Prithee the addressee, as in "if it please you," "prithee" accompanies a request which addresses itself to the threat of being answered in the negative, as though the request were against the addressee's wishes. Stated otherwise, the word "please" suggests that the person being addressed is willing to comply with the request, whereas the word "prithee" suggests that he or she is not willing. This switch from stating the speaker's contrary desire to stating the speaker's wish not to impose signaled a cultural shift in the English-speaking world in which politeness became stated negatively rather than positively. Wider repercussions are observable
What Is Theosophy? archaic "Wisdom-Religion," the esoteric doctrine once known in every ancient country having claims to civilization." Both Tim Rudbøg and Julia Shabanova have cited Blavatsky's definition of Theosophy as the Wisdom-Religion: "This 'Wisdom' all the old writings show us as an emanation of the divine Principle; and the clear comprehension of it is typified in such names as the Indian Budha, the Babylonian Nebo, the Thoth of Memphis, the Hermes of Greece; in the appellations, also, of some goddesses—Metis, Neitha, Athena, the Gnostic "Sophia," and finally the Vedas, from the word 'to know'." James Santucci wrote that Theosophy, according to Blavatsky,