SYDNEY TURNER KLEIN - PUBLICATIONS
Compiled: March/April 2023
IN THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN
Sydney Turner Klein was initiated into the GD in April 1896 at its Isis-Urania temple in London. He chose the motto Aion Atermon en Akarei Kronon. However, he doesn’t seem to have followed up his initiation; he was more focused on his research into the history and symbolism of freemasonry.
SHORT PROFILE
Sydney Turner Klein was born in 1853, one of the younger children of William (originally Wilhelm) Klein and his wife Mary Louisa née Kirby. After spending 1868-71 at Haileybury School he joined his father’s import/export firm. He was a partner in the firm from 1880, when it became William Klein and Sons, until ill-health forced him to retire from daily involvement, in 1916. He was also a director of Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills. He married Sarah Elizabeth Urwick in 1883; they had two sons and four daughters.
Outside working hours occultism was only one of Klein’s many interests. He was a keen naturalist, yachtsman and golfer, and in the 1870s travelled widely. He was a member or fellow of a large number of scientific organisations including: the Linnean Society; the Royal Institution; the Queckett Microscopical Club and the Royal Microscopical Society; the Victoria Institute; the Royal Astronomical Society and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific; and the County of Middlesex Natural History Society, which he had helped to found. Arthritis curtailed these activities after World War 1 but gave him time to write. He died in 1934.
Sources for his life:
Freebmd, Ancestry
Haileybury Register 1862-1910 ed by L S Milford. Pubd 1910 by Haileybury College: 73.
Times 5 January 1880 p7 City firms: Sydney and his older brother Walter Gibb Klein had joined their father as partners in the family firm, which would trade as William Klein and Sons.
Times 5 November 1889 p14 the family firm was now specialising: as William Klein and Sons, flour merchant, of Great Tower Street.
Times 5 November 1889 p14 advertisement for a share issue for Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills. Sydney Turner Klein is listed as one of the directors.
Times 28 June 1923 p24 a reference to Sydney Turner Klein as still a director of Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Co Ltd.
Memberships/fellowships:
Proceedings of the Linnean Society November 1886-June 1887 p12
Proceedings of the Linnean Society 147th session covering October 1934-May 1935 p2; obituary p180.
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society vol 21 1889 p12 during the past year S T Klein and Bernard Dyer had both been elected fellows. Dyer was an analytical chemist and employer of future GD member Allan Bennett.
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London volumes 147-148: obituary.
Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute 1874 p287 S T Klein as an associate member.
Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain 1893 p258 Sydney Turner Klein had just been elected a member.
Journal of the Queckett Microscopical Club 1915 p362 in its list of current members: S T Klein with date 22 March 1889.
Journal of Microscopy volume 52 1932 p15 S T Klein had been elected a member of the Royal Microscopical Society in 1897.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 1936 p274 obituary.
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific are how at Harvard University. They can be accessed at //adsabs.harvard.edu/full
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific volume 3 number 16 1891 p259: Sydney Turner Klein, though resident in England, was elected a member of its board of management 13 June 1891.
Publications volume 5 number 32 1893 p8 he was still a board member. While most members lived in the USA there were a few others living in the UK and on p13 one with an address in St Petersburg.
THE PUBLICATIONS
ARTICLES
On nature; and in connection with William Klein and Sons’ business as flour importers
1887 Notes on Ephestia kühniella/kuehniella
Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London 1887 pp52-54.
1887 Appearance in London of Ephestia kühniella/kuehniella and the Remedy Provided by Nature
Transactions of the Middlesex Natural History Society 1887-88 pp16-20.
This was a talk given by Klein at a meeting of the Society on 8 November 1887. Ephestia kühniella/kuehniella is the flour moth and Klein had found evidence of it in a warehouse he was inspecting in London’s East End. Source: English Mechanic and Mirror of Science and Art volume 46 issue of 25 November 1887 p296.
The talk at the Middlesex Natural History Society was widely reported at the time. Klein read a sequel to it at the Society’s meeting of 12 March 1889. Source: English Mechanic and Mirror of Science and Art volume 48 issue of 22 March 1889 p68.
Both Klein’s 1887 articles were listed in Lepidoptera Reprints volume 20 1962 p239.
1891 A Night Among the Infinities. With a Description of the Instruments at Stanmore Observatory
Transactions of the County of Middlesex Natural History and Science Society for sessions 1889-90 and 1890-91. Their publication and a list of the articles they contained was announced in Nature issue of 7 July 1892 p228.
Printed Middlesex.
Later issued as a pamphlet.
On the occult
Nothing, I think, that is directly associated with the Order of the Golden Dawn. Freemasonry was more important to him:
Klein was elected a member of craft lodge Quatuor Coronati 2076 (QC2076) during its meeting of 8 November 1889. QC2076 is a specialist lodge, founded to examine freemason’s history, mythology and symbolism. The lodge became Klein’s main area of occult research. He was a very active member of the lodge, especially in the years to 1912, giving many of the talks that were an important feature of each lodge meeting, and which were published afterwards in the lodge’s journal. He served as its Worshipful Master November 1897-1898; and was still a member at his death.
The full title of QC2076’s journal is: Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Being the Transactions of Quatuor Coronatorum Lodge number 2076 London. Printed Margate: offices of the Keble Gazette. However, it’s usually referred as Ars Quatuor Coronatorum (AQC).
Klein’s career in QC2076:
His election as a member: AQC volume 2 1889 p144.
Profile on his becoming Worshipful Master: volume 10 1897 p45.
A pamphlet on Klein as a historian of the mathematics and geometry of freemasonry:
1915 Sydney Turner Klein by Robert Freke Gould (of QC2076) in the series Scholars of the Craft. Printed Barber of Littleport. Originally published in the US magazine New Age in its series The Recollections of Robert Freke Gould. Gould focused on two of the articles I list below: The Great Symbol (1897) and Magister Mathesios (1910-11). He described them as being of “extraordinary merit” and showing all the “carefulness and precision” of the scientist.
Accessing Klein’s talks online:
QC2076’s website has a comprehensive index of talks published in AQC and there are links to all the volumes of AQC in which talks by Klein were published:
www.quatuorcoronati.com
Most of Klein’s talks published in AQC can also be read at the website of Singapore Masonic Library though it lacks volumes 22 and 23 and I found I couldn’t access volume 25: www.singaporemasoniclibrary.com
The original journals can also be read at the Freemasons’ Library in London WC.
Talks given by Klein at meetings of QC2076 then published in AQC:
- volume 4 1891 editor G W Speth. On pp32-33: Character of the Roman Villa at Morton Isle of Wight. It was a response by Klein to comments about a head that could be seen as part of the decorations in Room 12. In AQC volume 3 1890 p46 Speth had argued that it was a death’s head. Klein argued that it was a Medousa head. He suggested that a study of known Roman floor designs might help the efforts to trace the history of freemasonry back to the Ancient Mysteries.
- volume 9 1896; editor G W Speth. On pp89-102 and pp102-08 for the discussion afterwards: The Law of Dakheil and Other Curious Customs of the Bedowin (sic). Klein spoke as somewhat of an authority on Arab customs, having travelled in La Mancha and Málaga (which had been part of Al Andalus) in 1876-77 and in Asia Minor during 1877-78.
- volume 10 1897; editor G W Speth. On pp82-100: The Great Secret. Originally read by Klein at the QC2076 meeting of 7 May 1897. There was no time for discussion of it at the meeting, but written comments on it were printed: pp101-06.
Klein’s subject was “geometrical problems associated with the right angle and the circle”. However, he caused consternation and controversy in the United Grand Lodge, by suggesting that freemasonry had lost its original Great Symbol, eventually replacing it with lesser ones now used in its great rites; and urging that a process be undertaken to bring the Great Symbol back.
Sources for the reaction to this important article:
Its subject: AQC volume 47 1934 pp249-51: obituary of Sydney Turner Klein.
Klein was already preparing his talk on The Great Secret when he gave the talk on Bedouin customs. He mentioned doing so in AQC volume 9 1896 p108.
Source for the uproar after Klein gave the talk, which eventually went all the way up to Edward Letchworth, the UGLE’s Grand Secretary, and its governing Board: Freemasons’ Library Subject Folder: SECRETS, Genuine (KLEIN).
Although the outcome of the uproar was – inevitably? - a decision that the UGLE would keep the rituals of its great rites as they were, interest in Klein’s ideas was so great amongst freemasons that he was often asked to give his talk to groups who were not members of QC2076; and the talk was published – almost unprecedented for talks at QC2076.
- volume 10 1897 editor G W Speth. On pp201-07: Masonic Symbolism; Klein’s talk as QC2076’s newly-installed Worshipful Master for the next 12 months; on the “wonders of astronomical space”.
Source for the quote: AQC2076 volume 47 1934 pp251: in obituary of Sydney Turner Klein.
In 1898 Klein began what a series of seven linked talks with the overall theme of Hidden Mysteries. Talks one to five were given during 1898; the last two were given a decade later.
The first five, all published in AQC volume 11, editor G W Speth:
- pp45-46: Hidden Mystery 1: Sympathy, of the Power of Fraternal Love, as Illustrated by the Mystery of Physical Work being accomplished by Sympathy on the Material Plane
- pp82-84: Hidden Mystery 2: Sympathy without Contact
- pp132-134: Hidden Mystery 3; or, The Loves of the Atoms
This talk reached further than Klein’s relatively small audience of QC2076 members: it was mentioned by future GD member Arthur Lovell in a letter to the spiritualist magazine Light:
Light: A Journal of Psychical, Occult, and Mystical Research. Volume 18 January-December 1878. London: published for its Proprietors (ultimately the London Spiritualist Alliance) at 110 St Martin’s Lane. Issue of 6 August 1898 p385 letter from Arthur Lovell: Freemasonry and Spiritualism.
(Returning to) talks given by Klein at meetings of QC2076 then published in AQC:
AQC volume 11 1898 continued:
- pp153-155: Hidden Mystery 4: Light. During this talk Klein gave a demonstration of the photo-chromoscope (sic) developed by Professor Iles (sic).
Both the device and its inventor are not correctly given in AQC. I think what Klein was demonstrating was the Kromskop or chrome-scope invented by the American Frederic Eugene Ives (1856-1937), a pioneer of colour photography who also made an early attempt to create a 3-d photographic system with his parallax stereogram. Ives’ wikipedia page says that the chrome-scope was for sale in England late in 1897; so Klein might have been one of its earliest users.
At //collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk there’s a photograph of the chrome-scope in the Science Museum’s collection, item 1921-90.
- pp183-187: Hidden Mystery 5: Beauty.
Volume 23 1910 editors W H Rylands and W J Songhurst was almost filled with printed versions of talks by Klein:
- pp107-37: Magister Mathesios; illustrated with sketches by Klein and reproductions of medieval paintings. Comments from the audience and Klein’s replies pp139-149. Amongst those who commented were two ex-members of the GD: Frederick J W Crowe; and Devey Fearon de l’Hoste Ranking.
In Sydney Turner Klein by Robert Freke Gould (of QC2076) in the series Scholars of the Craft. Printed Barber of Littleport. On its p2 Gould described the Magister Mathesios series as “speculative and mystical” in its approach to the symbolism of freemasonry, looking at what freemasonry might be said to have lost in terms of its symbolism since the Middle Ages.
(Returning to) talks given by Klein at meetings of QC2076 then published in AQC:
AQC volume 23 1910 continued:
- pp149-151: Hidden Mystery 6: The Mystery of the Apex.
This short talk was about radio and radioactivity.
In volume 25 1912, editors W H Rylands and W J Songhurst, Klein brought his ‘hidden mysteries’ series to an end:
- pp285-301: Hidden Mystery Number 7 (and last), The Real Personality or Transcendental Ego. On pp302-14: comments and debate at the end of the talk, with Klein’s replies. Former GD member Dr Devey Fearon de l’Hoste Ranking was again one of those in the audience who commented on the talk.
Hidden Mystery 7 was published elsewhere in 1912; I’m not sure which magazine issued it first:
1912 in Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute volume 44 pp129-65: The Real Personality or Transcendental Ego.
Two items in Occult Review:
Also in 1912, Klein published extracts or summaries of a book he was writing, in Occult Review editor Ralph Shirley. Published London: William Rider and Son Ltd. The article was in two parts:
- volume 15 number 6 June 1912 pp348-56: Through a Window in the Blank Wall. View 1.
And
- volume 16 number 1 July 1912 pp28-35: Through a Window in the Blank Wall. View 2.
The articles were then published, possibly with other text, with the title Science and the Infinite. Its subject was described as a “comparison between the life of a human and the life of an insect”
in Occult Review volume 17 number 6 June 1913 pp304-05, in editor Ralph Shirley’s ‘Notes of the Month’ section. Shirley had found the pamphlet “most profound and moving”. Ex-GD member F C [Frederick Clarence] Ritchie, however, wrote a letter criticising what he called Klein’s mental gymnastics on the subject of the Absolute; published in Occult Review volume 18 number 1 July 1913 p50. Klein’s reply to Ritchie’s comments was published in volume 18 number 3 September 1913 pp176-77. That in its turn got a response from A E A M Turner, in volume 18 number 4 October 1913 p297.
Back to AQC:
The first World War and a decline in his health passed before Klein gave a final talk at QC2076:
1919 AQC volume 32 editors W H Rylands and W J Songhurst. On pp57-66: Vestiges of the Craft In Spain; with comments from the audience and Klein’s replies, pp66-72. The talk was illustrated with sketches Klein had made of symbols he had found on buildings in Spain.
BOOKS and PAMPHLETS
1887 Thirty-Six Hours: Hunting Among the Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera of Middlesex
Printed Bath: Charles Seers.
1891 A Night Among the Infinities. With a Description of the Instruments at Stanmore Observatory
Published: Middlesex Natural History Society having originally appeared in the Transactions of the County of Middlesex Natural History and Science Society for sessions 1889-90 and 1890-91.
Printed Middlesex.
1897 The Great Symbol
Published: Margate. Printed: offices of Keble’s Gazette.
This had originally been a very controversial talk, given by Klein at a meeting of the craft freemasonry lodge Quatuor Coronati 2076 (QC2076). See the ‘articles’ section for more on it.
1897 Installation Address - The Wonders of Astronomical Space
Published: Margate. Printed: offices of Keble’s Gazette.
This had also been a talk, given to mark the start of Klein’s 12 months as Worshipful Master of QC2076.
1912 Science and the Infinite; or, Through a Window in the Blank Wall
This had originally been published as a series in the magazine Occult Review (see above, the ‘articles’ section for the details). The series was issued as a pamphlet by OR’s publishers, William Rider and Son. It was reprinted in 1917 and 1924 and a 4th, revised edition was published 1929.
The original edition was reviewed in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum volume 25 pp338-39.
1917 From the Watch Tower; or, Spiritual Discernment
London: Methuen and Co.
Its publication was advertised in Times 2 November 1917 p4 in the ‘new books’ list.
It was reviewed in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum volume 30 p212; the reviewer was William Wynn Westcott, one of the GD’s founders. It was also mentioned in the editor’s ‘Notes of the Month’ column in Occult Review volume 26 issue of December 1917 p307. Klein replied in a letter which was published in Occult Review volume 27 issue of January 1918 p48, with on p49 a reply to it from the editor. And in volume 27 issue of April 1918 p229 there was a letter by “WF”: Mr Klein’s Theories.
1922 The Reality of the Invisible
Klein as co-author with illustrations by Gabriel Pippet.
I couldn’t find this book in the British Library catalogue or via worldcat but its publication was announced in Times 1 July 1922 p14 in the ‘new books’ list.
There’s a short wikipedia article on Gabriel Pippet 1880-1962; artist, illustrator and wood carver doing commissions for churches in a style influenced by the pre-Raphaelites and the Arts and Crafts movement. Though most of his work was done in the 20th century he is listed in A Dictionary of Victorian Wood Engravers by R K Engen published 1985.
1924 The Way of Attainment
London: William Rider and Son. In 1930 a new, revised edition was published. And there’s also an edition from 1981: Santa Fé New Mexico: Sun Publishing Company.
The original edition was reviewed in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum volume 37 pp305-07.
1929 The Garden of Enchantment, for Old and Young Alike. [Sketches of Natural History]
London: Rider and Co.
This was reviewed in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum volume 41 p202.
Copyright SALLY DAVIS
7 April 2023
Email me at
especially if you know of works by Sydney Turner Klein that aren’t in my list.
Find the web pages of Roger Wright and Sally Davis, including my list of people initiated into the Order of the Golden Dawn between 1888 and 1901, at:
www.wrightanddavis.co.uk
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