Echoes from the Orient was written by Mr. Judge (1890) as a series of papers for a well-known periodical. The author wrote under the name of "Occultus," as it was intended that his personality should be hidden until the series was completed. The value of these papers as a popular presentation of Theosophical teaching was at once seen and led to their publication in book form. As Mr. Judge wrote in his "Antecedent Words" to the earlier edition:
"The restrictions upon the treatment of the subject growing out of the popular character of the paper in which they were published precluded the detail and elaboration that would have been possible in a philosophical or religious periodical. No pretense is made that the subject of Theosophy as understood in the Orient has been exhaustively treated, for, believing that millions of years have been devoted by the sages who are the guardians of Theosophical truth to its investigation, I think no one writer could do more than to repeat some of the echoes reaching his ears."
The reader should remember that the scope and influence of the Theosophical Movement have since that time (1890) greatly expanded, the work of THE UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY now reaching nearly every country in the world.
