Book Description

Excerpt from A Dictionary of Some Theosophical Terms In compiling a work of this nature perhaps the most difficult, and certainly the most invidious, part of the task is the selection of the terms: - which shall be included? - which excluded? - and anyone who may do me the honour to look into this endeavour of mine, and appraise it as a whole, will doubtless find very much that exception may be taken to on this head. I shall be asked, "How is it that we find a heading for the Advaita Philosophy, but Judaism or Islamism is not so much as mentioned? How is it that the Gods Varuna, Shiva, and Vishnu are to be found in the Dictionary, whereas we search in vain for Mars, Venus, or Neptune?" I shall be told that there has been no governing principle in the selection of the terms treated; that the book is haphazard in construction, and lacking in system and logic. And to this indictment I confess at once I have no direct answer. I escape, if I am to escape at all, by the method of disappearance from the plane where my logical critic lives and moves about so formidably. For, in truth, the principle by which I have been mainly guided in this matter of selection is not that of logic, but simply what I conceive to be the needs of those who are likely to consult a work of this kind. Nearly all the terms herein contained are such as are used by the writers of our modern theosophical literature. Had I made any attempt to complete the different categories to which these terms belong, my modest production must have swelled prodigiously, becoming a Dictionary of Mythology, Philosophy, Comparative Religions, Occultism, and I know not what, save that it would have been far beyond my capacity to bring forth. Consistency, then, in the selection of the words to be treated of, has been by no means so much my aim as conformity to the good old utilitarian maxim, "The greatest good of the greatest number." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.