This, doubtless, in good part, accounts for her present popularity. Yet, one cannot fail to recognize the value of some things which she is doing. She has recently begun to speak with some emphasis upon lines of reform. She has been instrumental in stirring within the people a wider desire for higher education; though one can hardly understand why she has done so much for the establishment of a college for men, and has done practically nothing to advance the educational interests of her much-neglected sex in India. Upon the death of Colonel Olcott, the President Founder of Theosophy, in 1907, Mrs. Besant became his successor. So far as the Indian vote was concerned, this was a foregone conclusion; since her avowed sympathy with Hinduism in all its forms had gained for her a strong place in the Hindu heart. The method by which she was elected, however, is suggestive of the future course of the movement in India. When nearing death, Colonel Olcott was induced by Mrs. Besant to invoke and to consult the "Masters"--the convenient ghosts of the dead--with a view to a choice of his successor in office. There was no doubt about his preference for the Englishwoman. The Mahatmas wisely agreed with the Colonel and Mrs. Besant, and a powerful fulcrum was secured for lifting her into the presidency. And Mrs. Besant to-day claims that it is better for her to have been chosen by the dead than to have been elected by the living. Upon her inauguration, she insisted upon it that all Theosophists must cling to the "Masters" and adhere to their decisions. If we mistake not, this marks the beginning of a new era in Theosophy,--at least in India,--an era during which the movement will be entirely directed and worked by those who are the authorized mouthpieces of the glorified dead! Thus the movement is fairly launched upon a course which will inevitably lead it to something very much akin to a religion, with its accumulated mysteries and with a host of propelling superstitions of its own. More than any other land, India will lend itself admirably to the development and the propagation of such a cult. Theosophy is not represented by a very large number of organizations and members. But the movement has the sympathy of many who have not taken upon them its name; and the society, at the present time, is certainly in favour with a large number of the educated classes. Orthodox pandits, however, are thoroughly suspicious of the movement; and Mrs. Besant's recent attempts to thrust upon them her own interpretations of certain Hindu doctrines--interpretations, too, which are foreign to their own--has led to a spirit of opposition, where but recently appreciation and favour existed.