Theos-Talk Archives (November 2002 Message tt00326)

The Mahatma Letters only began to appear after the migration to India 
in 1880, so that for five years the Society did not rest upon them in any 
architectonic sense. Its lowest literary stratum was in fact the "Luxor" 
Letters.

A.P. Sinnett and his materially minded associates of the Indian services 
would never have been converted to a belief in pseudo-Himalayan 
marvels, nor would A. Besant have been drawn from atheism to 
credulity by reading for review The Secret Doctrine, had it not been 
based, as it professed to be, on the revelations of the writers of the 
Mahatma Letters. More than this: if we were to tell of the building up of 
the Society, stage by stage, and, especially, of the Esoteric Section-
commonly known as the "E.S."-one can show that every member 
received into that select inner body was and is today still obliged to 
accept the authority of the Masters.