PREFACE.

The author—or rather, the writer—feels it necessary to apologize for the long delay in the appearance of this work. It was caused by ill health and the sheer scale of the project. Even the two volumes now issued do not complete the plan, nor do they treat the subjects within them exhaustively. A large amount of material has already been prepared, dealing with the history of occultism as contained in the lives of the great Adepts (masters of wisdom) of the Aryan Race, and demonstrating how occult philosophy applies to the conduct of life, both as it is and as it ought to be. Should these current volumes be well-received, no effort will be spared to complete the work in its entirety. The third volume is finished, and the fourth is nearly complete.

This scheme, it must be added, was not planned when the work was first announced. Originally, it was intended that the Secret Doctrine would be an amended and enlarged version of Isis Unveiled. However, it soon became clear that the explanations necessary to add to those already provided in that work and others dealing with esoteric science would require a different method of treatment. Consequently, the present volumes contain, in total, fewer than twenty pages extracted from Isis Unveiled.

The author does not feel it necessary to ask for the indulgence of her readers and critics regarding the many defects of literary style or the imperfect English found in these pages. She is a foreigner, and her knowledge of the language was acquired late in life. The English tongue is used here because it offers the most widely understood medium for conveying the truths it has become her duty to place before the world.

These truths are in no sense presented as a revelation, nor does the author claim the position of a revealer of mystic lore being made public for the first time in history. What is contained in this work is scattered throughout thousands of volumes embodying the scriptures of the great Asiatic and early European religions, hidden under glyphs (symbols) and symbols, and previously ignored because of this veil. What is now attempted is to gather these ancient tenets together to create one harmonious and unbroken whole. The only advantage the writer has over her predecessors is that she need not rely on personal speculation or theory. This work is a partial statement of what she herself has been taught by more advanced students, supplemented in only a few details by the results of her