The Real History of the Rosicrucians (with the Fama and Confessio Fraternitatis)

Actus s. In the fifth act the young King was acquainted with all that had passed between the Moore and his future spouse, who interceded with his father for her, intreating that she might not be left in that condition, and embassadors were dispatched to comfort her, but withal to give her notice of her inconsiderateness. She, nevertheless, would not receive them, but consented to be the Moore's concubine, and the young King was acquainted with it. interiudium. After this comes a band of fools, each of which brought a cudgel, wherewith they made a great globe of the world, and undid it again, the which was a fine sportive phantsie. Actus 6. In the sixth act, the young King resolved to bid battle to the Moore, which was done, and albeit the Moore was discomfited, yet all held the young King for dead, but he came again to himself, released his spouse, and committed her to his steward and chaplain, the first whereof tormented her mightily, while the priest was so insolently wicked that he would needs be above all, till the same was reported to the young King, who dispatched one to break the neck of the priest's mightiness, and adorn the bride in

interiudium. some measure for the nuptials. After this act a vast artificial elephant was brought in, carrying a great tower with musitians, which was well pleasing to all. Actus 7. In the last act the bride-groom appeared in such pomp as is not well to be believed. The bride met him in the like solemnity, whereupon all the people cried out — VIVAT SPONSUM, VIVAT SPONSA, so that by this comedy they did erga Regem withal congratulate our King and Queen in the most stately manner, which pleased them most extraordinary well. At length they made some pasces about the stage, till at last they altogether began thus to sing. This time full of love Cantilena. Does our joy much approve Because of the King's Nuptial ; And, therefore, let's sing, Till from all parts it ring, Blest be he that granted us all ! The Bride most exquisitely faire, Whom we attended long with care, To him in troth is plighted ; We fully have at length obtain'd The same for which we did contend — He's happy that's fore-sighted. Now the parents kind and good By intreaties are subdued ; Long enough in hold was she mew'd ;

So in honour increase Till ^howsanbs arise And spring from your own proper blood. After this thanks were returned, and the comedy was Epiiogus. finished with joy to the particular liking of the Eoyal Persons, who, the evening being already hard by, departed in their fore-mentioned order, we attending them up the Respites winding stairs into the previous hall, where the tables were already richly furnished. This was the first time that we were invited to the King's table. The little altar was placed in the midst of the hall, and the six royal ensignes were laid upon it. The young King behaved himself very Rex gratiously towards us, yet he could not be heartily merry ; he discoursed a little with us, yet often sighed, at which the little Cupid only mocked, and played his waggish tricks. The old King and Queen were very serious, but the wife Reges of one of the ancient Kings was gay enough, the cause Ordo dis- whereof I understood not. The Eoyal Persons took up the cumbanum. g^ ^j^ at ^he second we only sate ; at the third some of the principal Virgins placed themselves. The rest were fain to wait. This was performed with such state and solemn stillness that I am afraid to make many words of it.

omatus All the Eoyal Persons, before meat, attired themselves in snow-white glittering garments. Over the table hung the great golden crown, the pretious stones whereof, without Corona other light, would have sufficiently illuminated the hall. All the lights were kindled at the small taper upon the altar. The young king frequently sent meat to the white serpent, which caused me to muse. Almost all the prattle s a^ this banquet was made by Cupid, who could not leave sst' us, and me especially, un tormented, and was perpetually producing some strange matter. However, there was no considerable mirth, from whence I could imagine some great imminent peril. There was no musick heard, and if we were demanded anything, we were fain to give short Sermones answers, and so let it rest. In short, all things had so strange a face that the sweat began to trickle down over my body, and I believe that the stoutest-hearted man would have lost courage. Supper being almost ended, the young King commanded the book to be reached him from Oratio Regis the altar. This he opened and caused it again to be propounded to us by an old man whether we resolved to abide with him in prosperity and adversity, which we having with trembling consented to, he further caused us sadly to be demanded whether we would give him our hands on it, which, when we could fain no reason, was fain so to be. One after another rose and with his own hand writ himself down in this book, after which the little christal fountain was brought near, together with a very small christal glass,

out of which all the Eoyal Persons drank ; afterwards it was reached to us, and so forward to all, and this was called the Draught of Silence. Hereupon all the Eoyal Haustus de Persons presented us their hands, declaring that in case we did not now stick to them we should never hereafter see them, which verily made our eyes run over. But our president engaged herself and promised largely on our Fidejutetu behalf, which gave them satisfaction. Mean time a little bell was tolled, at which all the Eoyal Persons waxed so mighty bleak that we were ready utterly to despair. They quickly put off" their white garments and assumed intirely MOI-S black ones ; the whole hall was hung with black velvet, the floor covered with the same, with which also the ceiling was overspread. The tables were also removed, all seated themselves upon the form, and we also had put on black habits. Our president, who was before gone out, comes in again, bearing six black taffeta scarffs, with which she . bound the six Eoyal Persons' eyes, and there were immediately brought in by the servants six covered coffins, which were set down, a low black seat being placed in their midst. Finally, there stept in a cole-black, tall man, who bare in his hand a sharp ax. Now after that the old King Decollate had been brought to the seat, his head was instantly whipt off and wrapped in a black cloth, the blood being received in a great golden goblet, and placed with him in the coffin that stood by, which, being covered, was set aside.

Thus it went with the rest, so that I thought it would have come to me too, but as soon as the six Eoyal Persons were beheaded, the black man retired, another following who just before the door beheaded him also, and brought back his head, which, with the ax, was laid in a little chest. This indeed seemed to me a bloody Wedding, but, because

Cadavera avehuntur trans Lacum, I could not tell what the event would be, I was fain to captivate my understanding until I were further resolved. The Virgin, seeing that some of us were faint-hearted and wept, bid us be content, saying : — " The life of these standeth now in your hands, and in case you follow me, this death shall make many alive." Herewith she intimated we should go sleep and trouble ourselves no further, for they should have their due right. She bade us all good night, saying that she must watch the dead corps. We then were conducted by our Pages into our lodgings. My Page talked with me of sundry matters, and gave me cause enough to admire his understanding, but his intention was to lull me asleep, which at last I observed, whereupon I made as though I was fast asleep, but no sleep came to my eyes, and I could not put the beheaded out of my mind. Now my lodging was directly over against the great lake, so that I could look upon it, the windows being nigh the bed. About midnight I espied on the lake a great fire, wherefore I quickly opened the window to see what would become of it. Then from far I saw seven ships making forward all full of lights. Above each of them hovered a flame that passed to and fro, and sometimes descended, so that I could lightly judge that it must needs be the spirits of the beheaded.

The ships gently approached to land, and each had no more than one mariner. When they were gotten to shore, I espied our Virgin with a torch going towards them, after whom the six covered coffins, together with the little chest, were carried, and each was privily laid in a ship. Wherefore I awaked my Page, who hugely thanked me, for having run much up and down all day, he might quite have over-slept this, though he well knew it. As

soon as the coffins were laid in the ships, all the lights were extinguished, and the six flames passed back together over the lake, so that there was but one light for a watch in each ship. There were also some hundreds of watchmen encamped on the shore, who sent the Virgin back again into the Castle, she carefully bolting all up again ; so that I could judge that there was nothing more to be done this night. We again betook ourselves to rest. I only of all Autor solus my company had a chamber towards the lake and saw this. Then being extream weary I fell asleep in my manifold speculations. The Fifth Day. The night was over, and the dear wished-for day broken, obambuiatio when hastily I got me out of bed, more desirous to learn what might insue than that I had sufficiently slept. After I had put on my cloathes, and according to my custom was gone down stairs, it was still too early, and I found nobody else in the hall, wherefore I entreated my Page to lead me a little about the castle, and shew me somewhat that was rare, who now (as always) willing, presently lead me down certain steps underground to a great iron door, on which the following words were fixed in large copper letters :—

These I copied and set down in my table-book. After this door was opened, the Page lead me by the hand through a very dark passage till we came to a little door now only put too, for, as the Page informed me, it was first opened yesterday when the coffins were taken out, and had not since been shut. As soon as we stepped in I espied the most pretious thing that Nature ever created, for this vault had no other light but from certain huge carbuncles. This was the King's Treasury, but the most glorious and principal thing was a sepulchre in the middle, so rich that I wondered it was no better guarded, whereunto the Page answered me, that I had good reason to be thankful to my planet, by whose influence I had now seen certain pieces which no humane eye (except those of the King's family) had ever viewed. This sepulcher was triangular, and had in the middle of it a kettle of polished copper, the rest was of pure gold and pretious stones. In the kettle stood an angel, who held in his arms an unknown tree, whose fruit continually falling into the kettle, turned into water therein, and ran out into three small golden kettles standing by. This little altar was supported by an eagle, an ox, and a lion, which stood on an exceeding costly base. I asked my Page what this might signifie.

" Here," said he, "lies buried Lady Venus, that beauty which hath undone many a great man, both in fourtune, honour, blessing, and prosperity " ; after which he showed me a copper door in the pavement, saying, " Here, if you please, we may go further down." We descended the steps, where it was exceeding dark, but the Page immediately opened a little chest in which stood a small ever-burning taper, wherefrom he kindled one of the many torches that lay by. I was mightily terrified and asked how he durst do this. He

gave me for answer, " as long as the Royal Persons are still at rest I have nothing to fear." Herewith I espied a rich bed ready made, hung about with curious curtains, one of which he drew, and I saw the Lady Venus stark naked Descriptio (for he heaved up the coverlets too), lying there in such veneris beauty, and a fashion so surprising, that I was almost besides myself, neither do I yet know whether it was a piece thus carved, or an humane corps that lay dead there, for she was altogether immoveable, and yet I durst not touch her. So she was again covered, yet she was still, as it were, in my eye. But I soon espyed behind the bed a tablet on which it was thus written. I asked my Page concerning this writing, but he laughed, with promise that I should know it too, and, he putting out the torch, we again ascended. Then I better viewed all the little doors, and found that on every corner there burned a small taper of pyrites of which I had before taken no notice, for the fire was so clear that it looked much liker a stone than a taper. From this heat the tree was forced continually tojmelt, yet it still produced new fruit. "Now, behold," said the Page, "when the tree shall be

quite melted down, then shall Lady Venus awake and be the mother of a King." Whilst he was thus speaking, in flew the little Cupid, who at first was somewhat abashed at our presence, but seeing us both look more like the dead Muictafacta then the living, he could not refrain from laughing, and hujus obam- .111 i • demanded what spirit had brought me thither, whom 1 with trembling answered, that I had lost my way in the castle, and was by chance come hither, that the Page had likewise been looking up and down for me, and at last lited upon me here, and that I hoped he would not take it amiss. " Nay, then, 'tis well enough yet," said Cupid, " my old busie gransir, but you might lightly have served me a scurvy trick, had you been aware of this door. I must look better to it," and so he put a strong lock on the copper door where we before descended. I thanked God that he lited upon us no sooner ; my Page, too, was the more jocond because I had so well helped him at this pinch. " Yet can I not," said Cupid, "let it pass unrevenged that you were so near stumbling upon my dear mother." With that he put the point of his dart into one of the little tapers, and heating it somewhat, pricked me with it on the hand, which at that time I little regarded, but was glad that it went so well with us.

Meantime my companions were gotten out of bed and were come into the hall, to whom I joyned myself, making as if I were then first risen. After Cupid had carefully made all fast again, he came likewise to us, and would needs have me shew him my hand, where he still found a little drop of blood, at which he heartily laughed, and bad the rest have a care of me, as I would shortly end my days. We all wondered how he could be so merry and have no sence of yesterday's sad passages. Our President had meantime made herself ready for a journey, coming in

i all in black velvet, yet she and her Virgins still bare their branches of lawrel. All things being in readiness, she bid iugubris. us first drink somewhat, and then presently prepare for the procession, wherefore we made no long tarrying, but followed her out of the hall into the court, where stood six coffins, and my companions thought no other but that the six Royal Persons lay in them, but I well observed the device, though I knew not what was to be done with these other. By each coffin were eight muffled men. As soon as the musick went, it was so doleful a tune that I was astonished at it, they took up the coffins, and we followed them into the Garden, in the midst of which was erected a wooden edifice, have round about the roof a glorious crown, and standing upon seven columns. Within it were formed six sepulchers ; by each of them was a stone, but in the middle it had a round hollow rising stone. In these graves the coffins were quietly, and with many ceremonies, laid ; the stones were shoved over them, and they shut fast, but the little chest was to lie in the middle. Herewith were my companions deceived, for they imagined that the dead corps were there. On the top of all was a great flag, having a Phcenix painted on it, perhaps the more to delude us. After the funerals were done, the Virgin, having placed herself upon the midmost stone, made a short oration, Respites

exhorting us to be constant to our ingagements, not to ad labore repine at the pains we must undergo, but be helpful in restoring the buried Royal Persons to life, and therefore, without delay, to rise and make a journey with her to the Tower of Olympus, to fetch thence the medicines necessary for this purpose. This we soon agreed to, and followed her through another little door to the shore, where the seven ships stood empty, and on them all the Virgins stuck up their Laurel branches, and, having distributed us in the six ships, they caused us in God's name to begin our voyage, and looked upon us as long as we were in sight, after which they, with all the watchmen, returned into the Castle. Our ships had each of them a in arce. peculiar device ; five of them, indeed, had the five regular bodies, each a several one, but mine, in which the Virgin too sate, carried a globe. Thus we sailed on in a singular order, and each had only two mariners. Foremost went the a ship a in which, as I conceive, the Moor lay. In this were b ii c ii d ii twelve musitians who played excellently well, and its device

ff I! was a pyramid. Next followed three abreast, b, c, and d, in which we were disposed ; I sate in c. Behind these came the two fairest and stateliest ships, e and/, stuck about with many branches of lawrel, and having no passengers in them ; their flags were the sun and moon. But in the rear 4ovirgmes was only one ship, g, and in this were forty Virgins. Having passed over this lake, we came through a narrow arm into the right sea, where all the sirens, nymphs, and sea-goddesses attended us, and immediately dispatched a Excipiuntur sea-nymph unto us to deliver their present of honour to the Wedding. It was a costly, great, set, round, and orient pearl, the like to which hath not at any time been seen, either in ours or in the new \c world- The Virgins having ^> friendly received it, the nymph intreated that audience might be given to their divertisements, which the Virgin was content to give, and commanded the two great ships to stand into the middle, and to the rest to incompass them in pentagon, after which the nymphs fell into a ring about them, and with a most delicate sweet voice began thus to sing :

There's nothing better here below Than beauteous, noble Love, Whereby we like to God do grow, And none to grief do move ; Wherefore let's chant it to the King, That all the sea therewith may ring. We question, answer you ! What was it that at first us made ? 'Twas Love. And what hath grace afresh conveigh'd ? 'Twas Love. And whence (pray tell us !) were we born ? Of Love. How came we then again forlorn ? Who was it, say, that us conceived ? 'Twas Love. Who suckled, nursed, and relieved ? 'Twas Love. What do we to our parents owe ? 'Tis Love. Why do they us such kindness show ? Who gets herein the victory ? 'Tis Love. Can Love by search obtained be ? By Love. How may a man good works perform ? Through Love. Who into one can two transform ? Then let our song sound, Till its eccho rebound, To Love's honour and praise ; May it ever increase With our noble Princes, the King and the Queen, The soul is departed, their body's within. And as long as we live That as great love and amity They bear each other mightily,

So we, likewise, by love's own flame May reconjoyn them once again. Then this annoy Into great joy (If many thousand younglings deign) Shall change, and ever so remain. Autori These having, with most admirable concent and melody, nymphae and finished this song, I no more wondred at Ulisses for stopping the ears of his companions ; I seemed to myself the most unhappy man alive that Nature had not made me too so trim a creature. But the Virgin soon dispatched The nymphs them, and commanded to set sail : wherefore the nymphs, having been presented with a long red scarff for a gratuity, dispersed themselves in the sea. I was at this time sensible that Cupid began to work with me too, which tended little Autori to my credit ; but as my giddiness is likely to be nothing Qu°- beneficial to the reader, I am resolved to let it rest. This was the wound that in the first book I received on my head in a dream. Let every one take warning by me of loitering about Venus' bed, for Cupid can by no means brook it. Tun-is After some hours, we came within ken of the Tower of

Olympus; wherefore the Virgin commanded by the discharge of some pieces to give signal of our approach, and immediately we espyed a great white flag thrust out, and a small gilded pinnace sent forth to meet us, wherein was a very antient man, the Warder of the Tower, with certain Custos guards in white, by whom we were friendly received, and conducted to the Tower, which was situated upon an island exactly square,1 and invironed with a wall so firm and structura thick that I counted two hundred and sixty paces over. Dies. On the other side was a fine meadow with certain little gardens, in which grew strange, and to me unknown fruits. There was an inner wall about the Tower which itself was as if seven round towers had been built one by another, yet the middlemost was somewhat higher, and within they all entered one into another. Being come to the gates of the Tower, we were led a little aside on the wall, that so the coffins might be brought in without our notice, but of this the rest knew nothing. We were conducted into the i. conclave. Tower at the very bottom, which was an excellently painted laboratory, where we were fain to beat and wash Labores

plants, precious stones, and all sorts of things, extract their juice and essence, put up the same in glasses, and deliver them to be laid up. Our Virgin was so busie with us, and so full of directions, that she knew not how to give us employment enough, so that in this Island we were meer drudges till we had atchieved all that was necessary for restoring the beheaded bodies. Meantime, as I afterwards learned, three Virgins were in the first apartment virginum. washing the corps with diligence. Having at length almost done our preparation, some broath, with a little 1 See additional note, No. 4. Autor speculatur ccelum prosomno. draught of wine, was brought us, whereby I observed that we were not here for pleasure. When we had finished our day's work, everyone had a mattress laid on the ground for him, wherewith we were to content ourselves. For my part I was not much troubled with sleep, and walking out into the garden, at length came as far as the wall, where, the heaven being very clear, I could well give away the time in contemplating the stars. By chance I came to a great pair of stone stairs leading to the top of the wall, and because the moon shone very bright, I was so much the more confident, and, going up, looked too a little upon the sea, which was exceeding calm. Thus having good opportunity to consider better of astronomy, I found that this night there would happen such a conjunction of the planets, the like to which was not otherwise suddenly to be observed.

Having looked a good while into the sea, and it being just about midnight, I beheld from far the seven Flames passing over sea hitherward, and betakeing themselves to the top of the spire of the tower. This made me somewhat affraid ; for as soon as the Flames had settled themselves, the winds rose, and made the sea very tempestuous. The moon also was covered with clouds, and my joy ended with such fear that I had scarce time enough to hit upon the stairs again, and betake myself to the Tower, where I laid me down upon my mattress, and there being in the laboratory a pleasant and gently purling fountain, I fell asleep so much the sooner. And thus this fifth day too was concluded with wonders.

The Sixth Day. Xext morning, after we had awaked another, we sate Define together to discourse what might be the wont or things, Some were of opinion that the corps should all be inlivened again together. Others contradicted this, because the decease of the ancients was not only to restore life but increase too to the young ones. Some imagined that they were not put to death, but that others were beheaded in their stead. Having talked a pretty while, in comes the Custos. old man, and first saluting us, looks about to see if all things were ready. We had herein so behaved ourselves pyrotecimia that he had no fault to find with our diligence, whereupon laudatur. he placed all the glasses together, and put them into a case. Presently come certain youths, bringing ladders, Puen roapes, and large wings, which they laid before us and departed. Then the old man began thus : — " My dear Sons, one of these three things must each of you this day constantly bear about with him. It is free for you to make choice of one of them, or to cast lots." We replied that we would choose. " Nay," said he, " let it rather go by lot. Hereupon he made three little schedules, writing Sors. on one Ladder, on the second Rope, on the third Wings. These he laid in an hat ; each man must draw, and whatever he happened on was to be his. Those who got ropes imagined themselves in the best case ; but I chanced on a ladder, which hugely afflicted me, for it was twelve-foot long, pretty weighty, and I must be forced to carry it, whereas the others could handsomely coyle their ropes about them, and as for the wings, the old man joyned them so neatly on to the third sort as if they had grown upon them. Hereupon he turned the cock, and the

fountain ran no longer, and we were fain to remove it out of the way. After all things were carried off, he, taking with him the casket and glasses, took leave, and locked the door after him, so we imagined that we had been Ascensusin imprisoned in this Tower: but it was hardly a quarter of an hour before a round hole above was uncovered, where we saw our Virgin, who bad us good morrow, desiring us to come up. They with the wings were instantly through the hole ; only they with the ropes were in an evil plight, for as soon as ever one of us was up, he was commanded to draw up the ladder to him. At last each man's rope was hanged on an iron hook, and he climbed up as well as he could, which indeed was not compassed without blisters. When we were all well up, the hole was again covered, and we were friendly received by the Virgin. This room was the whole breadth of the Tower itself, having six very stately vestries a little raised and reached by three steps. In these we were distributed to pray for the life of the King and Queen. Meanwhile the Virgin went in and out at the little door a till we had done. As soon as our process was absolved, there was brought in through the little door by twelve persons, which were formerly our musitians, a wonderful thing of longish shape, which my companions took to be a fountain, and which was placed in the middle.

I well observed that the corps lay in it, for the inner chest was of an oval figure, so large that six persons might well lie therein one by another. After this they again went forth, fetched their instruments, and conducted in our Virgin, with her she-attendants, to a most delicate voice of musick. The Virgin carried a little casket, the rest only branches, and small lamps or lighted

torches, which last were immediately given into our hands, and we stood about the fountain in this order. First stood the Virgin A, with her attendants in a ring Ordo chori round about, with the lamps and branches c. Next stood we with our torches b, then the musitians in a long rank ; last of all, the rest of the Virgins d, in another long rank. Whence the Virgins came, whether they dwelt in the ^d?nes Castle, or were brought in by night, I know not, for their faces were covered with delicate white linnen. The Quid in Virgin opened the casket, in which was a round thing wrapped in a piece of green double taffata. This she laid in the uppermost kettle, and covered it with the lid, which was full of holes, and had besides a rim, on which she poured in some of the water which we had the day before prepared ; the fountain began immediately began to run, and through four small pipes to drive into the little kettle. Beneath the undermost kettle were many sharp points, on which the Virgins stuck their lamps, that the heat might come to the kettle and make the water seeth, which, when it began to simper, by many little holes at a, fell in upon the bodies, and was so hot that it dissolved them all, and turned them into liquor. What the abovesaid round wrapt-up thing was, my companions knew not, but I understood that it was the Moor's head, from which the water conceived so great heat. At b, round about the Kami great kettle, there were again many holes, in which they

stuck their branches, but whether this was done of necessity or for ceremony I know not. However, these branches were continually sprinkled by the fountain, whence it afterwards dropt somewhat of a deeper yellow into the kettle. This lasted for near two hours, the fountain still running, but more faintly. Meantime the musitians went their way, and we walked up and down in the room, which Delict in truly was so made that we had opportunity enough to pass away our time. There were images, paintings, clock-works, organs, springing fountains, and the like. When it was near the time that the fountain ceased, the Virgin commanded a golden globe to be brought. At the bottom of the fountain was a tap, by which she let out all the matter dissolved by those hot drops (whereof certain quarts were then very red) into the globe. The rest of the water above in the kettle was poured out, and so this fountain was again carried forth. Whether it was opened abroad, or whether anything of the bodies that was useful yet remained, I dare not certainly say, but the water emptied Gravitas into the globe was much heavier than six or more of us were able to bear, albeit for its bulk it should have seemed not too heavy for one man. This globe being with much ado gotten out of doors, we again sate alone, but I, per-

ceiving a trampling over head, had an eye to my ladder. After one quarter of an hour, the cover above was lifted, and we commanded to come up, which we did as before, with wines, ladders, and ropes, and it did not a little vex me that Ascensus in whereas the Virgins could go up another way, we were fain to take so much toil ; yet I could judge there must be some special reason for it, and we must leave somewhat for the old man to do too. The hole being again shut fast, I saw the globe hanging by a strong chain in the middle of the room, in which there was nothing but windows, with a door between Descriptio every two, which was covered with a great polished lookingglass. These windows and looking-glasses were so optically opposed that although the sun, which now shined exceeding bright, beat only upon one door, yet (after the windows Artif- °Pticatowards the sun were opened, and the doors before the looking-glasses drawn aside) in all quarters of the room there was nothing but suns, which by artificial refractions beat upon the whole golden globe hanging in the midst, which, being polished, gave such a lustre that none of us could open our eyes, but were forced to look out at windows till the globe was well heated, and brought to the Mirac- sPecdesired effect. In these mirrors I saw the most wonderful spectacles that ever nature brought to light, for there were suns in all places, and the globe in the middle shined brighter yet. At length the virgin commanded to shut up the looking-glasses and make fast the windows to let the globe cool a little, wherefore we thought good, since we might now have leisure, to refresh ourselves with a breakfast. This treatment was again right philosophical, and

we had no need to be afraid of intemperance, though we had no want, while the hope of the future joy, with which the virgin continually comforted us, made us so jocond that we regarded not any pains or inconvenience. I can truly say concerning my Companions of high quality that their minds never ran after their kitchen or table, but their pleasure ^was only to attend on this adventurous physic, and hence to contemplate the Creator's wisdom and omnipotency. After our refection we settled ourselves to work, for the globe was sufficiently cooled, which with toil and labour we were to lift off the chain and set upon the floor. The dispute then was how we were to get the globe in sunder, for we were commanded to divide it in .the midst. The conclusion was that a sharp-pointed diamond would be best to do it, and when we had thus opened the globe, there was no redness to be seen, but a lovely great snowwhite egg, and it mightily rejoyced us that this was so well brought to pass, for the virgin was in perpetual care least the shell might still be too tender. We stood around about this egg as jocond as if we ourselves had laid it, but the Virgin made it presently be carried forth, and departed herself, locking the door behind her. What she did abroad with the egg, or whether it were privately handled, I know not, neither do I believe it.

We were again to pause for one quarter of an hour, till the third hole opened, and we, by means of our instruments, came upon the fourth stone or floor. In this room we found a great copper kettle filled with silver sand, which was warmed with a gentle fire, and afterwards the egg was raked up in it, that it might therein come to perfect maturity. This kettle was exactly square. Upon one side stood these two verses writ in great letters—

KANT. I.i VOLT. BIT. TO. GOLT. 1 This letter is omitted in one of the German editions. On the second side were these three words — SANITAS. Nix. HASTA. The third had but this one word — But on the hindmost part stood an entire inscription, running thus — Tgnis : Aer : Aqua : Terra : Now, whether the sand or egg were hereby meant I leave the learned to dispute. Our egg, being ready, was taken out, but it needed no cracking, for the Bird soon freed himself, looking very jocond, though bloody and unshapen. We first set him on the warm sand, the Virgin commanding Puiius that before we gave him anything to eat we should be sure to make him fast, otherwise he would give us all work enough. This being done, food was brought him, which vindtur. surely was nothing but the blood of the beheaded deluted Pascitur with prepared water, by which the Bird grew so fast under decaiiatomm our eye that we well saw why the Virgin gave such warning of him. He bit and scratched so devilishly that, could he have had his will upon any of us, he would soon Sanguine alias Regis pascitur.

have dispatched him. Now he was wholly black and wild, wherefore other meat was brought him, perhaps the blood of another of the Eoyal Persons, whereupon all his black feathers moulted and were replaced by snow-white ones. He was somewhat tamer too, and more tractable, though we did not yet trust him. At the third feeding his feathers began to be so curiously coloured that I never saw the like for beauty. He was also exceedingly tame, and behaved himself so friendly with us that, the Virgin consenting, we released him from captivity. " 'Tis now reason," she began, " since by your diligence, and our old man's consent, the Bird has attained with his life and the highest perfection, that he be also joyfully consecrated by us." Herewith she commanded to bring in dinner, since the most troublesome part of our work was now over, and it was fit we should begin to enjoy our passed labours. We began to make merry together. Howbeit, we had still our mourning cloaths on, which seemed somewhat reproachful to our mirth. The Virgin was perpetually inquisitive, perhaps to find to which of us her future purpose might prove serviceable, but her discourse was, for the most part, about Melting, and it pleased her well when any one seemed expert in such compendious manuals as do peculiarly commend an artist. This dinner lasted not above threequarters of an hour, which we yet, for the most part, spent with our Bird, whom we were fain constantly to feed with his meat, though he continued much at the same growth. After Dinner we were not long suffered to digest our food, for the Virgin, together with the Bird, departed from us, 6. conclave* and the fifth room was opened, which we reached after the former manner, and tendred our service. In this Avis room a bath was prepared for our Bird, which was so

coloured with a fine white powder that it had the appearance of milk. It was cool when the Bird was set into it, and he was mighty well pleased with it, drinking of it, and pleasantly sporting in it. But after it began to heat, by reason of the lamps placed under it, we had enough to do to keep him in the bath. We, therefore, clapt a cover on the kettle, and suffered him to thrust out his head through a hole, till he had lost all his feathers in this bath, and was as smooth as a new-born babe, yet the heat did him no further harm. In this bath the feathers were quite consumed, and the bath was thereby turned into blew. At length we gave the Bird air, who of himself sprung out of the kettle, and was so glitteringly smooth that it was a pleasure to behold him. But because he was still somewhat wild, we were fain to put a collar, with a chain, about his neck, and so led him up and down vincitur. the room. Meantime a strong fire was made under the kettle, and the bath sodden away till it all came to a blew stone, which we took out, and, having pounded it, we Balneum

ground it on a stone, and finally with this colour painted the Bird's whole skin over, who then looked much more strangely, for he was all blew except the head, which remained white. Herewith our work in this story was performed, and we, after the Virgin with her blew Bird was departed from us, were called up a hole to the sixth 6- Conclave. story, where we were mightily troubled, for in the midst a little altar, every way like that in the King's hall, was placed. Upon it stood the six forementioned particulars, and he himself (the Bird) made the seventh. First of all the little fountain was set before him, out of which he drunk a good draught j afterwards he pecked upon the white serpent till she bled mightily. This blood we re- i8o HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS. ceived in a golden cup, and poured down the Bird's throat, who was mighty averse from it ; then we dipt the serpent's head in the fountain, upon which she again revived, and crept into her death's head, so that I saw her no more for a long time. Meanwhile the sphere turned constantly on until it made the desired conjunction. Immediately the watch struck one, upon which there was going another conjunction. Then the watch struck two. Finally, whilst we were observing the third conjunction, and the same was indicated by the watch, the poor Bird of himself submissively laid down his neck upon the book, and willingly Avis suffered his head to be smitten off by one of us, thereto

chosen by lot. Howbeit he yielded not one drop of blood till he was opened on the breast, and then the blood spun out so fresh and clear as if it had been a fountain of rubies. His death went to the heart of us, yet we might well judge Avis that a naked bird would stand us in little stead. We removed the little altar, and assisted the Virgin to burn the body, together with the little tablet hanging by, to ashes, with fire kindled at the little taper, afterwards to cleanse the same several times, and to lay them in a box of cypress wood. Here I cannot conceal what a trick I, with three more, was served. After we had diligently taken up the ashes, the Virgin began to speak thus : — " My Lords, we are here in the sixth room, and have only one more before us, in which our trouble will be at an end, and we shall return home to our castle to awaken our most gratious Lords and Ladies. Now albeit I could heartily wish that all of you had behaved yourselves in such sort that I might have given your commendations to our most renowned King and Queen, and you have obtained a suitable reward, yet because, contrary to my desire, I have found amongst you

these four "• —pointing at me and three others— "lazy and sluggish labourators, and yet according to my good-will to all, I am not willing to deliver them to condign punishment. However, that such negligence may not remain wholly unpunished, I purpose that they shall be excluded from the future seventh and most glorious action of all the rest, and so they shall incur no further blame from their Eoyal Majesties." In what a case we now were I leave others to consider, for the Virgin so well knew how to keep her countenance that the water soon ran over our baskets, and we esteemed ourselves the most unhappy of all men. The Virgin by one of her maids, whereof there were many always at hand, caused the musitians to be fetcht, who were with cornets to blow us out of doors with such scorn and derision that they themselves could hardly sound for laughing. But it did particularly afflict us that the Virgin vehemently laughed at our weeping, and that there might be some amongst our companions who were glad of our misfortune. But it proved otherwise, for as soon as we were come out at the co door the .musitians bid us be of good cheere, and follow them up the winding staires to the eighth floor under the 8- Conclave, roof, where we found the old man standing upon a little round furnace. He received us friendly, and heartily congratulated us that we were hereto chosen by the Virgin ; but after he had understood the fright we had conceived, his belly was ready to burst with laughing that we had taken such good fortune so hainously. " Hence," said he, " my dear sons, learn that man never knoweth how well God intendeth him." The Virgin also came running in, who, after she had sufficiently laughed at us, emptied her ashes into another vessel, filling hers again with other

Verus labor sub tecto. Labor spurius in 7 conclavi. matter, saying, she must now cast a mist before the other artist's eyes, that we in the mean time should obey the old lord, and not remit our former diligence. Herewith she departed from us into the seventh room, whither she called our companions. What she first did with them I cannot tell, for they were not only most earnestly forbidden to speak of it, but we, by reason of our business, durst not peep on them through the cieling. Our work was to moisten the ashes with our fore-prepared water till they became like a very thin dough, after which we set the matter over the fire till it was well heated ; then we cast it into two little forms or moulds, and [so let it cool a little, when we had leisure to look on our companions through certain crevises in the floor. They were busie at a furnace, and each was himself fain to blow up the fire with a pipe, till he was ready to lose his breath. They imagined they were herein wonderfully preferred before us. This blowing lasted till our old man rouzed us to work again. We opened our little forms, and there appeared two bright and almost transparent little images, a male and a female, the like to which man's eye never saw, each being but four inches long, and that which most mightily surprised me was that they were not hard, but limber and fleshy as other human bodies ;

yet had they no life, so that I assuredly believe that Lady Venus' image was made after some such way. These angelically fair babes we laid upon two little sattin cushonets, and beheld them till we were ^almost besotted upon so exquisite an object. The old lord warned us to forbear, and continually to instil the blood of the bird, which had been received in a little golden cup, drop after drop into the mouths of the little images, from whence they apparently encreased, becoming according to propor-

tion much more beautiful. They grew so big that we lifted them from the little cushonets, and were fain to lay them upon a long table covered with white velvet. The old man commanded us to cover them up to the breast with a piece of fine white double taffata, which, because of their unspeakable beauty, almost went against us. Before we had in this manner quite spent the blood, they were in their perfect full growth, having gold-yellow ourled hair, and the figure of Venus was nothing to them. But there was not yet any natural warmth or sensibility in them ; they were dead figures, yet of a lively and natural colour ; and since care was to be taken that they grew not too great, the old man would not permit anything more to be given them, but covered their faces too with the silk, and caused the table to be stuck round about with torches. Let the reader imagine not these lights to have been of necessity, for the old man's intent was that we should not observe when the Soul entred into them, as indeed we should not have taken notice of it, in case I had not twice

before seen the flames. However, I permitted the other three to remain in their belief, neither did the old man know that I had seen anything more. Here- upon he bid us sit down on a bench over against the table. The Virgin came in with the musick and all furniture, and carried two curious white garments, the like to which I had never seen in the Castle. I thought no vestiuntur. other but that they were meer christal, but they were gentle and not transparent. These she laid upon a table, and after she had disposed her Virgins upon a bench round about, she and the old man began many leger-de-main tricks about the table, which were done only to blind. All this spectators was managed under the roof, which was wonderfully formed, for on the inside it was arched into seven hemispheres, of which the middlemost was somewhat the highest, and had at top a little round hole, which was shut and was observed by none but myself. After many ceremonies stept in six Virgins, each of which bare a large trumpet, rouled about with a green, glittering, and burning material like a wreath, one of which the old man took, and after he had removed some of the lights at top, and uncovered their faces, he placed one of the trumpets upon the mouth of one of the bodies in such manner that the upper and wider part Usus of it was directed towards the fore-mentioned hole. Here

my companions always looked upon the images, but as soon as the foliage or wreath about the shank of the trumpet Forti ex was kindled, I saw the hole at top open and a bright stream veniens. of fire shoot down the tube and pass into the body, whereupon the hole was again covered, and the trumpet removed. With this device my companions were deluded into imagining that life came to the image by the fire of the foliage, for as soon as he received his Soul he twinckled his eyes Homuncuii though scarcely stirring. The second time he placed transfer- ' ' another tube upon its mouth, kindled it again, and the Soul was let down through the tube. This was repeated upon each of them three times, after which all the lights were extinguished and carried away. The velvet carpets of the table were cast together over them, and immediately a travelling bed was unlocked and made ready, into which, thus wrapped up, they were born, and, after the carpets were taken off them, neatly laid by each other, where, with the curtains drawn before them, they slept a good while. DC. 7 conci. It was now time for the Virgin to see how the other artists behaved themselves • they were well pleased because they were to work in gold, which is indeed a piece of this art,

but not the most principal, necessary, and best. They had too a part of these ashes, so that they imagined that the whole Bird was provided for the sake of gold, and that life must thereby be restored to the deceased. Mean time we sate very still, attending when our married couple would awake, and thus about half an hour was spent. Then the wanton Cupid presented himself, and, after he had saluted us all, flew to them behind the curtain, tormenting them till they waked. This happened to them with very great amazement, for they imagined that theypiad slept from the hour in which they were beheaded. Cupid, after he had Fuenmt im awaked them, and renewed their acquaintance one with another, stepped aside and permitted them to recruit their strength, mean time playing his tricks with us, and at length he would needs have the musick fetcht to be somewhat the merrier. Not long after the Virgin herself comes, and having most humbly saluted the young King and Queen, who found themselves somewhat faint, and having kissed their hands, she brought them the two fore-mentioned vestimenta garments, which they put on, and so stepped forth. There were already prepared two very curious chaires, wherein they placed themselves, and were by us with most profound reverence congratulated, for which the King in his own person most gratiously returned his thanks, and again re-assured us of all grace. It was already about five of clock, wherefore they could make no longer stay ; but as soon as ever the chiefest of their furniture could be laden, we were to attend the young Royal Persons down the stairs, through all doors and watches unto the ship, in which they inbarqued, conjuges together with certain Virgins and Cupid, and sailed so trans mare. swiftly that we soon lost sight of them, yet they were met, as I was informed, by certain stately ships, and^ in four

Turris custodita a militibus. hours time had made many leagues out at sea. After five of clock the musitians were charged to carry all things back to the ships, and to make themselves ready for the voyage, but because this was somewhat long a doing, the Custos senex old lord commanded forth a party of his concealed soldiers, who had hitherto been planted in the wall so that we had taken no notice of any of them, whereby I observed that this tower was well guarded against opposition. These soldiers made quick work of our stuff, so that no more remained to be done but to go to supper. The table being compleatly furnished, the Virgin brings us again to our companions, where we were to carry ourselves as if we had truly been in a lamentable condition, while they were always smiling one upon another, though some of them too simpathized with us. At this supper the old lord was with us, who was a most sharp inspector over us, for none could propound anything so discreetly but that he knew how to confute or amend it, or at least to give some good document upon it. I learned most by this lord, and it were good that each would apply himself to him, and take notice of his procedure, for then things would not so often and untowardly miscarry. After we had taken our nocturnal refection, the old

lord led us into his closets of rarities, dispersed among the bulworks, where we saw such wonderful productions of nature, and other things which man's wit in imitation of nature had invented, that we needed a year sufficiently to survey them. Thus we spent a good part of the night by candle-light. At last, because we were more inclined to sleep then see many rarities, we were lodged in rooms in the wall, where we had not only costly good beds but extraordinary handsome chambers, which made us the more wonder why we were forced the day before to under-

The old man's closets. go so many hardships. In this chamber I had good rest, and, being for the most part without care, and weary with continual labour, the gentle rushing of the sea helped me to a sound and sweet sleep, for I continued in one dream from eleven of clock till eight in the morning. After eight of clock I awaked, and quickly made myself ready, being desirous to return again into the tower, but the dark passages in the wall were so many that I wandered a good while before I could find the way out. The same happened to the rest, till we all meet in the nethermost Hospites vault, and habits intirely yellow were given us, together with our golden fleeces. At that time the Virgin declared to us that we were Knights of the (Sollmt i>tOn£, of which we were before ignorant. After we had made ourselves readv, and taken our breakfast, the old man presented each Donantur J ' a sene. of us with a medal of gold. On the one side stood these words — NAT. Ml. Ars naturae On the other these, exhorting us to enterprize nothing beyond and against this token of remembrance. Herewith we went forth to the sea, where our ships lay so richly equipped that it was not well possible but that such brave things must first have been brought thither. The ships were twelve in number, six of ours and six of the old lord's, who caused his to be freighted with well-appointed soldiers. But he betook himself to us in our ship, where we were all together. In Navis, i. the first the musitians seated themselves, of which the old

sign. Navis autoris libra Horolog. Atlas oratione excipit hospites. Atlanti respondet sen ex. lord had also a great number. They sailed before us to shorten the time. Our flags were the twelve celestial signs, and we sate in Libra. Besids other things our ship had a noble and curious clock which showed us all the minutes. The sea was so calm that it was a singular pleasure to sail, but that which surpassed all was the old man's discourse, who so well knew how to pass away our time with wonderful histories that I could have been content to sail with him all my life long. The ships passed on, and before we had sailed two hours the mariner told us that he saw the whole lake almost covered with ships, by which we conjectured they were come out to meet us, which proved true, for as soon as we were gotten out of the sea into the lake of the f orementioned river, there stood in to us five hundred ships, one of which sparkled with gold and pretious stones, and in it sate the King and Queen, with lords, ladies, and virgins of high birth. As soon as they were well in ken of us the pieces were discharged on both sides, and there was such a din of trumpets, shalms, and kettle-drums, that all the ships upon the sea capered again. As soon as we came near, they brought about our ships together and so made a stand.

Old Atlas stepped forth on the King's behalf, making a short but handsom oration, wherein he wellcomed us, and demanded whether the royal Presents were in readiness. The rest of my companions were in an huge amazement whence this King should arise, for they imagined no other but that they must again awaken him. We suffered them to continue in their wonderment, and carried ourselves as if it seemed strange to us too. After Atlas' oration out steps our old man, making somewhat a larger reply, wherein he wished the King and Queen all happiness and increase,

after which he delivered a curious small casket, but what was in it I know not. It was committed to the custody of ?e«i|s COI>- Cupid, who hovered between them both. After the oration ^^ affert they again let off a joyful voile of shot, and so we sailed on a good time together, till we arrived at another shore, near the first gate at which I first entred. At this place there attended a great multitude of the King's family, together with some hundreds of horses. As soon as we were come to shore and disembarqued, the King and Queen presented their hands to all of us, one with another, with singular kindness, and so we were to get up on horseback. Here I desire to have the reader friendly entreated not to interpret the following narration to any vain glory of mine, but to credit me that had there been not a special necessity in it, I could well have concealed the honour which was shewed me. We were all distributed amongst the lords, but our old lord and I, most unworthy, were to ride even with the King, each of us bearing a snow-white JUJ ensign with a Eed Cross. I indeed was made use of because of my age, for we both had long grey beards and hair. I had besides fastened my tokens round about my hat, of which the young King soon took notice, and demanded if I were he who could at the gate redeem these tokens.

I answered yes in the most humble manner, but he laughed on me, saying there henceforth needed no ceremony, I was HIS Father. Then he asked me where- Pater. with I had redeemed them. I answered, " With Water Tesseras and Salt," whereupon he wondred who had made me so et aqua. wise, upon which I grew somewhat more confident, and recounted how it had happened to me with my Bread, the >ove, and the Raven ; he was pleased with it, and said expressly, that it must needs be that God had herein

Primus custos. Ob, visam venerem factus portitor. Autor ejusdem delicterus traditur a portitore. vouchsafed me a singular happiness. Herewith we came to the first gate, where the porter with the blew cloaths waited, bearing in his hand a supplication. As soon as he spied me even with the king, he delivered me the supplication, most humbly beseeching me to mention his ingenuity before me towards the King ; so, in the first place, I demanded of his majesty what the condition of this porter was, who friendly answered me, that he was a very famous and rare astrologer, always in high regard with the Lord his Father, but having on a time committed a fault against Venus, and beheld her in her bed of rest, this punishment was imposed upon him, that he should so long wait at the gate till some one should release him from thence. I replyed, "May he then be released?" "Yes," said the King, " if anyone can be found that hath as highly transgressed as himself, he must stand in his stead, arid the other shall be free. This word went to my heart ; conscience convinced me that I was the offender, yet I held my peace and delivered the supplication. As soon as the King had read it, he was mightily terrified, so that the Queen, who, with our virgins and that other queen whom I mentioned at the hanging of the weights, rid behind us, asked him what the letter might signifie ;

but he, putting up the paper, began to discourse of other matters, till in about three hours we came quite to the Castle, where we alighted and waited upon the King into his hall, who called immediately for the old Atlas to come to him in a little closet, and showed him the writing. Atlas made no long tarrying, but rid out to the porter to take better cognizance of the matter, after which the young King, with his spouse and other Lords, Ladies, and Virgins sate down. Then began our Virgin highly to commend the diligence we had used, and the pains and labour we had un-

dergone, requesting we might be royally rewarded, and that she henceforward might be permitted to enjoy the benefit of her commission. The old lord stood up too, and attested the truth of all that the Virgin had spoken, and that it was but equity that we should on both parts be contented. Hereupon we were to step out a little ; it was concluded that each man should make some possible wish, and were to consider of^it till after supper. Meantime the King and Ludus Regis Queen, for recreation's sake, began to play together. It looked not unlike chesse, only it had other laws, for it was the vertues and vices one against another, where it might be ingeniously observed with what plots the vices lay in wait for the vertues, and how to re-encounter them again. This was so properly and artificially performed that it were Artificios. to be wished that we had the like game too. During the game in comes Atlas again, and makes his report in private, yet I blushed all over, for my conscience gave me no rest. The King presented me the supplication to read, the con- suppiicatio tents whereof were to this purpose : First, the writer wished traditum

the King prosperity and peace, and that his seed might be spread far and wide. Afterwards he remonstrated that the time was now come wherein, according to the royal promise, heought to be released; because Venus was already uncovered by one of his guests, for his observations could not lie to to him, and that if his Majesty would please to make strict and diligent enquiry, in case this should not prove to be, he would remain before the gate all the days of his life. Then he humbly sued that, upon peril of body and life, he might be present at this night's supper, being in good hopes to spye out the offender and obtain his wished freedom. This was handsomly indited, and I could well perceive his Cupido iratus ob venerem visam ab autore. Post coenam obligantur equites legibus suis. ingenuity, but it was too sharp for me, and I could well have endured never to have seen it. Casting in my mind whether he might perchance be helped through my wish, I asked the King whether he might not be released some other way, but he replyed no, because there was special consideration in the business, but for this night we might gratifie his desire, so he sent one forth to fetch him in. Mean time the tables were prepared in a spatious room, in which we had never before been, which was so compleat that it is not possible for me to describe it.

Into this we were conducted with singular ceremony. Cupid was not present, for the disgrace which had happened to his mother had somewhat angered him. In brieflf, my offence, and the supplication which had been delivered, were the occasion of much sadness, for the King was in perplexity how to make inquisition amongst his guests. He caused the porter himself to make his strict surveigh, and showed himself as pleasant as he was able. Howbeit, at length they began again to be merry, and to bespeak one another with all sorts of recreative, profitable discourses. The treatment and other ceremonies then performed it is not necessary to declare, since it is neither the reader's concern nor serviceable to my design, but all exceeded more in invention than that we were overcharged with drinking. This was the last and noblest meal at which I was present. After the bancket the tables were suddainly taken away, and certain curious chairs placed round in circle, in which we, together with the King and Queen, both their old men, the Ladies and Virgins, were to sit. After this a very handsom Page opened the above mentioned glorious little book, when Atlas, immediately placing himself in the midst, bespoke

us to the ensuing purpose : — That his Eoyal Majesty had not yet committed to oblivion the service we had done him, and therefore by way of retribution had elected each of us Knights of the Golden Stone. That it was, therefore, further necessary not only once again to oblige ourselves towards his Royal Majesty, but to vow upon the following articles, and then His Eoyal Highness would likewise know how to behave himself towards his high people. Upon which he caused the Page to read over these articles :— I. You, my Lords the Knights, shall swear that you will at no time ascribe your order either unto any Devil or Spirit, but only to God, your Creator, and His hand-maid Nature. II. That you will abominate all whoredom, incontinency, and uncleanness, and not defile your order with such vices. III. That you, through your talents, will be ready to assist all that are worthy and have need of them. IV. That you desire not to employ this honour to worldly pride and high authority. V. That you shall not be willing to live longer than God will have you. At this last article we could not choose but laugh, and it may well have been placed there for a conceit. Now, being sworn them all by the. King's scepter, we were afterwards, with the usual ceremonies, installed Knights, and, amongst other privileges, set over ignorance, poverty, and sickness,

to handle them at our pleasure. This was afterwards ratified in a little chappel, whither we were conducted in procession, and thanks returned to God for it. There I also at that time, to the honour of God, hung up my golden fleece i94 HISTORY OF THE ROS1CRUCIANS. and hat, and left them for an eternal memorial. And because every one was to write his name there, I writ thus :— Summa Scientia nihil Scire, Fr. CHRISTIANUS ROSENCREUTZ. Egues aurei Lapidis. Anno. 1459. Jam Others writ differently, each as seemed him good ; after postulantur . . . , ,, , , . depositiones which we were again brought into the hall, where, being sate down, we were admonished quickly to bethink ourselves what every one would wish. The King and his party retired into a little closet to give audience to our wishes. Each man was called in severally, so that I cannot speak of any man's proper wish ; but I thought nothing could be more praiseworthy than, in honour of my order, to demonstrate some laudable vertue, and found that none at present could be more famous and cost me more trouble than gratitude; wherefore, not regarding that I Autor optat might well have wished somewhat more agreeable to my-

portitoris Self I vanquished myself, and concluded, even with my own peril, to free the porter, my benefactor. Being called in, I was first demanded whether, having read the supplication, I had suspected nothing concerning the oifendor, upon which I began undauntedly to relate how all the business had passed, how, through ignorance, I fell into that mistake, and so offered myself to undergo all that I had Autor reus thereby demerited. The King and the rest of the Lords wondred mightily at so un-hoped for confession, and wished me to step aside a little ; and as soon as I was called in again> Atlas declared to me that, although it were grievous to the King's Majesty that I, whom he loved above others, was fallen into such a mischance, yet, because it was not possible for him to transgress his ancient usages, he knew not how else to absolve me but that the other must be at liberty and I placed in his stead ; yet he would hope that some other would soon be apprehended, that so I might be able to go home again. However, no release was to be hoped for till the marriage feast of his future son. This Audit

sentence near cost me my life, and I first hated myself and my twatling tongue in that I could not hold my peace ; yet at last I took courage, and, because T considered there was no remedy, I related how this porter had bestowed a token on me and commended me to the other, by whose assistance I stood upon the scale, and so was made partaker of all the honour and joy already received. And therefore now it was equal that I should show Laus myself grateful to my benefactor, and was willing gently poi>fcitOTisto sustain inconvenience for his sake, who had been helpful to me in coming to so high place ; but if by my wish anything might be effected, I wished myself at home again, and that so he by me, as I by my wish, might be at liberty. Answer was made me, that the wishing stretched not so far, Laudatur yet it was very pleasing to his Eoyal Majesty that I had behaved myself so generously, but he was affraid I might still be ignorant into what a miserable condition I had plunged myself through this curiosity. Hereupon the good man was pronounced free, and I, with a sad heart, was fain to step aside. The rest were called for after me, Reiiqui

and came jocundly out again, which was still more to my smart, for I imagined no other but that I must finish my life under the gate. I had also many pensive thoughts running in my head as to what I should yet undertake, and wherewith to spend the time. At length I considered that Spes. I was now old, and, according to the course of Nature, had few more years to live, that this anguish and melancholy life would easily dispatch me, and then my doorkeeping would be at an end, and that by a most happy sleep I Solatium. might quickly bring myself into the grave. Sometimes it vexed me that I had seen such gallant things, and must be robbed of them ; sometimes it rejoyced me that before my end I had been accepted to all joy, and should not be forced so shamefully to depart. Thus this was the last and worst shock that I sustained. During these my cogitations the rest were ready, wherefore, after they had received a good night from the King and Lords, each was conducted into his lodging, but I, most wretched man, had nobody to show me the way, and yet must suffer myself to be tormented. That I might be certain of my future function, I was fain

Autor to Put on *^e Ring which the other had worn. Finally, aSmm. tne King exhorted me that, since this was the last time I was like to see him in this manner, I should behave myself according to my place, and not against the Order, upon which he took me in his arms and kissed me, all which I understood as if in the morning I must sit at my gate. After they had all spoken friendly to me, and at last presented their hands, committing me to the divine protection, I was by both the old men — the Lord of the Tower and Auteraormit Atlas — conducted into a glorious lodging, in which stood & sene three beds, and each of us lay in one of them, where we yet Tunis. spent almost two, &c. Here are wanting about two leaves in quarto, and he (the author hereof), whereas he imagined he must in the morning be door-keeper, returned home. ON THE CONNECTION OF THE ROSICRUCIAN CLAIMS WITH THOSE OF ALCHEMY AND MAGIC. THE guise of antiquity being almost indispensable to the pretensions contained in these singular documents, I have preferred presenting them to my readers in the archaic form of the original English translations, which, moreover, represent the Rosicrucian period in this country, than to undertake the somewhat superfluous task of a new version. If the "Fama" and "Confessio Fraternitatis " are to be taken in their literal sense, the publication of these documents will not add new lustre to Rosicrucian reputations.

We are accustomed to regard the adepts of the Rose-Cross as beings of sublime elevation and preternatural physical powers, masters of Nature, monarchs of the intellectual world, illuminated by a relative omniscience, and absolutely exalted above all weakness and all prejudice. We imagine them to be " holding no form of creed, but contemplating all " from the solitary grandeur of the Absolute, and invested with the " sublime sorrow of the ages as of the lone ocean." But here in their own acknowledged manifestoes they avow themselves a mere theosophical offshoot of the Lutheran heresy, acknowledging the spiritual supremacy of a temporal prince, and calling the pope Antichrist. We have gauged in these days of enlightenment and universal tolerance the intellectual capacities of all professors, past

and present, of that art prophetic which is represented by Baxter and Gumming. We know the value of all the multitudinous speculations in the theological no-man's land of the Apocalypse. We do not expect a new Star of Jacob to rise out of the Galilee of religious intolerance, and out of the frantic folly of sectarian squabblings. We do not calculate the number of the beast, we do not denounce the Jesuits, we are not obsessed by an infectious terror of papal power and its possible agressions ; on the contrary, we respect the associations connected with sovereign pontiffs, grand lamas, and chief patriarchs. We have, most of us, decided that the pope is neither God's vicar nor the Man of Sin ; we persistently refuse our adherence to any theory which connects the little horn with Prince Jerome Napoleon, and we are not open to any positive convictions on the identity of the Scarlet Woman, or of the lost tribes of Israel. All persons possessed of such positive convictions we justifiably regard as fanatics, and after due and deliberate consideration of the Eosi crucian manifestoes, we do not feel able to make an exception in favour of this Fraternity, whose

" Manners have not that repose Which marks the caste of Vere de Vere. " In other words, we find them intemperate in their language, rabid in their religious prejudices, and, instead of towering giant-like above the intellectual average of their age, we see them buffeted by the same passions and identified with all the opinions of the men by whom they were environed. The voice which addresses us behind the mystical mask of the EoseCross does not come from an intellectual throne, erected on the pinnacles of high thinking and surrounded by the serene and sunny atmosphere of a far-sighted tolerance ; it comes from the very heart of the vexatious and unprofitable strife of sects, and it utters the war-cry of extermination. The scales fall from our eyes, the romance vanishes ; we find ourselves in the presence of some Germans of the period, not of " the mystic citizens of the eternal kingdom." We are dejected and disillusioned, but we are thankful, notwithstanding, to know the truth, as distinguished from the fictions of Mr Hargrave Jennings and the glamorous fables of professed romancers. In this spirit we proceed to a closer acquaintance with the Eosicrucians as represented by themselves.

I have already said that " The Universal Eeformation " has little internal connection with the society which is supposed to have issued it in its Teutonic dress. The conclusion which is reached in that curious tract is, indeed, completely opposed to the expressed hopes of the Fraternity. It illustrates the ludicrous futility and abortiveness of the attempt to reform society, even when undertaken by the flower of the world's " literati." It bids the reformers begin their work at home, and reduces their Utopian scheming from the splendid scale of universal reconstruction to appraising sprats and cabbages. It considers mankind to be as good as his surroundings will allow him, and that " the height of human wisdom lies in the discretion to be content with leaving the world as they found it." On the other hand, the " Fama " and " Confessio " invite " the learned of Europe to co-operate with a secret society for the renovation of the age, the reform of philosophy," and to remedy " the imperfection and inconsistencies of all the arts." The discrepancy is singularly complete, and as " The Universal Keformation " throws no light upon the history or the claims of the Rosicrucians, it

need not detain ns. " The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz " I shall also set aside for the present, because it is an allegorical romance — pace Professor Buhle, as De Quincey hath it — though otherwise of the first importance and interest. From the " Fama " and " Confessio " we gather the religious opinions of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, and classify them as follows : — a. They acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God. I. Man is born into life by the power of God, falls asleep in Jesus, and will rise again through the Holy Spirit. c. They acknowledge a personal devil, the old enemy, who " hinders every good purpose by his instruments." d. They " use two Sacraments, as they are instituted with all Formes and Ceremonies of the first and renewed Church." e. It follows from this that they believe the Lutheran Reformation restored the Christian Church to its primitive purity. / They consider " that from the beginning of the world there hath not been given to man a more excellent, admirable, and wholesome book than the Bible," which is " the whole sum " of their laws. g. They call the pope Antichrist, a blasphemer against Christ. They execrate him, and look forward to the time " when he shall be torn in pieces with' nails." They foretell his " final fall," with the assurance of Brothers the prophet, and in the terminology of Mr Grattan-Guiness. The philosophical and scientific opinions and pretensions

of the Rosicrucian Society have more claim on our notice. As in their theological views, so in these they are simply the representatives of a certain school of thought current at their epoch. In its aspirations, as distinguished from its methods, this school was considerably in advance of the scientific orthodoxy of the moment. Looking with piercing glance " Into great Nature's open eye, To see within it trembling lie The portrait of the Deity," they dreamed of a universal synthesis, and combining profound contemplation with keen observant faculties, the experimental with a priori methods, they sought to arrive at those realities which underlie phenomena, " in more common but more emblematic words," they sought for the substance which is at the base of all the vulgar metals. Mystics in an age of scientific and religious materialism, they were connected by an unbroken chain with the theurgists of the first Christian centuries ; they were alchemists in the spiritual sense and the professors of a divine magic. Their disciples, the Eosicrucians, followed closely in their footsteps, and the claims of the " Fanaa " and " Confessio " must be viewed in the light of the great elder claims of alchemy and magic. In these documents we find — I. The doctrine of the microcosmus, which considers man as containing the potentialities of the whole universe, or macrocosmus. According to Paracelsus, who first developed this suggestive teaching from obscure hints in the Kabbalistic books, the macrocosmus and the microcosmus are one. " They are one constellation, one influence, one breath, one harmony, one time, one metal, one fruit." Each part of the great organism acts upon "the corresponding part of the small organism in the same sense as the various organs of the human body are inti-

mately connected with and influence each other." Every change that takes place in the macrocosmus may be sensed by the spiritual body which surrounds the spirit of the minutum mundum. The forces composing the one are identical with those of the other.1 II. We find, in the next place, the doctrine of Elemental spirits, which it is a common error to suppose originated with the Eosicrucians. This graceful and fanciful hypothesis also owes its development, if not its invention, to the seer of Hohenheim. It was naturalised on French soil by the author of the " Comte de Gabalis," and is known chiefly in England through the preface to " The Eape of the Lock," and of later years through the German " Komance of Undine," which has been many times translated.5 " When you shall be numbered among the Children of the philosophers," says the " Comte de Gabalis," "and when your eyes shall have been strengthened by the use of the most sacred medecine, you will learn that the Elements are inhabited by creatures of a singular perfection, from the knowledge of, and communication with, whom the sin of Adam has deprived his most wretched posterity. Yon vast space stretching between earth and Heaven has far nobler dwellers than the birds and the gnats ; these wide seas hold other guests than the whales and the dolphins j the depths of the earth are not reserved for the moles alone ; and that element of fire which is nobler than all the rest was not created to remain void and useless." According to Paracelsus, "the Elementals are not spirits, because they have flesh, blood, and bones ; they live and propagate offspring ; they eat and talk, act and sleep, &c. . . . They are beings occupying a place between 1 "Paracelsus," by Franz Hartmann, M.D., p. 44.

men and spirits, resembling men and women in their organisation and form, and resembling spirits in the rapidity of their locomotion." They must not be confounded with the Elementaries which are the astral bodies of the dead.1 They are divided into four classes. " The air is replete with an innumerable multitude of creatures, having human shapes, somewhat fierce in appearance, but docile in reality ; great lovers of the sciences, subtle, serviceable to the Sages, and enemies of the foolish and ignorant. Their wives and daughters are beauties of the masculine type. . . . The seas and streams are inhabited even as the air ; the ancient Sages gave the names of Undines or Nymphs to these Elementals. There are few males among them, and the women are very numerous, and of extreme beauty ; the daughters of men cannot compare with them. The earth is filled by gnomes even to its centre, creatures of diminutive size, guardians of mines, treasures, arid precious stones. They furnish the Children of the Sages with all the money they desire, and ask little for their services but the distinction of being commanded. The gnomides, their wives, are tiny, but very pleasing, and their apparel is exceedingly curious. As to the Salamanders, those fiery dwellers in the realm of flame, they serve the Philosophers, but do not eagerly seek

diffused through infinity, and which is the first matter of the material and psycho-material universe, is " transformed at the moment of conception into human light, and is the first envelope of the soul. " In combination with fluids of extreme subtlety, it becomes the astral, etherised, or sidereal body. When a man dies and the divine spirit returns into the empyrean, it leaves two corpses, one on the earth and one in the atmosphere, "one already inert, the other still animated by the universal movement of the soul of the world, but destined to die gradually, being absorbed by the astral energies which produced it."—" Mysteries of Magic," pp. 97, 105. their company, and their wives and daughters are seldom visible. They transcend all the others in beauty, for they are natives of a purer element." l III. In the third place, the Eosicrucian manifestoes contain the doctrine of the signatura rerum, which again is of Paracelsian origin. This is the " magical writing " referred to in the "Fama," and the mystic characters of that " Book of Nature " which, according to the " Confessio," stands open "for all eyes," but " can be read or understood by only a very few." These characters are the seal of God imprinted " on the wonderful work of creation, on the heavens, the earth, and on all beasts."2 This "signature of things " is described by Paracelsus as "a certain organic vital activity," which is frequently " expressed even in the exterior form of things ;

and by observing that form we may learn something in regard to their interior qualities, even without using our interior sight. We see that the internal character of a man is often expressed in his exterior appearance, even in the manner of his walking and in the sound of his voice. Likewise the hidden character of things is to a certain extent expressed in their outward forms. As long as man remained in a natural state, he recognised the signatures of things and knew their true character; but the more he diverged from the path of Nature, and the more his mind became captivated by illusive external appearances, the more this power became lost." : The same doctrine is developed by the most distinguished disciple of Paracelsus, the Kentish Rosicrucian, Robert Fludd. " There are other invisible writings, secretly impressed on the leaves of

1 " Comte de Gabalis." Second Entretien. 2 "Confessio Fraternatis," c. viii. :i Hartmann's "Paracelsus," pp. 51, 52. Nature's book, which are not to be read or comprehended save with the eyes of understanding, being traced by the Spirit of the living God on the hidden fleshly tablets of our own hearts. . . . These internal and spiritual characters, constituting the interior writing, may also to the bodily eyes be the cause and origin of the things which do appear."1 "It is manifest," he also remarks, "that those vivific letters and characters impressed on the Bible and on the great Book of Nature, and which we call arcane, because they are understood only by the few, are one thing, and that the dead, destroying letters of the same books, whose cortices contain the living and spiritual characters, are another." IV. These speculative principles appear to have been united with some form of practical magic. Now magic is a term which conjures up into the mind of the ordinary reader some hazy notions either of gross imposture or diabolical compacts and hellish rites ; it seems necessary, therefore, to state what it really was in the opinions of those who professed it. According to Paracelsus, magic is that great and hidden wisdom which discovers the interior constitution of everything. " It teaches the true nature of the inner man as well as the organization of his outward body." It includes " a knowledge of visible and invisible nature." It is the only true teacher of the art of healing. If physicians possessed it, their books might be burnt and their medicines be thrown into the ocean. " Magic and sorcery are two entirely different things, and there is as much difference between them as there is between light and darkness, and between white and black." The same authority

1 Robertas de Fluctibus, "Apologia Compendiana Fraternitateir* de Rosea Cruce." teaches that the great agent in magic is the imagination confirmed by that faith which perfects will-power, and that the imagination thus strengthened can create its own objects. " Man has a visible and invisible workshop. The visible one is his body ; the invisible one his imagination. . . . The imagination is a sun in the soul of man, acting in its own sphere as the sun of the earth acts in his. Wherever the latter shines, germs planted in the soil grow, and vegetation springs up ; and the sun of the soul acts in a similar manner, and calls the forms of the soul into existence. . . . The spirit is the master, imagination the tool, and the body the plastic material. Imagination is the power by which the will forms sidereal entities out of thoughts. It is not fancy, which latter is the corner-stone of superstition and foolishness. . . . The power of the imagination is a great factor in medicine. It may produce diseases in man and in animals, and it may cure them." l This theory covers all the phenomena of visions, ecstacies, evocations, and other pseudo-miracles, recognising that they are facts, and accounting for the futility of their results.

V. Whether the Eosicrucians pretended to manufacture material gold is a question which is difficult to decide from the materials contained in their manifestoes. They acknowledge the fact of transmutation, and call it a " great gift of God ; " but "as it bringeth not always with it a knowledge of Nature, while this knowledge bringeth forth both that and an infinite number of other natural miracles, it is right that we be rather earnest to attain to the knowledge of philosophy, nor tempt excellent wits to the tincture of metals sooner then to the observation of Nature." Whatever may be thought of this reasoning, it definitely places 1 "Confessio Fraternitatis," c. xi. 2 Ibid. the Rosicrucians in that school of alchemy to which I made reference at the close of the first chapter, and whose aim was to accomplish the spiritual side of the magnum opus, or great work of alchemical reconstruction. For them the transmutation of metals being no operation of common chemistry,1 both the " Fama " a»d " Confessio " appear to condemn indiscriminately all professors of the purely physical process, which they call " the ungodly and accursed gold-making." Here, as in their other opinions, they echo Paracelsus. " What shall I say to you about all your alchemical prescriptions, about all your retorts and bottles, crucibles, mortars, and glasses ; about all your complicated processes of distilling, melting, cohibiting, coagulating, sublimating, precipitating, and filtering, all the tomfoolery for which you throw away your time and your money.

All such things are useless, and the labour over them is lost. They are rather an impediment than a help to arrive at the truth." After the same fashion, the " Confessio " denounces the " monstrous symbols and enigmas " by which pseudo-chymists impose upon credulous curiosity. According to Dr Hartmann, " Paracelsus asserts that it is possible to make gold and silver by chemical means ; still he condemns such experiments as useless, and it seems to be more than probable that even in such chemical experiments as may have succeeded, something more than merely chemical manipulations was required to make them successful."5 Eliphas Le>i, one of the most profound commentators on Paracelsus, declares that " there is light in gold, gold in light, and light in all things." Thus the first

1 On this point see "Mysteries of Magic," Biographical and Critical Preface, p. xliii. 2 Hartmann's " Paracelsus," pp. 177, 178. matter of the magnum opus is both within and about us, and " the intelligent will, which assimilates light, directs the operations of substantial form, and only employs chemistry as a very secondary instrument." l At the same time the Eosicrucians claimed to be in possession of u great treasures of gold," and of the purse of Fortunatus. There seems no special reason to doubt that they intended this to be literally construed, and the " Fama " definitely states that it was a project of their founder, C. R., to institute a society in Europe " which might have gold, silver, and precious stones sufficient for to bestow them on kings." VI. Closely connected with the secret of metallic transmutation is " the supreme medicine of the world," the lifeelixir, which, according to Bernard-le-Trevisan (fifteenth century), is the reduction of the Philosophical Stone into mercurial water. It cures all diseases, and prolongs life beyond the normal limits. Without claiming to be actually in possession of this " Wonderful Catholicon, Of very subtle and magical powers," the Rosicrucians come before us as essentially, or at least primarily, a healing 'fraternity. . " Their agreement was this .... That none' of them should profess any other thing than to cure the sick, and that gratis." 2 Professor Buhle, in his notice of the Rosicrucians and Freemasons, says that the evils of Germany at this period were immense, that the land was overswept by a " great storm of wretchedness and confusion." The science of medicine was still in its infancy, the Lutheran Reformation, by spoliating monasteries, had

1 " Mysteries of Magic," p. 204. 2 "Fama Fraternitatis," p. 73. destroyed hospitals,1 and the diseases and miseries unavoidably consequent on unsanitary principles and medical guesswork, were undoubtedly very widely spread. The utter incompetence of the ancient methods led many others besides the Eosicrucians to disregard and denounce the traditional authority, and in the wide field of experimental research to lay the foundations of a new and rational hypothesis. The germs of this revolution are found in Paracelsus, and the practical theosophy — medicine itself being a branch of mysticism from the standpoint of orthodox mystics — practised by Rosicrucian adepts is their strongest claim on our favour, the one golden link which joins their dissonant commonplace with the Orphean harmonies of true and divine occultism. It will be sufficient to enumerate only their belief in a secret philosophy, perpetuated from primeval times, in everburning lamps, in vision at a distance, and in the approaching end of the world. I have shown indisputably that there was no novelty in the Rosicrucian pretensions, and no originality in their views. They appear before us as Lutheran disciples of Paracelsus ; and, returning for a moment to the problem discussed in the introduction, we find nothing in either manifesto to connect them with the typology of a remote period. It is, therefore, in modern, not ancient, times that we must seek an explanation of the device of the Rose-Cross. A passage contained in " The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz " will assist in the- solution of this important point.

1 " The origin of our present hospitals must be looked for in monastic arrangements for the care of the sick and indigent. Every monastery had its infirmaria, managed by an infirmarius, in which not only were sick and convalescents treated, but also the aged, the blind, the weak, &c., were housed." — "Encyc. Brit.," 9th ed., s. v, "Hospitals." THE antiquity of the Rose in symbolism and of the Cross in symbolism, as I have already said, is no proof whatsoever of the antiquity of a society which we find to be using them at a period subsequent to the Renaissance ; but, according to John Heydon, the Rosicrucians " have been since Christ; " they " inhabite the suburbs of Heaven," and are "as the eyes and ears of the great King, seeing and hearing all things." The existence of a "divine Fraternity" on the astral plane, or in the fourth dimension, however " seraphically illuminated," and with whatever powers they may be invested by the " Generalissimo of the world," is a point which transcends the investigations of the merely human historian. His researches, however, have determined that, within his own limits — that is, on the physical plane of time and space — there are no vestiges of the Rosicrucians traceable before the beginning of the seventeenth century, and that the belief in their antiquity originates in a priori considerations which are concerned with the predilections and prejudices of thinkers whose faith and imagination have been favoured by evolution or environment at the expense of their judgment, and who determine historical questions by the illumination of their own understandings rather than by the light of facts.

Such persons are beyond the reach of criticism, and, as they are neither numerous nor important, may be left basking in the sunshine of a pleasing aberration, which is interesting in days of disillusion. But the existence and occasional prevalence in all ages of the world of those theosophical ideas, which are at the root of Rosicrucian philosophy, have caused even serious students to consider the Fraternity of an almost incredible antiquity — a hypothesis which wins golden opinions from those who delight in connecting the invisible threads of the secret societies and tracing them to a single primal source, of which one and all are ramifications more or less identical in ceremonies, secrets, and purposes. Addressing myself to these students, I would say with Buhle that whoever adopts this hypothesis " is bound to show, in the first place, in what respect the deduction of this order from modern history is at all unsatisfactory ; and secondly, upon his own assumption of a far elder origin, to explain how it happened that for sixteen entire centuries no contemporary writers have made any allusion to it." Solomon Semler is one of the few writers whose erudition is unquestionable, and who have supported this view ; but the facts which he cites are entirely inconclusive. He proves the existence in the fourteenth century of " an association of physicians and alchemists who united their knowledge and their labours to attain the discovery of the Philosophic Stone." It is this association to which the alchemist Raymond Lully1 apparently refers in his " Thea-

Magna Sciendi," the illuminated philosopher and evangelist of Parma in Majorca, who united the saint and the man of science, the metaphysician and the preacher, the apostle and the itinerant lecturer, the dialectician and the martyr, in one remarkable individuality. The alchemist Raymond Lully, "one of the grand and sublime trum Chymicum,"1 printed at Strasbourg in 1 613, as a sec society existing during the fourteenth century in Italy, and the chief of which was called Eex Pliysicorum. Figulus2 states it to have been founded in 1410, and asserts it to have merged in the Kosicrucian Order about the year 1607. The same careful investigator cites an anonymous letter, published at the end of the sixteenth century, and stating the age of a certain secret society to be above two thousand years. It is also asserted that the alchemist Nicholas Barnaud conceived in 1591 a project of establishing a secret convention of theosophical mystics, who were to devote themselves to a determined investigation of all Kabbalistic sciences, and that he scoured both Germany and France with this object. Finally, the "Echo of the God-illuminated Order of the Brethren E. C." tells us that in 1597 an attempt was actually made to found such a society, apparently on the lines laid down by Barnaud, and it is a remarkable fact that the preface to the Christian Reader which is prefixed to this curious publication, is dated June 1597, while that which is addressed to the

masters of the science," according to Eliphas Le>i, lived after 1315, the date of the martyr's death, and nothing is known of his history, except his astounding transmutations. He is said to have been a native of Ferrago, and has been described as "a Jewish neophyte." John Cremer, the abbot of Westminster, describes his reception by Edward I, King of England, who gave him an apartment in the Tower to perform his transmutations, but the welcome guest soon found himself a prisoner, and with difficulty effected his escape. See "Cremeri Abatis Westmonasteriensis Testamentum," in the " Museum Hermeticum," 4to, Francfurt, 1677-78. Camden, in his ' ' Ecclesiastical Monuments, " gives also some details of Lully's sojourn in England. 1 C. 87, p. 139. - Benedictus Figulus was the author of " Pandora Magnalium," "Paradisus Aureolus Hermeticus," "Rosarium Novum Olympicum et JBenedictum," " Thesaurinella Olympica," all published in 1608. Brotherhood is dated 1 Nov. 1615, the book itself not having appeared till 1620. These facts and statements are of the highest interest and of very considerable importance within their own sphere, but the existence of secret associations even two thousand years old, much less the attempts occasionally made to establish others, affords no proof that they were in any way connected, or are to be identified, with the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, whose violent anti-Papal prejudices and ultraProtestant principles are sufficient proof of a post-Lutheran origin.

The only sect or association with which the Rosicrucians may be pertinently compared, and which we hear of before the year 1610, is the Militia Crucifera Evangelica which assembled atLunenburg in 1598 under the auspices of the mystic and theosophist, Simon Studiqn. Its proceedings are reported in an unprinted work from his pen entitled '•' Naometria, seu nuda et prima libri, intus et foris scripti, per clavem Davidis et calamum (virgee similem) apertio ; in quo non tantum ad cognoscenda tarn S. Scriptures totius, quam naturae quoque universse, mysteria, brevis fit introductio — verum etiam Prognosticus (stellse illius matutinse, Anno Domini 1572, conspectae ductu) demonstratur Adventus ille Christi ante diem novissimum secundus per quern homine peccati (Papa) cum filio sur perditionis (Mahomedo) divinitus devestato, ipse ecclesiam suam et priricipatus mundi restaurabit, ut in iis post hac sit cum ovili pastor unus. In cruciferse militise Evangelicse gratiam. Authore Simone Studione inter Scorpiones. Anno 1604." As this work exists only in manuscript, and as there is no transcript of this manuscript to be found in the English public libraries, my chief knowledge of its contents, and of the sect which it represents, is derived from an unsatisfactory notice by Professor Buhle, who describes the Militia as a Protestant sect heated by apocalyptic dreams, and declares the object of the assembly to have been apparently " exclusively connected with religion." But it is clear from the life of Studion that he was passionately devoted to alchemy, and the spiritual side of the magnum opus was probably the aim of these enthusiasts, who are otherwise identified in their views with the illuminati of the EoseCross.

Like these they believed that the books of Eevelation and of Nature were intus et foris scripti, written within and without, that is, they contain a secret meaning for the initiates of mystical wisdom ; that the unaccountable appearance of new stars in the sky was significant of important events in the approximate future ; that the last day was at hand ; that the Pope was Anti-Christ and the Man of Sin ; and finally, as Buhle himself confesses, the " Naometria " contains a great deal of mysticism and prophecy about the Rose and the Cross.

These points of resemblance are, I think, insufficient to establish a connection between the Militia Crucifera Evangelica and the Eosicrucians in a logical mind, but they are certainly curious and interesting. It will be shown in the next chapter why the symbolism of the Eose and the Cross was common to both associations. The antiquity of the Eosicrucians, as I have hinted, finds few supporters at the present day, this view being chiefly confined to the members of pseudo-Eosicrucian societies, and to the pseudo-historian of the order, Mr Hargrave Jennings. From the fictitious importance unaccountably ascribed to the ill-considered and worthless work of this writer, it seems nece ssary to conclude with a short notice of the incoherent and visionary ramblings in " The Rosicrucians : their Rites and Mysteries." Mr Jennings may congratulate himself on being "that distinguished esoteric litterateur," who writes the worst English of this or any century, but he is a great man, a magician of the first order, in the important matter of titles. I freely confess that his work on this subject is so attractively labelled that it exercises an irresistible charm over the student. " The Rosicrucians : their Rites and Mysteries, with chapters on the ancient Fire and Serpent Worshippers, and explanations of the Mystic Symbols represented on the monuments and talismans of the Primeval Philosophers," is a label not otherwise than superb. It is a " strong delusion " which tempts the hesitating purchaser, and has often prompted the too credulous reader, by the subtlety of its mystic charm, " to believe " — at least the very opposite of what is true.

The book, so far as the Rosicrucians are concerned, begins with an account of an " historical adventure in Staffordshire," which is curiously distorted in the interests of an inexpensive sensationalism, and after much loquacity on " the insufficiency of worldly objects," we are introduced in the seventh chapter, without preface or apology, to the " Mythical history of the Fleur-de-lys" Druidic Cromlechs, and Gnostic Abraxas Gems. The rest of the work is Rosicrucian certainly, so far as the titles of the chapters are concerned, but not further. Thus we have "The RosyCross in Indian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Medieval monuments," " Presence of the Rosicrucians in Christian Architecture," &c., but the chapters themselves are devoted to the lingam and the great pyramid, Persian fire-worship, phallic and serpent symbolism, and etymological speculations which would have astonished even Godfrey Higgins, and which Kenealy himself would disown. Doubtless these, things are connected in the mind of Mr Hargrave Jennings with his mysterious and ubiquitous Brotherhood, for his diseased imagination perceives Kosicrucianism everywhere, " as those who believe in witchcraft see sorcery and enchantment everywhere." This connection, however, he nowhere attempts to establish, and it is incredible to suppose that the shallow pretence has ever imposed on anyone. The few statements which he makes concerning the Fraternity must be rejected as worthless ; for example, he tells us that the alchemists were a physical branch of the Rosicrucians, whereas the Rosicrucians were a theosophical sect among the alchemists.

I have deemed it unnecessary to consider the alleged connection between the Templars and the Brethren of the Rose-Cross, for this hypothesis depends upon another, now generally set aside, namely, the connection of the Freemasons with the foregoing orders. It is sufficient to say that the Templars were not alchemists, that they had no scientific pretensions, and that their secret, so far as can be ascertained, was a religious secret of an anti-Christian kind. The Rosicrucians, on the other hand, were pre-eminently a learned society, and they were also a Christian sect. MOST existing theories as to the authorship of the Rosicrucian manifestoes are founded upon plausible assumptions or ingenious conclusions drawn from the doubtful materials of merely alleged facts. Each investigator has approached the subject with an ambitious determination to solve the problem connected with the mysterious Order, but, in the absence of adequate materials, has evolved a new hypothesis, where the supposititious has transfigured what is certain for the satisfaction of individual bias. As a simple historian working in the cause of truth, it is neither my inclination nor my duty to contrive a fresh theory, but rather to state the facts which are in conflict with all theories, and to draw no conclusion unwarranted by the direct evidence in hand. The Rosicrucian theorists may be broadly divided into three bands — I. Those who believe that the history of Christian Rosencreutz is true in fact, and that the society originated in the manner recounted in the " Fama Fraternitatis." II. Those who regard both the society and its founder as purely mythical, and consider with Liebnitz, " que tout ce que Von a dit des Freres de la Croix de la fiose, est une pure invention de quelque personne ingenieuse." III. Those who, without accepting the historical truth of the story

of Eosencreutz, believe in the existence of the Eosicrucians as a secret society, which drew attention to the fact of its existence by a singular and attractive fiction. In the first division are gathered the men of large imagination and abundant faith, who, unawed by historical difficulties, unaffected by discrepancies of fact, and despising the terra damnata of frigid critical methods, are bewitched by romantic associations and the glamour of impenetrable mystery. They love to contemplate the adepts of the RoseCross moving silently among the ignorant and vulgar multitude, diffusing light and healing, masters of terrific secrets, having nothing in appearance and yet possessing all things, ever inscrutable, ever intangible, ever vanishing suddenly. The sublime dreams produced by their mystical hachish are undisturbed by the essential shallowness and commonplace of Eosicrucian manifestoes, for they reject authoritative documents, or interpret objectionable passages in an inverted sense. Insuperable difficulties prevent us from supposing that the " Fama " and " Confessio Fraternitatis " emanated from a secret society whose literal history is contained in them. These difficulties are, for the most part, inherent in the nature of the alleged history, which I undertook in the introduction to prove mythical. It will be unnecessary for this purpose to consider the scientific foundation of Eosicrucian claims. The purse of Fortunatus —that is, the Stone of the Philosophers — the power of transmutation, the existence of elementary spirits, the doctrine of signatures, everburning lamps, and vision at a distance, may be possibilities, however remote on the horizon of natural science. There are many things in heaven and on earth which are undreamed of in the philosophy of Horatio, and occultism

is venerable by its antiquity, interesting from its romantic associations, and replete with visionary splendours ; but for all this, the fiction of the " Fama "is " monstrous, and betrays itself in every circumstance."1 Suspicion is immediately raised by the suppression of all names, and the concealment of the headquarters and all " local habitations " of the supposed Society. C. E. C., the hero of the history, journeys to a fabulous Oriental city, called Damcar, which is not Damascus, though the German originals continually confuse it therewith. A great part of this journey is performed alone by a boy of sixteen, who is described as possessing such " skill in physic " that he " obtained much favour of the Turks," and who, after five years' travelling, returns at the age of twenty-one years to Europe, fired with an inextinguishable ambition to correct the errors of all the arts and to reform the whole philosophia moralis. In Germany he erects a mysterious House of the Holy Spirit, situated apparently in space of three dimensions, besieged by the " unspeakable concourse of the sick." and yet, for the space of nearly two hundred years, completely unknown and unseen by the " wicked world." When the Society was incorporated, and its members despatched on their wanderings, two brethren always remained with the founder, and eight of them were present at his death, yet the secret of his burial-place was completely unknown to the third generation, till its discovery by a newly-initiated member when he was repairing his house, which, nevertheless, does not appear to be the House of the Holy Spirit. The sepulchre has been closed for one hundred and twenty years, and it is found to contain the Vocabularium, Itinerarium, and Life of Paracelsus. Taking 1614 as the year when the " Fama " 1 De Qiiincey, " Rosicrucians and Freemasons," c. iii.

was published, and supposing the discovery of the burialplace to have ante-dated the manifesto by the shortest possible period, we are brought back to the year 1494, one year after the birth of Paracelsus, whose books it is supposed to contain. This point is, of course, conclusive, and it is unnecessary to comment on the mystery which surrounds the ultimate fate of the corpse of that " godly and high-illuminated Father, Brother C. R. C." Thus it is obvious that the history of Christian Rosencreutz is not historically true, and that the Society did not originate in the manner which is described by the " Fama." The theorists of the second and third divisions are in agreement upon several important points, and may, therefore, be considered together. Most of them unite in seeking the author of the Rosicrucian manifestoes among the literati of the period. On the one side they consider him a satirist, or the perpetrator of an imposture or elaborate jest ; on the other, they hold him to be the founder of a secret society, or the mouthpiece of one which was already in existence, and to which they ascribe a various antiquity in accordance with their predilections and their knowledge of the true state of the case. The question of this antiquity has been discussed in the last chapter.

Several authors have been suggested, for the most part on very slender evidence. Some maintain that the manifestoes were written by Taulerus, the author of the German Theologia, an obscure writer not to be identified with the author of the Spiritual Letters, " Institutions Divinae," &c., others by Luther, others again by Wiegel. Joachim Junge,1 the cele- name was Johannes Heinrich Jung, and who is, perhaps, more celebrated in England for his works on Pneumatology than is the rector of Hamburg for his contributions to mathematical science. brated philosopher of the seventeenth century, has secured several partisans. He was born at Lubeck in 1587, and became anM.A. of Giessen in 1609. At the very period when the "Fama Fraternitatis" first appeared, about 1614, he was holding numerous conferences with his friends on the methods of hastening the progress of philosophy, but his plans are supposed to have been without any immediate result. Subsequently, he sought to establish at Rostock an academy for the advancement of natural sciences ; " but the rumour spread that this project concealed some evil designs, and people went so far as to accuse him of being one of the chiefs of the famous order of the Brothers of the Red-Cross, and he was forced to renounce a plan whose execution could only have had good results for his adopted country."1 He became rector of the University of Hamburg, and died of apoplexy, September 23, 1657.

He was the author of " Geometria Empirica," " Harmonica Theoretica," &c., and appears to have been wholly unconnected with the alchemical pursuits of the period. A secretary of the Court of Heidelberg (according to Heidegger, the biographer of Johannes Ludovicus Fabricius) being, it is supposed, in the secret, is said to have confirmed in conversation the current report that Junge was the founder of the Fraternity and the writer of the "Fama Fraternitatis."5 No reference is made to this matter in the " Historia Vitse et Mortis Joachimi Jungii Mathematici summi ceteraque Incomparabilis Philosophi,"

1 " Biographic Universelle," s.v. Joachim Junge. 2 In the "Acta Eruditorum Lipsise," 1698, 4to, p. 172, there is the following passage: — " Natus est Jo. Ludovicus Fabricius Scaphulsi, Helvetiorum Pago primario, die 29 Julii anni seculi hujus trigesimi secundi, patre Jo. Fabricio anno 1630 vi externa e Palatinatu in exilium ejecto, et a Scaphusanis promtissime recepto. Fuit vir ille sic satis excultus, quique ut Fabricius noster faniiliari in ser- which was written by Martinus Fogelitis in 1658. It contains, however, some account of his attempt to found a philosophical society, but the Leges Societatis Ereuneticce which are to be found at the end of the pamphlet, sufficiently distinguish it from the Eosicrucian Brotherhood. The theosophist, ^Egidius Gutmann, is claimed as the true author of the anonymous manifestoes by others — on what grounds I have not been able to ascertain ; but, according to Buhle, this opinion is " supported by no other argument than that he was a distinguished mystic in that age of mysticism." All these views have manifestly little to recommend them, but that which attributes the composition of the Kosicrucian manifestoes to Johann Valentin Andreas is supported by an extraordinary mass of evidence, which calls for very careful and impartial consideration. This interesting and singular personage, who is described by Brucker1 as very learned and of a very elegant genius, whom the " Bibliotheque IJniverselle " 2 considers one of the most useful men which Germany produced in the seventeenth century, and whom all authorities unite in admiring for his talents and virtues, was a renowned theologian of Wirtemberg, and a multifarious litterateur not uncelebrated, even at this day, in his own country, as a poet and a satirist. He was born at Herrenberg, a town in the duchy of Wirtemberg, on the 17th of August 1586. He was the grandson of Jacob Andreas, also a celebrated theologian. His father was the

mone retulit, adversus Rosese Crucis Fratres calami quoque telum strinxit, cujus quidem Sectce auctoremfuisseJungium, Mathematicam Hamburgi profession, eumque librum, cui titulus est Fama Frabium Eosece, Crucis cudisse, pariter ex ore Secretarii, rei illius conscii, confirmavit. 1 " Brukeri Historia Grit. Philosophise," tome ii. , p. 740. 2 Tome ii., p. 126. pastor of Herrenberg, his mother, Mary Moseria. The delicacy of his early years characterised his maturer life, but he was of a shrewd and cheerful disposition. He received the rudiments of his education from Michael Beumler.1 Subsequently he pursued his studies at Tubingen, Buhle informs us that, " besides Greek and Latin (in which languages he was distinguished for the elegance of his style), he made himself master of the French, Italian, and Spanish ; was well versed in Mathematics, Natural and Civil History, Geography, and Historical Genealogy, without at all neglecting his professional study of divinity."2 " I so divided my time," he tells us, " that during the day I devoted myself to instruction in the arts ; thereto I added long nocturnal studies, passed in the reading of various authors, and carried to such an extravagant extent that not only my eyesight suffered, but I made myself subject to the horrors of sleeplessness, and weakened the strength of memory."

He travelled much within the limits of his own country, visited France, Switzerland, Italy, including Venice, and twice journeyed into Austria. He was married on the second of August 1614, to Agnes Elizabeth, daughter of Josua Griiminger.3 He passed through various grades of ecclesiastical dignity, and became chaplain to the court at Stuttgart. " Here," says Buhle, " he met with so much thwarting and persecution, that, with his infirm constitution of body and dejection of mind from witnessing the 1 " Primam infantiam afflictissimam habui, ardeo est non nisi bimus in pedes primus erigerer, quam etiam valetudinis tenuitatem omni vita tolerari, ingenio interim sagaci et festive, ut propinquis et amicis voluptati essem .... Literarum rudimenta a Michaele Beumlero accessi viro optimo." — " Vita ab ipso Coiiscripta, " lib. i. 2 De Quincey, " Rosicrucians and Freemasons," c. iii. 3 See additional notes, No. 5, desolation of Germany," the redress of the abuses and evils in which had been the main object of his life — " it is not to be wondered that he ... sank into deep despondency and misanthropy." At his own earnest importunity he was permitted to resign his post, and died abbot of Adelberg and Lutheran almoner to the Duke of Wirtemberg in the year 1654, "after a long and painful illness."

All authorities are agreed upon one important point in the character of Andreas, and that is his predilection in favour of secret societies as instruments in the reformation of his age and country. According to Buhle, he had a profound and painful sense of the gross evils and innumerable abuses which afflicted the German fatherland, and which were revealed, not eradicated, by the lurid fire-brand of Luther's reformation. These abuses he sought to redress by means of "secret societies." The ambition of his boyhood appears to have been the labour of his after days. "The writings of Andreas, issued during his life-time, are full of arguments on the necessity of forming a society solely devoted to the reformation of sciences and manners. . . . Three of his works, namely, ' Reipublicse Christianopolitanse Descriptio ' ; ' Turris Babel, sive Judiciorum de Fraternitate Kosacese Crucis Chaos ' ; ' Christianse Societatis Idea/ all published at Strasbourg in the years 1619 and 1620, offer the clearest indications of his project to form a secret society. It is impossible not to perceive that he is always aiming at something of the kind. Some also appeal to his frequent travels as having no other object.1 A writer in the " Dictionnaire des Sciences Occultes " speaks with even greater emphasis. "The works of Andreas, to the number of one hundred, preach promiscu1 " Biblioth&que Universelle," tome ii., pp. 126-128.

ously the necessity of secret societies,"1 and Louis Figuier, whose work, entitled "Alchemy and the Alchemists," though it does not betray much original research, represents in a French vestment the opinions and arguments of some high German authorities, calls Andreas " a fanatical partisan " of the doctrines of Paracelsus,2 declares him to have been fired with the ambition to fulfil certain predictions of his master which have been before referred to, and that he took upon himself to decide that the "Elias Artista," the robust child, to whom the magician refers, must be understood not of an individual but of a collective body or association. It seems clear from these authorities, and from the facts of the case, that the mature, long-planned purpose of Andreas was the foundation of a society for the reformation of the age, and we find him cherishing this hope and apparently elaborating his designs at the very period when the first rumours of the Eosicrucian Fraternity began to be heard in Europe. It is, therefore, obviously and incontestably clear that if he had any hand in the foundation of this society, or in the authorship of the documents connected with it, that* both were undertaken in all earnestness, and that the " Fama " and " Confessio Fraternitatis " are not pieces of frolicsome imposture, and satires on the credulity of the period. Such a supposition is wholly incompatible with Andreas' zeal and enthusiasm.

This point being definitely settled, I proceed to lay before 1 ' ' Dictionnaire cles Sciences Occultes " in the Abbe" Migne's " Troisieme Encyclopedic The"ologique," t. i., p. 90. Figuier stultifies himself on this point by stating a few pages subsequently that Andreas was devoid of any doctrinal fanaticism. " L'Alchimie et les AlchimUtes," pp. 293-29". my readers an abstract of those considerations which have induced several erudite investigators to accept Andreas as the author of the Rosicrucian documents. I. I have said in the fifth chapter that the whole controversy to some extent centres in the "Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosen creutz," and since the publication of Seybold's "Autobiographies of Celebrated Men" in 1796, and which printed for the first time, albeit in a German version, the posthumous autobiography of Johann Valentin Andreas,1 there has been no room for doubt as to its authorship. There he includes it among his earliest productions, states that it was written at the age of fifteen, and that it was one of a series of similar juvenilia which, for the most part, had perished.2 Now the " Chyniical Marriage," having remained several years in manuscript, was printed at Strasbourg in 1616. The C. R. C. of the preceding manifestoes was immediately identified with the Christian Rosencreutz of the allegorical romance, and albeit the first

1 The original Latin text was not printed till 1849, when it appeared in octavo at Berlin under the editorship of F. H. Rheinwald. append the whole passage which refers to the juvenile productions of Andreas. " Jam a secundo et tertio post millesimum sexcentesimum coeperam aliquid exercendi ingenii ergo pangere, cujus facile prima fuere Esther et Hyacinthus comoediae ad aemulationem AngUcorum histrionum juvenili ansu factae, e quibus posterior, quae mihi reliqua est, pro aetate non displicet. Secuta sunt Veneris detestatio et Lachrymae tribus dialogis satis prolixis, ob infelicem, de quo postea, casmn meum expressae, quae invita me perierunt. Superfuerunt e contra Nuptiae Chymicae, cum monstrorum foecundo foetu, ludibrium, quod mireris a nonullia aestimatum et subtili indagine explicatum, plane futile et quod inanitatem curiosorum prodat. Invenio etiam in chartis meis titulos Julii Sive Politiae libros tres, Judicium astroligicum contra astrologiam, Iter, sed quod dudum interierunt, quid iis consignarim, non memini. "— Vita Lib., i. p. 10, Ed. Rheinwald, 1849. edition of the "Confessio Fraternitatis," and seemingly also of the "Fama,"1 do not describe the society as that of the Rosie Cross, the edition of 1615, printed at Francfurt, calls it the Bruderschafft des Rosen-Creutzes and it is, therefore, argued that the three works must have originated from a single source.

II. . The " Chymical Marriage " contains the following passage : — " Hereupon I prepared myself for the way, put on my white linnen coat, girded my loyns, with a blood-red ribbon bound cross-ways over my shoulder : In my hat I stuck four roses." Elsewhere, he describes himself as a " brother of the Red-Rosie Cross," and a "Knight of the Golden Stone " — eques aurei lapidis. Now, the armorial bearings of the family of Andreas contain a St Andrew's Cross with four roses, one in each of . its angles, which interesting piece of internal evidence indicates the authorship of this romance independently of the autobiographical statement, and points irresistibly, it is said, to the conclusion that the founder of the Rose-Cross Society was the man whose heraldic device was also the Rose and Cross. III. The identity of the principles contained in the acknowledged work of Andreas, and in the pamphlets which it is sought to attribute to him, are considered too obvious to need enumeration, and it is sufficient to point out that all are equally directed against the charlatanic professors of the magnum opus, thriving in countless numbers upon the credulity and infatuation of the age.

IV. Arnold, in his "History of the Church and of follows : — " Fama Fraternitatis, or Discovery of the Brotherhood of the Worshipful Order of the R, C." Heretics," states that a comparison between Andreas' undoubtedly authentic writings and those of the Rosicruciau manifestoes do not allow any doubt that he is their author. V. The earliest edition of Boccalini's " Ragguagli di Parnasso " was published at Venice in 1612. Andreas is known to have been an Italian scholar; he was also an omnivorous reader; he is said to have admired Boccalini, and to have imitated his style ; and thence it is argued that he it was who translated Advertisement 77 of the first centuria, under the title of the " Universal Reformation of the Whole Wide World." VI. An intimate friend of Andreas, Professor Besoldt, positively declares that the character of the Rosicrucian manifesto is plain enough, and considers it a marvellous and unexplainable circumstance that so many persons had mistaken that object. From this it is concluded that he was a repository of the secret concerning their authorship, and as he was in the confidence of Andreas, that Andreas was the author. In this case, the question discussed in the introduction is, of course, definitely set at rest. The symbolism of the Rose-Cross is of no high significance as a badge of the secret society. It does not give expression to the arcana of the alchemical and celestial Dew of the Wise, nor contain the secret of the menstruum of the Red Dragon. It is simply the hereditary device of the founder, and its meaning is to be sought in German heraldry, and not in mysticism.

Those who accredit Andreas with the authorship of the Rosicrucian manifestoes interpret his reasons very variously. According to Arnold, he had already written many satirical pamphlets upon the corruptions and hypocrisy of the period and he considers that the " Fama " and " Confessio " were penned with the same purpose, namely to lay bare the follies of men's lives, and to set before them patterns of good and pious living. He quotes an unmentioned writer as stating that it was necessary that the brethren should be men of unblemished lives, and zealous preachers, who, under the appearance of a society, would try to lead the people to God. According to Figuier, as we have seen, Andreas established the order to fulfil certain prophecies of Paracelsus, and to pursue scientific researches on purely Paracelsian principles. But Buhle, with all his shortcomings, and weighted as he is by an extravagant Masonic hypothesis, is the best exponent of these views, and it will be necessary to cite his arguments at considerable length. " From a close review of his life and opinions, I am not only satisfied that Andrea wrote the three works which laid the foundation of Eosicrucianism, but I see clearly ivhy he wrote them. The evils of Germany were then enormous, and the necessity of some great reform was universally admitted. As a young man without experience, Andrea imagined that this reform would be easily accomplished. He had the example of Luther before him, the heroic reformer of the preceding century, whose memory was yet fresh in Germany, and whose labours seemed on the point of perishing unless supported by corresponding efforts in the existing generation.