A CHAT WITH CORRESPONDENTS
One illustration of the expansion of Theosophical interest through this
country is found in the growth of business during the last two years in the
joint office of the PATH, and the General Secretary of the American Section. In
the PATH department, this appears in the new subscriptions from various
quarters; in the remittances for books and documents kept on hand or ordered
from publishers as needed; and in the subscriptions transmitted to
Lucifer, the Theosophist, and the T.P.S. In the General Secretary's
department, it appears the growing list of members, with the consequent
addition to the work of recording such, issuing Diplomas and Charters, and
forwarding the Applications and the dues to India; in the increasing official
correspondence with Branches and members; in the many requests from outsiders
for information and for guidance in reading; in the larger number of cases
requiring the issue of circulars or documents to each F.T.S. - involving no
small labor in the addressing of wrappers or envelopes; in the occasional
supply of items or corrections to the press. And a very large additional work
has accrued to the office from (a) the preparation and issue of
The Theosophical Forum each month, (b) the establishment of the
Theosophical Circulating Library, (c) the printing and distribution -
thanks to private assistance - of thousands of leaflets or tracts expounding
the principles of Theosophy in a popular way. And to all this must be added the
great labor accruing to the General Secretary, and unshareable by others, from
his new function as Secretary of the ... Section.
Besides occasional aid from kind friends, the Editor and General Secretary
has had the constant presence of one or another volunteer. This proving
inadequate to the growing work, he was obliged to secure the permanent services
of an office-boy, and, later on, of a stenographer. It was to cover the expense
of these that the late Convention authorized an appeal to members. Such, then,
is the present staff.
But the work has not ceased its growth. Let us hope and trust that it never
will. New openings and opportunities continually present themselves, and must
be promptly met. It is not, however, to solicit funds that the present Chat
takes place. It is to solicit consideration.
It is evident that in an office with so much and such increasing duty, every
time-saving appliance is a necessity. Hence the stenographer and the
type-writing machine. Some of our friends dislike this. They wish a sweet note
of sympathy direct from the General Secretary's own pen, and the intervention
of machinery seems to chill the sympathetic current and dispel the fraternal
aroma. But, Brethren, have you any right to expect that office business is to
be disordered and important affairs put off in order that you may extort a
fancied privilege and nurse a sentimental notion? Is it not more rational and
manly (using this word as the antithesis to "childish" rather than to
"feminine") to see that the Society's work is of more moment than your fancies,
and that truth should have the same value to you whether its words are written
or printed? Were the Editor of the PATH and the General Secretary to pen and
not dictate answers to the letters received, his present life-work would lie
over to his next incarnation.
Another thing. The same exigency of scant time makes imperative the obvious
duty of condensed statement. But not a few F.T.S. of both sexes imagine it
needful to inform the General Secretary of their varying spiritual moods, of
their abounding faith in the Cause, and of their feelings and emotions and
anticipations. How can any man read such outpourings; how reply to them? If half
a page can state your wants, have you any right to send a sheet? With the
utmost desire to give you every help, is it possible for the General
Secretary to do so otherwise than briefly?
Still another thing, - this time from the editorial side of the duplex
rôle. Zealous Theosophists not infrequently send us communications for the
PATH. These, with the exception of poetry, are always welcomed. But it does not
follow that they can always be used. For, to the publication of any literary
matter, there are certain conditions. It must be fresh, readable, instructive,
valuable for the end sought. That it should be true is not enough. A friend,
hearing a parishioner's comments on the sermons of a well-known clergyman,
replied, "But they are true." "Yes," said the parishioner, "that is the
trouble; they are too true." An article may be so true as to be truism,
so obvious as to be common-place. It may want point or life or finish or
verve, and hence, to the larger experience of the editor, discerning
quickly what is suitable or otherwise for his columns, may not be useful. Be not
offended, Brethren, if your offerings, sincere and honest as they undoubtedly
are, and prepared with care and love and zeal, fail to appear in type. Therein
is no slight to you, for the decision is not personal but judicial, and the
judge - in such matters - is wiser than you can be.
In these things, then, and perhaps in others, the Editor and General
Secretary asks consideration, - consideration in making letters concise, clear,
and explicit, in remembering his many duties and his little time, in recalling
the scores of other correspondents with equal claims to attention, in
contentment with the brief replies and the mechanical help a busy man finds
imperative. In thus exemplifying Practical Theosophy, you will show that you
have not joined the Society and read the PATH in vain.
Path, September, 1889
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