Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume 9 Page 89
THE LATE MRS. ANNA KINGSFORD, M. D. OBITUARY
OBITUARY
[Lucifer, Vol. II, No. 7, March, 1888, pp. 78-79]
DR. ANNA BONUS KINGSFORD (1846-1888)
From a photograph taken July 12, 1883. Reproduced from Isabel de Steiger's
Memorabilia, where it is credited to Mr. Samuel Hopgood Hart.
(For biographical sketch see the Bio-Bibliographical Index)
We have this month to record with the deepest regret the passing
away from this physical world of one who, more than any other, has been
instrumental in demonstrating to her fellow-creatures the great fact of
the conscious existence—hence of the immortality—of the
inner Ego.
We speak of the death of Mrs. Anna Kingsford, M.D.,
which occurred on Tuesday, the 28th of February, after a somewhat
painful and prolonged illness. Few women have worked harder than she
has, or in more noble causes; none with more success in the cause of
humanitarianism. Hers was a short but a most useful life. Her
intellectual fight with the vivisectionists of Europe, at a time when
the educated and scientific world was more strongly fixed in the grasp
of materialism than at any other period in the history of civilisation,
alone proclaims her as one of those who, regardless of conventional
thought, have placed themselves at the very focus of the controversy,
prepared to dare and brave all the consequences of their temerity. Pity
and Justice to animals were among Mrs. Kingsford’s favourite
texts when dealing with this part of her life’s work; and by
reason of her general culture, her special training in the science of
medicine, and her magnificent intellectual power, she was enabled to
influence and work in the way she desired upon a very large proportion
of those people who listened to her words or who read her writings. Few
women wrote more graphically, more takingly, or possessed a more
fascinating style.
Mrs. Kingsford’s field of activity, however, was not limited to
the purely physical, mundane plane of life. She was a Theosophist and a
true one at heart; a leader of spiritual and philosophical thought,
gifted with most exceptional psychic attributes. In connection with Mr.
Edward Maitland, her truest friend—one whose incessant,
