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c. b. create simple drawings of what is needed and allow the customer to
provide feedback
d. c. develop a detailed set of blueprints
e. d. actually build the project, often with some changes directed by the
customer
f. e. all of the above
Ans: e
a. 5. The four phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle are _____.
b. a. analysis, gathering, modeling, and diagramming
c. b. construction, installation, testing, and converting
d. c. initiating, planning, controlling, and implementing
e. d. planning, analysis, design, and implementation
f. e. system request, feasibility, staffing, and construction
Ans: d
Ans: e
a. 7. The _____ is generated by the department or person that has an idea for a new
information system.
b. a. economic feasibility analysis
c. b. requirements document
d. c. project charter
e. d. system request
f. e. project plan
Ans: d
Ans: a
Ans: a
Ans: d
Ans: a
a. 13. The analysis phase of the SDLC answers which questions _____.
b. a. who will create the system and when will it be used
c. b. who will the system be for, what the system will do, when will it be used,
and where will it be used
d. c. why build the system, what the system will be, and how the system will work
e. d. why build the system, who will the system be for, when will it be used,
and how the system will work
f. e. why build the system, who will the system be for, when will it be used, and where
will it be used
Ans: b
a. 14. Deciding how the hardware, software, and network infrastructure will operate
occurs during the _____ phase of the SDLC.
b. a. analysis
c. b. design
d. c. implementation
e. d. planning
f. e. strategy
Ans: b
Ans: b
a. 16. Interfaces (e.g., menus, reports, forms) are specified during the _____ phase of
the SDLC.
b. a. analysis
c. b. design
d. c. implementation
e. d. planning
f. e. system delivery
Ans: b
a. 17. The phase of the SDLC when the system is actually built or purchased is the
_____.
b. a. analysis
c. b. construction
d. c. design
e. d. implementation
f. e. planning
Ans: d
Response: See page 6
a. 18. A development methodology that focuses on the processes as the core of the
system is said to be _____.
b. a. action-oriented
c. b. structure-oriented
d. c. process-centered
e. d. object-oriented
f. e. data-centered
Ans: c
Ans: d
Ans: e
a. 21. Any modern object-oriented approach to software development must be use case
driven, ____________, and iterative and incremental.
b. a. User-centric
c. b. Architecture-centric
d. c. Requirements-driven
e. d. Model-driven
f. e. Object-centric
Ans: e
Ans: d
a. 23. Users typically do not think in terms of data or processes; instead, they see their
business as a collection of logical units that contain both – so communicating in terms of
__________ improves the interaction between a user and an analyst or developer.
b. a. objects
c. b. business rules
d. c. business units
e. d. attributes and methods
f. e. workflow units
Ans: a
a. 24. In the Enhanced Unified Process, the Inception Phase involves several workflows
including _________.
b. a. analysis
c. b. design
d. c. implementation
e. d. all of these
f. e. none of these
Ans: d
a. 25. In the Enhanced Unified Process, the Production Phase involves several
workflows including __________.
b. a. analysis
c. b. design
d. c. implementation
e. d. all of these
f. e. none of these
Ans: e
a. 26. Overall, the consistent notation, integration among the diagramming techniques,
and application of the diagrams across the entire development process makes ________ a
powerful and flexible tool set for analysts and developers.
b. a. CASE
c. b. UML
d. c. DFDs
e. d. EPCs
f. e. Flow Charts
Ans: b
a. 27. In SCRUM, teams organize themselves in a symbiotic manner and set their own
goals for each ______________:
b. a. phase
c. b. module
d. c. week
e. d. function
f. e. sprint
Ans: e
Ans: a
Ans: d
a. 30. Polymorphism is made possible through ________________ :
b. a. static binding
c. b. dynamic binding
d. c. initialization
e. d. messaging
f. e. information hiding
Ans: b
True/False
Ans: False
Ans: False
a. 3. During the analysis phase of the SDLC the systems analyst will decide how the
hardware, software and network infrastructure, user interface, forms and reports will be
used.
Ans: False
Ans: True
a. 5. The waterfall development methodology derives its name from the salmon that
swim up the waterfall against the current.
Ans: False
a. 6. The infrastructure analyst is responsible for the design of the new business
policies and processes.
Ans: False
7. The role of the project manager includes managing the team members, developing the
project plan, assigning resources and serving as the primary point of contact for people
outside the project team.
Ans: True
8. The role of the change management analyst includes ensuring that adequate
documentation and support are available to the users.
Ans: True
9. The business analyst is responsible for ensuring that the project is completed on time and
within budget and that the system delivers all benefits that were intended by the project
sponsor.
Ans: False
10. The project manager develops ideas and suggestions for how to improve business
processes, designs new business processes, and identifies the business value the new
system will create.
Ans: False
11. Determining who will use the system, what the system will do, and where and when it
will be used is performed during the analysis phase of the SDLC.
Ans: True
12. RAD (Rapid Application Development) adjusts the SDLC phases to get some of the
system developed and into the hands of the users quickly.
Ans: True
13. Agile development is considered a special case of RAD approach to developing systems.
Ans: False
Ans: True
15. Kim repeatedly performs the analysis, design, and implementation phases concurrently in
a cycle until the system is completed. She then goes back and from scratch does a
thorough design and implementation to complete the project. She is following a
throwaway prototype methodology.
Ans: True
16. Throwaway prototyping balances the benefits of well-thought-out analysis and design
phases with the advantages of using prototypes to refine key issues before the system is
built.
Ans: True
17. The creation of a design prototype that is not a working information system, but
represents a part of the system that needs additional refinement happens with the
prototyping methodology.
Ans: False
18. Parallel development relies on only one iteration of the analysis phase.
Ans: True
19. A local retailer has hired Geneva and Sydney to develop his new information system. He
is not sure what type of system he wants, but it must be completed in four months and he
needs to know regularly that the project is on schedule. Geneva and Sydney should use
the Waterfall Development methodology for constructing the system.
Ans: false
20. The primary advantage of the Waterfall Development methodology is requirements are
completely specified and held relatively constant prior to programming.
Ans: True
Ans: False
22. An analyst with business skills that understands the business issues surrounding a system
is commonly called a project manager.
Ans: False
23. An analyst that focuses on the IS issues in a system, and who represents the interests of
the IS department is called a systems analyst.
Ans: True
24. The analyst that develops ideas and suggestions to improve the application of information
technology is commonly called a systems analyst.
Ans: True
25. An analyst that focuses on the technical issues of the organization (hardware, software,
databases and networks) is commonly called a change management analyst.
Ans: False
26. Scott has been assigned to focus on the users during the upcoming information systems
installation. Scott will provide user training and documentation. His role is to serve as a
change management analyst.
Ans: True
27. Michelle has been assigned the task of completing the project in a timely manner and
within budget. Her project team role is infrastructure analyst.
Ans: False
28. Systems analysts Lori and Mark are employed by the local hospital. They have been
assigned to develop a very complex patient monitoring system for the cardio-care unit
using a new display technology. Throwaway prototyping is a very suitable methodology
for this project.
Ans: True
29. Agile development methodology aims at eliminating the modeling and documentation
overhead in IS projects, while emphasizing simple, iterative application development.
Ans: True
Ans: True
Ans: True
32. Extreme programming depends on refactoring to ensure that the code is kept simple.
Ans: True
33. Jim Smith is a project manager in the IS department of an insurance company and he just
hired a group of four contractors to work on a project together with an in-house team of 4
full-time employees. He should use extreme programming as a methodology for the
project.
Ans: False
34. You are carrying out a project that involves information systems for the operation of
controls in a passenger jet craft. This is an ideal project for you to follow a throwaway
prototyping methodology.
Ans: True
35. For complex systems, throwaway prototyping is not a suitable methodology, since it will
lead to problems with maintaining the system.
Ans: False
36. For complex systems, prototyping is not a suitable methodology, since it will lead to
problems with maintaining the system.
Ans: True
Ans: True
38. A project manager most likely would not have worked as a systems analyst in the past,
since project management career track is independent of the system analyst’s career
track.
Ans: False
39. Project team members focus on getting the project done, leaving change management to
the business managers.
Ans: False
40. The business analyst serves as the primary contact point with the project.
Ans: False
Ans: False
Ans: False
Ans: True
44. The Enhanced Unified Process goes beyond building the system and includes
maintaining the system.
Ans: True
45. The environment workflow in the Unified Process is designed to deal with the
organizational and policy issues the project faces within the organizational environment.
Ans: False
46. One of the criticisms of the Unified Process is that if fails to deal with the system after it
has been delivered.
Ans: True
47. Under the Unified Process, the Configuration and Change Management workflow
includes risk management and scope management, among several other activities.
Ans: False
48. Under the Unified Process, the Project Management workflow includes risk management
and scope management, among several other activities.
Ans: True
49. The business modeling workflow uncovers problems and identifies potential projects.
Ans: True
Ans: False
Ans: True
52. In the Enhanced Unified Process, the design and implementation workflows are the
primary focus of the production phase.
Ans: False
53. In the Enhanced Unified Process, the production phase focuses exclusively on supporting
workflows.
Ans: True
54. In the Unified Process, the implementation phase focuses on the deployment workflow.
Ans: False
56. The Unified Modeling Language is a collection of terms and diagrams designed to be
used in data-oriented software projects.
Ans: False
57. The Unified Modeling Language is a collection of terms and diagrams designed to be
used in object-oriented software projects
Ans: True
58. The Unified Modeling Language is a collection of terms and diagrams designed to be
used in process-oriented software projects
Ans: False
59. In the UML, the Deployment Diagram is a behavioral diagram that illustrates the
dynamic interaction of the system with its environment.
Ans: False
60. In the UML, the Activity Diagram illustrates all the interactions between the system and
its environment.
Ans: False
61. In the UML, the Use Case Diagram illustrates all the interactions between the system and
its environment
Ans: True
Ans: True
63. In the UML, the Use Case Diagram is an example of structure diagram.
Ans: False
64. Architecture Centric development requires functional (also known as external) diagrams
in addition to structure and behavioral diagrams; however, the UML only has structure
and behavioral diagrams.
Ans: True
Ans: True
66. SCRUM has a designated team leader to lead the system development.
Ans: False
67. It is questionable whether Scrum can scale up to develop very large, mission-critical
systems.
Ans: True
Ans: True
69. An object is same as its class since both have attributes and behaviors.
Ans: False
70. In object-oriented systems, the encapsulation means the system simply combines
processes and data into classes.
Ans: True
Ans: False
72. Polymorphism means that the same message can be interpreted differently by different
classes of objects.
Ans: True
73. Dynamic binding is a technique that delays typing the object until run-time.
Ans: True
Short Answer
1. Indicate the four phases of the waterfall approach and mention its advantages and
disadvantages.
Ans: Waterfall is a sequential process that has each of the four phases (planning, analysis,
design, and implementation) completed following the previous one. The two advantages are that
requirements are identified long before programming and changes are minimized. The two
disadvantages are an extensive paper trail and the time that passes from initial proposal and
system completion.
2. Briefly discuss the RAD methodology and mention its advantages and disadvantages.
Ans: The RAD methodologies attempt to address the weaknesses of the structured design
methodologies by adjusting the phases of the SDLC to get parts of the system completed and in
the hands of the users quickly. Analysis, design, and implementation are all speeded up. The
advantages include the speed and quality of systems development, while the key disadvantage is
the need to manage user expectations.
Ans: Prototyping performs the analysis, design, and implementation phases of the SDLC
concurrently and cyclically until the system is completed. This approach allows the analyst to
quickly refine the user-requirements and to quickly get a system in the hands of the users (as
long as it’s not a large, complex application that many people need to use).
Ans: Throw-away prototyping is done at a different point in the SDLC than prototyping. It is
done after a fairly thorough analysis phase has determined the user requirements, but when
various technical issues may need to be solved or some of the user requirements may still be
unclear. The design prototype is not a working system, just part of it. Thus, when the prototype is
finished, there is not a complete system to deliver to the users. It may take longer to develop
systems using throwaway prototyping. But it is suitable in projects where the requirements
and/or technology issues are not well understood after the analysis phase. Projects that need to
deliver reliable systems often use the throwaway prototyping technique.
5. Describes the roles of and activities performed by the business analyst and system analyst.
Ans: A BUSINESS ANALYST identifies the business value that a system will create, develops
ideas and suggestions that improve the business process, and designs new processes and policies.
Work experience of a business analyst is probably in the functional field or application, such as
accounting, marketing or production management.
6. Describes the roles of and activities performed by the infrastructure and change management
analysts.
Ans: The purpose of the planning phase is to determine if the system request will provide value
to the organization and to prepare a plan for completing the project. The Planning Phase exists so
that the IS department and the project sponsors/users can develop an initial vision of the new
system, establish its primary objectives, and perform a preliminary feasibility study that will
evaluate the project's value to the organization and its estimated costs. With this information the
organization's management can objectively assess whether the project has merit. The work done
in this phase helps establish the project scope, define objectives and expectations, develop a plan
for the project, and determine if the project warrants committing additional resources to its
completion.
9. Briefly summarize the purpose of the analysis phase in SDLC. Explain why it exists and
what it contributes to the completion of the system.
Ans: The purpose of the analysis phase is to determine the business needs of the new system and
to develop a preliminary concept for the new system. The Analysis Phase exists in order to
assure that the problems being experienced by the business unit are well understood and will be
resolved through the features and functionality of the proposed system. The Analysis Phase
serves to gather sufficient information to assure that the system will correct the actual problems
of the organizational unit. System objectives will be clarified during this phase, and user and
business requirements will be defined in detail.
10. Briefly summarize the purpose of the design phase in SDLC. Explain why it exists and what
it contributes to the completion of the system.
Ans: The purpose of the design phase is to determine how technology will be used to fulfill the
business needs defined in the Analysis phase. Design decision will be made regarding the
technology infrastructure, user interface, file and database, and program components of the new
system. These system elements must be designed prior to construction so that the system will
meet user and business needs upon implementation.
11. Briefly summarize the purpose of the implementation phase in SDLC. Explain why it exists
and what it contributes to the completion of the system.
Ans: The purpose of the implementation phase is to develop a production version of the system.
The system components that were outlined in the design phase are created using the target
technology, tested, and then introduced to the end users. This phase brings all the previous ideas
into fruition as an actual working system is put into production in the organization.
12. Briefly describe the idea behind structured design approach to systems development.
Ans: Structured design represents a number of methodologies that adopt a formal, step-by-step
approach for proceeding through the SDLC. These methodologies emphasize carefully
determining user requirements on paper prior to actual construction of the system. Waterfall
development model and parallel development model are examples of structured design.
13. Briefly describe the idea behind the RAD approach to systems development.
Ans: The RAD (Rapid Application Development) methodologies attempt to accelerate the
process of developing systems, and also utilize a variety of new tools and techniques that help
avoid the painstaking preparation of paper-based specifications. Most RAD methodologies
recommend the usage of special tools such as CASE tools and special techniques such as joint
application development (JAD) sessions. Such tools and techniques improve the speed and
quality of systems development. However, managing user expectations of what is possible and
what is not becomes difficult in RAD methodologies. Phased development, prototyping and
throwaway prototyping are examples of RAD methodology.
14. Briefly summarize the role and contribution of the Business Analyst, Systems Analyst,
Infrastructure Analyst, Change Management Analyst, and Project Manager on a systems
development project team.
Ans: The Business Analyst role exists to assure that the interests of the end users and project
sponsor are represented on the project team. The Systems Analyst role exists to assure that the
available information technology is applied appropriately to the users/sponsors business needs.
The Infrastructure Analyst role exists to deal with technical concerns about the new systems
hardware, software, and networking components. The Change Management Analyst role exists
to attend to the process of assimilating the new system in the organization. The Project Manager
role exists to ensure timely completion of the project, fulfillment of user/sponsor requirements,
and appropriate usage of project resources.
Ans: In XP, developers not only accept change but embrace change. They provide quick
feedback to the end-users on a continuous basis, and follow the KISS principle for system
development. Developers make incremental changes as the system grows in functionality and
size. Continuous testing, programming in pairs by developers and close interactions with end
users are hallmarks of the XP approach. XP relies on refactoring, which is a disciplined way to
keep the code simple.
16. Briefly compare and contrasts the roles and responsibilities of the project manager and the
business analyst.
Ans: The project manager leads the project team; the business analyst is a team member. The
project manager is responsible for overall project success; the business analyst is responsible for
making sure the interests of the users and sponsor are met. The project manager’s primary focus
is on the project; the business analyst’s primary focus is on the business. The project manager
oversees technical and business people on the project team and does not necessarily have to be a
technical wizard or an expert in the business, but it helps if he/she is proficient at both; the
business analysts is the business expert on the team charged with making sure the technology
delivers business value and does not have to be a technical wizard, but it helps if he/she is
proficient with technology.
17. Briefly explain the idea behind Object-Oriented Systems Analysis and Design (OOSAD)
Ans: OOSAD decomposes a problem using both process and data models, emphasizing neither.
It uses “objects” and these carry both data and processes. OOSAD was a response to traditional
approaches that deliberated on whether to focus primarily on data models or on process models.
Emphasizing data models has its benefits as does emphasizing process models. By taking a
balanced approach OOSAD seeks to gain the key benefits from modeling data structures and
process flows.
18. Briefly explain what the creators of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) mean by
use-case driven, architecture centric, and iterative and incremental.
Ans: USE-CASE DRIVEN means that use cases are the primary tools for modeling the
behavior of the system. A use case is a description of the interaction between the system and
the user as the user seeks to accomplish a particular goal. Rather than decomposing processes
into sub-processes, and sub-processes into sub-sub-processes, etc., etc., . . . , as is done in
traditional structural analysis, use cases allow the analyst to focus on one process at a time
without losing track of how all the use cases are interrelated.
ARCHITECTURE CENTRIC means that the development of the system is based on an initial
understanding of the overall software architecture of the system from three perspectives or
views.
The functional view is a description of the system from the perspective of the user and
Other documents randomly have
different content
with many of your boasted improvements. The schools for the poorer
children, though far less useful than they ought to be, are good in
contrast with the vile surroundings to which they are doomed by your
modern Society. The infusion of a little practical Theosophy would help
a hundred times more in life the poor suffering masses than all this
infusion of (useless) intelligence.
q. But, really——
eo. Let me finish, please. You have opened a subject on which we
Theosophists feel deeply, and I must have my say. I quite agree that
there is a great advantage to a small child bred in the slums, having
the gutter for playground, and living amid continued coarseness of
gesture and word, in being placed daily in a bright, clean school-room
hung with pictures, and often gay with flowers. There it is taught to be
clean, gentle, orderly; there it learns to sing and to play; has toys that
awaken its intelligence; learns to use its fingers deftly; is spoken to
with a smile instead of a frown; is gently rebuked or coaxed instead of
cursed. All this humanises the children, arouses their brains, and
renders them susceptible to intellectual and moral influences. The
schools are not all they might be and ought to be; but, compared with
the homes, they are paradises; and they slowly are reacting on the
homes. But while this is true of many of the Board schools, your
system deserves the worst one can say of it.
q. So be it; go on.
eo. What is the real object of modern education? Is it to cultivate and
develop the mind in the right direction; to teach the disinherited and
hapless people to carry with fortitude the burden of life (allotted them
by Karma); to strengthen their will; to inculcate in them the love of
one’s neighbour and the feeling of mutual interdependence and
brotherhood; and thus to train and form the character for practical life?
Not a bit of it. And yet, these are undeniably the objects of all true
education. No one denies it; all your educationalists admit it, and talk
very big indeed on the subject. But what is the practical result of their
action? Every young man and boy, nay, every one of the younger
generation of schoolmasters will answer: “The object of modern
education is to pass examinations,” a system not to develop right
emulation, but to generate and breed jealousy, envy, hatred almost, in
young people for one another, and thus train them for a life of
ferocious selfishness and struggle for honours and emoluments instead
of kindly feeling.
q. I must admit you are right there.
eo. And what are these examinations—the terror of modern boyhood
and youth? They are simply a method of classification by which the
results of your school teaching are tabulated. In other words, they form
the practical application of the modern science methods to the genus
homo, qua intellection. Now “science” teaches that intellect is a result
of the mechanical interaction of the brain-stuff; therefore it is only
logical that modern education should be almost entirely mechanical—a
sort of automatic machine for the fabrication of intellect by the ton.
Very little experience of examinations is enough to show that the
education they produce is simply a training of the physical memory,
and, sooner or later, all your schools will sink to this level. As to any
real, sound cultivation of the thinking and reasoning power, it is simply
impossible while everything has to be judged by the results as tested
by competitive examinations. Again, school training is of the very
greatest importance in forming character, especially in its moral
bearing. Now, from first to last, your modern system is based on the
so-called scientific revelations: “The struggle for existence” and the
“survival of the fittest.” All through his early life, every man has these
driven into him by practical example and experience, as well as by
direct teaching, till it is impossible to eradicate from his mind the idea
that “self,” the lower, personal, animal self, is the end-all, and be-all, of
life. Here you get the great source of all the after-misery, crime, and
heartless selfishness, which you admit as much as I do. Selfishness, as
said over and over again, is the curse of humanity, and the prolific
parent of all the evils and crimes in this life; and it is your schools
which are the hotbeds of such selfishness.
q. That is all very fine as generalities, but I should like a few facts, and
to learn also how this can be remedied.
eo.Very well, I will try and satisfy you. There are three great divisions of
scholastic establishments, board, middle-class and public schools,
running up the scale from the most grossly commercial to the idealistic
classical, with many permutations and combinations. The practical
commercial begets the modern side, and the ancient and orthodox
classical reflects its heavy respectability even as far as the School Board
pupil teacher’s establishments. Here we plainly see the scientific and
material commercial supplanting the effete orthodox and classical.
Neither is the reason very far to seek. The objects of this branch of
education are, then, pounds, shillings, and pence, the summum bonum
of the XIXth century. Thus, the energies generated by the brain
molecules of its adherents are all concentrated on one point, and are,
therefore, to some extent, an organized army of educated and
speculative intellects of the minority of men, trained against the hosts
of the ignorant, simple-minded masses doomed to be vampirised, lived
and sat upon by their intellectually stronger brethren. Such training is
not only untheosophical, it is simply UNCHRISTIAN. Result: The direct
outcome of this branch of education is an overflooding of the market
with money-making machines, with heartless selfish men—animals—
who have been most carefully trained to prey on their fellows and take
advantage of the ignorance of their weaker brethren!
q. Well, but you cannot assert that of our great public schools, at any
rate?
eo.Not exactly, it is true. But though the form is different, the animating
spirit is the same: untheosophical and unchristian, whether Eton and
Harrow turn out scientists or divines and theologians.
q. Surely you don’t mean to call Eton and Harrow “commercial”?
eo. No. Of course the Classical system is above all things respectable,
and in the present day is productive of some good. It does still remain
the favourite at our great public schools, where not only an intellectual,
but also a social education is obtainable. It is, therefore, of prime
importance that the dull boys of aristocratic and wealthy parents should
go to such schools to meet the rest of the young life of the “blood” and
money classes. But unfortunately there is a huge competition even for
entrance; for the moneyed classes are increasing, and poor but clever
boys seek to enter the public schools by the rich scholarships, both at
the schools themselves and from them to the Universities.
q. According to this view, the wealthier “dullards” have to work even
harder than their poorer fellows?
eo.It is so. But, strange to say, the faithful of the cult of the “Survival of
the fittest” do not practice their creed; for their whole exertion is to
make the naturally unfit supplant the fit. Thus, by bribes of large sums
of money, they allure the best teachers from their natural pupils to
mechanicalise their naturally unfit progeny into professions which they
uselessly overcrowd.
q. And you attribute all this to what?
eo. All this is owing to the perniciousness of a system which turns out
goods to order, irrespective of the natural proclivities and talents of the
youth. The poor little candidate for this progressive paradise of
learning, comes almost straight from the nursery to the treadmill of a
preparatory school for sons of gentlemen. Here he is immediately
seized upon by the workmen of the materio-intellectual factory, and
crammed with Latin, French and Greek Accidence, Dates and Tables, so
that if he have any natural genius it is rapidly squeezed out of him by
the rollers of what Carlyle has so well-called “dead vocables.”
q.But surely he is taught something besides “dead vocables,” and much
of that which may lead him direct to Theosophy, if not entirely into the
Theosophical Society?
eo. Not much. For of history, he will attain only sufficient knowledge of
his own particular nation to fit him with a steel armour of prejudice
against all other peoples, and be steeped in the foul cess-pools of
chronicled national hate and blood-thirstiness; and surely, you would
not call that—Theosophy?
q. What are your further objections?
eo. Added to this is a smattering of selected, so-called, Biblical facts,
from the study of which all intellect is eliminated. It is simply a memory
lesson, the “Why” of the teacher being a “Why” of circumstances and
not of reason.
q.Yes; but I have heard you congratulate yourself at the ever-increasing
number of the Agnostics and Atheists in our day, so that it appears that
even people trained in the system you abuse so heartily do learn to
think and reason for themselves.
eo. Yes; but it is rather owing to a healthy reaction from that system
than due to it. We prefer immeasurably more in our Society Agnostics,
and even rank Atheists, to bigots of whatever religion. An Agnostic’s
mind is ever opened to the truth; whereas the latter blinds the bigot
like the sun does an owl. The best—i.e., the most truth-loving,
philanthropic, and honest—of our Fellows were, and are, Agnostics and
Atheists (disbelievers in a personal God). But there are no free-thinking
boys and girls, and generally early training will leave its mark behind in
the shape of a cramped and distorted mind. A proper and sane system
of education should produce the most vigorous and liberal mind, strictly
trained in logical and accurate thought, and not in blind faith. How can
you ever expect good results, while you pervert the reasoning faculty of
your children by bidding them believe in the miracles of the Bible on
Sunday, while for the six other days of the week you teach them that
such things are scientifically impossible?
q. What would you have, then?
eo. If we had money, we would found schools which would turn out
something else than reading and writing candidates for starvation.
Children should above all be taught self-reliance, love for all men,
altruism, mutual charity, and more than anything else, to think and
reason for themselves. We would reduce the purely mechanical work of
the memory to an absolute minimum, and devote the time to the
development and training of the inner senses, faculties and latent
capacities. We would endeavour to deal with each child as a unit, and
to educate it so as to produce the most harmonious and equal
unfoldment of its powers, in order that its special aptitudes should find
their full natural development. We should aim at creating free men and
women, free intellectually, free morally, unprejudiced in all respects,
and above all things, unselfish. And we believe that much if not all of
this could be obtained by proper and truly theosophical education.
WHY, THEN, IS THERE SO MUCH PREJUDICE
AGAINST THE T.S.?
q. If Theosophy is even half of what you say, why should there exist
such a terrible ill-feeling against it? This is even more of a problem than
anything else.
eo. It is; but you must bear in mind how many powerful adversaries we
have aroused ever since the formation of our Society. As I just said, if
the Theosophical movement were one of those numerous modern
crazes, as harmless at the end as they are evanescent, it would be
simply laughed at—as it is now by those who still do not understand its
real purport—and left severely alone. But it is nothing of the kind.
Intrinsically, Theosophy is the most serious movement of this age; and
one, moreover, which threatens the very life of most of the time-
honoured humbugs, prejudices, and social evils of the day—those evils
which fatten and make happy the upper ten and their imitators and
sycophants, the wealthy dozens of the middle classes, while they
positively crush and starve out of existence the millions of the poor.
Think of this, and you will easily understand the reason of such a
relentless persecution by those others who, more observant and
perspicacious, do see the true nature of Theosophy, and therefore
dread it.
q. Do you mean to tell me that it is because a few have understood
what Theosophy leads to, that they try to crush the movement? But if
Theosophy leads only to good, surely you cannot be prepared to utter
such a terrible accusation of perfidious heartlessness and treachery
even against those few?
eo. I am so prepared, on the contrary. I do not call the enemies we have
had to battle with during the first nine or ten years of the Society’s
existence either powerful or “dangerous”; but only those who have
arisen against us in the last three or four years. And these neither
speak, write nor preach against Theosophy, but work in silence and
behind the backs of the foolish puppets who act as their visible
marionnettes. Yet if invisible to most of the members of our Society,
they are well known to the true “Founders” and the protectors of our
Society. But they must remain for certain reasons unnamed at present.
q. And are they known to many of you, or to yourself alone?
eo. I never said I knew them. I may or may not know them—but I know
of them, and this is sufficient; and I defy them to do their worst. They
may achieve great mischief and throw confusion into our ranks,
especially among the faint-hearted, and those who can judge only by
appearances. They will not crush the Society, do what they may. Apart
from these truly dangerous enemies—“dangerous,” however, only to
those Theosophists who are unworthy of the name, and whose place is
rather outside than within the T.S.—the number of our opponents is
more than considerable.
q. Can you name these, at least, if you will not speak of the others?
eo. Of course I can. We have to contend against (1) the hatred of the
Spiritualists, American, English, and French; (2) the constant opposition
of the clergy of all denominations; (3) especially the relentless hatred
and persecution of the missionaries in India; (4) this led to the famous
and infamous attack on our Theosophical Society by the Society for
Psychical Research, an attack which was stirred up by a regular
conspiracy organized by the missionaries in India. Lastly, we must
count the defection of various prominent (?) members, for reasons I
have already explained, all of whom have contributed their utmost to
increase the prejudice against us.
q.Cannot you give me more details about these, so that I may know
what to answer when asked—a brief history of the Society, in short;
and why the world believes all this?
eo.The reason is simple. Most outsiders knew absolutely nothing of the
Society itself, its motives, objects or beliefs. From its very beginning the
world has seen in Theosophy nothing but certain marvellous
phenomena, in which two-thirds of the non-spiritualists do not believe.
Very soon the Society came to be regarded as a body pretending to the
possession of “miraculous” powers. The world never realised that the
Society taught absolute disbelief in miracle or even the possibility of
such; that in the Society there were only a few people who possessed
such psychic powers and but few who cared for them. Nor did it
understand that the phenomena were never produced publicly, but only
privately for friends, and merely given as an accessory, to prove by
direct demonstration that such things could be produced without dark
rooms, spirits, mediums, or any of the usual paraphernalia.
Unfortunately, this misconception was greatly strengthened and
exaggerated by the first book on the subject which excited much
attention in Europe—Mr. Sinnett’s “Occult World.” If this work did much
to bring the Society into prominence, it attracted still more obloquy,
derision and misrepresentation upon the hapless heroes and heroine
thereof. Of this the author was more than warned in the Occult World,
but did not pay attention to the prophecy—for such it was, though half-
veiled.
q. For what, and since when, do the Spiritualists hate you?
eo. From the first day of the Society’s existence. No sooner the fact
became known that, as a body, the T.S. did not believe in
communications with the spirits of the dead, but regarded the so-called
“spirits” as, for the most part, astral reflections of disembodied
personalities, shells, etc., than the Spiritualists conceived a violent
hatred to us and especially to the Founders. This hatred found
expression in every kind of slander, uncharitable personal remarks, and
absurd misrepresentations of the Theosophical teachings in all the
American Spiritualistic organs. For years we were persecuted,
denounced and abused. This began in 1875 and continues to the
present day. In 1879, the headquarters of the T.S. were transferred
from New York to Bombay, India, and then permanently to Madras.
When the first branch of our Society, the British T.S., was founded in
London, the English Spiritualists came out in arms against us, as the
Americans had done; and the French Spiritists followed suit.
q. But why should the clergy be hostile to you, when, after all, the main
tendency of the Theosophical doctrines is opposed to Materialism, the
great enemy of all forms of religion in our day? Theo. The Clergy
opposed us on the general principle that “He who is not with me is
against me.” Since Theosophy does not agree with any one Sect or
Creed, it is considered the enemy of all alike, because it teaches that
they are all, more or less, mistaken. The missionaries in India hated
and tried to crush us because they saw the flower of the educated
Indian youth and the Brahmins, who are almost inaccessible to them,
joining the Society in large numbers. And yet, apart from this general
class hatred, the T.S. counts in its ranks many clergymen, and even one
or two bishops.
q.And what led the S.P.R. to take the field against you? You were both
pursuing the same line of study, in some respects, and several of the
Psychic Researchers belonged to your society.
eo. First of all we were very good friends with the leaders of the S.P.R.;
but when the attack on the phenomena appeared in the Christian
College Magazine, supported by the pretended revelations of a menial,
the S.P.R. found that they had compromised themselves by publishing
in their “Proceedings” too many of the phenomena which had occurred
in connection with the T.S. Their ambition is to pose as an authoritative
and strictly scientific body; so that they had to choose between
retaining that position by throwing overboard the T.S. and even trying
to destroy it, and seeing themselves merged, in the opinion of the
Sadducees of the grand monde, with the “credulous” Theosophists and
Spiritualists. There was no way for them out of it, no two choices, and
they chose to throw us overboard. It was a matter of dire necessity for
them. But so hard pressed were they to find any apparently reasonable
motive for the life of devotion and ceaseless labour led by the two
Founders, and for the complete absence of any pecuniary profit or
other advantage to them, that our enemies were obliged to resort to
the thrice-absurd, eminently ridiculous, and now famous “Russian spy
theory,” to explain this devotion. But the old saying, “The blood of the
martyr is the seed of the Church,” proved once more correct. After the
first shock of this attack, the T.S. doubled and tripled its numbers, but
the bad impression produced still remains. A French author was right in
saying, “Calomniez, calomniez toujours et encore, il en restera toujours
quelque chose.” Therefore it is, that unjust prejudices are current, and
that everything connected with the T.S., and especially with its
Founders, is so falsely distorted, because based on malicious hearsay
alone.
q.Yet in the 14 years during which the Society has existed, you must
have had ample time and opportunity to show yourselves and your
work in their true light?
eo. How, or when, have we been given such an opportunity? Our most
prominent members had an aversion to anything that looked like
publicly justifying themselves. Their policy has ever been: “We must
live it down”; and “What does it matter what the newspapers say, or
people think?” The Society was too poor to send out public lecturers,
and therefore the expositions of our views and doctrines were confined
to a few Theosophical works that met with success, but which people
often misunderstood, or only knew of through hearsay. Our journals
were, and still are, boycotted; our literary works ignored; and to this
day no one seems even to feel quite certain whether the Theosophists
are a kind of Serpent-and-Devil worshippers, or simply “Esoteric
Buddhists”—whatever that may mean. It was useless for us to go on
denying, day after day and year after year, every kind of inconceivable
cock-and-bull stories about us; for, no sooner was one disposed of,
than another, a still more absurd and malicious one, was born out of
the ashes of the first. Unfortunately, human nature is so constituted
that any good said of a person is immediately forgotten and never
repeated. But one has only to utter a calumny, or to start a story—no
matter how absurd, false or incredible it may be, if only it is connected
with some unpopular character—for it to be successful and forthwith
accepted as a historical fact. Like Don Basilio’s “Calumnia,” the rumour
springs up, at first, as a soft gentle breeze hardly stirring the grass
under your feet, and arising no one knows whence; then, in the
shortest space of time, it is transformed into a strong wind, begins to
blow a gale, and forthwith becomes a roaring storm! A calumny among
news, is what an octopus is among fishes; it sucks into one’s mind,
fastens upon our memory, which feeds upon it, leaving indelible marks
even after the calumny has been bodily destroyed. A calumnious lie is
the only master-key that will open any and every brain. It is sure to
receive welcome and hospitality in every human mind, the highest as
the lowest, if only a little prejudiced, and no matter from however base
a quarter and motive it has started.
q. Don’t you think your assertion altogether too sweeping? The
Englishman has never been over-ready to believe in anything said, and
our nation is proverbially known for its love of fair play. A lie has no
legs to stand upon for long, and—
eo. The Englishman is as ready to believe evil as a man of any other
nation; for it is human nature, and not a national feature. As to lies, if
they have no legs to stand upon, according to the proverb, they have
exceedingly rapid wings; and they can and do fly farther and wider
than any other kind of news, in England as elsewhere. Remember lies
and calumny are the only kind of literature we can always get gratis,
and without paying any subscription. We can make the experiment if
you like. Will you, who are so interested in Theosophical matters, and
have heard so much about us, will you put me questions on as many of
these rumours and “hearsays” as you can think of? I will answer you
the truth, and nothing but the truth, subject to the strictest verification.
q. Before we change the subject, let us have the whole truth on this
one. Now, some writers have called your teachings “immoral and
pernicious”; others, on the ground that many so-called “authorities”
and Orientalists find in the Indian religions nothing but sex-worship in
its many forms, accuse you of teaching nothing better than Phallic
worship. They say that since modern Theosophy is so closely allied with
Eastern, and particularly Indian, thought, it cannot be free from this
taint. Occasionally, even, they go so far as to accuse European
Theosophists of reviving the practices connected with this cult. How
about this?
eo. I have heard and read about this before, and I answer that no more
utterly baseless and lying calumny has ever been invented and
circulated. “Silly people can see but silly dreams,” says a Russian
proverb. It makes one’s blood boil to hear such vile accusations made
without the slightest foundation, and on the strength of mere
inferences. Ask the hundreds of honourable English men and women
who have been members of the Theosophical Society for years whether
an immoral precept or a pernicious doctrine was ever taught to them.
Open the Secret Doctrine, and you will find page after page
denouncing the Jews and other nations precisely on account of this
devotion to Phallic rites, due to the dead letter interpretation of nature
symbolism, and the grossly materialistic conceptions of her dualism in
all the exoteric creeds. Such ceaseless and malicious misrepresentation
of our teachings and beliefs is really disgraceful.
q. But you cannot deny that the Phallic element does exist in the
religions of the East?
eo. Nor do I deny it; only I maintain that this proves no more than does
its presence in Christianity, the religion of the West. Read Hargrave
Jenning’s Rosicrucians, if you would assure yourself of it. In the East,
the Phallic symbolism is, perhaps, more crude, because more true to
nature, or I would rather say, more naïve and sincere than in the West.
But it is not more licentious, nor does it suggest to the Oriental mind
the same gross and coarse ideas as to the Western, with, perhaps, one
or two exceptions, such as the shameful sect known as the
“Maharajah,” or Vallabhachârya sect.
q. A writer in the Agnostic journal—one of your accusers—has just
hinted that the followers of this disgraceful sect are Theosophists, and
“claim true Theosophic insight.”
eo. He wrote a falsehood, and that’s all. There never was, nor is there at
present, one single Vallabhachârya in our Society. As to their having, or
claiming Theosophic insight, that is another fib, based on crass
ignorance about the Indian Sects. Their “Maharajah” only claims a right
to the money, wives and daughters of his foolish followers and no
more. This sect is despised by all the other Hindus.
But you will find the whole subject dealt with at length in the Secret
Doctrine, to which I must again refer you for detailed explanations. To
conclude, the very soul of Theosophy is dead against Phallic worship;
and its occult or esoteric section more so even than the exoteric
teachings. There never was a more lying statement made than the
above. And now ask me some other questions.