presentment of the subject, from her point of view, in clear and admirably-chosen language. There was little of fervid eloquence or vivid description, for these the method of treatment of the subject afforded | little scope; but there were lucid explanation, dry humour, keen sarcasm and startling assertion, the last always accompanied by the formula " Do i not believe because I tell you. Prove for i yourselves." Another marked charac- , teristio was the frankneßß with which , the lecturer admitted that at one time she had held views which she afterwards ' proved to be erroneous. The scientific thought, twenty /years ago, said she, was agnoatioism v : whatever wbb deemed incapable of absolute proof was not denied, but it was not accepted. The discoveiies of great natural laws had thrown the thought of the divine life more and more into the background, until it had been accepted that there was no place for the hypothesis of a God. The materialistic theory of the universe was based on three foundation stones :— (1) The eternity of the atom ; (2) that consciousness, thought, was a product of the brain; (3) the transmission of qualities from parent to offspring. The investigations of Professor Crookee, acknowledged as the foremost chemist in the world, had disproved the eternity of the atom — had Bhown that before the creation of the atom matter identical in nature had been spread over space, and had been acted upon by a force akin to electricity. Though there appeared to be correlation between thought and brain activity, mesmerism, clairvoyance, thought transference and other phenomena went to show that thought was sometimes moat active when the brain was lethargic; that so far from thought and the condition of the brain always varying together, they often varied in opposite directions. The speaker disposed of two of the foundation stones of the materialistic theory, but did not refer to the third, which will be dealt with in her lecture to-night. She told how she had accepted nothing till she had proved it for herself by experiment, and how investigations in psychology had shown her many facts for which materialism had no explanation. In humorous terms she scarified the positiveness which is born of utter ignorance, and then told her audience that Bhe would probably make some statements which' Bomo of them would not; believe, but which they could prove for themselves by investigation on lines similar to those on which she had proceeded. She recounted some remarkable instances of her own experience in regard to clairvoyance and thought transference, and told how, after some light had been thrown upon the difficulties which had perplexed her by Sinnett's "Occult World" and "Esoteric Buddhism," all the hitherto unexplainable facts which she had collected had "fallen into their own place as part of nature" when she read Madame Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine," which Mr W..T- Stead gave her to review. Afterwards, under Madame Blavatsky's teaching, these facts had become part of the complete theory known aa Theosophy : the knowledge of the existence and the immortality of the soul had become to her a fact of her own consciousness. The speaker made an earnest acknowledgment of her indebtedness to Madame Bl&vatsky for having led her into this knowledge, and spiritedly defended the character of that lady against the attacks which have been made upoa it, asserting that her own personal knowledge, derived fram a long and close intercourse with Madame Blavatsky, enabled her to bear testimony to the nobility of her life and the grandeur of her wisdom. Mrs Besant concluded a fine peroration by saying that what Theosophy did was to bring forward the scientific evidence by which the life of the soul can be proved. This evening Mrs Besant will give her last lecture but one in Christchurch. The subject will be "The Evolution of Man."