BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

THE INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

Crown 8vo, Cloth, 2s. 6d.

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"The learning which Mr. Lillie arrays in support of this conclusion is imposing and ingenious."-The Times.

"The astonishing points of contact (ressemblances étonnantes) between the popular legend of Buddha and that of Christ, the almost absolute similarity of the moral lessons given to the world, at five centuries' interval, by these two peerless teachers of the human race, the striking affinities between the customs of the Buddhists and of the Essenes, of whom Christ must have been a disciple, suggest at once an Indian origin to Primitive Christianity."-(Professor Léon de Rosny, in a digest of Mr. Lillie's work in the XXE SIÈCLE.)

...

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MODERN MYSTICS AND MODERN MAGIC.

Crown 8vo, Cloth, 6s.

Containing a full Biography of the Rev. W. Stainton Moses, together with Sketches of Swedenborg, Boehme, Madame Guyon, the Illuminati, the Kabalists, the Theosophists, the French Spiritists, the Society of Psychical Research. "An interesting biographical notice of Stainton Moses, whose acquaintance Mr. Lillie had the good fortune to make very early in his career. Mr. Lillie has gathered pretty much all that has at present transpired in relation to his life and experience, and has put the whole together in a very readable form."-Light. "Covers a very wide field."-Borderland.

"Will serve as a most convenient book of reference to some of the chief schools of occult thought."-Shafts.

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"If there are no Mahatmas, the Theosophical Society is an absurdity."—MRS.
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PREFACE

IN the Revue des Deux Mondes for July, 1888, Mr. Emile Burnouf, the eminent Sanskrit scholar, has an article entitled Le Bouddhisme en Occident, which deals in flattering terms with Madame Blavatsky's "theosophy."

"This creed," he says, "has grown with astounding rapidity. In 1876, the Theosophical Society had but one branch. It had 104 in 1884, 121 in 1885, 134 in 1886, to-day it has 158. The branch in Paris dates from last year. Of the 134 centres, 96 are in India. The others are spread over the globe, in Ceylon, in Burmah, Australia, Africa, in the United States, in England, Scotland, Ireland, in Greece, in Germany, in France. The French 'Society of Isis,' though recent, possesses many distinguished names (p. 368).”

But since this article appeared in the leading review of Europe the progress of the society has been still more remarkable if we may trust the list of "charters" published in the Theosophist for December, 1891. In 1888 the society had 179 centres. In 1890 it had 241 centres. In 1891 it had 279 branch societies.

This is a great success; and it is to be confessed that in other countries besides France "distinguished names are quoted in connection with the society. Messrs. Crookes, Myers, and Gurney took an interest in it. Mr. Edward Maitland, a man of genius, the author of the "Pilgrim and the Shrine," joined it, together with Mr. Sinnett and Dr. Hartmann, able writers. Professor Max Müller has given advice to Colonel Olcott on the subject of Oriental translations, and borne testimony to the good work that in that direction "theosophy" has accomplished. And Mr. Gladstone has done this "substitute for a religion" the signal honour of giving it and Mrs. Besant, its chief, a long theological article in the Nineteenth Century, that waxwork gallery of the notabilities of the hour.