[f. as prec. + -IST.]
1. One who professes or believes in THEOSOPHY (in sense 1). a. With specific reference to Böhme. b. In a more general sense.
a. 1656. H. More, Enthus. Tri., a viij. A promiscuous Collection of divers odd Conceits out of severall Theosophists and Chymists. Ibid., 40. This disease many of our Chymists and several Theosophists, in my judgement, seem very obnoxious to, who dictate their own Conceits and Fancies so magisterially and imperiously, as if they were indeed Authentick messengers from God Almighty.
1791. Enfield, Hist. Philos., IX. iii. II. 488. The Theosophists … neither contented with the natural light of human reason, nor with the simple doctrines of scripture understood in their literal sense, have recourse to an internal supernatural light, superior to all other illuminations, from which they profess to derive a mysterious and divine philosophy, manifested only to the chosen favourites of heaven.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., I. ix. 139. How dare I be ashamed of the Teutonic theosophist, Jacob Behmen?
b. 1814. Shelley, Deism, Pr. Wks. 1880, II. 77. The God of the rational Theosophist is a vast and wise animal.
1834. Southey, Doctor, ccix. (1862), 562/1. Certain theologians, and certain theosophists, as men who fancy themselves inspired sometimes affect to be called.
1837–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit. (1847), II. III. ii. § 74. 361. The principal mystics or theosophists have generally been counted among philosophers.
1856. Vaughan, Mystics, I. v. (1860), I. 31. The theosophist is one who gives you a theory of God, or of the works of God, which has not reason, but an inspiration of his own for its basis.
1882. Pall Mall G., 30 Aug., 4. Of late years we have heard and learned a great deal about that interesting Oriental theosophist, the ideal Buddhist.
2. A professor or adherent of THEOSOPHY (in sense 2); a member of the Theosophical Society; name of a magazine, the organ of that society.
1881. Sat. Rev., 3 Sept., 298/2. The Theosophist is full of translations from the works of ancient ‘theurgists.’
1881. Sinnett, Occult World, 37. The natives [of India] were flattered at the attitude towards them taken up by their new ‘European’ friends, as Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott were no doubt generally regarded in spite of their American nationality, and showed a shallow eagerness to become Theosophists.
1885. Olcott, Theosophy, Pref. 11. We are … the same thing to all men—viz., Theosophists, who believe in the essential identity of all men, race, caste, and creed to the contrary notwithstanding. Ibid., 144. The Theosophist is a man who, whatever be his race, creed, or condition, aspires to reach this height of wisdom and beatitude by self-development.
