— 483 — 



I were travelling by an express train from here to Dresden. A 

 few days before I had written a letter to the Mahatmas which 

 Colonel Olcott had addressed and enclosed to vou, which, however, 

 as I now hear, never reached you but was taken by the Masters 

 whilst it was in the hands of the post officials. At the time 

 mentioned I was not thinking of this letter, but was relating to 

 Colonel Olcott some events of my life, expressing also the fact 

 that since my sixth or seventh year I had never known peace or 

 joy, and asking Colonel Olcotfs opinion on the meaning of some 

 striking hardships I have gone trough. In this conversation we 

 were interrupted by the railwav-guard demanding our tickets. 

 When I moved forwards and raised myself partly from the seat 

 in order to hand over the tickets, Colonel Olcott noticed some- 

 thing white lying behind my back on that side of me which was 

 opposite to the one where he was sitting. When I took up that 

 which had appeared there it turned out to be a Tibetan envelope, 1 ) 

 in which I found a letter from Mahatma K. H., written with blue 

 pencil in his well-known and unmistakable handwriting. As there 

 were several other persons unacquainted to us in the compartment, 

 I suppose the Master chose this place for depositing the letter near 

 me where it was the least likely to attract the unwelcome attention 

 and curiosity of Outsiders. The envelope was plainly addressed 

 to me, and the communication contained in the letter was a con- 

 soling reflection on the opinion which I had five or ten minutes 

 ago given on the dreary events of my past life. The Mahatma 

 explained that such events and the mental misery attached to it 

 were beyond the ordinary run of life, but that hardships of all 

 kinds would be the lot of one striving for higher spiritual de- 



J ) Sofern diese eigenartige Reliquie einem Museum einzuverleiben 

 beabsichtigt sein sollte, wäre das hiesige in Vorschlag zu bringen, wo 

 durch einen tibetanischen Fachgelehrten die Einordnung an zugehöriger 

 Stelle statthaben würde. 



31* 



