body, so far from being impervious to bullets, was so pervious to them
that they could pass through it without producing any organic
disturbance. I was not aware of this fact at first; and it was not until
I observed that, while he stood directly in the line of fire, men were
killed immediately behind him, that I ceased to accompany him into
action, and determined, if possible, to solve a mystery which had begun
to stimulate my curiosity to the highest pitch. It is not necessary for
me to enter here into the nature of the conversations I had with him on
the most important and vital points affecting universal cosmogony and the
human race and its destiny. Suffice it to say, that they determined me
to sever my connection with the Government of India; to apply privately,
through my friend the Guru, to the late Jung Bahadoor for permission to
reside in Nepaul; and finally, in the garb of an Oriental, to take up my
residence in Khatmandhu, unknown to the British authorities. I should
not now venture on this record of my experiences, or enter upon the
revelation of a phase hitherto unknown and unsuspected, of that esoteric
science which has, until now, been jealously guarded as a precious
heritage belonging exclusively to regularly initiated members of
mysteriously organised associations, had not Mr Sinnett, with the consent
of a distinguished member of the Thibetan brotherhood, and, in fact, at
his dictation, let, if I may venture to use so profane an expression in
connection with such a sacred subject, "the cat out of the bag." Since,
however, the _arhats_, or illuminati, of the East, seem to have arrived
at the conclusion that the Western mind is at last sufficiently prepared
and advanced in spiritual knowledge to be capable of assimilating the
occult doctrines of Esoteric Buddhism, and have allowed their pupil to
burst them upon a thoughtless and frivolous society with the suddenness
of a bomb-shell, I feel released from the obligations to secrecy by which
I have hitherto felt bound, and will proceed to unfold a few arcana of a
far more extraordinary character than any which are to be found even in