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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Mysteries of the Rosie Cross, by Anonymous
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
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+
+
+
+Title: Mysteries of the Rosie Cross
+       Or, the History of that Curious Sect of the Middle Ages, Known as the Rosicrucians; with Examples of their Pretensions and Claims as Set Forth in the Writings of Their Leaders and Disciples
+
+
+Author: Anonymous
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 21, 2011  [eBook #35350]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTERIES OF THE ROSIE CROSS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
+Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/mysteriesofrosie00londrich
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
+
+      Text in bold face is enclosed by equal signs (=bold=).
+
+      A list of corrections is at the end of the e-book.
+
+
+
+
+
+MYSTERIES OF THE ROSIE CROSS,
+
+Or
+
+The History of that Curious Sect
+of the Middle Ages,
+Known as the Rosicrucians;
+
+With
+Examples of their Pretensions and Claims
+as Set Forth in the Writings of Their Leaders
+and Disciples.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A. Reader, Orange Street, Red Lion Square, London.
+1891.
+
+
+
+
+_PREFACE._
+
+
+In the following pages an attempt has been made to convey something like
+an intelligible idea of the peculiar mystic sect known to the readers of
+history, as the Rosicrucians. The subject is confessedly difficult, owing
+to the grossly absurd character of the writings left by the disciples of
+this body, and the secrecy with which they sought to surround their
+movements and clothe their words. Anything like a consecutive narration is
+an impossibility, the materials at hand being so fragmentary and
+disjointed. We have, however, done the best that we could with such facts
+as were within reach, and if we are not able to present so scientific and
+perfect a treatise as we might have hoped to do, we at least trust that
+the following contribution to the scanty literature treating of this
+matter will be found interesting, and will throw some light upon what is
+shrouded in such profound mystery.
+
+
+
+
+_CONTENTS._
+
+
+  CHAPTER THE FIRST.
+      WHO AND WHAT WERE THE ROSICRUCIANS                           1
+
+  CHAPTER THE SECOND.
+      HISTORICAL NOTICES OF THE ROSICRUCIANS                      15
+
+  CHAPTER THE THIRD.
+      EARLY LEADERS--LITERATURE--ROMANTIC STORIES                 22
+
+  CHAPTER THE FOURTH.
+      THE FAME AND CONFESSION OF THE FRATERNITY OF R. C.          34
+
+  CHAPTER THE FIFTH.
+      JOHN HEYDON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS                            60
+
+  CHAPTER THE SIXTH.
+      GABALIS: OR THE EXTRAVAGANT MYSTERIES OF THE CABALISTS      81
+
+  CHAPTER THE SEVENTH.
+      THE HERMETICK ROMANCE; OR CHYMICAL WEDDING                 102
+
+  CHAPTER THE EIGHTH.
+      MODERN ROSICRUCIANS                                        126
+
+
+
+
+_AUTHORITIES._
+
+
+El Havareuna; or the English Physitian's Tutor, in the Astrobolismes of
+Mettals Rosie Crucian, Miraculous Saphiric Medicines of the Sun and Moon,
+the Astrolosmes of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars.... All harmoniously united
+and opperated by Astromancy and Geomancy.... Whereunto is added
+Psonthonphanchia.... the Books being also an appeal to the natural
+faculties of the mind of man whether there be not a God. By John Heydon,
+M.D. 1664.
+
+The Holy Guide: leading the way to the Wonder of the World (a compleat
+Physician) teaching the knowledge of all things, past, present, and to
+come, viz., of pleasure, long life, health, youth, Blessedness, Wisdome,
+Virtue; and to cure, change, and remedy all diseases in young or old. With
+Rosie Crucian Medicines, etc. (The Rosie Cross uncovered, and the Places,
+Temples, Holy Houses.... and invisible Mountains of the Brethren
+discovered), etc. John Heydon. 1662.
+
+A New Method of Rosie Crucian Physick, wherein is shewed the cause, and
+therewith their experienced medicines for the cure of all diseases. John
+Heydon. 1658.
+
+A Quintuple Rosie Crucian Scourge, for the correction of that
+pseudo-chymist, Geo. Thomson, being in part a vindication of the Society
+of Physicians. John Heydon. 1665.
+
+Theomagia, or the Temple of Wisdome. In three parts, spiritual, celestial
+and elemental; containing the occult powers of the Angels of
+Astromancy.... The Mysterious virtues of the character of the Stars....
+The knowledge of the Rosie Crucian Physick. J. Heydon. 1662.
+
+The Rosie Crucian Infallible Axiomata, or Generall Rules to know all
+things past, present, and to come. Usefull, pleasant, and profitable to
+all, and fitted to the understanding of mean capacities. John Heydon.
+1660.
+
+Rise and Attributes of the Rosi Crucians. By J. Von D----.
+
+Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History.
+
+Brucker's History of Philosophy.
+
+The Hermetick Romance, or Chemical Wedding. By C. Rosencreutz.
+
+New Curiosities of Literature. G. Soane.
+
+Tale of a Tub. Swift.
+
+Notes and Queries. Series 1-8. 6 vols., 7, 8, 10.
+
+Warburton's Commentary on the Rape of the Lock.
+
+Spectator. Nos. 379, 574.
+
+National Magazine. Vol. 1.
+
+London Magazine. Vols. 9, 20.
+
+Western Monthly. Vol. 3.
+
+Book Lore. Vol. 3.
+
+Plot's History of Staffordshire.
+
+The Count of Gabalis, or the Extravagant Mysteries of the Cabalists.
+
+Butler's Hudibras.
+
+Mackay's Popular Delusions.
+
+Higgins's Anacalypsis.
+
+Fame and Confession of the Rosie Cross. E. Philateles.
+
+Mackay's Symbolism of Freemasonry.
+
+De Quincey on Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry.
+
+Apologia Compendiaria Fraternitatis de Rosea Cruce.
+
+Fama Fraternitatis. 1617, etc.
+
+
+
+
+MYSTERIES OF THE ROSIE CROSS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_Who and what were the Rosicrucians?_
+
+
+The questions which present themselves on the threshold of this enquiry
+are:--Who and what were the Rosicrucians? When and where did they
+flourish, and what influence did any peculiar tenets they may have held,
+or practices they may have indulged in, exercise upon the world? We shall
+endeavour to answer these queries as distinctly as so mysterious and
+extravagant a subject will allow of, and illustrate the whole by copious
+extracts from the writings of recognized leaders and disciples.
+
+Comparatively very little is known about these people; and, if we open any
+of our works of general reference, such as dictionaries and encyclopĉdias,
+we find little more than a bare reminder that they were a mystic sect to
+be found in a few European countries about the middle of the fifteenth
+century. That such a sect did exist is beyond question, and the opinion
+that what is left of it exists at the present time in connection with
+modern Freemasonry, seems not altogether destitute of foundation.
+
+They appear to have a close connection with the Alchemists; springing into
+existence as a distinct body when those enthusiastic seekers after the
+power of transmuting the baser into the nobler metals were creating
+unusual sensation. Somewhere about the end of the fifteenth century, a
+Dutch pilot named Haussen, had the misfortune to be shipwrecked off the
+coast of Scotland. The vessel was lost, but Haussen was saved by a Scotch
+gentleman, one Alexander Seton, who put off in a boat and brought the
+drowning mariner to land. A warm friendship sprang up between the two,
+and, about eighteen months after, Seton went to Holland, and paid a visit
+to the man whom he had rescued. During this visit he informed the Dutchman
+that he was in possession of the secret of the philosopher's stone, and
+report says that in his presence he actually transmuted large quantities
+of base metal into the finest gold, which he left with him as a present.
+Seton in due course took leave of his friend, and prosecuted his travels
+through various parts of the continent. He made no attempt to conceal the
+possession of his boasted secret, but openly talked of it wherever he went
+and performed certain experiments, which he persuaded the people were
+actual transmutations of base metal into gold. Unfortunately for him, the
+Duke of Saxony heard the report of these wonders, and immediately had him
+arrested and put to the torture of the rack to extract from him the
+precious secret, or to compel him at least to use it in his especial
+service. All was in vain, however, the secret, if such he really
+possessed, remained locked up in his own breast, and he lay for months in
+prison subjected to treatment which reduced him to mere skin and bone, and
+well nigh killed him. A Pole, named Sendivogius, also an alchemist, an
+enthusiast like the rest of the fraternity, who had spent time and fortune
+in the wild and profitless search, then came upon the scene. The
+sufferings of Seton aroused his sympathy, and he resolved to bring about,
+if possible, his escape from the tyrant. After experiencing a deal of
+difficulty he obtained permission to visit the prisoner, whom he found in
+a dark and filthy dungeon, in a condition well nigh verging upon absolute
+starvation. He immediately acquainted the unhappy man with his proposals,
+which were listened to with the greatest eagerness, and Seton declared
+that, if he succeeded in securing his liberation, he would make him one of
+the wealthiest of living men. Sendivogius then set about his really
+difficult task; and, with a view to its accomplishment, commenced a
+curious and artful series of movements. His first move was to procure some
+ready money, which he did by the sale of some property near Cracow. With
+this he began to lead a gay and somewhat dissipated life at Dresden;
+giving splendid banquets, to which he invited the officers of the guard,
+particularly selecting those who were on duty at the prison. In the course
+of time his hospitality had its expected effect; he entirely won the
+confidence of the officials, and pretending that he was endeavouring to
+overcome the obstinacy of the captive, and worm out his secret, was
+allowed free access to him. It was at last resolved upon a certain day to
+make the attempt at escape; and, having sent the guard to sleep by means
+of some drugged wine, he assisted Seton over a wall, and led him to a
+post-chaise, which he had conveniently waiting, to convey him into Poland.
+In the vehicle Seton found his wife awaiting him, having with her a packet
+of black powder, which was said to be the philosopher's stone by which
+iron and copper could be transmuted into gold. They all reached Cracow in
+safety, but Seton's sufferings had been so severe, and had so reduced his
+physical strength, that he did not survive many months. He died about 1603
+or 1604, leaving behind him a number of works marked Cosmopolite. Soon
+after his death Sendivogius married the widow; and, according to the
+accounts which have come down to us, was soon initiated into the methods
+of turning the commoner metals into the finer. With the black powder, we
+are told, he converted great quantities of quicksilver into the purest
+gold, and that he did this in the presence of the Emperor Rudolph II. at
+Prague, who, in commemoration of the fact, caused a marble tablet with an
+inscription to be fixed in the wall of the room where the experiment was
+performed. Whether the experiment was a cheat or not, the tablet was
+really fixed in the said wall, and was seen and described by Desnoyens,
+secretary to the Princess Mary of Gonzaga, Queen of Poland, in 1651.
+
+Rudolph, the Emperor, seems to have been perfectly satisfied with the
+success of the alchymist, and would have heaped the loftiest honours upon
+him had he been disposed to accept of them; this, however, did not accord
+with his inclination; he, it is said, preferred his liberty, and went to
+reside on his estate at Gravarna, where he kept open house for all who
+responded to his invitations. His biographer, Brodowski, who was also his
+steward, insists, contrary to other writers, that the magic powder was red
+and not black; that he kept it in a box of gold, and that with one grain
+of it he could make a hundred ducats, or a thousand rix dollars, generally
+using quicksilver as the basis of his operations. When travelling this box
+was carried by the steward, who hung it round his neck by a golden chain;
+the principal part of the powder, however, was hidden in a secret place
+cut in the step of his chariot; this being deemed a secure place in the
+event of being attacked by robbers. He appears to have lived in constant
+fear of being robbed, and resorted to all manner of precautions to secure
+his treasure when on a journey; for it is said that he was well known as
+the possessor of this philosopher's stone, and that many adventurers were
+on the watch for any opportunity to rob him.
+
+Brodowski relates that a German prince once served him a scurvy trick,
+which ever afterwards put him on his guard. The prince was so anxious to
+see the wonderful experiments, of which he had heard so much, that he
+actually fell upon his knees before the alchymist, when entreating him to
+perform in his presence. Sendivogius, after much pressing, allowed his
+objections to be overcome; and, upon the promise of secrecy by the prince,
+showed him what he was so anxious to witness. No sooner, however, had the
+alchymist left, than the prince entered into a conspiracy with another
+alchymist, named Muhlenfels, for robbing Sendivogius of the powder he used
+in his operations. Accompanied by twelve armed attendants, Muhlenfels
+hastened after Sendivogius, and overtaking him at a lonely inn, where he
+had stopped to dine, forcibly took from him his golden box containing a
+little of the powder; a manuscript book on the philosopher's stone; a
+golden medal, with its chain, presented to him by the Emperor Rudolph; and
+a rich cap, ornamented with diamonds, of the value of one hundred thousand
+rix-dollars.
+
+Sendivogius was not at all disposed to put up with such treatment without
+an effort to obtain redress, so he went at once to Prague, and laid his
+complaint before the Emperor. The Emperor at once sent an express to the
+prince, ordering him to deliver up Muhlenfels and his plunder. Alarmed at
+the aspect that things were now assuming, the prince, treacherous to one
+man as he had been to the other, erected gallows in his courtyard and
+hanged Muhlenfels with a thief on either side of him. He sent back the
+jewelled hat, the medal and chain, and the book in manuscript; the powder,
+he said, he knew nothing of.
+
+Sendivogius now adopted a different mode of living altogether to that
+which he had formerly been addicted to; he pretended to be excessively
+poor, and would sometimes keep his bed for weeks together, to make the
+people conclude it was impossible for him to be the owner of the
+philosopher's stone. He died in the year 1636, upwards of eighty, and was
+buried at Gravarna.
+
+Now, it is commonly held by most people, who have studied the subject,
+that there is a close and intimate connection between the Alchymists and
+the Rosicrucians; probably this is true, and a perusal of the works of
+John Heydon, and others of a similar character, will deepen the
+impression. It was, indeed, during the life of Sendivogius that the
+Rosicrucians first began to make a mark in Europe, and cause anything
+approaching to a sensation. A modern writer says:--"The influence which
+they exercised upon opinion during their brief career, and the permanent
+impression which they have left upon European literature, claim for them
+especial notice. Before their time alchemy was but a grovelling delusion;
+and theirs is the merit of having spiritualised and refined it. They also
+enlarged its sphere, and supposed the possession of the philosopher's
+stone to be, not only the means of wealth, but of health and happiness,
+and the instrument by which man could command the services of superior
+beings, control the elements to his will, defy the obstructions of time
+and space, and acquire the most intimate knowledge of all the secrets of
+the universe."[1]
+
+It is a fact well known to all well-informed readers, that at this time
+the European continent was saturated with the most degrading
+superstitions. Devils were supposed to walk the earth, and to mingle in
+the affairs of men; evil spirits, in the opinion even of the wise and
+learned, were thought to be at the call of any one who would summon them
+with the proper formalities; and witches were daily burned in all the
+capitals of Europe. The new sect taught a doctrine less repulsive. They
+sprang up in Germany, extended with some success to France and England,
+and excited many angry controversies. Though as far astray in their
+notions as the Demonologists and witch believers, the creed was more
+graceful. They taught that the elements swarmed not with hideous, foul and
+revengeful spirits, but with beautiful creatures, more ready to do man
+service than to inflict injury. They taught that the earth was inhabited
+by Gnomes, the air by Sylphs, the fire by Salamanders, and the water by
+Nymphs or Undines; and that man, by his communication with them, might
+learn the secrets of nature, and discover all those things which had
+puzzled philosophers for ages--Perpetual Motion, the Elixir of Life, the
+Philosopher's Stone, and the Essence of Invisibility.
+
+Respecting the origin and signification of the term Rosicrucian different
+opinions have been held and expressed. Some have thought it was made up of
+_rosa_ and _crux_ (a _rose_ and a _cross_) but it is maintained by others
+upon apparently good authority, that it is a compound of ros (dew) and
+crux (cross). Mosheim contends that it is abundantly attested that the
+title of Rosicrucians was given to the chemists who united the study of
+religion with the search after chemical secrets, the term itself being
+chemical, and not to be understood without a knowledge of the style used
+by the chemists. We shall give some extracts from very old Rosicrucian
+works presently which will enlighten our readers in such matters.
+
+A cross in the language of the fire philosophers is the same as Lux
+(light), because the figure of a + exhibits all the three letters of the
+word _Lux_ at one view. Moreover, this sect applied the term _Lux_ to the
+_seed or menstruum of the Red Dragon_, or to that crude and corporeal
+light which, being properly concocted and digested, produces gold. A
+Rosicrucian, therefore, is a philosopher who, by means of _dew_ seeks for
+_light_--that is, for the substance of the philosopher's stone.
+
+Mosheim declares the other interpretations of this name to be false and
+deceptive, being the inventions of the chemists themselves, who were
+exceedingly fond of concealment, for the sake of imposing on others who
+were hostile to their religious views. The true import of this title, he
+says, was perceived by the sagacity of Peter Gassendi, Examen Philosophiĉ
+Fluddanĉ, sec. 15, in his Opp. iii, 261; though it was more lucidly
+explained by the celebrated French physician Eusebius Renaudot,
+_Conférences Publiques_, iv. 87.
+
+In 1619 Dr. Jo. Valentine Andreĉ, a celebrated Lutheran divine, published
+his Tower of Babel, or Chaos of Opinions respecting the Fraternity of the
+Rosy-Cross, in which he represents the whole history as a farce, and gave
+intimations that _he_ was _himself_ concerned in getting it up.
+
+Brucker says to the class of Theosophists has been commonly referred the
+entire society of Rosicrucians, which, at the beginning of the seventeenth
+century, made so much noise in the ecclesiastical and literary world. The
+history of this society, which is attended with some obscurity, seems to
+be as follows:--"Its origin is referred to a certain German, whose name
+was Rosencreuz who, in the fourteenth century, visited the Holy Sepulchre;
+and, in travelling through Asia and Africa, made himself acquainted with
+many Oriental secrets; and who, after his return, instituted a small
+fraternity, to whom he communicated the mysteries he had learned, under an
+oath of inviolable secrecy. This society remained concealed till the
+beginning of the seventeenth century, when two books were published, the
+one entitled, _Fama Fraternitatis laudabilis Ordinis Rosĉcrusis_: "The
+report of the laudable Fraternity of Rosicrucians;" the other, _Confessio
+Fraternitatis_, "The Confession of the Fraternity." In these books the
+world was informed that this fraternity was enabled, by Divine revelation,
+to explain the most important secrets, both of nature and grace; that they
+were appointed to correct the errors of the learned world, particularly in
+philosophy and medicine; that they were possessed of the philosopher's
+stone, and understood both the art of transmuting metals and of prolonging
+human life; and, in fine, by their means the golden age would return. As
+soon as these grand secrets were divulged, the whole tribe of the
+Paracelsists, Theosophists and Chemists flocked to the Rosicrucian
+standard, and every new and unheard-of mystery was referred to this
+fraternity. It is impossible to relate how much noise this wonderful
+discovery made, or what different opinions were formed concerning it.
+After all, though the laws and statutes of the society had appeared, no
+one could tell where the society itself was to be found, or who really
+belonged to it. It was imagined by some sagacious observers, that a
+certain important meaning was concealed under the story of the
+Rosicrucian fraternity, though they were wholly unable to say what it was.
+One conjectured that some chemical mystery lay hid behind the allegorical
+tale; another supposed that it foretold some great ecclesiastical
+revolution. At last Michael Breler, in the year 1620, had the courage
+publicly to declare that he certainly knew the whole story to have been
+the contrivance of some ingenious persons who chose to amuse themselves by
+imposing upon the public credulity. This declaration raised a general
+suspicion against the whole story; and, as no one undertook to contradict
+it, this wonderful society daily vanished, and the rumours, which had been
+spread concerning it, ceased. The whole was probably a contrivance to
+ridicule the pretenders to secret wisdom and wonderful power, particularly
+the chemists, who boasted that they were possessed of the philosopher's
+stone. It has been conjectured--and the satirical turn of his writings,
+and several particular passages in his works, favour the conjecture--that
+this farce was invented and performed, in part at least, by John Valentine
+Andrea of Wartenburg."[2]
+
+Pope, in the dedication of his Rape of the Lock to Mrs. Arabella Fermor,
+wrote:--"I know how disagreeable it is to make use of hard words before a
+lady; but it is so much the concern of a poet to have his works
+understood--and particularly by your sex--that you must give me leave to
+explain two or three difficult terms.
+
+"The Rosicrucians are a people I must bring you acquainted with. The best
+account I know of them is in a French book called Le Comte de Gabalis,
+which, both in its title and size, is so like a novel, that many of the
+fair sex have read it for one by mistake. According to these gentlemen,
+the four elements are inhabited by spirits, which they call sylphs,
+gnomes, nymphs and salamanders. The gnomes, or demons of earth, delight
+in mischief; but the sylphs, whose habitation is in the air, are the best
+conditioned creatures imaginable; for they say any mortals may enjoy the
+most intimate familiarities with these gentle spirits, upon a condition
+very easy to all true adepts, an inviolate preservation of chastity."
+
+On the lines (verse 20, canto 1):--
+
+  "Belinda still her downy pillow prest,
+  Her guardian sylph prolonged the balmy rest."
+
+in Pope's Rape of the Lock, Warburton thus comments:--
+
+"When Mr. Pope had projected to give the Rape of the Lock its present form
+of a mock-heroic poem, he was obliged to find it with its machinery. For,
+as the subject of the Epic consists of two parts, the metaphysical and the
+civil; so this mock epic, which is of the satiric kind, and receives its
+grace from a ludicrous mimicry of other's pomp and solemnity, was to have
+the like compounded nature. And as the civil part is intentionally debased
+by the choice of a trifling action; so should the metaphysical by the
+application of some very extravagant system. A rule which, though neither
+Boileau nor Garth had been careful enough to attend to, our author's good
+sense would not suffer him to overlook. And that sort of machinery which
+his judgment informed him was only fit for use, his admirable invention
+soon supplied. There was but one systematic extravagance in all nature
+which was to his purpose, the Rosicrucian Philosophy; and this by the
+effort of a well-directed imagination, he presently seized. The fanatic
+Alchemists, in the search after the great secret, had invented a means
+altogether to their end: it was a kind of Theological Philosophy, made up
+in a mixture of almost equal parts of Pagan Platonism, Christian Quietism
+and the Jewish Cabbala; a mixture monstrous enough to frighten reason from
+human commerce. This system, he tells us, he took as he found it in a
+little French tract called, _La Comte de Gabalis_. This book is written
+in dialogue, and is a delicate and very ingenious piece of raillery on
+that invisible sect by the Abbé Villiers; the strange stories that went
+about of the feats and adventures of their adepts making, at that time, a
+great deal of noise at Paris. But, as in this satirical dialogue, Mr. P.
+found several whimsies of a very high mysterious nature, told of their
+elementary beings, which were unfit to come into the machinery of such a
+sort of poem, he has, in their stead, with great judgment, substituted the
+legendary stories of Guardian Angels, and the nursery tales of the
+Fairies, and dexterously accommodated them to the rest of the Rosicrucian
+System. And to this artful address (unless we will be so uncharitable to
+think he intended to give a needless scandal) we must suppose he referred
+in these two lines,
+
+  "If e'er one Vision touch'd thy infant thought,
+  Of all the _nurse_ and all the _priest_ have taught."
+
+Thus, by the most beautiful invention imaginable, he has contrived that
+(as in the serious Epic, the popular belief supports the machinery) in his
+mock Epic the machinery (taken from a circumstance the most humbling to
+reason in all philosophical fanaticism) should serve to dismount learned
+pride and arrogance."
+
+On verse 45, canto 1, he remarks:--"The Poet here forsakes his Rosicrucian
+system; which, in this part, is too extravagant even for ludicrous
+poetry."
+
+On verse 68, canto 1, he continues:--"Here, again, the author resumes the
+Rosicrucian system. But this tenet, peculiar to that wild philosophy, was
+founded on a principle very unfit to be employed in such a sort of poem,
+and, therefore suppressed, though a less judicious writer would have been
+tempted to expatiate upon it."
+
+Swift, in the "Tale of a Tub," says:--"Night being the universal mother
+of things, wise philosophers hold all writings to be fruitful, in the
+proportion they are dark; and therefore the true illuminated (that is to
+say, the darkest of all) have met with such numberless commentators, whose
+scholastic midwifery has delivered them of meanings, that the authors
+themselves perhaps never conceived, and yet may very justly be allowed the
+lawful parents of them; the words of such writers being like seed, which,
+however scattered, at random, when they light upon a fruitful ground, will
+multiply far beyond either the hopes or imagination of the sower. And,
+therefore, in order to promote so useful a work, I will here take leave to
+glance a few inuendos, that may be of great assistance to those sublime
+spirits, who shall be appointed to labour in a universal comment upon this
+wonderful discourse. And, first, I have couched a very profound mystery in
+the number of O's multiplied by seven and divided by nine. Also, if a
+devout brother of the rosy cross will pray fervently for sixty-three
+mornings, with a lively faith, and then transpose certain letters and
+syllables, according to prescription, in the second and fifth section,
+they will certainly reveal into a full receipt of the _opus magnum_.
+Lastly, whoever will be at the pains to calculate the whole number of each
+letter in this treatise, and sum up the difference exactly between the
+several numbers, assigning the true natural cause for every such
+difference, the discoveries in the product will plentifully reward his
+labour."
+
+  "For Mystic Learning, wondrous able
+  In magic Talisman and Cabal,
+  Whose primitive tradition reaches
+  As far as Adam's first green breeches;
+  Deep sighted in Intelligences,
+  Ideas, Atoms, Influences;
+  And much of Terra-Incognita,
+  Th' intelligible world, could say;
+  A deep Occult Philosopher,
+  As learned as the wild Irish are,
+  Or Sir Agrippa, for profound
+  And solid lying much renowned.
+  He Anthroposophus and Fludd,
+  And Jacob Behmen understood;
+  Knew many an amulet and charm,
+  That would do neither good nor harm;
+  In Rosy-Crusian lore as learned
+  As he that _verè adeptus_ earned."
+
+  --HUDIBRAS, Part I, Canto I.
+
+The Globe Encyclopĉdia, under article Rosicrucians, says:--"A mystic
+brotherhood revealed to the outer world in the _Fama Fraternitatis R. C._
+(1614), the _Confessio Fraternitatis R. C._ (1615), and the Chymische
+Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkreuz (1616), which last was acknowledged by, as
+the two former works were commonly ascribed to, Johann Valentin Andreĉ.
+From them we learn that a German noble of the 14th century, one Christian
+Rosenkreuz, after long travel in the East, founded on his return a
+brotherhood of seven adepts, the R., and dying at the age of 106 was
+buried in their temple--the 'House of the Holy Spirit,' with the
+inscription on his grave--'Post CXX. annos patebo.' The laws of the order,
+thus made known in the fulness of time, were that its members should heal
+the sick gratis, should meet once every year in a certain secret place,
+should adopt as their symbol R. C. (_i.e. Rosea Crux_), or a rose
+springing from a cross (the device, be it observed, of Luther's seal), and
+should assume the habit and manners of whatsoever country they might
+journey to. It is now supposed that Andreĉ simply intended a hoax upon the
+credulity of the age, and that Christian Rosenkreuz and all the attendant
+mysteries were wholly the coinage of his fertile brain. However, the hoax,
+if hoax there were, was taken seriously, and as early as 1622, societies
+of alchemists at the Hague and elsewhere assumed the title R., while
+Rosicrucian tenets powerfully influenced Cabalists, Freemasons, and
+Illuminati, and were professed by Cagliostro and similar impostors. Even
+to-day a Rosicrucian lodge is said to exist in London, whose members
+claim by asceticism to live beyond the allotted age of man, and to which
+the late Lord Lytton sought entrance vainly."
+
+"I was once engaged in discourse with a Rosicrucian about the 'great
+secret.' As this kind of men, I mean those of them who are not professed
+cheats, are over-run with enthusiasm and philosophy, it was very amusing
+to hear this religious adept descanting on his pretended discovery. He
+talked of the secret as of a spirit which lived within an emerald, and
+converted everything that was near it to the highest perfection it is
+capable of. 'It gives a lustre,' says he, 'to the sun, and water to the
+diamond. It irradiates every metal, and enriches lead with all the
+properties of gold. It heightens smoke into flame, flame into light, and
+light into glory.' He further added, that a single ray of it dissipates
+pain, and care, and melancholy, from the person on whom it falls. In
+short, says he, 'its presence naturally changes every place into a kind of
+heaven.'
+
+"After he had gone on for some time in this unintelligible cant, I found
+that he jumbled natural and moral ideas together in the same discourse,
+and that his great secret was nothing else but content."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_Historical Notices of the Rosicrucians._
+
+
+So mysterious a sect were the Rosicrucians, and so involved in doubt and
+obscurity are most of their movements, practices and opinions, that nearly
+everything connected with them has been denied or doubted at one time or
+another by those who have written about them. Dr. Mackay says: "Many have
+denied the existence of such a personage as Rosencreutz, and have fixed
+the origin of this sect at a much later epoch. The first dawning of it,
+they say, is to be found in the theories of Paracelsus and the dreams of
+Dr. Dee, who, without intending it, became the actual, though never the
+recognised founders of the Rosicrucian philosophy. It is now difficult,
+and indeed impossible to determine whether Dee and Paracelsus obtained
+their ideas from the then obscure and unknown Rosicrucians, or whether the
+Rosicrucians did but follow and improve upon them. Certain it is, that
+their existence was never suspected till the year 1605, when they began to
+excite attention in Germany. No sooner were their doctrines promulgated,
+than all the visionaries, Paracelsists, and alchymists, flocked around
+their standard, and vaunted Rosencreutz as the new regenerator of the
+human race." According to Mayer, a celebrated physician of the times, who
+published a report of the tenets and ordinances of the new fraternity at
+Cologne in the year 1615, they asserted in the first place that the
+meditations of their founders surpassed everything that had ever been
+imagined since the creation of the world, without even excepting the
+revelations of the Deity; that they were destined to accomplish the
+general peace and regeneration of man before the end of the world
+arrived; that they possessed all wisdom and piety in a supreme degree;
+that they possessed all the graces of nature, and could distribute them
+among the rest of mankind according to their pleasure; that they were
+subject to neither hunger, nor thirst, nor disease, nor old age, nor to
+any other inconvenience of nature; that they knew by inspiration, and at
+the first glance, every one who was worthy to be admitted into their
+society; that they had the same knowledge then which they would have
+possessed if they had lived from the beginning of the world, and had been
+always acquiring it; that they had a volume in which they could read all
+that ever was or ever would be written in other books till the end of
+time; that they could force to, and retain in their service the most
+powerful spirits and demons; that by the virtue of their songs, they could
+attract pearls and precious stones from the depths of the sea or the
+bowels of the earth; that God had covered them with a thick cloud, by
+means of which they could shelter themselves from the malignity of their
+enemies, and that they could thus render themselves invisible from all
+eyes; that the first eight brethren of the Rosie-Cross had power to cure
+all maladies; that by means of the fraternity, the triple diadem of the
+Pope would be reduced into dust; that they only admitted two sacraments,
+with the ceremonies of the Primitive Church, renewed by them: that they
+recognised the Fourth Monarchy and the Emperor of the Romans as their
+Chief, and the Chief of all Christians; that they would provide him with
+more gold, their treasures being inexhaustible, than the King of Spain had
+ever drawn from the golden regions of Eastern and Western India.
+
+Things went on pretty quietly for some time, converts being made with ease
+in Germany, but only with difficulty in other parts. In 1623, however, the
+brethren suddenly made their appearance in Paris, and the inhabitants of
+the city were surprised on the 3rd of March to find placarded on the walls
+a manifesto to this effect:--"We, the deputies of the principal college
+of the brethren of the Rosie Cross, have taken up our abode, visible and
+invisible, in this city, by the grace of the Most High, towards whom are
+turned the hearts of the just. We show and teach without any books or
+symbols whatever, and we speak all sorts of languages in the countries
+wherein we deign to dwell, to draw mankind, our fellows, from error and to
+save them from death."
+
+Whether this was a mere joke on the part of some of the wits of the day,
+it is certain that it created a very wide-spread sensation, and no little
+wonder and alarm, particularly amongst the clergy. Very soon pamphlets in
+opposition, and intended to warn the faithful, began to make their
+appearance. The earliest was called "A History of the Frightful Compacts
+entered into between the Devil and the Pretended Invisibles, with their
+Damnable Instructions, the Deplorable Ruin of their Disciples, and their
+Miserable End." This was followed by another of a far more ambitious
+character, pretending to ability to explain all the peculiarities and
+mysteries of the strange intruders. It was called "An examination of the
+New Cabala of the Brethren of the Rosie-Cross, who have lately come to
+reside in the city of Paris, with the History of their Manners, the
+Wonders worked by them, and many other particulars."
+
+As the books sold and circulated the sensation and alarm in the breasts of
+the people largely increased, approaching almost to a kind of panic.
+Ridicule and laugh as some would, it was impossible to disguise the fact
+that a vast number of the population went in bodily fear of this
+mysterious sect, whose members they had never seen. It was believed that
+the Rosicrucians could transport themselves from place to place with the
+rapidity almost of thought, and that they took delight in cheating and
+tormenting unhappy citizens, especially such as had sinned against the
+laws of morality. Then very naturally came the wildest and most unlikely
+stories, which, as is usual with such things, in spite of all their folly,
+were soon propagated far and wide, and increased the general alarm.
+
+An innkeeper declared that a mysterious stranger entered his inn, regaled
+himself on the best of everything, and suddenly vanished in a cloud when
+the reckoning was presented. Another was patronised by a similar stranger,
+who lived upon the choicest fare and drank the best wines of the house for
+a week, and paid him with a handful of new gold coins, which turned into
+slates the following morning. It was also reported that several persons on
+awakening in the middle of the night found individuals in their
+bedchambers, who suddenly became invisible, though still palpable when the
+alarm was raised. Such was the consternation in Paris, that every man who
+could not give a satisfactory account of himself was in danger of being
+pelted to death; and quiet citizens slept with loaded guns at their
+bedside, to take vengeance upon any Rosicrucian who might violate the
+sanctity of their chambers. No man or woman was considered safe; the
+female sex especially were supposed to be in danger, for it was implicitly
+believed that no bolts, locks or bars could keep out would be intruders,
+and it was frequently being reported that young women in the middle of the
+night found strange men of surpassing beauty in their bedrooms, who
+vanished the instant any attempt was made to arouse the inmates of the
+house. In other quarters it was reported that people most unexpectedly
+found heaps of gold in their houses, not having the slightest idea from
+whence they came; the feelings and emotions thus excited were consequently
+most conflicting, no man knowing whether his ghostly visitant might be the
+harbinger of good or evil.
+
+While the general alarm was at its height, another mysterious placard
+appeared, which said:--"_If any one desires to see the brethren of the
+Rose-Cross from curiosity only, he will never communicate with us. But if
+his will really induces him to inscribe his name in the register of our
+brotherhood, we, who can judge of the thoughts of all men, will convince
+him of the truth of our promises. For this reason we do not publish to the
+world the place of our abode. Thought alone, in unison with the sincere
+will of those who desire to know us, is sufficient to make us known to
+them, and them to us._"
+
+The imposition thus perpetrated upon the credulity of the people had but a
+comparatively short life in Paris, a deal of controversy was engendered
+between those who regarded the whole affair as a stupid hoax, and those
+whose superstitious fears made them think there was truth in it, and the
+efforts made by its disciples to defend their theories overshot the mark,
+and exposed the fallacies of that which they were intended to support. The
+police were called upon the scene to try and trace out and arrest the
+authors of the troublesome placards, and the Church took up the moral and
+theological aspect of the sensation, and issued pamphlets which professed
+to explain the whole as the production of some disciples of Luther, who
+were sent out to promulgate enmity and opposition to the Pope. The Abbé
+Gaultier, a Jesuit, distinguished himself in this direction, and informed
+the public that the very name of the disciples of the sect proved they
+were heretics; a cross surmounted by a rose being the heraldic device of
+the arch-heretic Luther. Another writer named Garasse, declared they were
+nothing but a set of drunken impostors; and that their name was derived
+from the garland of roses, in the form of a cross, hung over the tables of
+taverns in Germany as the emblem of secrecy, and from whence was derived
+the common saying, when one man communicated a secret to another, that it
+was said, "under the rose." Other explanations were also freely offered,
+which we have not space to describe, but which may be reached by the aid
+of the learned works given in our list of authorities.
+
+The charges of evil connections brought against the Rosicrucians were
+repudiated by those people with energy and determination; they affirmed in
+the most positive manner that they had nothing to do with magic, and that
+they held no intercourse whatever with the devil. They declared, on the
+contrary, that they were faithful followers of the true God, that they had
+already lived more than a hundred years, and expected to live many hundred
+more, and that God conferred upon them perfect happiness, and as a reward
+for their piety and service gave them the wonderful knowledge they were
+possessed of. They declared that they did not get their name from a cross
+of roses, but from Christian Rosencreutz, their founder. When charged with
+drunkenness, they said that they did not know what thirst was, and that
+they were altogether proof against the temptations of the most attractive
+food. They professed the greatest indignation perhaps at the charge of
+interfering with the honour of virtuous women, and maintained most
+positively that the very first vow they took was one of chastity, and that
+any of them violating that oath, would be deprived at once of all the
+advantages he possessed, and be subject to hunger, thirst, sorrow, disease
+and death like other men. Witchcraft and sorcery they also most warmly
+repudiated; the existence of incubi and succubi they said was a pure
+invention of their enemies, that man "was not surrounded by enemies like
+these, but by myriads of beautiful and beneficent beings, all anxious to
+do him service. The sylphs of the air, the undines of the water, the
+gnomes of the earth, and the salamanders of the fire were man's friends,
+and desired nothing so much as that men should purge themselves of all
+uncleanness, and thus be enabled to see and converse with them. They
+possessed great power, and were unrestrained by the barriers of space, or
+the obstructions of matter. But man was in one respect their superior. He
+had an immortal soul, and they had not. They might, however, become
+sharers in man's immortality if they could inspire one of that race with
+the passion of love towards them. Hence it was the constant endeavour of
+the female spirits to captivate the admiration of men, and of the male
+gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines to be beloved by a woman. The
+object of this passion, in returning their love, imparted a portion of
+that celestial fire, the soul; and from that time forth the beloved became
+equal to the lover, and both, when their allotted course was run, entered
+together into the mansions of felicity. These spirits, they said, watched
+constantly over mankind by night and day. Dreams, omens, and presentiments
+were all their work, and the means by which they gave warning of the
+approach of danger. But though so well inclined to befriend man for their
+own sake, the want of a soul rendered them at times capricious and
+revengeful; they took offence at slight causes, and heaped injuries
+instead of benefits on the heads of those who extinguished the light of
+reason that was in them by gluttony, debauchery, and other appetites of
+the body."[3] Great as was the excitement produced in the French capital
+by these placards, pamphlets and reports, it lasted after all but a very
+few months. The accumulating absurdities became too much, even for the
+most superstitious, and their fears were overcome by that sense of the
+ridiculous which speedily manifested itself. Instead of trembling as
+before, men laughed and derided, and the detection, arrest and summary
+punishment of a number of swindlers who tried to pass off lumps of gilded
+brass as pure gold made by the processes of alchemy, aided by a smartly
+written exposure of the follies of the sect by Gabriel Naudé, soon drove
+the whole thing clean off the French territory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_Early Leaders--Literature--Romantic Stories._
+
+
+We now proceed to speak of some of the more prominent of the Rosicrucian
+leaders and teachers, and to call attention to the literature from which
+we obtain our only reliable information.
+
+In the sixteenth century lived that extraordinary man Theophrastus
+Paracelsus, whose writings exercised a greater influence, perhaps, over
+the minds of his fellow creatures than any other author of his time. No
+man it is certain had contributed so much as he, to the diffusion of the
+Cabbalism, Theosophy and Alchemy which had flooded Germany and flowed over
+a greater part of Western Europe. Now it was generally believed that in
+the seventeenth century a great and general reformation amongst the human
+race would take place, as a necessary fore-runner to the day of judgment.
+In connection with this, Paracelsus made several prophecies which took a
+very firm hold of the public mind. He declared that the comet which made
+its appearance in 1572 was the sign and harbinger of the coming
+revolution, and he prophesied that soon after the death of the Emperor
+Rudolph, there would be found three treasures that had never been revealed
+before that time. In the year 1610 there were published at the same time
+three books which led to the foundation of the Rosicrucian order as a
+district society. One was called "_Universal Reformation of the Whole Wide
+World_." De Quincey summarises its contents thus: "The Seven Wise Men of
+Greece, together with M. Cato and Seneca, and a secretary named Mazzonius,
+are summoned to Delphi by Apollo, at the desire of the Emperor Justinian,
+and there deliberate, on the best mode of redressing human misery. All
+sorts of strange schemes are proposed. Thales advised to cut a hole in
+every man's breast, and place a little window in it, by which means it
+would become possible to look into the heart, to detect hypocrisy and
+vice, and thus to extinguish it. Solon proposes an equal partition of all
+possessions and wealth. Chilo's opinion is that the readiest way to the
+end in view would be to banish out of the world the two infamous and
+rascally metals gold and silver. Kleolinlus steps forward as the apologist
+of gold and silver, but thinks that iron ought to be prohibited, because
+in that case no more wars could be carried on amongst men. Pittacus
+insists upon more rigorous laws, which should make virtue and merit the
+sole passports to honour; to which, however, Periander objects that there
+had never been any scarcity of such laws, nor of princes to execute them,
+but scarcity enough of subjects conformable to good laws. The conceit of
+Bias, is that nations should be kept apart from each other, and each
+confined to its own home; and for this purpose, that all bridges should be
+demolished, mountains rendered insurmountable, and navigation totally
+forbidden. Cato, who seems to be the wisest of the party, wishes that God
+in his mercy would be pleased to wash away all women from the face of the
+earth by a new deluge, and at the same time to introduce some new
+arrangement for the continuation of the excellent male sex without female
+help. Upon this pleasing and sensible proposal the whole company manifest
+the greatest displeasure, and deem it so abominable that they unanimously
+prostrate themselves on the ground, and devoutly pray to God "that He
+would graciously vouchsafe to preserve the lovely race of women" (what
+absurdity) "and to save the world from a second deluge!" At length after a
+long debate, the counsel of Seneca prevails; which counsel is this--that
+out of all ranks a society should be composed having for its object the
+general welfare of mankind, and pursuing it in secret. This counsel is
+adopted: though without much hope on the part of the deputation, on
+account of the desperate condition of 'the Age,' who appears before them
+in person, and describes his own wretched state of health."
+
+The second work was the celebrated _Fama Fraternitatis_ of the meritorious
+order of the Rosy Cross, addressed to the learned in general, and the
+Governors of Europe. Here we may cite De Quincey again: "Christian
+Rosycross, of noble descent, having upon his travels into the East and
+into Africa learned great mysteries from Arabians, Chaldeans, etc., upon
+his return to Germany established, in some place not mentioned, a secret
+society composed at first of four--afterwards of eight--members, who dwelt
+together in a building called the House of the Holy Ghost, erected by him:
+to these persons, under a vow of fidelity and secrecy, he communicated his
+mysteries. After they had been instructed, the society dispersed agreeably
+to their destination, with the exception of two members, who remained
+alternately with the founder. The rules of the order were these:--The
+members were to cure the sick without fee or reward. No member to wear a
+peculiar habit, but to dress after the fashion of the country. On a
+certain day in every year all the members to assemble in the House of the
+Holy Ghost, or to account for their absence. Every member to appoint some
+person with the proper qualifications to succeed him at his own decease.
+The word Rosy-Cross to be their seal, watchword, and characteristic mark.
+The association to be kept unrevealed for a hundred years. Christian
+Rosycross died at the age of a hundred years. His death was known to the
+Society, but not his grave; for it was a maxim of the first Rosicrucians
+to conceal their burial places even from each other. New masters were
+continually elected into the House of the Holy Ghost, and the Society had
+now lasted 120 years. At the end of this period, a door was discovered in
+the house, and upon the opening of this door a sepulchral vault. Upon the
+door was this inscription: One hundred and twenty years hence I shall open
+(_Post CXX. annos patebo_). The vault was a heptagon. Every side was five
+feet broad and eight feet high. It was illuminated by an artificial sun.
+In the centre was placed, instead of a grave-stone, a circular altar with
+a little plate of brass, whereon these words were inscribed: This grave,
+an abstract of the whole world, I made for myself while yet living (A. C.
+R. C. Hoc Universi compendium vivus mihi sepulchrum feci). About the
+margin was--To me Jesus is all in all (Jesus mihi omnia). In the centre
+were four figures enclosed in a circle by the revolving legend: Nequaquam
+vacuum legis jugum. Libertas Evangelii. Dei gloria intacta. (The empty
+yoke of the law is made void. The liberty of the gospel. The unsullied
+glory of God). Each of the seven sides of the vault had a door opening
+into a chest; which chest, besides the secret books of the order and the
+_Vocabularium_ of Paracelsus, contained also mirrors--little
+bells--burning lamps--marvellous mechanisms of music, etc., all so
+contrived that, after the lapse of many centuries, if the whole order
+should have perished, it might be re-established by means of this vault.
+Under the altar, upon raising the brazen tablet, the brothers found the
+body of Rosycross, without taint or corruption. The right hand held a book
+written upon vellum with golden letters: this book which is called T., has
+since become the most precious jewel of the society next after the Bible;
+and at the end stand subscribed the names of the eight brethren, arranged
+in two separate circles, who were present at the death and burial of
+Father Rosycross. Immediately after the above narrative follows a
+declaration of their mysteries, addressed by the society to the whole
+world. They profess themselves to be of the Protestant faith; that they
+honour the Emperor and the laws of the Empire; and that the art of gold
+making is but a slight object with them." The whole ends with these
+words: "Our House of the Holy Ghost though a hundred thousand men should
+have looked upon it, is yet destined to remain untouched, imperturbable,
+out of sight, and unrevealed to the whole godless world for ever."
+
+Before we proceed to notice at any length the third of the books we have
+mentioned, we will turn to some further accounts of the burial place of
+the founder of this party, which, though in some respects similar and in
+the main stating the same facts, yet, supply other matter both curious and
+interesting.
+
+The following story has been quoted by a writer on the Rosicrucians, as
+related by Dr. Plot in his History of Staffordshire; a careful examination
+of the four copies of that work in the library of the British Museum,
+however, has failed to unearth the tale; it is to the following effect. At
+the close of a summer's day a countryman was digging a trench in a field
+in a valley which was surrounded by dense masses of woodland scenery. It
+was shortly after sunset, and the workman wearied with his task was about
+to cease his labour; before his pick, however, had given its last blow, it
+struck against some hard material a little below the surface of the ground
+with sufficient force to cause a bright spark to flash out into the
+evening gloom. This, exciting his curiosity, he forgot his fatigue and
+again went on with his digging, anxious to ascertain what it was he had
+discovered. The stone he had come upon was large and flat, and lay nearly
+in the middle of a field at a considerable distance from any of the farms
+of the neighbouring country. It was covered with grass and weeds, the
+growth of many years and had a large iron ring fixed at one end in a
+socket. For some time it proved too much for the countryman's strength,
+half an hour's struggling with it failed to remove it from its position,
+and it was not till he had rigged up some tackle by the aid of some rope
+and a tree that he managed to raise it. He then found it covered a deep
+hollow in the ground, wherein after some examination he discovered a stone
+staircase of apparently extraordinary depth. His inquisitiveness to know
+whither the steps led, and the thought perhaps that he might be the
+discoverer of some hidden treasure, gave him more courage than he
+naturally possessed, and he descended a few of the stairs, then, after
+vainly trying to penetrate into the darkness beneath, paused and looked up
+to the sky above. Encouraged by the remains of the sunlight and the
+shining planet Venus above him, he resumed his descent. He went, he
+supposed a hundred feet underground, when he came upon a square
+landing-place with a niche in the wall, then he came to another long
+staircase, still descending into darkness. Once more he paused, and looked
+up at the now very little bit of sky visible over head. Seeing nothing to
+cause any fear, and hopeful of soon being able to unravel the mystery, he
+stretched out his hands, and by cautiously feeling the walls, and with
+equal caution placing his feet slowly and firmly upon each step, he boldly
+went forward and counted in his descent two hundred and twenty steps. He
+found himself able to breathe pretty freely, but noticed an aromatic smell
+like that of burning incense, which he thought Egyptian. This he noticed
+rolling up now and then from beneath, as if from another world, and it
+occurred to him that it was from the world of mining gnomes, and that he
+was breaking in upon their secrets. Still he went on, in spite of all his
+fears, until he was momentarily stopped by a wall in front; turning
+sharply to the right, however, he found the way open to him, and
+discovered a still deeper staircase, at the foot of which was a steady
+though pale light. His alarm at discovering light so far down in the
+earth's interior was naturally great, but not great enough to overcome his
+curiosity and cause him to retrace his steps, and he once more commenced
+descending the mouldering old steps which looked as if they had not been
+trodden for ages. Then he thought he heard mysterious rumblings over
+head, like the sound of heavy waggons and horses, then all was still
+again. Many times he paused and thought he would return, thinking he might
+have accidently stumbled upon either the haunt of robbers or the abode of
+evil spirits; he stood still for awhile, fairly paralysed with fear. Then
+he began to recall where he had been working, he thought of the field
+above, the surrounding woods and his native hamlet only a few miles
+distant. This somewhat cheered him, but still with a good deal of fear
+remaining in his heart, he went down the rest of the stairs, the light
+growing brighter at every step. At last, he came upon a square chamber,
+built up of large hewn ancient stones. Filled with awe and wonderment, he
+found a flagged pavement and a lofty roof rising to a centre, in the
+groins of which was a rose beautifully carved in some dark stone or in
+marble. The alarm he had hitherto felt was nothing as compared with the
+fear which overwhelmed him when, after passing a Gothic stone portal,
+light suddenly streamed out over him with a brightness equal to that of
+the setting sun, and revealed to him the figure of a man whose face was
+hidden as he sat in a studious attitude in a stone chair, reading in a
+great book, with his elbows resting on a table like a rectangular altar,
+in the light of a large, ancient iron lamp, suspended by a thick chain to
+the middle of the roof. The adventurous countryman was unable to repress
+the cry that rose to his lips as he gazed upon this strange and unexpected
+scene. As the sound of his foot touching the floor resounded through the
+chamber, the figure started bolt upright from his seated position, as if
+in awful astonishment. He erected his hooded head, and seemed about
+angrily to question the intruder. The latter seemed perfectly fascinated
+by what he saw, and instead of withdrawing advanced yet another step into
+the chamber. Instantly the figure thrust out its arm, as though warning
+the intruder off; the hand contained an iron _baton_ and it was raised in
+the most threatening attitude, but the unhappy explorer, seemingly unable
+to control himself, took a third step forward, and then the image or man
+raised his arm high above his head, and with his truncheon striking the
+lamp a tremendous blow left the place in utter darkness. Nothing more
+followed but a long, low roll of thunder, which gradually died away and
+all was still.
+
+The place was afterwards known as the burial place of one of the
+brotherhood, whom the people called Rosicrucius, and it is said the
+arrangement of the lamp had been made by some Rosicrucian, to shew that he
+had discovered the secret of the ever burning lamps of the ancients, but
+was resolved that no one should reap the benefit of it.
+
+_The Spectator, No. 379_, gives the following:--"A certain person having
+occasion to dig somewhat deep in the ground, where this philosopher
+(Rosicrucius) lay interred, met with a small door, having a wall on each
+side of it. His curiosity, and the hopes of finding some hidden treasure,
+soon prompted him to force open the door. He was immediately surprised by
+a sudden blaze of light, and discovered a very fair vault. At the upper
+end of it was a statue of a man in armour, sitting by a table, and leaning
+on his left arm. He held a truncheon in his right hand, and had a lamp
+burning before him. The man had no sooner set one foot within the vault,
+than the statue erecting itself from its leaning posture, stood bolt
+upright; and upon the fellow's advancing another step, lifted up his
+truncheon in its right hand. The man still ventured a third step, when the
+statue, with a furious blow, broke the lamp into a thousand pieces, and
+left his guest in a sudden darkness. Upon the report of this adventure,
+the country people came with lights to the sepulchre, and discovered that
+the statue, which was made of brass, was nothing more than a piece of
+clockwork; that the floor of the vault was all loose, and underlaid with
+several springs, which, upon any man's entering, naturally produced that
+which had happened. Rosicrucius, say his disciples, made use of this
+method to show the world that he had re-invented the ever burning lamps of
+the ancients, though he was resolved no one should reap any advantage from
+the discovery."
+
+Respecting the above story given as we have said in the Spectator, No.
+379, a writer in Notes and Queries (6th S. 7th vol) says: "This is a very
+old tale, and has been printed again and again. The following is an early
+version, which was printed by Caxton in 1482; but I give from the edition
+printed by Peter de Treveris in 1527. The Polycronicon was originally
+written in Latin early in the fourteenth century, and translated into
+English in 1357. As the book is chiefly a compilation from old monkish
+chronicles, the tale was probably very old even when Higden included it in
+the Polycronicon. At any rate it was current long before the date given as
+the year of death of the somewhat mythical Christian Rosencrutz. I have
+met with several versions of it, varying more or less. In one a man with a
+bow and arrow extinguishes the lamp. There are many accounts of these
+miraculous lamps discovered burning in tombs hundreds of years after
+interment, but having omitted to make notes of them, I am unable to give
+references just now.... In Albesterio a place that hyghte Mutatorium
+Cesaris were made whyte stoles for Emperours. Also there was a
+candlestyke, made of a stone that hyght Albestone whan it was ones steynd
+and sette a fire and I sette without thee coude no manne quenche it with
+no crafte that men coude devyse, DR. In this maner it myght be that the
+Geant Pallas about the yere of oure Lorde a thousand and xi. That yere was
+founde in Rome a Geantes body buryed hole and sounde, the space of his
+wounde was foure foote longe and a halfe, the length of his body passed
+the heyght of the walles, at his hede was founde a lantern brennyng alwaye
+that no man coulde quenche with blaste ne with water ne with other crafte,
+unto the tyme that there was made a lytell hole under the lyght benethe
+that the ayer might enter. Men sayen that Turnus slowgh this Gean Pallas
+when Eneas fought for Lanina that was Eneas wyfe. This Geantes Epytaphium
+is this. The wrytyug of mynde of hym that lay there was this. Pallas
+Enandres sone lyeth here, hym Turnus the knyght with his spere slowghe in
+his maner."
+
+One other notice will close this part of the subject.
+
+Although we find in the works of some of the Apologists for the
+Rosicrucians extraordinary statements as to the length of life it was
+within their power to attain unto (John Higden professes to shew how a man
+may live two hundred years) and although some of the fraternity actually
+did live a great number of years, we find them at last dying one by one
+notwithstanding their professed power to guard against or to relieve
+sickness. The founder himself seems to have reached the tolerably advanced
+age of a hundred and six (some say a hundred). He then died, and according
+to the _Fama_ the place of his burial remained a secret to all except the
+two brothers who were with him, and they, according to the agreement to
+which they had bound themselves, carried the mystery with them to the
+grave. The society still continued to exist, unknown to the world, and
+always consisting of eight members, till another one hundred and twenty
+years had elapsed, when, according to a tradition among them the grave of
+Rosenkrutz was to be discovered, and the brotherhood to be no longer a
+mystery to the world. It was about this time that the brothers began to
+make some alterations in their building, and thought of removing to
+another and more fitting situation the memorial tablet, on which were
+inscribed the names of the associates. The plate which was of brass, was
+fixed to the wall by means of a nail in its centre, and so firmly did it
+hold, that in tearing it away a portion of the plaster came off too and
+discovered to them a concealed door. Upon this door being yet farther
+cleansed from the incrustation, there appeared above in large letters
+
+  Post CXX Annos Patebo.
+
+Great was their delight at so unlooked-for a discovery; but still they so
+far restrained their curiosity as not to open the door till the next
+morning, when they found themselves in a seven sided vault, each side five
+feet wide, and eight feet high. It was lighted by an artificial sun in the
+centre of the arched roof, while in the middle of the floor, instead of a
+tomb, stood a round altar covered with a small brass plate on which was
+this inscription:
+
+  A. C. R. C. Hoc, universi compendium, vivus mihi
+  sepulchrum feci.
+
+About the outer edge was, Jesus mihi omnia.
+
+In the centre were four figures; each enclosed in a circle, with these
+circumscriptions:
+
+  1. Nequaquam Vacuus.
+  2. Legis Jugum.
+  3. Libertas Evangelii.
+  4. Dei gloria intacta.
+
+Thereupon they all knelt down and returned thanks to heaven for having
+made them so much wiser than the rest of the world, a native trait that
+adds not a little to the verisimilitude of the story. Then they divided
+the vault into three parts--the roof, or heaven--the wall, or the
+sides--and the ground, or pavement. The first and last were according to
+the seven sides divided into triangles, while every side was divided into
+ten squares with figures and sentences, to be explained to the newly
+initiated. Each of these again, had a door opening upon a closet, wherein
+were stored up sundry rare articles, such as secret books of the order,
+the vocabulary of Paracelsus, and other things of the same nature, which
+it was allowable to impart even to the profane. In one, they discovered
+the life and itinerary of their founder; in another they lighted upon
+mirrors possessed of different qualities, a little bell, burning lamps,
+and a variety of curious matters, intended to help in rebuilding the
+order, which after the lapse of many centuries was to fall into decay.
+Curiosity to see their founder induced them to push aside the altar, when
+they came upon a strong brass plate, and this too being removed,
+
+  "Before their eyes the wizard lay
+  As if he had not been dead a day."
+
+Moreover, like the celebrated character described in these lines, he had a
+volume under his arm, which proved to be of vellum with letters of gold,
+and at the end of it, in two separate circles, were the names of eight
+brethren who had assisted at their founder's interment. Next to the Bible,
+the Rosicrucians valued this book beyond any portion of their inheritance,
+yet it is not said whether they took away any of these rarities, or left
+the dead man in quiet possession of his treasures.[4]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_The Fame and Confession of the Fraternity._
+
+
+We shall now call the attention of our readers to the third of the books
+we spoke of as published simultaneously about the year 1610, "the
+substance of which," says De Quincey, "it is important to examine, because
+they in a very strange way, led to the foundation of the Rosicrucian order
+as a distinct body." The third book is the _Confessio Fraternitatis_,
+which we present almost in its entirety.
+
+_The Fame and Confession of the Fraternity of R:C:Community, of the Rosie
+Cross._
+
+THE EPISTLE TO THE READER:--To the Wise and Understanding Reader.
+
+Wisdom (saith Solomon) is to a man an infinite Treasure for she is the
+Breath of the Power of God, and a pure Influence that floweth from the
+Glory of the Almighty; she is the Brightness of Eternal Light, and an
+undefiled Mirror of the Majesty of God, and an Image of his Goodness; she
+teacheth us Soberness and Prudence, Righteousness and Strength; she
+understands the Subtilty of words, and Solution of dark sentences; she
+foreknoweth Signs and Wonders, and what shall happen in time to come; with
+this Treasure was our first Father Adam fully endued: Hence it doth
+appear, that after God had brought before him all the Creatures of the
+Field, and the Fowls under Heaven, he gave to every one of them their
+proper names, according to their nature.
+
+Although now through the sorrowful fall into sin this excellent Jewel
+Wisdom hath been lost, and meer Darkness and Ignorance is come into the
+World, yet, notwithstanding, hath the Lord God sometimes hitherto
+bestowed, and made manifest the same, to some of his Friends: for the wise
+King Solomon doth testifie of himself, that he upon earnest prayer and
+desire did get and obtain such Wisdom of God, that thereby he knew how the
+world was created, thereby he understood the Nature of the Elements, also
+the time, beginning, middle, and end, the increase and decrease, the
+change of times through the whole year, and Ordinance of the Stars; he
+understood also the properties of tame and wilde Beasts, the cause of the
+raiging of the Winds, and minds and intents of men, all sorts and natures
+of Plants, vertues of Roots and others, was not unknown to him. Now I do
+not think that there can be found any one who would not wish and desire
+with all his heart to be Partaker of this noble Treasure; but seeing the
+same felicity can happen to none, except God himself give Wisdom and send
+his Holy Spirit from above, we have therefore set forth in print this
+little Treatise, to wit, Famam and Confessionem, of the Laudable
+Fraternity of the Rosie Cross, to be read by every one, because in them is
+clearly shewn and discovered, what concerning it the World hath to expect.
+
+Although these things may seem somewhat strange, and many may esteem is to
+be but a Philosophical shew, and no true History, which is published and
+spoken of the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross; it shall here sufficiently
+appear by our Confession that there is more _in necessu_ than may be
+imagined; and it shall be easily understood, and observed by every one (if
+he be not altogether voyd of understanding) what now-adays, and at these
+times is meant thereby.
+
+Those who are true Disciples of Wisdom, and true Followers of the
+Spherical Art, will consider better of these things, and have them in
+greater estimation, as also judge far otherwise of them, as hath been done
+by some principal Persons but especially of Adam Haselmeyer, Notarius
+Publicus to the Arch Duke Maximilian, who likewise hath made an Extract
+ex scriptis Theologicis Theophrasti, and written a Treatise under the
+Title of Jesuiter, wherein he willeth, that every Christian should be a
+true Jesuit, that is, to walk, live, be, and remain in Jesus. He was but
+ill rewarded of the Jesuits, because in his Answer written upon the
+_Famam_, he did name those of the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross, the
+highly illuminated men, and undeceiving Jesuits; for they not able to
+brook this, layd hands on him, and put him into the Calleis, for which
+they likewise have to expect their reward.
+
+Blessed Aurora will now henceforth begin to appear, who (after the passing
+away of the dark Night of Saturn) with her Brightness altogether
+extinguisheth the shining of the Moon, or the small Sparks of Heavenly
+Wisdom, which yet remaineth with men, and is a Forerunner of pleasant
+Phebus, who with his clear and fiery glistering Beams brings forth that
+Blessed Day long wished for, of many true hearted; by which Daylight then
+shall truly be known, and shall be seen all heavenly Treasures of godly
+Wisdom, as also the Secrets of all hidden and invisible things in the
+World according to the Doctrine of our Forefathers and ancient Wisemen.
+
+This will be the right kingly Ruby, and most excellent shining Carbuncle,
+of the which it is said, That he doth shine and give light in darkness,
+and to be a perfect Medicine of all imperfect Bodies, and to change them
+into the best Gold, and to cure all Diseases of Men, easing them of all
+pains and miseries.
+
+Be, therefore, gentle Reader, admonished, that with me you do earnestly
+pray to God, that it please him to open the hearts and ears of all ill
+hearing people, and to grant unto them his blessing, that they may be able
+to know him in his Omnipotency, with admiring contemplation of Nature, to
+his honour and praise, and to the love, help, comfort and strengthening of
+our Neighbours, and to the restoring of the diseased.
+
+  Fama Fraternitatis,
+  Or, A Discovery of the Fraternity of the most laudable
+  Order of the Rosy Cross.
+
+Seeing the only Wise and Merciful God in these latter days hath poured out
+so richly his mercy and goodness to Mankind, whereby we do attain more and
+more to the perfect knowledge of his Son Jesus Christ and Nature, that
+justly we may boast of the happy time, wherein there is not only
+discovered unto us the half part of the World, which was heretofore
+unknown and hidden, but he hath also made manifest unto us many wonderful
+and never-heretofore seen Works and Creatures of Nature, and moreover hath
+raised men imbued with great Wisdom, which might partly renew and reduce
+all Arts (in this our Age spotted and imperfect) to perfection; so that
+finally Man might thereby understand his own nobleness and worth, and why
+he is called Microcosmus, and how far his knowledge extendeth in Nature.
+
+Although the rude World herewith will be but little pleased, but rather
+smile and scoff thereat; also the Pride and Covetousness of the Learned is
+so great it will not suffer them to agree together; but were they united,
+they might out of all those things which in this our Age God doth so
+richly bestow upon us, collect _Librum Naturĉ_, or a perfect method of all
+Arts; but such is their opposition, that they still keep and are loth to
+leave the old course, esteeming Porphiry, Aristotle, and Galen, yea and
+that which hath a meer show of learning, more than the clear and
+manifested Light and Truth, who if they were now living, with much joy
+would leave their erroneous Doctrines. But here is too great weakness for
+such a great Work, and although in Theologie, Physic, and the Mathematic,
+the Truth doth oppose itself, nevertheless the old enemy by his subtilty
+and craft doth shew himself in hindering every good purpose by his
+Instruments and contentious wavering people. To such an intent of a
+general Reformation, the most godly and highly illuminated Father, our
+Brother, C. R., a German, the chief and original of our Fraternity, hath
+much and long time laboured, who by reason of his poverty (although
+descended of Noble Parents) in the fifth year of his age, was placed in a
+Cloyster, where he had learned indifferently the Greek and Latin Tongues,
+who (upon his earnest desire and request), being yet in his growing years,
+was associated to a Brother P. A. L., who had determined to go to the Holy
+Land.
+
+Although this Brother dyed in Cyprus, and so never came to Jerusalem, yet
+our Brother C. R. did not return, but shipped himself over, and went to
+Damasco, minding from thence to go to Jerusalem; but by reason of the
+feebleness of his body, he remained still there, and by his skill in
+Physick he obtained much favour with the Turks. In the mean time he became
+by chance acquainted with the Wise Men of Damasco in Arabia, and beheld
+what great wonders they wrought, and how Nature was discovered unto them;
+hereby was that high and noble Spirit of Brother C. R. so stirred up that
+Jerusalem was not so much now in his mind as Damasco; also he could not
+bridle his desires any longer, but made a bargain with the Arabians that
+they should carry him for a certain sum of money to Damasco.
+
+As we have on another page stated all these particulars on the authority
+of the epistle dedicatory to the Axiomata we need simply allude to them as
+recorded in the work from which we are now quoting. The account proceeds
+pretty much as stated in the Axiomata by John Heydon, then after stating
+that the Fraternity began with an association of four persons only, the
+Fama says that finding their labour too heavy they concluded to draw and
+receive yet others more into their Fraternity. To this end was chosen
+brother R. C. his deceased father's brother's son, brother B. a skilful
+Painter, G. and P. D. their Secretary, all Germans except J. A., so in all
+they were eight in number, all bachelors and of sound virginity; by those
+was collected a book or volumn of all that which man can desire, wish, or
+hope for.
+
+Although we do now freely confess that the World is much amended within an
+hundred years, yet we are assured that our Axiomata shall unmovably remain
+unto the World's End, and also the world in her highest and last Age shall
+not attain to see anything else; for our Rota takes her beginning from
+that day when God spake Fiat, and shall end when he shall speak Pereat;
+yet God's Clock striketh every minute, where ours scarce striketh perfect
+hours. We also stedfastly beleeve, that if our Brethren and Fathers had
+lived in this our present and clear light, they would more roughly have
+handled the Pope, Mahomet, Scribes, Artists, and Sophisters, and had
+shewed themselves more helpful, not simply with sighs, and wishing of
+their end and consummation.
+
+When now these eight brethen had disposed and ordered all things in such
+manner, as there was not now need of any great labour, and also that every
+one was sufficiently instructed, and able perfectly to discourse of secret
+and manifest Philosophy, they would not remain any longer together, but as
+in the beginning they had agreed, they separated themselves into several
+countries, because that not only their Axiomata might in secret be more
+profoundly examined by the learned, but that they themselves, if in some
+country or other they observed any thing or perceived some error, they
+might inform one another of it.
+
+Their Agreement was this:--1, That none of them should profess any other
+thing than to cure the sick, and that gratis. 2, None of the Posterity
+should be constrained to wear one certain kind of habit, but therein to
+follow the custom of the Country. 3, That every year upon the day C. they
+should meet together at the house S. Spiritus, or write the cause of his
+absence. 4, Every Brother should look about for a worthy person, who after
+his decease might succeed him. 5, The word C. R. should be their seal,
+mark, and character. 6, The Fraternity should remain secret one hundred
+years. These six articles they bound themselves one another to keep; and
+five of the Brethren departed, only the Brethren B. and D. remained with
+the Father Fra. R. C. a whole year; when these likewise departed, then
+remained by him his Cousin and Brother J. O., so that he hath all the days
+of his life with him two of his Brethren. And although that as yet the
+Church was not cleansed, nevertheless we know that they did think of her,
+and what with longing desire they looked for. Every year they assembled
+together with joy, and made a full resolution of that which they had done;
+there must certainly have been great pleasure to hear truly and without
+invention related and rehearsed all the Wonders which God hath poured out
+here and there through the World. Every one may hold it out for certain,
+that such persons as were sent, and joyned together by God and the
+Heavens, and chosen out of the wisest of men as have lived in many Ages,
+did live together above all others in highest Unity, greatest Secrecy, and
+most kindness one towards another.
+
+After such a most laudable sort they did spend their lives; and although
+they were free from all disease and pain, yet notwithstanding they could
+not live and pass their time appointed of God. The first of this
+Fraternity which dyed, and that in England, was J. O., as Brother C. long
+before had foretold him; he was very expert, and well learned in Cabala,
+as his book called H. witnesseth. In England he is much spoken of, and
+chiefly because he cured a young Earl of Norfolk of the Leprosie. They had
+concluded, that as much as possibly could be their burial place should be
+kept secret, as at this day it is not known unto us what is become of some
+of them, yet every one's place was supplyed with a fit successor; but this
+we will confess publickly by these presents to the honour of God, that
+what secret soever we have learned out of the book M. (although before our
+eyes we behold the image and pattern of all the world) yet are there not
+shewn unto us our misfortunes, nor hour of death, the which only is known
+to God himself, who thereby would have us keep in a continual readiness;
+but hereof more in our Confession, where we do set down 37 Reasons whereby
+we now do make known our Fraternity, and proffer such high Mysteries
+freely, and without constraint and reward: also we do promise more gold
+than both the Indies bring to the King of Spain; for Europe is with child,
+and will bring forth a strong child, who shall stand in need of a great
+godfather's gift.
+
+After the death of I. O. Brother R. C. rested not, but as soon as he
+could, called the rest together (and as we suppose) then his grave was
+made although hitherto we (who were the latest) did not know when our
+loving father R. C. died, and had no more but the bare names of the
+beginners, and all their successors to us; yet there came into our memory
+a secret which through dark and hidden words, and speeches of the 100
+years, brother A. the successor of D. (who was one of the last and second
+row and succession, and had lived amongst many of us) did impart unto us
+of the third row and succession; otherwise we must confess, that after the
+death of the said A. none of us had in any manner known anything of
+Brother R. C., and of his first fellow brethren, than that which was
+extant of them in our Philosophical Bibliotheca, amongst which our
+Axiomata was held for the chiefest Rota Mundi, for the most artificial,
+and Protheus the most profitable. Likewise we do not certainly know if
+these of the second row have been of the like wisdom as the first, and if
+they were admitted to all things. It shall be declared hereafter to the
+gentle Reader not only what we have heard of the burial of the R. C., but
+also made manifest publickly by the foresight, sufferance and commandment
+of God, whom we most faithfully obey, that if we shall be answered
+discreetly and Christian like, we will not be afraid to set forth
+publickly in Print, our names and surnames, our meetings, or anything else
+that may be required at our hands.
+
+Now the true and fundamental relation of the finding out of the high
+illuminated man of God, Fra: C. R. is this; after that A. in Gallia
+Narbonensi was deceased, then succeeded in his place our loving Brother N.
+N. This man after he had repaired unto us to take the solemn oath of
+fidelity and secrecy, he informed us _bona fide_, that A. had comforted
+him in telling him, that this Fraternity should ere long not remain so
+hidden, but should be to all the whole German Nation, helpful, needful,
+and commendable; of the which he was not in any wise in his estate ashamed
+of. The year following after he had performed his school right, and was
+minded now to travel, being for that purpose sufficiently provided with
+Fortunatus purse, he thought (he being a good Architect) to alter
+something of his building, and to make it more fit; in such renewing he
+lighted upon the memorial Table which was cast of brasse, and containeth
+all the names of the brethren, with some few other things. This he would
+transfer in another more fitting vault, for where or when Fra: R. C. died,
+or in what country he was buried, was by our predecessors concealed and
+unknown to us. In this table stuck a great naile, somewhat strong, so that
+when he was with force drawn out, he took with him an indifferent big
+stone out of the thin wall, or plastering of the hidden door, and so
+unlooked for uncovered the door; wherefore we did with joy and longing
+throw down the rest of the wall, and cleared the door upon which that was
+written in great letters, Post 120 annos patebo, with the year of the Lord
+under it: therefore we gave God thanks and let it rest that same night,
+because first we would overlook our Rotam; but we refer ourselves again to
+the confession, for what we here publish is done for the help of those
+that are worthy, but to the unworthy (God willing) it will be of small
+profit, for like as our door was after so many years wonderfully
+discovered, also there shall be opened a door to Europe (when the wall is
+removed) which already doth begin to appear, and with great desire is
+expected of many.
+
+In the morning following we opened the door, and there appeared to our
+sight a Vault of seven sides and corners, every side five foot broad, and
+the height of eight foot. Although the Sun never shined in this Vault,
+nevertheless it was enlightened with another Sun, which had learned this
+from the Sun, and was situated in the upper part in the centre of the
+ceiling; in the midst, instead of a Tombstone, was a round Altar covered
+over with a plate of brass.
+
+Round about the first Circle or Brim stood Jesus mihi omnia. We kneeled
+all together down, and gave thanks to the sole wise, sole mighty, and sole
+eternal God, who hath taught us more than all men's wit could have found
+out, praised be his holy name. This Vault we parted in three parts, the
+upper part a ceiling, the wall a side, the ground a floor.
+
+Of the upper part you shall understand no more of it at this time, but
+that it was divided according to the seven sides in the triangle, which
+was in the bright centre; but what therein is contained, you shall, God
+willing (that are desirous of our society) behold the same with your own
+eyes; but every side or wall is parted into ten squares, every one with
+their several figures and sentences, as they are truly shewed, and set
+forth Concentratum here in our book.
+
+The bottom again is parted in the triangle but because therein is
+described the power and rule of the inferior Governors, we leave to
+manifest the same, for fear of the abuse by the evil and ungodly world.
+But those that are provided and stored with the heavenly Antidote, they do
+without fear or hurt, tread on, and bruise the head of the old and evil
+serpent, which this our age is well fitted for. Every side or wall had a
+door for a chest, wherein there lay divers things, especially all our
+books, which otherwise we had, besides the Vocabular of Theoph. Par. Ho.,
+and these which daily unfalsifieth we do participate. Herein also we found
+his Itinerarium, and Vitam, whence this relation for the most part is
+taken. In another chest were looking-glasses of divers virtues, as also in
+other places were little bells, burning lamps, and chiefly wonderful
+artificial Songs; generally all done to that end, that if it should happen
+after many hundred years, the Order or Fraternity should come to nothing,
+they might by this vault be restored again.
+
+Now as yet we had not seen the dead body of our careful and wise father,
+we therefore removed the Altar aside, there we lifted up a strong plate of
+brass, and found a fair and worthy body, whole and unconsumed.
+
+Concerning Minutum Mundum, we found it kept in another little Altar, truly
+more finer than can be imagined by any understanding man; but we will
+leave him undescribed until we shall truly be answered upon this our true
+hearted Famam; and so we have covered it again with the plates, and set
+the Altar thereon, shut the door, and made it sure, with all our seals;
+besides by instruction and command of our Rota, there are come to sight
+some books, among which is contained M. (which were made instead of
+household care by the praiseworthy M. P.). Finally we departed the one
+from the other, and left the natural heirs in possession of our Jewels.
+And so we do expect the answer and judgment of the learned, or unlearned.
+
+Howbeit we know after a time there will now be a general reformation, both
+of divine and human things, according to our desire, and the expectation
+of others; for it's fitting, that before the rising of the Sun, there
+should appear and break forth Aurora, or some clearness, or divine light
+in the sky; and so in the meantime some few, which shall give their names,
+may join together, thereby to increase the number and respect of our
+Fraternity, and make a happy and wished for beginning of our
+Philosophical Canons, prescribed to us by our brother R. C., and be
+partakers with us of our treasures (which never can fail or be wasted) in
+all humility, and love to be eased of this world's labour, and not walk so
+blindly in the knowledge of the wonderful works of God.
+
+But that also every Christian may know of what religion and belief we are,
+we confess to have the knowledge of Jesus Christ (as the same now in these
+last days, and chiefly in Germany, most clear and pure is professed, and
+is nowadays cleansed and voyd of all swerving people, Hereticks and false
+Prophets), in certain and noted Countries maintained, defended and
+propagated; also we use two Sacraments, as they are instituted with all
+Formes and Ceremonies of the first renewed Church. In Politia we
+acknowledge the Roman Empire and Quartam Monarchiam for our Christian
+head; albeit we know what alterations be at hand, and would fain impart
+the same with all our hearts, to other Godly learned men; notwithstanding
+our handwriting which is in our hands, no man (except God alone) can make
+it common, nor any unworthy person is able to bereave us of it. But we
+shall help with secret aid this so good a cause as God shall permit or
+hinder us, for our God is not blind as the Heathen's Fortuna, but is the
+Church's ornament and the honour of the Temple. Our Philosophy also is not
+a new Invention, but as Adam after his fall hath received it, and as Moses
+and Solomon used it; also she ought not much to be doubted of, or
+contradicted by other opinions, or meanings; but seeing the truth is
+peaceable, brief, and always like herself in all things, and especially
+accorded by with _Jesus in omni parte_ and all members. And as he is the
+true Image of the Father, so is she his Image; it shall not be said, this
+is true according to Philosophy, but true according to Theologie: and
+wherein Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras and others did hit the mark, and
+wherein Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Solomon did excel; but especially wherewith
+that wonderful book the Bible agreeeth. All that same concurreth
+together, and make a Space or Globe whose total parts are equidistant from
+the centre, and hereof more at large and more plain shall be spoken of in
+Christianly Conference.
+
+But now concerning (and chiefly in this our age) the ungodly and accursed
+Gold-making, which hath gotten so much the upper hand, whereby under
+colour of it, many runagates and roguish people do use great villanies,
+and cozen and abuse the credit which is given them; yea nowadays men of
+discretion do hold the transmutation of Mettals to be the highest point,
+and _fastigium_ in Philosophy, this is all their intent and desire, and
+that God would be most esteemed by them, and honoured, which could make
+great store of Gold, and in abundance, the which with unpremeditated
+prayers, they hope to attain of the all knowing God, and searcher of all
+hearts; we therefore do by these presents publickly testify, that the true
+Philosophers are far of another minde, esteeming little the making of
+Gold, which is but a parergon; for besides that they have a thousand
+better things.
+
+And we say with our loving father _R. C. C. Phy: aurum nisi quantum
+aurum_, for unto them the whole nature is detected; he doth not rejoyce,
+that he can make Gold, and that, as Christ saith, the devils are obedient
+unto him; but is glad that he seeth the Heavens open, and the Angels of
+God ascending and descending, and his name written in the book of life.
+Also we do testifie that under the name of 'Chymia' many books and
+pictures are set forth in Contumeliam gloriĉ Dei, as we will name them in
+their due season, and will give to the pure-hearted a Catalogue or
+Register of them; and we pray all learned men to take heed of these kinde
+of Books, for the enemy never resteth, but soweth his weeds, till a
+strange one doth root it out. So according to the will and meaning of Fra.
+C. R. C., we his brethren request again all the learned in Europe who
+shall read (sent forth in five languages) this our _Famam and
+Confessionem_, that it would please them with good deliberation to ponder
+this our offer, and to examine most nearly and most sharply their Arts,
+and behold the present time with all diligence, and to declare their
+minde, either _Communicato consilio_, or _singulatum_ by print.
+
+And although at this time we make no mention either of our names or
+meetings, yet nevertheless every one's opinion shall assuredly come to our
+hands, in what language soever it be; nor anybody shall fail who so gives
+his name to speak with some of us either by word of mouth, or else if
+there be some lett in writing. And this we say for a truth, that whosoever
+shall earnestly, and from his heart, bear affection with us, it shall be
+beneficial unto him in goods, body and soul; but he that is false-hearted,
+or only greedy of riches, the same first of all shall not be able in any
+manner of wise to hurt us, but bring himself to utter ruine and
+destruction. Also our building (although one hundred thousand people had
+seen and beheld the same) shall for ever remain untouched, undestroyed,
+and hidden to the wicked world, sub umbra alarum tuarum Jehova.
+
+
+A Preface of the Confession to the Reader who is desirous of Wisdom.
+
+Here, Gentle Reader, you shall finde incorporated in our Confession thirty
+seven Reasons of our purpose, and intention, the which according to thy
+pleasure thou mayst seek out and compare them together: thou mayst also
+consider with thyself, if they be weighty and sufficient enough to bring
+and persuade thee for to take our parts.
+
+Verily it requires no small pains to confirm that which men have not yet
+seen, but when it shall once come to light we doubt not, but they will
+then justly be ashamed of such doubts and conjectures. And as we do now
+altogether, securely, freely, and without any hurt call the Pope of Rome
+Antichrist, the which heretofore was held for a deadly sin, and such in
+all countries were put to death for it. So we know certainly, that the
+time shall likewise come, that that which we yet keep in secret, we shall
+openly, freely, and with a loud voice publish and confess it before all
+the world; the which Gentle Reader wish with us with all thy heart, that
+it may happen with speed.
+
+
+Confessio Fraternitatis,
+
+Or, The Confession of the laudable Fraternity of the most honourable Order
+of the Rosie Cross, written to the learned of Europe.
+
+Whatsoever there is published, and made known to every one, concerning our
+Fraternity by the foresaid Fama, let no man esteem lightly of it, nor hold
+it as an idle or invented thing, and much less receive the same, as though
+it were only a meer conceit of ours. It is the Lord Jehovah (who seeing
+the Lord's sabbath is almost at hand, and hastened again, his period or
+course being finished to his first beginning) doth turn about the course
+of Nature; and what heretofore hath been sought with great pains and dayly
+labour, is now manifested unto those who make small account, or scarcely
+once think upon it; but those which desire it, it is in a manner forced
+and thrust upon them, that thereby the life of the godly may be eased of
+all their toyl and labour, and be no more subject to the storms of
+unconstant Fortune; but the wickedness of the ungodly thereby, with their
+due and deserved punishment, be augmented and multiplied.
+
+Although we cannot be by any suspected of the least Heresie, or of any
+wicked beginning, or purpose against the worldly government; we do condemn
+the East and West (meaning the Pope and Mahomet) blasphemers against our
+Lord Jesus Christ, and offer and present with a good will to the chief
+head of the Romish Empire, our prayers, secrets, and great treasures of
+Gold.
+
+Yet we have thought good and fit for the learned sakes, to add somewhat
+more to this, and make a better explanation, if there be any thing too
+deep, hidden, and set down over dark in the Fama, or for certain reasons
+were altogether omitted, and left out; hoping herewith the Learned will be
+more addicted unto us, and be made far more fitter and willing for our
+purpose.
+
+Concerning the alteration and amendment of Philosophy, we have (as much as
+at present is needful) sufficiently declared, to wit, that the same is
+altogether weak and faulty; yet we doubt not, although the most part
+falsely do alledge that she (I know not how) is sound and strong, yet
+notwithstanding she fetches her last breath and is departing.
+
+But as commonly, even in the same place or Country where there breaketh
+forth a new unaccustomed disease, Nature also there discovereth a medicine
+against the same; so there doth appear for so manifold infirmities of
+Philosophy, the right means, and unto our Patria sufficiently offered,
+whereby she may become sound again, which is now to be renewed and
+altogether new.
+
+No other Philosophy we have, than that which is the head and sum, the
+foundation and contents of all faculties, sciences and arts, the which (if
+we will behold our age) containeth much of Theology and medicine, but
+little of the wisdom of Lawyers, and doth diligently search both heaven
+and earth: or to speak briefly thereof, which doth manifest and declare
+sufficiently Man; whereof than all learned who will make themselves known
+unto us, and come into our brotherhood, shall finde more wonderful secrets
+by us, than heretofore they did attain unto, and did know, or are able to
+believe or utter.
+
+Wherefore to declare briefly our meaning hereof, we ought to labour
+carefully that there be not only a wondering at our meeting and
+adhortation, but that likewise every one may know, that although we do
+highly esteem and regard such mysteries and secrets, we nevertheless hold
+it fit, that the knowledge thereof be manifested and revealed to many.
+
+For it is to be taught and believed, that this our unhoped willing offer
+will raise many and divers thoughts in men unto whom (as yet) be unknown
+Miranda sextĉ ĉtatis, or those which by reason of course of the world,
+esteem the things to come like unto the present, and are hindered through
+all manner of importunities of this their time, so that they live no
+otherwise in the world, than blinde fools, who can, in the clear Sun-shine
+days, discern and know nothing than only by feeling.
+
+Now concerning the first part, we hold this, that the Meditations,
+knowledge and inventions of our loving Christian Father (of all that,
+which from the beginning of the world, Man's Wisdom, either through God's
+revelation, or through the service of the Angels and spirits, or through
+the sharpness and deepness of understanding, or through long observation,
+use and experience, hath found out, invented, brought forth, corrected,
+and till now hath been propagated and transplanted) are so excellent,
+worthy and great, that if all books should perish, and by God Almighty's
+sufrance, all writings, and all learning should be lost, yet the posterity
+will be able only thereby to lay a new foundation, and bring truth to
+light again; the which perhaps would not be so hard to do as if one should
+begin to pull down and destroy the old ruinous building, and begin to
+enlarge the fore Court, afterwards bring the lights in the Lodgings, and
+then change the doors, staples and other things according to our
+intention.
+
+But to whom would this not be acceptable, for to be manifested to every
+one rather than to have it kept and spared, as an especial ornament for
+the appointed time to come.
+
+Wherefore should we not with all our hearts rest and remain in the only
+truth (which men through so many erroneous and crooked ways do seek) if it
+had only pleased God to lighten unto us the sixth Candelabrum, were it
+not good that we needed not to care, not to fear hunger, poverty, sickness
+and age.
+
+Were it not a precious thing that you could always live so, as if you had
+lived from the beginning of the world, and moreover as you should still
+live to the end therof. Were it not excellent, you dwell in one place,
+that neither the people which dwell beyond the River Ganges in the Indies
+could hide anything, nor those which live in Peru might be able to keep
+secret their counsels from thee.
+
+Were it not a precious thing that you could so read in one only book, and
+withal by reading understand and remember all that, which in all other
+books (which heretofore have been, and are now and hereafter shall come
+out) hath been, is, and shall be learned, and found out of them.
+
+How pleasant were it that you could so sing, that instead of stony rocks
+you could draw to thee pearls and precious stones, instead of wilde
+beasts, spirits, and instead of hellish Pluto, move the mighty Princes of
+the world.
+
+O ye people, God's counsel is far otherwise, who hath concluded now to
+increase and enlarge the number of our Fraternity, the which we with such
+joy have undertaken as we have heretofore obtained this great treasure
+without our merits, yea without any our hopes and thoughts, and purpose
+with the like fidelity to put the same in practice, that neither the
+compassion nor pity of our own children (which some of us in the
+Fraternity have) shall draw us from it, because we know that these unhoped
+for goods cannot be inherited, nor by chance be obtained.
+
+If there be somebody now which on the other side will complain of our
+discretion, that we offer our Treasures so freely, and without any
+difference to all men, and do not rather regard and respect more the
+godly, learned, wise, or princely persons than the common people; those we
+do not contradict, seeing it is not a slight and easie matter; but without
+we signify so much, that our Arcana or Secrets will no ways be common,
+and generally made known. Although the Fama be set forth in five
+languages, and is manifested to every one, yet we do partly very well know
+that, the unlearned and gross wits will not receive nor regard the same;
+as also the worthiness of those who shall be accepted into our Fraternity
+are not esteemed and known of us by Man's carefulness, but by the Rule of
+our Revelation and Manifestation. Wherefore if the unworthy cry and call a
+thousand times, or if they offer and present themselves to us a thousand
+times, yet God hath commanded our ears, that they should hear none of
+them: yea, God hath so compassed us about with his Clouds, that unto us
+his servants, no violence or force can be done or committed; wherefore we
+neither can be seen or known by any body, except he had the eyes of an
+Eagle. It hath been necessary the Fama should be set forth in every ones
+Mother Tongue, because those should not be defrauded of the knowledge
+thereof, whom (although they be unlearned) God hath not excluded from the
+happiness of this Fraternity, the which shall be divided and parted with
+certain degrees; as those which dwell in the city Damcar in Arabia, who
+have a far different politick order from the other Arabians. For there
+they do govern only wise men, who by the King's permission make particular
+Laws; according unto which example, also the Government shall be
+instituted in Europe (whereof we have a description set down by our
+Christianly Father) when first is done and come to pass that which is to
+precede. And thenceforth our Trumpet shall publiquely sound with a loud
+sound, and great noise, when namely the same (which at this present is
+showed by few, and is secretly, as a thing to come, declared in Figures
+and Pictures) shall be free and publiquely proclaimed, and the whole world
+be filled withall. Even in such manner as heretofore, many godly people
+have secretly and altogether desperately pusht at the Pope's Tyranny,
+which afterwards, with great earnest, and especial zeal in Germany, was
+thrown from his seat and trodden under foot, whose final fall is delayed,
+and kept for our times, when he also shall be scratched in pieces with
+nails, and an end be made of his Asses cry, by a new voyce: the which we
+know is already reasurably manifest and known to many learned men in
+Germany, as their writings and secret congratulations do sufficiently
+witness the same.
+
+We could here relate and declare what all the time from the year of our
+Lord, 1378 (in which year our Christian Father was born) till now, hath
+happened, where we might rehearse what alterations he hath seen in the
+world these one hundred and six years of his life, which he hath left to
+our Brethren and us after his decease to peruse. But brevity, which we do
+observe, will not permit at this present to make rehearsal of it, till a
+more fit time; at this time it is enough for those which do not despise
+our declaration, having therefore briefly touched it, thereby to prepare
+the way for their acquaintance and friendship with us.
+
+Yea, to whom it is permitted, that he may, and for his instruction use
+those great Letters and Characters which the Lord God hath written and
+imprinted in Heaven and Earth's Edifice, through the alteration of
+Government, which hath been from time to time altered and renewed; the
+same is already (although as yet unknown to himself) ours: and as we know
+he will not despise our inviting and calling, so, none shall fear any
+deceit, for we promise and openly say, that no man's uprightness and hopes
+shall deceive him, whosoever shall make himself known unto us under the
+Seal of Secrecy, and desire our Fraternity.
+
+But to the false Hypocrites, and to those that seek other things than
+Wisdom, we say and witness by these presents publickly, we cannot be made
+known and be betrayed unto them, and much less they shall be able to hurt
+us any manner of way without the Will of God; but they shall certainly be
+partakers of all the punishment spoken of in our Fama; so their wicked
+counsels shall light upon themselves, and our Treasures shall remain
+untouched, until the Lion doth come, who will ask them for his use, and
+employ them for the Confirmation and Establishment of his kingdom. We
+ought therefore here to observe well, and make it known unto every one,
+that God hath certainly and most assuredly concluded to send and grant to
+the world before her end, which presently thereupon shall ensue, such a
+Truth, Light, Life, and Glory, as the first Adam had, which he lost in
+Paradise, after the which his successors were put, and driven with him to
+misery, wherefore there shall cease all servitude, falsehood, lyes, and
+darkness, which by little and little with the great World's Revolution,
+was crept into all Arts, Works and Governments of Men, and have darkened
+the most part of them. For from thence are proceeded an innumerable sort
+of all manner of false opinions and heresies, that scarce the wisest of
+all was able to know whose Doctrine and Opinion he should follow and
+embrace, and could not well and easily be discerned, seeing on the one
+part they were detained, hindered, and brought into Errors through the
+respect of the Philosophers and learned men, and on the other part through
+true experience. All the which when it shall once be abolished and
+removed, and instead thereof a right and true Rule instituted, then there
+will remain thanks unto them which have taken pains therein, but the Work
+itself shall be attributed to the Blessedness of our Age.
+
+As we now willingly confess, that many principal men by their Writings
+will be a great furtherance unto this Reformation which is to come; so we
+desire not to have this honour ascribed to us, as if such work were only
+commanded and imposed upon us; but we confess, and witness openly with the
+Lord Jesus Christ, that it shall first happen that the stones shall arise,
+and offer their service before there shall be any want of Executors and
+Accomplishers of God's Counsel: yea, the Lord God hath already sent before
+certain Messengers, which should testifie his Will, to wit, some new
+Stars, which do appear and are seen in the Firmament in Serpentario and
+Cygno, which signifie and give themselves known to every one that they are
+powerful Signacula of great mighty matters. So then, the secret hid
+Writings and Characters are most necessary for all such things which are
+found out by men, although that great Book of Nature stand open to all
+men, yet there are but few that can read and understand the same. For as
+there is given to man two instruments to hear, likewise two to see, and
+two to smell, but only one to speak, and it were but vain to expect speech
+from the ears, or hearing from the eyes: so there hath been Ages or Times
+which have seen, there have also been Ages that have heard, smelt and
+tasted: now there remains that which in short time, honour shall be
+likewise given to the Tongue, and by the same, what before times hath been
+seen, heard, and smelt, now finally shall be spoken, and uttered forth,
+viz., when the World shall awake out of her heavy and drowsie sleep, and
+with an open heart, bare-head and bare-foot, shall merrily and joyfully
+meet the now arising Sun.
+
+These Characters and Letters, as God hath here and there incorporated them
+in the holy Scripture and the Bible, so hath he imprinted them most
+apparently into the wonderful Creation of Heaven and Earth, yea, in all
+Beasts. So that like as the Mathematician or Astronomer can long before
+see and know the Eclipses which are to come, so we may verily foreknow and
+foresee the darkness of Obscurations of the Church, and how long they
+shall last, from the which characters or letters we have borrowed our
+Magick writing, and have found out, and made a new language for ourselves,
+in the which withall is expressed and declared the nature of all things,
+so that is no wonder that we are not so eloquent in other languages, the
+which we know that they are altogether disagreeing to the languages of our
+forefathers, Adam and Enoch, and were through the Babylonical Confusion
+wholly hidden.
+
+But we must also let you understand, that there are yet some Eagle's
+Feathers in our way, the which do hinder our purpose. Wherefore we do
+admonish every one for to read diligently and continually the holy Bible;
+for he that taketh all his pleasures therein, he shall know that he
+prepared for himself an excellent way to come into our Fraternity; for as
+this is the whole sum and content of our Rule, that every letter or
+character which is in the world ought to be learned and regarded well; so
+those are like unto us, and are very near allied unto us, who do make the
+holy Bible a Rule of their life, and an aim and end of all their studies;
+yea, to let it be a compendium and content of the whole world, and not
+only to have it continually in the mouth, but to know how to apply and
+direct the true understanding of it to all times and ages of the world.
+Also it is not our custom to prostitute and make so common the holy
+Scriptures, for there are innumerable expounders of the same, some
+alledging and wresting it to serve for their opinion, some to scandal it,
+and most wickedly do liken it to a Nose of Wax which alike should serve
+the Divines, Philosophers, Physicians and Mathematicians, against all the
+which we do openly witness and acknowledge, that from the beginning of the
+World there hath not been given unto men a more worthy, a more excellent,
+and a more admirable and wholesome Book than the holy Bible. Blessed is he
+that hath the same, yea, more blessed is he who reads it diligently, but
+most blessed of all is he that truly understandeth the same, for he is
+most like to God, and doth come most near to Him. But whatsoever hath been
+said in the Fama concerning the Deceivers against the transmutation of
+Metals, and the highest Medicine in the world, the same is thus to be
+understood, that this so great gift of God we do in no manner set at
+naught or despise it. But because she bringeth not with her always the
+knowledge of Nature, but this bringeth forth not only Medicine, but also
+maketh manifest and open unto us innumerable secrets and wonders;
+therefore it is requisite that we be earnest to attain to the
+understanding and knowledge of Philosophy. And moreover, excellent Wits
+ought not to be drawn to the Tincture of Metals, before they be exercised
+well in the knowledge of Nature. He must needs be an unsatiable Creature,
+who is come so far that neither poverty nor sickness can hurt him; yea,
+who is exalted above other men, and hath Rule over that, the which doth
+anguish, trouble and pain others, yet will give himself again to idle
+things, as to build houses, make wars, and use all manner of pride,
+because he hath of Gold and Silver infinite store.
+
+God is far otherwise pleased, for he exalteth the lowly, and putteth down
+the proud with disdain; to those which are of few words he sendeth his
+holy Angel to speak with them, but the unclean Babblers he driveth in the
+wilderness and solitary places; the which is the right Reward of the
+Romish Seducers, who have vomitted forth their blasphemies against Christ,
+and as yet do not abstain from their lies in this clear Shining Light: in
+Germany all their abominations and detestable Tricks have been disclosed,
+that thereby he may fully fulfil the measure of sin, and draw near to the
+end of his punishment. Therefore one day it will come to pass that the
+mouth of those Vipers will be stopped, and the three double horns will be
+brought to nought, as thereof at our Meeting shall more plain and at large
+be discoursed.
+
+In Conclusion of our Confession, we must earnestly admonish you, that you
+put away, if not all, yet the most books, written by false Alchemists, who
+do think it but a jest or a pastime, when they either misuse the holy
+Trinity, when they do apply it to vain things, or deceive the people with
+most strange figures and dark sentences and speeches, and cozen the
+simpliest of their money; as there are now-a-days too many such books set
+forth, which the enemy of Man's Welfare doth daily, and will to the end,
+mingle among the good seed, thereby to make the Truth more difficult to be
+believed, which in herself is simple, easie and naked; but certainly
+falsehood is proud, haughty, and coloured with a kind of lustre of seeming
+godly and of humane wisdom. Ye that are wise, eschew such books, and turn
+unto us, who seek not your moneys but offer unto you most willingly our
+great Treasures. We hunt not after your Goods with invented lying
+Tinctures, but desire to make you Partakers of our Goods: we speak unto
+you by Parables, but would willingly bring you to the right, simple,
+easie, and ingenuous Exposition, Understanding, Declaration and Knowledge,
+of all Secrets. We desire not to be received of you, but invite you unto
+our more than Kingly Houses and Palaces, and that verily not by our own
+proper motion, but (that you likewise may know it) as forced unto it, by
+the Instigation of the Spirit of God, by his Admonition, and by the
+Occasion of this present time.
+
+What think you, loving people, and how seem you affected, seeing that you
+now understand and know, that we acknowledge ourselves truly and sincerely
+to profess Christ, condemn the Pope, addict ourselves to the true
+Philosophy, lead a Christian life, and dayly call, intreat, and invite
+many more unto our Fraternity, unto whom the same Light of God likewise
+appeareth. Consider you not at length how you might begin with us, not
+only by pondering the Gifts which are in you, and by experience which you
+have in the Word of God beside the careful Consideration of the
+Imperfection of all Arts, and many other unfitting things, to seek for an
+amendment therein; to appease God, and to accommodate you for the time
+wherein you live. Certainly if you will perform the same, this profit will
+follow, that all the Goods which Nature hath in all parts of the World
+wonderfully dispersed, shall at one time altogether be given unto you, and
+shall easily disburden you of all that which obscureth the understanding
+of Man, and hindereth the working thereof, like unto the vain Epicides,
+and Excentrick Astronomical Circles.
+
+But those Pragmatical and busieheaded men, who either are blinded with
+the glistering of Gold, or (to say more truly) who are now honest, but by
+thinking such great Riches should never fail, might easily be corrupted,
+and brought to Idleness, and to riotous proud living; those we do desire
+that they would not trouble us with their idle and vain crying. But let
+them think, that although there be a Medicine to be had which might fully
+cure all Diseases, nevertheless those whom God hath destinated to plague
+with diseases, and to keep them under the Rod of Correction, such shall
+never obtain any such Medicine.
+
+Even in such manner, although we might enrich the whole World, and endue
+them with Learning, and might release it from innumerable miseries, yet
+shall we never be manifested and made known unto any man, without the
+especial pleasure of God; yea, it shall be so far from him whosoever
+thinks to get the benefit, and be Partaker of our Riches and Knowledge,
+without and against the Will of God, that he shall sooner lose his life in
+seeking and searching for us, than to find us, and attain to come to the
+wished Happiness of the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_John Heydon and the Rosicrucians._
+
+
+As we have frequently to mention works of that "extraordinary Royalist,
+mystic and geomancer," John Heydon, who wrote so much respecting the Rosie
+Crucian Mysteries, and so loudly extolled the praises of the disciples, it
+will be advisable to present a sketch of his life as made by one Frederick
+Talbot, in the years 1662 and 1663, and attached to "Elhavareuna," or the
+"English Physitian's Tutor." He says John Heydon is not basely, but nobly
+descended. The Antiquaries derive them (his parents) from Julius Heydon
+the King of Hungary and Westphalia, that were descended from that Noble
+family of Cĉsar Heydon in Rome; and since in this Royal Race the line run
+down to the Honourable Sir Christopher Heydon, and Sir William Heydon, his
+brother of Heydon, neer Norwich; who married into Devonshire. Here the
+family flourished divers waies, to Sir John Heydon, late Lord Lieutenant
+of the King's Tower of London. And this Sir William Heydon had one sonne
+christened also William, and had two sons William and Francis, both born
+in Devon, at Poltimore House; Francis married one of the Noble Chandlers
+in Worcestershire of the Mother's side, which line spread by Marriage into
+Devonshire, among the Collins, Ducks, Drues and Bears, he had one Sister
+named Anne Heydon, who died two years since, his Father and Mother being
+yet living. He was born at his Father's house in Green-Arbour, London (his
+father having bestowed £1,500 upon those houses) and was baptised at St.
+Sepulchre's, and so was his Sister, and both in the fifth and seventh year
+of the Reign of King Charles the First; he was educated in Warwickshire
+among his mother's friends, and so careful were they to keep him and his
+sister from danger, and to their books, that he had one continually to
+wait upon him, both to school and at home, and so had his sister.
+
+He was commended by Mr. John Dennis, his Tutor in Tardebick, to Mr. George
+Linacre, Priest of Coughton, where he learned the Latin and Greek Tongues;
+the war at this time began to molest the Universities of this Nation, he
+was articled to Mr. Mic. Petley, an Attorney of Clifford Inne, with eighty
+pounds, that at five years' end he should be sworn an Attorney; now being
+very young he applied his mind to learning, and by his happy wit attained
+great knowledge in all arts and sciences, afterwards also he followed the
+Armies of the King, and for his valour commanded in the troops, when he
+was by these means famous for learning and arms, he travelled into Spain,
+Italy, Arabia, Egypt, and Persia, etc., and gave his mind to writing, and
+composed about seventeen years since, the Temple of Wisdom in three Books,
+The Holy Guide in six Books, Elhavareuna in one Book, Ocia Imperialia in
+one Book, the Idea of the Law, the Idea of Government, the Idea of Tyranny
+in three parts, the Fundamental Elements of Moral Philosophy, Policy,
+Government and War, etc.
+
+These Books were written near seventeen years since, and preserved by the
+good hand of God in the custody of Mr. Thomas Heydon, Sir John Hanner, Sir
+Ralph Freman, and Sir Richard Temple; during the tyrant's time first one
+had the Books, then another, etc. And at last at the desire of these
+Noble, Learned and valiant Knights, and in honour of his Highness the Duke
+of Buckingham, they were printed.
+
+He wrote many excellent things, and performed many rare experiments in the
+Arts of Astromancy and Geomancy, etc., but especially eighty one, the
+first upon the King's death, predicted in Arabia by him to his friends,
+the second upon the losses of the King at Worcester, predicted at Thauris
+in Persia. Thirdly he predicted the death of Oliver Cromwell in Lambeth
+House to many persons of honour mentioned in his books. Fourthly he wrote
+of the overthrow of Lambert, and of the Duke of Albymarle, his bringing
+again of the King to his happy countries, and gave it to Major Christopher
+Berkenhead, a Goldsmith at the Anchor by Fetter Lane end in Holborn; the
+fifth precaution or prediction he gave to his highness the Duke of
+Buckingham, two months before the evil was practised, and his enemy
+Abraham Goodman lies now in the Tower for attempting the death of the
+noble Prince. The sixth for Count Gramont when he was banished into
+England by the King of France, and he predicted by the Arts of Astromancy
+and Geomancy, the King's receiving again into favour, and of his marriage
+to the Lady Hamilton. The seventh for Duke Minulaus, a peer of Germany,
+that the Emperor sent to him, when the Turk, had an army against him, and
+of the death of the Pope; the rest are in his books, and therefore by
+these monuments the name of Heydon for his variety of learning was famous
+not only in England, but also in many other nations into which his books
+are translated.
+
+This John Heydon, fears none, contemneth none, is ignorant of none,
+rejoyceth in none, grieves at none, laughs at none, is angry with none,
+but being himself a Philosopher, he hath taught the way to happiness, the
+way to long life, the way to health, the way to wane young being old, and
+the way to resolve all manner of Questions, Present and to Come, by the
+Rules of Astromancy and Geomancy, and how to raise the Dead.
+
+There be many John Heydons, one John Heydon the divine and priest of Jesus
+Christ, this is a Philosopher and Lawyer, stiled a Servant of God and
+Secretary of Nature, and to this the Princes and Peers not only of
+England, but of Spain, Italy, France and Germany send dayly to him, and
+upon every occasion he sheweth strong parts and a vigorous brain; his
+wishes and aimes, and what he pointeth at, speaketh him owner of a noble
+and generous heart; this gentleman's excellent books are admired by the
+world of lettered men, as the prodigy of these latter times (indeed his
+works before mentioned, if I am able to judge anything) are full of the
+profoundest learning I ever met withall: and I believe, who hath well-read
+and digested them will perswade himself, there is no truth too abstruse,
+nor hitherto conceived out of our reach, and if any should question my
+judgement, they may read the commendations of both the Universities,
+Oxford and Cambridge, besides the learned Thomas White and Thomas Revell,
+Esq., both famous in Rome and other parts beyond sea, that have highly
+honoured this gentleman in their books; yet he hath suffered many
+misfortunes, his fathered was sequestered, imprisoned, and lost two
+thousand pounds by Cromwell. This Oliver imprisoned this son also two year
+and half, or thereabout, in Lambeth House, for he and his father's family
+were always for the King, and endeavoured to the utmost his restoration;
+and indeed the tyrant was cruel to him, but John Thurloe, his Secretary,
+was kind to him and pittied his curious youth. And the messenger kept him
+(at his request) at his own house, and gave him leave to go abroad, but
+yet being zealous and active for the King, he was again taken and clapt up
+in Lambeth House; in these misfortunes it cost him a £1,000 and upwards;
+after this some envious villains forged actions of debt against him, and
+put him in prison. It seems at the beginning of these misfortunes, a
+certain harlot would have him to marry her, but denying her suit, for he
+had never spoken to her in his life good or evil until then; she devised
+now with her confederates abundance of mischief against him. And many
+courted him to marry, but he denyed. Now there was left (amongt a few old
+Almanacks and scraps of other men's wit) collected and bequeathed unto the
+world by Nic. Culpe (as his own admired experience) old Alice Culpeper,
+his widow. She hearing this gentleman (that he was heir to a great estate
+after the death of his father, and after the death of his uncle, £1,000 a
+year, but whether this uncle be of the father's or the mother's side I
+know not, but the estate is sure his at their death), courts him by
+letters of love, to no purpose; the next saint in order was she that calls
+herself the German Princess. But he flies high and scorns such fowl great
+beasts, the first of these two blessed birds in her life time caused one
+Heath to arrest him, and another laid actions against him that he never
+knew nor heard of. In this perplexity was he imprisoned two years, for
+they did desire nothing but to get money, or destroy him, for fear if ever
+he got his liberty he might then punish them. He being of a noble nature
+forgave them all their malice and devices against him, and scorns to
+revenge himself such upon pittiful things. God indeed hath done him the
+justice, for this Heath consumes to worse than nothing, and indeed, if I
+can judge or predict anything his baudy-houses will be pawned, and he will
+dye a miserable diseased beggar. His mistress, when he was very young and
+a clerke, desired him to lay with her, but he like Joseph refusing, she
+hated him all her life. God preserved him from their malice, although one
+of these three lewd women swore this gentleman practised the art of Magic;
+she told Oliver Cromwell she saw familiar spirits come and go to him in
+the shape of Conies, and her maid swore she had often seen them in his
+chambers when he was abroad, and sometimes walking upon the housetop in
+moonshine nights, and sometimes to vanish away into a wall or Aire, but
+when asked she could not tell what manner of man he was. So these stories
+were not credited, and for all these and many more afflictions and false
+accusations, I never saw him angry, nor did he even arrest or imprison any
+man or woman in all his life.
+
+He was falsely accused but lately of writing a seditious book and
+imprisoned in a messenger's custody, but his noble friend the Duke of
+Buckingham finding him innocent and alwaies for the king, he was then
+discharged, and indeed this glorious Duke is a very good and just judge
+and noble, for he forgave Abraham Godman that came to kill him with his
+sword drawn, the Duke with his plate and napkin (for he was at supper)
+takes away his sword, saying, I can kill thee, but I scorn it, and a
+little after he pardoned him. And so mercifull he is that after he had
+taken the Quakers prisoners in Yorkshire, he used so many wise convincing
+arguments that they submitted to the King; of which the Duke was glad, and
+saved all their lives; he studies the way to preserve his king and country
+in peace, plenty, and prosperity. It is a pity the King hath not many more
+such brave men as he, a thousand such wise Dukes as this (like marshell'd
+thunder, back'd with flames of fire) would make all the enemies of the
+King and Christendome quake, and the Turk fly before such great generals,
+in all submission; we humbly pray for this great Prince, and leave him to
+his pleasure and return to our subject.
+
+John Heydon is not of that vain and presumptuous nature as the Taylors
+that despised all Artists, even Appolonius, More, Vaughan, and Smith, etc.
+And yet they cannot read these, and many other learned authors, they so
+impudently abuse, rob of their learning, and convert other men's parts to
+their own profit. He lent one ten pounds gold, he in requital or return
+speaks ill of him, and pretends to know many admirable rules of Geomancy,
+and impertinently addes them to Nativities, and applyes them to all manner
+of questions in Astromancy, but his books being written so long since,
+viz., seventeen years by himself, their greediness of great matters is
+discovered, and we now know them to be neither scholars nor gentlemen,
+these hang up clouts with--here are Nativities calculated, questions
+resolved, and all the parts of Astrology taught by us.... In threepence,
+fourpence, sixpence, or higher if you please--thus are young apprentices,
+old women, and wenches abused, and that they may be found for money, tell
+us the twelve houses of heaven in the sign of a coat of arms are to be
+let, when they might indeed set bills upon their brazen foreheads,
+engraven thus: Here are Rooms to be let unfurnished, but our Author
+regards not these men; all their scandals, forgeries, and villainous
+devises they contrive against him, he slights and scorns, and hath
+purposely forsaken Spittle Fields and his lodging there, to live a private
+life, free from the concourse of multitudes of people that daily followed
+after him, but if any desire to be advised, let them by way of letter
+leave their business at his booksellers, and they shall have answer and
+counsel without reward, for he is neither envious, nor enemie to any man;
+what I write is upon my own knowledge.
+
+He now writes from Hermenpolis, a place I was never at; it seems by the
+word to be the city of Mercury, and truly he hath been in many strange
+places, among the Rosie Crucians, and at their Castles, Holy Houses,
+Temples, Sepulchres, Sacrifices. This gentleman hath suffered much by his
+own discreet silence and solitude. Every Nativity Hawker condemns the
+Rosie Crucians because they appear not to the world, and concludes there
+is no such society because he is not a member of it, and Mr. Heydon will
+not come upon the stage (let his enemies write or speak what they will)
+when any fool cries enter, neither doth he regard every dog that barks at
+him. All the world knows this gentleman studys honourable and honest
+things, and faithfully communicates them to others, yet if any traduce him
+hereafter, they must not expect his vindication, he hath referred his
+quarrel to the God of Nature, it is involved in the concernments of his
+Truths and he is satisfied with the peace of a good conscience; he hath
+been misinterpreted in his writing, with studied calumnies, they disparage
+a person whom they never saw, nor perhaps will see, he is resolved for the
+future to suffer, for he says God condemns no man for his patience, the
+world indeed may think the truth overthrown, because she is attended with
+his peace for in the judgment of most men, there is no victory, this he
+looks upon as no disadvantage, the estimate of such censures will but
+lighten the scales, and I don't suppose them very weak brains who conceive
+the truth sinks because it outweighs them; as for tempestuous outcrys when
+they want their motives they discover an irreligious spirit, one that hath
+more of the Hurrey-cano than of Christ Jesus, God was not in the wind that
+rent the rocks in pieces, nor in the earthquake and fire at Horeb. He was
+in Aura tenui, in the still small voice. His enemies are forced to praise
+his vertues and his friends are sorry he hath not 10,000 pounds a year, he
+doth not resent the common spleen, who writs the truth of God hath the
+same Patron with the truth itself, and when the world shall submit to the
+general Tribunal, he will find his Advocate where they shall find their
+Judge, there is mutual testimony between God and his servants, or nature
+and her Secretary; if the Baptist did bear witness of Christ, Christ did
+also much for the Baptist; he was a burning and shining light; when I writ
+this gentleman's life God can bear me witness it was unknown to him, and
+for no private ends, but I was forced to it by a strong admiration of the
+Mistery and Majesty of Nature, written by this servant of God and
+Secretary of Nature; I began his life some years since, and do set it down
+as I do finde it, if any man oppose this, I shall answer, if you are for
+peace, peace be with you, if you are for War, I have been so too (Mr.
+Heydon doth resolve never to draw sword again in England, except the King
+command him). Now let not him that puts on the Armour boast like him that
+puts it off. 'Gaudet patientia duris' is his Motto, and thus I present
+myself a friend to all artists, and enemy to no man.
+
+  FREDERICK TALBOT, ESQ.
+
+  _March 3, 1662._
+
+What was thought of John Heydon and what he appeared to think of himself
+may be learned from the somewhat gushing testimonials he appended to
+several of his books.
+
+At the commencement of the Axiomata we have the following:--
+
+"To his most ingeniously accomplish'd friend, Mr. John Heydon, on his
+Rosie Crucian Infallible Axomata, the excellent and secret use of
+Numbers."
+
+  "Now let the Pope no more pretend to bee,
+  The Father of Infallibility;
+  Unless he can great Heyden's Numbers teach,
+  And nimbly to his Axiomata reach.
+      One learned Heydon, with his Art-like Pen,
+  Hath exercised so the Brains of Men;
+  That how to answer him this very Age
+  Knows not [I'm sure] with all its Wit and Rage.
+  Our Author here, as Heir unto his skill,
+  Hath kept his name up (with a pregnant Quill)
+  So happily! that Ages yet to come,
+  Shall sing his fame in this Eulogium;
+      While Numbers sing the World's glad Harmony,
+      This worthy work shall teach Philosophy."
+
+  J. GADBURY.
+
+Again in the same work.
+
+"To his much honoured friend the Author Mr. John Heydon upon the Rosie
+Crucian Infallible Axiomata."
+
+  "Pythag'ras redivivus, go thy ways
+  Into the world: and number out thy praise;
+  Laconian Lads esteem yourself no more,
+  Who Numbers rich is, who esteems is poor,
+  For they esteem themselves, because no more.
+  Moses in Miracles did exceed 'tis true
+  By Numbers done; only found out by you
+  Therefore the greatest Miracle's your due.
+  Tria sunt omnia shall no more surpass,
+  Who's but for simple Numbers is an Asse,
+  Thy compound Numbers shew as clear as Glass.
+  That the wide world this piece shall so extoll
+  As swears no soul, if not Harmonic all
+  For never was piece i' the world so exactly done,
+  In the time past, or present, what's to come,
+  Then teeming Soul give thy Pen intermission,
+  And breathe a while before the next Edition."
+
+  JOHN FYGE,
+  _Minister of the Gospell._
+
+Again:--
+
+  "O Comprehensive Magus, praise attends
+  Thy worthy work, to that each number tends,
+  Sith to the Holy Cross thou art the Crown;
+  And that, which Nature did at first set down
+  In Hieroglyphicks, that she might conceal
+  From Sons of earth, her Darling doth reveal
+  Unto the Sons of Art and doth unfold
+  Those Tomes of Crypicks that before were rold;
+  Axioms infallible, thou dost us shew,
+  Would Pyrrho make his doubting Trade forego;
+  Philosophy may by thy Method be
+  Courted, and won by men of low degree,
+  When fancy tells me this cannot be done,
+  My Reason prompts me to believe a Son,
+  Inspired by the Rosie Crucian Spirit,
+  Is Heir to more, to whom I do refer it.
+
+  THOMAS FYGE."
+
+
+  "Hayl you (admired Heydon) whose great parts
+  Shine above envy; and the common Arts,
+  You kin to Angels, and Superiour Lights,
+  (A spark of the first fire) whose Eagle flights
+  Trade not with Earth, and grossness, but do pass
+  To the pure Heavens, and make your God your Glass,
+  In whom you see all forms, and so do give
+  These rare discov'ries, how things move and live,
+  Proceed to make your great designs compleat,
+  And let not this rude world our hopes defeat.
+  Oh let me but by this the dawning light
+  Which streams upon me through your three pil'd night,
+  Pass to the East of truth, 'till I may see
+  Man's first fair state; when sage Simplicity
+  The Dove and Serpent, Innocent and Wise
+  Dwell in his brest, and he in Paradise.
+  These from the Tree of knowledge his best boughs
+  I'le pluck a Garland from this Author's brows,
+  Which to succeeding times Fame shall bequeath,
+  With this most just Applause, Great Heyden's wreath.
+
+  FRED. TALBOT, _Esquire_."
+
+In the opening pages of the "Holy Guide," we find the following:--
+
+  "Renowned Eugenius! Famous above all!
+  A Prince in Physiques! Most Seraphicall!
+  The Art's Great Archer! Never shooting wide;
+  Yet Hitt'st the White best, in thy Holy Guide.
+  Good God! What Pains have learn'd Physitians
+  For cleansing Physiques [strange perturbed] Brook?
+  But as their crooked labours did destroy
+  Our hopes, Thy Guide directs the Ready Way.
+  Hippocrates, Great Galen, and Senertus,
+  Rhenvoleus, Paracelsus, and Albertus,
+  Grave Gerrard, and Ingenious Parkinson,
+  Dead Culpeper, and living Thomlinson,
+  Have all done well. But ah! they miss the Road,
+  Thou Chalked out, Thou Dear Servant of God;
+  And therefore 'tis no wonder, if they vary
+  From thee; Great Nature (High born) Secretary!
+  'Tis thou alone, hast taught the way to bliss:
+  'Tis thou alone, that knowest what it is:
+  'Tis thou hast raked fruitful Egypt o'er
+  For Medicines; and Italy for more;
+  And in Arabia thy collecting Braines,
+  To doe us good, hath taken wondrous Paines
+  This having done, if Critiques will not bow
+  To thy Great Learning Petra scandalou,
+  It shall unto them surely prove: And this
+  Essay of thy Sublimer Misteryes,
+  Shall make them sure unto the Wise Minerva
+  Yet still be ignorant of thy Pantarva.
+    But hold! Where am I? Sure th' hast set a spell
+  On me, cause I can't praise thy doings well:
+  Release me, Good Eugenius! and the Crowne
+  Shall stand on no browes but thy learned Owne.
+  Poets, no more lay Claime unto the Bayes!
+  'Tis Heydon shines alone with splendid Rayes!
+  Follow his Guide, he teaches you most sure;
+  Let any make the Wound; 'Tis he must cure.
+  For he directs the Welgrowne; Old, and Young,
+  To live Rich, Happy, Healthy, Noble, Strong.
+
+  JOHN GADBURY."
+
+"To the Reader on the behalf of my much honoured Friend the Author Mr.
+John Heydon."
+
+  "A Labyrinth doth need a clew to find
+  The passage out, and a Dĉdalian mind
+  May doe strange works, beyond the Vulgar's reach,
+  And in their understandings make a breach.
+  It's often seene, when men of pregnant parts
+  Study, Invent, and promulgate rare Arts,
+  Or unknown secrets, now they puzzle those
+  That understand them not; their Yea's, their No's,
+  Are put to Non-plus; Tutors then they lack
+  To drive them forward, or to bring them back.
+  How many learned men (in former ages)
+  In all the sciences were counted Sages?
+  And yet are scarcely understood by men,
+  Who daily read them o're and o're again!
+  Some can recount things past, and present some,
+  And some would know of things that are to come.
+  Some study pleasure, some would faine live long;
+  Some that are old, would faine again be young.
+  This Man doth toyle, and moile, to purchase wealth,
+  That man gets sickness studying for his health;
+  This man would happy bee, that Wisdom have;
+  All are at loss, and every man doth crave;
+  None is content, But each man wants a Guide
+  Them to direct when they do step aside.
+  Since this is thus, Our Author hath took paine
+  To lead us in, and bring us out again;
+  Now who is pleas'd in him for to confide
+  In these Discoveries, Here's his Holy Guide.
+  Pray what can more improve the Commonwealth,
+  Than the discovery of the way to Health?
+  The Paradox is made a certain truth,
+  An Ancient man may dye it 'h prime of 's youth.
+  What wonder is it if he goe aside
+  The Path, which will not take the Holy Guide!
+
+  JOHN BOOKER."
+
+"To his Ingenuous Friend Mr. John Heydon, on his Book Intituled The Holy
+Guide."
+
+  "The Antient Magi, Druids, Cabbalists,
+  The Brachmans, Sybils, and Gymnosophists
+  With all that Occult Arts haberdash
+  And make so many mancies, doe but trash
+  By retaile vend, and may for Pedlars goe:
+  Your richer merchandise doth make them soe.
+  The Stagarite must with his Murnival
+  Of Elements, Galen of Humours call
+  In all their suit, or your new Art,
+  Without them, makes their good old cause to smart.
+  Vulgar Physitians cannot look for more
+  Patients, then such which doe need hellibore:
+  When Rosie Crucian Power can revive
+  The dead, and keep old men in youth alive.
+  Had you not call'd your work the Holy Guide,
+  It would have puzzled all the world beside
+  To have Baptized it with a name so fit
+  And Adĉquate to what's contain'd in it;
+  Should it be styled the Encyclopĉdy
+  Of Curious Arts, or term'd a Mystery
+  In folio, or be named the Vatican
+  Reduc'd unto an Enchiridion,
+  Or all the Hermĉ in a Senary,
+  The Urim and Thummim of Philosophy,
+  The Art of Hieroglyphicks so revealed
+  And like the Apocalyps they are conceal'd
+  Or th' Orthodoxall Parodox, or all
+  Discover'd, which men still a wonder call;
+  Or th' Magna Charta of all Sciences,
+  And he that names it cannot call it less,
+  The Book and Title might have well agreed;
+  Yet men have questioned if into their Creed
+  They should have put your Article, but Now
+  The name of holy none dare disallow
+  When so much learning doth in one exist
+  Heydon, not Hermes, shall be Trismegist.
+  And if the Right Reverend of Levi's Tribe
+  Do Hallow it, I cannot but subscribe.
+
+  Myself your Friend and Servant,
+  THOS. FYGE."
+
+"Now there are," says John Heydon, "a kind of men as they themselves
+report, named Rosie Crucians; a divine Fraternity that inhabite the
+suburbs of Heaven, and these are the Officers of the Generalissimo of the
+world, that are as the eyes and eares of the great King, seeing and
+hearing all things; they say these R. C. are seraphically illuminated, as
+Moses was, according to this Order of the Elements; Earth refyn'd to
+Water, Water to Air, Air to Fire. So if a man be one of the Heroes, of a
+Heros, a Damon, or good Genius, if a Genius, a partaker of divine things,
+and a Companion of the holy Company of unbodied Souls and immortall
+Angells, and according to their vehicles, a versatile life, turning
+themselves Proteus-like into any shape.
+
+"But the richest happiness they esteem, is the gift of healing and
+medicine. It was a long time great labour and travell before they could
+arrive to this Blisse above set, they were at first poor gentlemen, that
+studied God and nature, as they themselves confesse: (saying) Seeing the
+only wise and mercifull God in these latter dayes hath poured out so
+richly his mercy and goodness to mankind, whereby wee do attain more and
+more to the perfect knowledge of his Son Jesus Christ and Nature: that
+justly we may boast of the happy time wherein there is not only discovered
+unto us the half part of the world which was heretofore unknown and
+hidden; but he hath also made manifest unto us many wonderfull and never
+heretofore seen works and Creatures of nature, and moreover hath raised
+men, indued with great wisdome, which might partly renew and reduce all
+Arts (in this our age, spotted and imperfect) to perfection.
+
+"Although in Theologie, Physick, and the Mathematick, the truth doth
+oppose itself, nevertheless the old enemy by his subtilty and craft doth
+shew himself in hindering every good purpose by his instruments and
+contentious (wavering people) to such an intent of a generall Reformation,
+the most Godly and Seraphically illuminated Father, our Brother C. R., a
+German, the chief and originall of our Fraternity, hath much and long time
+laboured, who by reason of his poverty (although a gentleman born, and
+descended of noble parents) in the 5th year of his age was placed in a
+Cloister, where he had learned indifferently the Greek and Latin tongues
+(who upon his earnest desire and request being yet in his growing years,
+was associated to a Brother P. A. L., who had determined to go to Apamia).
+
+"Although his brother dyed in Cyprus and so never came to Apamia, yet our
+brother C. R. did not return but shipped himself over, and went to
+Damasco, minding from thence to go to Apamia, but by reason of the
+feebleness of his body he remained still there, and by his skil in
+Physick, he obtained much favour with the Ishmalits. In the mean time he
+became by chance acquainted with the wise men of Damcar in Arabia, and
+beheld what great wonders they wrought and how Nature was discovered unto
+them; hereby was that high and noble spirit of brother C. R. so stirred up
+that Apamia was not so much now in his mind as Damcar; also he could not
+bridle his desires any longer, but made a bargain with the Arabians that
+they should carry him for a certain summe of money to Damcar, this was in
+the 16th year of his age when the Wise received him (as he himself
+witnesseth) not as a Stranger, but as one whom they had long expected,
+they called him by his name, and showed him other secrets out of his
+Cloyster, whereat hee could not but mightily wonder.
+
+"He learned there better the Arabian tongue: so that the year following he
+translated the book M. into good Latine, and I have put it into English
+wearing the title of The Wiseman's Crown; whereunto is added A new Method
+of Rosie Crucian Physick. This is the place where he did learn his Physick
+and Philosophie, how to raise the dead; for example, as a Snake cut in
+pieces and rotted in dung will every piece prove a whole Snake again, &c.,
+and then they began to practise further matters and to kill birds and to
+burn them before they are cold in a Glass, and so rotted, and then
+inclosed in a shell, to hatch it under a hen, and restore the same; and
+other strange proofs they made of Dogs, Hogs, or Horses, and by the like
+corruption to raise them up and again and renew them. And at last they
+could restore by the same course every brother that died to life again,
+and so continue many ages.
+
+"Brother C. R. after many travels, returned again into Germany, and there
+builded a neat and fitting habitation, upon a little hill or mount, and on
+the hill there rested always a cloud; and he did there render himself
+visible or invisible, at his own will and discretion.
+
+"After five years came into his minde the wished return of the children of
+Israel out of Egypt, how God would bring them out of bondage with the
+Instrument Moses. Then he went to his Cloyster, to which he bare
+affection, and desired three of his brethren to go with him to Moses, the
+chosen servant of God. Brother G. V., Brother J. A., and Brother J. O.,
+who besides that they had more knowledge in the Arts than at that time
+many others had, he did binde those three unto himselfe, to be faithful,
+diligent, and secret; as also to commit carefully to writing what Moses
+did; and also all that which he should direct and instruct them in, to the
+end that those which were to come, and through especial Revelation should
+be received into this Fraternity, might not be deceived of the least
+syllable and word.
+
+"After this manner began the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross, first by four
+persons, who died and rose again until Christ, and then they came to
+worship as the Star guided them to Bethlem of Judea, where lay our Saviour
+in his mother's arms; and then they opened their treasure and presented
+unto Him Gifts, Gold, Frankinsense, and Myrrhe, and by the commandment of
+God went home to their habitation.
+
+"These four waxing young again successively many hundreds of years, made a
+Magical Language and Writing, with a large Dictionary, which are yet in
+daily use to God's praise and glory, and do finde great wisdome therein;
+they made also the first part of the Book M. which I will shortly publish
+by the title of The Wiseman's Crown."
+
+In his Apologue to the sixth book of "The Holy Guide," after stating that
+Moses was the father of the Rosie Crucians, that they were the Officers of
+the Generalissimo of the World, of the order of Elias or Disciples of
+Ezekiel, &c., John Heydon proceeds:--"But there is yet arguments to
+procure Mr. Walfoord and T. Williams, Rosie Crucians by elections, and
+that is the miracles that were done by them, in my sight, for it should
+seem Rosie Crucians were not only initiated into the Mosaical Theory, but
+have arrived also to the power of working Miracles, as Moses, Elias,
+Ezekiel, and the succeeding Prophets did, as being transported where they
+please, as Habakkuk was from Jewry to Babylon, or as Philip, after he had
+baptized the Eunuch, to Azotus, and one of these went from me to a friend
+of mine in Devonshire, and came and brought me an answer to London the
+same day, which is four dayes journey; they taught me excellent
+predictions of Astrology, and Earthquakes; they slack the Plague in
+Cities; they silence the violent Winds and Tempests; they calm the rage of
+the Sea and Rivers; they walk in the Air; they frustrate the malicious
+aspects of Witches; they cure all Diseases; I desired one of these to tell
+me whether my Complexion were capable of the society of my good Genius?
+When I see you again, said he, I will tell you, which is when he pleases
+to come to me, for I know not where to go to him. When I saw him then he
+said, Ye should pray to God; for a good and holy man can offer no greater
+nor more acceptable sacrifice to God than the oblation of himself, his
+soul.
+
+"He said also, that the good Genii are as the benigne eyes of God, running
+to and fro in the world, with love and pitty beholding the innocent
+endeavours of harmless and single hearted men, ever ready to do them good,
+and to help them; and at his going away he bid me beware of my seeming
+friends who would do me all the hurt they could, and cause the Governours
+of the nations to be angry with me, and set bounds to my liberty; which
+truly happened to me, as they did indeed; many things more he told me
+before we parted, but I shall not name them here.
+
+"In this Rosie Crucian Physick or Medicines, I happily and unexpectedly
+light upon in Arabia, which will prove a restauration of health to all
+that are afflicted with that sickness which we ordinarily call natural,
+and all other Diseases, as the Gout, Dropsie, Leprosie, and falling
+sickness; and these men may be said to have no small insight in the body,
+and that Walfoord, Williams, and others of the Fraternity now living, may
+bear up in the same likely Equipage, with those noble Divine spirits their
+Predecessors; though the unskilfulness in men commonly acknowledges more
+of supernatural assistance in hot, unsettled fancies, and perplexed
+melancholy, than in the calm and distinct use of reason; yet for mine own
+part, but not without submission to better judgments, I look upon these
+Rosie Crucians above all men truly inspired, and more than any that
+professed or pretended themselves so this sixteen hundred years, and I am
+ravished with admiration of their miracles and transcendent mechanical
+inventions, for the solving the Phenomena in the world: I may without
+offence therefore compare them with Bezaliel and Aholiab, those skilful
+and cunning workers of the Tabernacle, who, as Moses testifies, were
+filled with the Spirit of God, and therefore were of an excellent
+understanding to find out all manner of curious work.
+
+"Nor is it any argument that these Rosie Crucians are not inspired,
+because they do not say they are; which to me is no argument at all; but
+the suppression of what so happened, would argue much more sobriety and
+modesty; when as the profession of it with sober men, would be suspected
+of some piece of melancholy and distraction, especially in those things,
+where the grand pleasure is the evidence and exercise of Reason, not a
+bare belief, or an ineffable sense of life, in respect whereof there is no
+true Christian but he is inspired; but if any more zealous pretender to
+prudence and righteousness, wanting either leisure or ability to examine
+these Rosie Crucian Medicines to the bottome, shall notwithstanding either
+condemn them or admire them, he hath unbecomingly and indiscreetly
+ventured out of his own sphere, and I cannot acquit him of injustice or
+folly. Nor am I a Rosie Crucian, nor do I speak of spite, or hope of gain,
+or for any such matter, there is no cause, God knows; I envie no man, be
+he what he will be, I am no Phisitian, never was, nor never mean to be;
+what I am it makes no matter as to my profession.
+
+"Lastly, these holy and good men would have me know that the greatest
+sweet and perfection of a vertuous soul, is the kindly accomplishment of
+her own nature, in true wisdome and divine love; and these miraculous
+things that are done by them, are, that that worth and knowledge that is
+in them may be taken notice of, and that God thereby may be glorified,
+whose witnesses they are; but no other happiness accrues to them from
+this, but hereby they may be in a better capacity of making others happy.
+
+  _Spittle-fields, this 10th of May, 1662._
+
+  JOHN HEYDON."
+
+As, of course, it is impossible to give any lengthy extracts from the
+works of this celebrated John Heydon, a few quotations from the Index to
+his Holy Guide will show the nature of the work and must suffice for our
+present purpose. "How by numbers the Rosie Crucians fore-know all future
+things, command all nature and do miracles, etc. The resolution of all
+manner of questions, and how by numbers you may be happy, etc. How to make
+a man live to two hundred years. How to avoid all disease. The Rosie
+Crucian way to get health. How to live twenty years without food, as many
+creatures do. How to raise a dead bird to life. Of generating many
+serpents of one," etc., etc.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_Gabalis: or the Extravagant Mysteries of the Cabalists._
+
+
+On a former page we referred to a book which at one time achieved
+considerable notoriety under the title of "Count Gabalis; or the
+Extravagant mysteries of the Cabalists," the following extract will show
+the nature of the work and no doubt prove interesting.
+
+Count Gabalis: or the Extravagant Mysteries of the Gabalists, or,
+Rosy-crucians Exposed in Five Pleasant Discourses on the Secret Sciences.
+
+
+Discourse the First.
+
+God rest the soul of Monsieur the Count of Gabalis! who as they write me
+news, is lately dead of an Apoplexy. Now the Cabalists will not fail to
+say, that this kind of Death is ordinary to those who imprudently manage
+the Secrets of the Sages; and that since the Blessed Ramundus Lullius has
+pronounced the sentence in his last Will and Testament, a destroying Angel
+has ever been ready to strangle in a moment, all those who have
+indiscreetly revealed the Philosophick Mysteries.
+
+But let them not so rashly condemn this Wise Man, without having better
+information of his conduct. 'Tis true he has discovered all to me; but not
+without all the Cabalistick Circumspectious requisite. I must do him the
+right, in giving this testimony to his memory, that he was a great Zealot
+for the religion of his fathers, the Philosophers; and that he would have
+suffered the flames, rather than have profaned the Sanctity of it, by
+disclosing it to any unworthy Prince, to any ambitious person, or to one
+that was incontinent; three sorts of people, excommunicated in all ages by
+the wise. By good fortune I am no Prince; I have little Ambition; and by
+the Sequel of this discourse, it may be seen that I have a little more
+Chastity than a Sage needs have. I am endued with a Docible Wit; curious
+of knowledge, and Bold enough: I want but a little Melancholy to make all
+those who would blame the Count of Gabalis, confess that he needed not
+have concealed any thing from me, in regard I was a Subject proper enough
+for the Secret Sciences. It is true that without Melancholy, no great
+progress can be made therein: but this little stock of it that I have, was
+enough to make me not to be rejected by them. You (has he said a hundred
+times to one) have Saturn in an Angle, in his House, and Retrograde; you
+cannot fail, one of these days, of being as Melancholy as a Sage ought to
+be: for the wisest of all men (as we know in the Cabal) had, as you have,
+Jupiter in the Ascendant. And yet, it was never observed, that he ever so
+much as once laughed, in all his life time, so powerful was his Saturn in
+him, though it was certainly weaker than yours.
+
+'Tis then my Saturn, and not Monsieur the Count of Gabalis that the
+_Virtuoso_ must quarrel with, if I affect more the Divulging of there
+Secrets, than the practising of them. If the Stars do not their duty, the
+Count is not in the fault, and if I have not a soul great enough to
+attempt to become Master of Nature, to turn the Elements upside down, to
+entertain the Supreme Intelligences, to command the Demons, to beget
+Giants, to create New Worlds, to speak to God in his High Throne, and to
+oblige the Cherubin, which defends the entrance of Paradise, to let me
+come in, and take two or three turns in his Walks; 'tis me that they must
+blame more or less: they must not for this insult over the memory of this
+Rare Man; and say that he is dead, for having blabbed all things to me. Is
+it impossible that amongst the wandering spirits he may not have been
+worsted in a conflict with some undocible Hobgoblin? Perchance he is not
+dead, but in appearance; following the custom of the Philosophers, who
+seem to Dye in one place, and transport themselves to another. Be it how
+it will, I can never believe, that the Manner wherewith he entrusted his
+Treasures to me, merited any punishment. You shall see how all things
+passed.
+
+Common sense having always made me suspect that there was a great deal of
+Emptiness in all that which they call Secret Science, I was never tempted
+to lose so much time, as to turn over the leaves of those books which
+treat of them: but yet not finding it reasonable to condemn without
+knowing why, all those addicting themselves thereto, who otherwise are
+wise persons, very learned for the most part, and eminent both for the
+Gown and Sword. I took up a resolution (that I might avoid being unjust,
+and wearying myself with tedious reading) of feigning myself a great
+devotee to those sciences, amongst all those, whom I could learn were of
+that Gang. I had quickly better success than I could possibly hope for.
+Since all these gentlemen, how mysterious and how reserved soever they may
+seem to be, desire nothing more, than to vent their imaginations, and the
+new discoveries which they pretend to have made in Nature. In a few dayes
+I was the Confident of the most considerable amongst them, and had every
+day one or other of them in my study, which I had on purpose garnished
+with their most phantastick authors. There was never a learned Virtuoso of
+this kind, but I had correspondence with him. In a word, for my Zeal to
+this science, I quickly found that I was well approved by all. I had for
+my companions, Princes, Great Lords, Gown-men, Handsome Ladies, and
+Unhandsome too; Doctors, Prelates, Fryars, Nuns: in fine People of all
+Ranks and Qualities. Some of them were for converse with Angels, others
+with Devils, others with their Genius, others with Incubus's; some
+addicted themselves to the cure of diseases, some to Star-gazing, some to
+the secrets of Divinity, and almost all to the Philosopher's stone.
+
+They all agreed, that these grand secrets, and especially the
+Philosopher's stone, were hardly to be found out, and that but very few do
+attain to them, but they had all in particular, a very good opinion of
+themselves, to believe that they were of the number of the Elect. By good
+luck, with infinite impatiency, the most considerable of them expected at
+this time, the arrival of a lord, who was a great Cabalist, and whose
+Estate lyes upon the frontiers of Poland. He had promised by letters to
+the children of Philosophy in Paris to come and visit them; and so to pass
+from France into England. I had a Commission to write an answer to this
+great man: I sent him the scheme of my Nativity, that he might judge if I
+were capable of aspiring to the supreme wisdom. My scheme and my letter
+were so happy to oblige him to do me the honour of answering me; that I
+should be one of the first that he would see at Paris; and that, if Heaven
+did not oppose, there should be nothing wanting in him to introduce me
+into the Society of the Wise.
+
+In the well management of my good fortune, I entertain a regular
+correspondence with the illustrious German: I propose to him, from time to
+time, great doubts, as well grounded as I could, concerning the Harmony of
+the World, the Numbers of Pythagoras, the Revelations of St. John, and the
+first chapter of Genesis. The greatness of the matter ravished him! He
+writ to me unheard of Wonders; and I plainly saw that I had to deal with a
+man of a most vigorous and most copious imagination. I was astonished one
+remarkable day, when I saw a man come in a most excellent Mien, who,
+saluting me gravely, said to me in the French tongue, but in the accents
+of a foreigner: Adore my son; Adore the most glorious and great God of the
+Sages and let not thyself be puffed up with pride, that he sends to thee
+one of the children of Wisdom to constitute thee a fellow of their
+society, and make thee partaker of the wonders of his Omnipotency.
+
+This strange manner of salutation, did upon the sudden surprise me, and I
+began, at first, to question, whether or no it might not be some
+apparition: nevertheless, recovering my spirits the best I could, and
+looking upon him as civilly as the little fear I was seized with, could
+permit me, Whatever you be (said I to him) whose Complement savours not of
+this world, you do me a great honour in making me this visit. But I
+beseech you, if you please, before I worship this God of the Sages, let me
+know of what God and what Sages you speak. Do me the favour to sit down on
+this chair and give yourself the trouble to tell me, what this God is, and
+what these Sages, this Company, these Wonders of Omnipotency, and after or
+before all this, what kind of creature I have the honour to speak to.
+
+Sir, you receive me most Sage-like (said he, smiling, and taking the chair
+which I presented him) you desire me on a sudden to explain things to you,
+which, if you please, I shall not resolve to-day. The Complement which I
+made you, are the words which the Sages use at first, to those to whom
+they purpose to open their hearts and to discover their mysteries. I had
+thought that being so wise as you seemed to me in your letters, this
+salutation would not have been unknown to you, and that it would be the
+most pleasing Complement that could be made you by the Count of Gabalis.
+
+Ah! Sir (cried I, remembering that I had a ticklish game to play) how
+shall I render myself worthy of so much goodness? Is it possible that the
+excellentest of all men should be in my study? that the great Gabalis
+should honour me with his visit?
+
+I am the least of the Sages (replied he, with a serious look) and God, who
+dispenses the beams of his wisdom by weight and measure, as his
+sovereignty pleases, has given me but a small talent, in comparison of
+that which I admire in my fellows. I hope that you may equal them, one
+day; if I durst judge of it by the scheme of your nativity, which you did
+me the honour to send me: but you give me cause to complain of you, Sir
+(added he, smiling) in taking me even now for a Spirit. Not for a Spirit,
+(said I to him) but I protest to you, Sir, that calling to my remembrance
+on a sudden, what Cardan relates of his father; that being one day in his
+study, he was visited by unknown persons, cloathed in divers colours; who
+entertained him in a pleasant discourse concerning their nature and
+employment. I understand you (interrupted the Count), they were Sylphes,
+of which I shall talk to you hereafter: they are a kind of Aerial
+substances; who sometimes come to consult the Sages concerning the books
+of Averroes, which they do not well understand. Cardan was a coxcomb, for
+publishing that amongst his subtilties: he had found those memories
+amongst his father's papers, who was one of us, and who seeing that his
+son was naturally a babbler, would teach him nothing of what was most
+considerable; but let him puzzle his brains in Astrology, by which he was
+not cunning enough to prevent his sons being hanged. This ass was the
+cause of your doing me the injury to take me for a Sylphe. Injury (replied
+I!) Why, Sir, should I be so unfortunate to--I am not angry at it
+(interrupted he) since you are not obliged to know beforehand, that all
+these elementary spirits are our disciples; for they are most happy, when
+we will stoop so low, as to instruct them; and the least of our Sages is
+more knowing than all those little gentlemen. But we shall talk more at
+large of this, some more convenient time; it is sufficient for me to-day,
+that I have had the satisfaction to see you. Endeavour, my son, to make
+yourself worthy of receiving the Cabalistical Illuminations: the hour of
+your regeneration is come; the fault is your own, if you become not a new
+creature. He went out of my study, and I complained of his short visit, as
+I waited on him back, that he had the cruelty to leave me so quickly,
+after he had let me be so happy, as to have a glimpse of his light. But
+having assured me with a grand grace that I should lose nothing by this
+sudden departure, he got up into his coach, and left me in a surprise
+which I am not able to express. I could not believe my own eyes, nor my
+own ears: I'm sure (said I) that this is a man of great quality; that he
+hath an estate of five thousand pounds a year, besides he appears very
+accomplished. Is it possible that he can thus suffer himself to be filled
+with these fooleries? He has talked to me of these Sylphes with great
+earnestnes: should he prove a sorcerer in the upshot? and should I have
+been deceived till now, in believing that there were no such things? But
+suppose he was a Sorcerer, are there also some of them so devout as this
+man appears to be?
+
+The Count was pleased to allow me all the night in Prayer, and in the
+morning by break of day, he acquainted me with a note that he would come
+to my house by eight of the clock, and that if I pleased, we might go and
+take the air together. I waited for him; he came, and after reciprocal
+civilities, let us go (said he to me) to some place where we may be free
+together and where nobody may interrupt our discourse.
+
+He seeing that we were as free from company as he could desire said:--How
+happy shall you be, my son, if heaven has the kindness to put those
+dispositions into your soul, which the high mysteries require of you. You
+are about to learn how to command nature; God above shall be your master,
+and the Sages only shall be your equals, the supreme intelligences shall
+esteem it as glory to obey your desires. When you shall be enrolled
+amongst the children of Philosophy, and that your eyes shall be fortified
+by the use of our sacred medicine, you shall immediately discover that the
+Elements are inhabited by most perfect creatures, from the knowledge and
+commerce of whom, the sin of the unfortunate Adam has excluded all his too
+unhappy posterity. This immense space which is between the earth and the
+Heavens, has more noble inhabitants than birds and flies; this vast ocean
+has also other troops, besides dolphins and whales; the profundity of the
+earth, is not only for moles; and the element of fire (more noble than the
+other three) was not made to be unprofitable and void.
+
+The air is full of an innumerable multitude of people having human shape,
+somewhat fierce in appearance, but tractable upon experience; great lovers
+of the sciences, subtil, officious to the Sages, and enemies to sots and
+ignorants. Their wives and their daughter have a kind of masculine beauty,
+such as we describe the Amazons to have. How Sir (cried I), would you
+persuade me, that these friends you speak of are married?
+
+Be not so fierce, my son (replied he) for so small a matter. Believe
+whatsoever I tell you, to be solid and true. I am making known nothing to
+you, but the principles of the antient Cabal, and there needs nothing more
+to justify them, than that you should believe your own eyes; but receive
+with a meek spirit the light which God sends you by my interposition. Know
+that the Seas and Rivers are Inhabited, as well as the air: the ancient
+Sages have called these kind of people Undians or Nymphs. They have but
+few males amongst them, but the women are there in great numbers: their
+beauty is marvellous, and the daughters of men have nothing in them
+comparable to these.
+
+The earth is filled almost to the centre with Gnomes or Pharyes, a people
+of small stature, the guardians of treasures, of mines, and of precious
+stones. They are ingenious, friends of men, and easy to be commanded. They
+furnish the children of the Sages with as much money as they have need of,
+and never ask any other reward than the glory of being commanded. The
+Gnomides or Wives of these Gnomes or Pharyes, are little, but very
+handsome and their habit marvellously curious.... As for the Salamanders,
+the inhabitants of the region of fire, they serve the Philosophers, but
+they seek not for their company with any great eagerness. The wives of the
+Salamanders are fair, nay, rather more fair than all others, seeing they
+are of a purer element. You will be charmed more with the beauty of their
+wit than of their body, yet you cannot choose but be grieved for these
+poor wretches when they shall tell you that their soul is mortal, and that
+they have no hope of enjoying eternal happiness, and of the Supreme Being,
+which they acknowledge and religiously adore. They will tell us, that
+being composed of the most pure parts of the elements which they inhabit,
+and not having in them any contrary qualities, seeing they are made but of
+one element, they die not but after many Ages, but alas! what is such a
+Time, in respect of Eternity? They must eternally resolve into their
+nothing. This consideration does sorely afflict them; and we have trouble
+enough, to comfort them concerning it.
+
+Our Fathers, the Philosophers, speaking to God face to face, complained to
+him of the unhappiness of these people, and God whose mercy is without
+bounds, revealed to them, that it was not impossible to find out a remedy
+for this evil. He inspired them, that by the same means as man, by the
+alliance which he contracted with God, has been made partaker of Divinity:
+the Sylphs, the Gnomes, the Nymphs, and the Salamanders by the alliance
+which they might contract with man, might be made partakers of
+immortality. So a She-Nymph or a Sylphide becomes Immortal, and capable of
+the blessing to which we aspire, when they shall be so happy as to be
+married to a Sage; a Gnome, or a Sylph ceases to be mortal, from the
+moment that he espouses one of our daughters.
+
+Hence arose the error of the former ages, of Tertullian, of Justin Martyr,
+of Lactantius, Cyprian, Clemens Alexandrinus, Athengoras the Christian
+Philosopher, and generally of all the writers of that time. They had
+learnt that these elementary Demi-men, had endeavoured a commerce with
+maids, and they have from thence imagined that the fall of the angels had
+not happened, but for the love which they were touched with after women.
+Certain Gnomes, desirous of becoming immortal, had a mind to gain the good
+affections of our daughters, and had brought abundance of precious stones
+of which they are the natural guardians, and these authors, relying on the
+Book of Enoch, which they misunderstood, thought that it was the attempt
+which these Amorous Angels had offered to the chastity of our wives. In
+the beginning these children of heaven begat famous giants by making
+themselves beloved by the daughters of men, and the old Cabalists,
+Josephine and Philo (as all the Jews are ignorant) and after them all the
+other Authors, which I have just now named, as well as Origen and
+Macrebius, and have not known that they were the Sylphs, and other people
+of the elements that under the name of the Children of Elohim, are
+distinguished from the children of men. Likewise that which the Sage Saint
+Augustine, has had the modesty to leave undetermined, touching the
+pursuits which those called Faunes or Satyrs, made after the Africans of
+his time, is cleared by that which I have now alleged of the desire which
+all these elementary inhabitants have, of allying themselves to men; as
+the only means to attain to the immortality which they have not.
+
+No, no! Our Sages have never erred so as to attribute the fall of the
+first Angels to their love of women, no more than they have put men under
+the power of the Devil; by imputing all the adventures of the Nymphs and
+Sylphs to him, of which the historians speak so largely. There was nothing
+criminal in all that. They were the Sylphs, which endeavoured to become
+Immortal. Their innocent pursuits, far enough from being able to
+scandalize the Philosophers, have appeared so just to us, that we are all
+resolved by common consent, utterly to renounce women; and entirely to
+give ourselves to the immortalizing of the Nymphs and Satyrs.
+
+Good Lord (cried I) What do I hear? Was there ever such marvellous F----.
+Yes, my son (interrupted the Count) admire the marvellous felicity of the
+Sages! Instead of women, whose fading beauty passes away in a short time,
+and is followed with horrible wrinkles and ugliness, the Philosophers
+enjoy beauties which never wax old, and whom they have the glory to make
+immortal. Guess at the love and the acknowledgment of those invisible
+mistresses, and with what ardour they strive to please the charitable
+philosopher, who labours to immortalize them.
+
+Ah! Sir (cried I once again), I renounce ----. Yes, you Sir, (pursued he,
+without giving me the leisure to finish) Renounce the fading pleasures
+which are to be had with women; the fairest among them all is loathsome in
+respect of the homeliest Syphide: no displeasure ever follows our Sage
+embraces. Miserable Ignorants! How should you complain, that ye have not
+the power to taste of the Philosophick pleasures. Miserable Count de
+Gabalis (interrupted I, in an accent mixed with Choler and Compasion) Will
+you give me leave to tell you at last, that I renounce this senseless
+wisdom; that I find this visionary philosophy very ridiculous; that I
+detest the abominable embraces which make you affect these Phantasms; and
+that I tremble for you, and wonder that some one of these pretended
+Sylphides does not hurry you to Hell, in the middle of your transports and
+raptures; and for fear, lest so honest a man as you, should not perceive
+the end of your foolish Chymerick Zeal, and should not repent of so great
+a crime. Oh! Oh! (answered he) mischief light on thy indocible spirit. His
+action, I must confess, affrighted me; but it was yet worse, when I
+perceived, that going further from me, he drew out of his pocket a Paper
+which I could easily see at that distance to be full of Characters; yet I
+could not well discern it. He read them gravely, and spake low. I guessed
+that he was invoking some spirit for my ruin, and repented me more than a
+little for my inconsiderate Zeal. If I escape this adventure (cried I),
+I'll never have to do with a Cabalist more. I fixed my eyes upon him, as
+upon a judge that was ready to condemn me to death; when at last I
+perceived that his looks became serene. 'Tis hard, (said he, smiling, and
+coming towards me again) 'Tis hard for you to kick against the Pricks. You
+are a vessel of Election. Heaven has ordained you to be the greatest
+Cabalist of your age. Behold the scheme of your Nativity, which cannot
+fail. If it be not now, and that too by my means, 'twill be a great
+wonder, as it appears by this Saturn retrograde.
+
+Alas, sir (said I to him) if I must become a Sage, it will never be but by
+the means of the Great Gabalis; but to deal freely with you, I am afraid,
+that you will find it a difficult matter to bend me to this Philosophical
+mode. It seems (continued he) that you should be but ill read in Physicks,
+that cannot be persuaded of the existence of these people? I know not
+(answered I) but I cannot imagine that these can be anything else but
+friends disguised. Do you still (said he) rather believe your own
+Whimseys, than Natural Reason? than Plato, Pythagoras, Celsus, Psellus,
+Proclus, Porphyrius, Jamlicus, Plotinus, Trismegistus, Noblius, Dorneus,
+Fludd; than the great Phillippus Aureolus Theophractus Bombst Paracelsus
+de Honeinhem; and than all our Society.
+
+I would believe you (answered I) as soon, nay sooner than all these; but,
+dear sir, could you not so order the business with the rest of your
+society, that I might not be obliged to have carnal knowledge of these
+elementary ladies? Away, away (replied he) you have your own liberty,
+without doubt; for nobody loves, unless he has a mind to it. Few of the
+Sages have been able to defend themselves from their Charms, but it has
+been observed that some reserving themselves wholly and entirely for
+great things (as you will know in time), would never do this honour to
+the Nymphs. I will be then of this number (said I), but yet neither can I
+resolve to lose time about the ceremonies which I have heard a Prelate
+say, must be practised by those who mean to converse with their Geniuses.
+This Prelate knew not what he said (said the Count), for you shall see ere
+long, that there are no Geniuses there; and besides, that never any Sage
+employed either ceremonies or superstition for the familiarity of the
+Geniuses, no more than for the people of whom we speak.
+
+The Cabalists do nothing, but by the principles of nature: and if there
+are sometimes found in our books certain strange words, characters, or
+fumigations, 'tis but to conceal the philosophical principles from the
+ignorant. Admire the simplicity of Nature, in all her most marvellous
+operations! And in this simplicity, a Harmony and Agreement so great, so
+just, and so necessary that it will make you return back in despite of
+yourself from your weak imaginations. That which I am now about to tell
+you, we teach those of our disciples, which we will not let altogether
+enter into the Sanctuary of Nature; and to whom we will nevertheless, not
+utterly deprive of the Society of the elementary people, merely out of the
+compassion which we have for these poor wretches.
+
+The Salamanders (as you have already, perhaps, comprehended) are composed
+of the most subtile parts of the Sphere of Fire, conglobated and organized
+by the action of the universal fire (concerning which, I shall one day
+entertain you further) so called, because it is principal of all the
+motions of nature.
+
+The Sylphes in like manner, are composed of the purest atoms of the air:
+the Nymphs of the most delicate parts of the water, and the Gnomes of the
+subtlest parts of the Earth. There was a great proportion betwixt Adam and
+these so perfect Creatures; because they being composed of that which was
+most pure in the four elements; he comprehended the perfection of these
+four sorts of people, and was their natural King. But since the time that
+his sin precipitated him into the excrements of the elements (as you shall
+see hereafter) the Harmony was disordered, and there was no more
+proportion, he being become impure and dull in respect of the substances
+so pure and so subtil. What remedy for this evil? How shall we remount
+this throne and recover this lost sovereignty? O Nature! Why do they study
+thee so little? Do you not comprehend my son, with what simplicity nature
+can render to man the goods which he has lost? Alas! Sir (replied I), I am
+very ignorant in all these simplicities, you speak of. But yet (pursued
+he) it is very easy to become knowing in them.
+
+If we would recover that empire over the Salamanders, we must purifie, and
+exalt the element of fire which is in us, and raise up the tone of this
+slackened string, we need do no more, but concentre the fire of the world
+by concave mirrors in a globe of glass. And herein, is that great piece of
+art which all the ancients have so religiously concealed, and which the
+divine Theophrastus has discovered. There is formed in this globe a solar
+powder, which being purified by itself from the mixture of other elements,
+and being prepared according to art, becomes in a very little time,
+sovereignly proper to exalt the fire which is in us, and make us become
+(according to our phrase) of a fiery nature. From that time the
+inhabitants of the sphere of fire become our inferiors, and ravished to
+see our mutual harmony re-established, and that we once more approach to
+them. They have all the kindness for us which they have for their own
+species, all the respect which they owe to the image and to the lieutenant
+of their Creator; and all the concern which may make evident in them, the
+desire of obtaining by us the immortality which they want. 'Tis true that
+as they are more subtil than those of the other elements, they live a very
+long time, so they are not very forward to importune the Sages to make
+them immortal. You may accommodate yourself with one of these, if the
+aversion which you have witnessed to me last not with you to the end:
+perchance, she will never speak to you of that which you fear so much.
+
+It will not be so with the Sylphs, the Gnomes and the Nymphs, for they
+living a less time, have more need of us, and so their familiarity is more
+easie to obtain. You need but shut up a glass filled with conglobated air,
+water or earth, and expose it to the sun for a month; then separate the
+element according to art, which is very easie to do, if it be earth or
+water. 'Tis a marvellous thing to see, what a vertue any one of these
+purified elements have to attract the Nymphs, Sylphs, and Gnomes. In
+taking but never so little every day, for about a month together, one
+shall see in the air the volant republique of the Sylphs; the Nymphs come
+in shoals up the rivers, and the guardians of treasures, presenting you
+with their riches. Thus, without characters, without ceremonies, without
+barbarous words you become absolute master over all these people. They
+require no worship of the Sages, since they know well enough that he is
+nobler than they. Thus venerable nature teaches her children how to repair
+the elements by the elements. Thus is harmony re-established. Thus man
+recovers his natural empire, and can do all things in the elements,
+without demons, or unlawful art. Thus you see, my son, that the Sages are
+more innocent than you thought. You say nothing to me----.
+
+I admire sir (said I), and I begin to fear that you will make me to become
+a Chymist. Ah! God preserve thee from that, my child (cried he). 'Tis not
+to these fooleries that your nativity designs you, I will warrant you on
+the contrary, from being troubled about that: I told you already, that the
+Sages shew not these things, but to those whom they will not admit into
+their society. You shall have all these advantages, and others infinitely
+more glorious, and more pleasant, by ways clearly more philosophical. I
+had not described those methods to you, but to let you see the innocence
+of this Philosophy, and to take you out of these panic fears.
+
+I thank God, sir (answered I), I am not at present, in any such fear as I
+was even now. And although I do not yet resolve upon the accommodation
+which you propose to me with the Salamanders; I cannot refrain from having
+the curiosity to learn how you have discovered that these Nymphs and these
+Sylphs die. Truly (replied he) they tell us so, and we see them die. How
+(said I) can you see them die, and yet your commerce renders them
+immortal? That would be well (pursued he) if the number of the Sages
+equalled the number of these people: besides that, there are many amongst
+them, who rather choose to die, than hazard by becoming immortal, the
+being so unhappy as they see the devils are. And 'tis the devil, who
+inspired with these opinions: for there is no mischief, which he doth not
+do to hinder the poor creatures from becoming immortal by our alliance.
+Insomuch that I look upon it (and so ought you my son) as a most
+pernicious temptation, and a motion of very little charity, to have this
+aversion which you show to it.
+
+Moreover, as concerning their death, of which you speak: what was it that
+obliged the Oracle of Apollo, to say, that all those who speak Oracles,
+were mortal, as well as he; as Porphyrius reports? And, what think you,
+was the meaning of that voice which was heard on all the coast of Italy,
+and struck so great a terror into all those who were upon the sea? The
+Great Pan is Dead! They were the people of the air: who gave notice to the
+people of the water that the chiefest and most aged of all the Sylphs, was
+newly dead.
+
+At that time when this voice was heard (said I to him) I suppose that the
+world worshipped Pan and the Nymphs: and that these gentlemen, whose
+commerce you are preaching of to me, were the false gods of the heathen.
+'Tis true, my son (replied he) the Sages have always been of that
+opinion, that the Devil never had the power to make himself worshipped. He
+is too unhappy, and too weak, ever to have had this pleasure, and this
+authority. But he has been able to persuade the elementary hosts to shew
+themselves to men, and make men erect temples to them; and by the natural
+dominion which every one has over the element which he inhabits, they
+trouble the air, and the sea, set the earth in combustion, and dispense
+the fire of heaven, according to their humour: insomuch that they had no
+great trouble to be taken for Deities, so long as the sovereign being
+dispensed the salvation of the world. But the devil never received all the
+advantage of his malice, which he hoped he should; for it has happened
+from thence, that Pan, the Nymphs, and the rest of the elementary people,
+having found the means of changing this commerce of worship, into a
+commerce of love; (for you may remember, that amongst the ancients, Pan
+was the king of those gods whom they called Incubuses, and who always
+earnestly sought the acquaintance of maids), many heathens have escaped
+the devil, and shall never burn in hell.
+
+I do not well understand you, sir (said I) You have not minded me, to
+understand me (continued he, smiling, and in a jeering tone). Behold what
+you pass over! and likewise what your doctors pass over, who know not what
+these excellent Physicks mean! Behold the great mystery of all this part
+of philosophy, which concerns the elements, and which will take away (if
+you have but never so little love for yourself), this repugnance to
+philosophy, which you have witnessed to me this day! Know then, my son;
+and go not about to divulge this great Arcanum to any unworthy ignorant.
+Know, that as the Sylphs acquire an immortal soul, by the alliance which
+they contract with the men who are predestinated; so also, the men who
+have no right to eternal glory: those miserable wretches, whose
+immortality is but a lamentable advantage, for whom the Messias was
+sent--
+
+Then, you gentlemen of the Cabal, are Jansenists likewise (interrupted I?)
+We know not what that is, my child (proceeded he, somewhat angrily) and we
+scorn to inform ourselves wherein consists the different sects and divers
+religions, with which the ignorant puzzle their heads. We keep to the
+ancient religion of our fathers, the Philosophers; wherein 'tis very
+necessary that I instruct you. But come again to the purpose: these men
+whose sad immortality is nothing but an eternal misfortune; the unhappy
+children, whom the Sovereign Father has neglected, have also this
+recourse, that they may become mortal, by contracting alliance with these
+elementary people. So that you see, the Sages hazard nothing for Eternity.
+If they are predestinated, they have the pleasure to carry with them to
+heaven (in quitting the prison of this body) the Sylphide or Nymph, which
+they have immortalised! and if they be not predestinated, the commerce of
+the Nymph renders their soul mortal, and delivers them from the horrors of
+the second death. So the Devil saw all the Pagans escape, who allied
+themselves to the Nymphs: and so the Sages, or friends of the Sages, when
+God inspires us to communicate to any one, the four elementary secrets
+(which I have now been teaching you), free themselves from the Peril of
+being damned.
+
+Without lying, sir (cried I, not daring to put him again into an ill
+humour, and finding it requisite to defer the telling him plainly my
+opinion, till I should have discovered all the secrets of his Cabal, which
+I judged by this glimpse, must needs be very full of pleasure and
+divertisement): without lying, you advance wisdom to a great height! And
+you had reason to tell me, that this surpassed all our doctors; and I
+believe, that this likewise passes all our magistrates too; and that, if
+they could discover who those were that escaped the devil by this means
+(as ignorance is very unjust), they would engage in the devil's interest,
+against these fugitives and make a strong party for him. Yes, it is for
+that (pursued the Count) that I have so strictly commanded you; to keep
+religiously this secret. Your judges are strange persons. They condemn a
+most innocent action as a dismal crime. What a barbarity was it, to burn
+those two priests which the Prince of Miranda says he knew of, who had
+each of them his Sylphide, for the space of forty years! What an inhuman
+thing was it to put Joan Hervilles to death, for having laboured six and
+forty years, to immortalise a Gnome! And, what a piece of ignorance was
+that of Bodin, to represent her as a witch; and that from thence he might
+take advantage to authorise popular errors, touching pretended Sorcerers;
+in a book as impertinent as his Commonwealth is reasonable.
+
+But it is late; and I do not consider, that you have not yet dined. 'Tis
+yourself, that you mean, sir (said I), for as for my part, I could listen
+to you till to-morrow, without inconvenience. For me! Alas! (replied he,
+laughing, and walking towards the gate), 'tis easily seen that you
+understand but little what philosophy is. The Sages eat but for their
+pleasure, and never for necessity. I had a quite contrary idea of Wisdom
+(answered I), I had thought that you wise men should never eat but to
+satisfy nature. You are abused (said the Count). How long think you, that
+our Sages can subsist without eating? How can I tell? (answered I), Moses
+and Elias, you know, fasted forty days: you Sages, I make no doubt, may do
+it, some days less. What a great piece of business would that be (replied
+he), the most wise men that ever was, the Divine, the almost adorable
+Paracelsus, affirms, that he has seen many of the Sages fast twenty years,
+without eating anything whatsoever. He himself, before he attained to the
+monarchy of wisdom, whereof we have justly presented him the sceptre, he,
+I say, would undertake to live many years without eating, by taking but
+half a scruple of his Solar Quintescence. And if you would have the
+pleasure to make any one live without victuals, you need do no more, but
+prepare the earth, as I told you it must be prepared, for the Society of
+the Gnomes: this earth applied to the navle, and renewed when it is dry,
+will cause any one to live without eating or drinking, and that without
+any trouble.
+
+And the use of this Catholic-Cabalistical Medicine, frees us much better
+from all the importunate necessities, to which nature makes the ignorant
+subject; we eat not, but when it pleases us; and all the superfluity of
+food passing away by an insensible Transpiration, we are never ashamed to
+be men. There he held his peace.
+
+In succeeding interviews the Count de Gabalis further explains to his
+interlocutor the nature and pursuits of the elementary spirits; asserts
+that it was they only, and not the vile gods of the Greeks and Romans,
+that delivered the oracles of old; that they continually kept watch over
+man to do him service, and to warn him of approaching evil. It was they
+who sent omens and furnished him with the understanding to interpret them,
+and who filled his mind with presentiments when some great calamity was
+impending over him, that he might perchance avoid it. They also sent him
+dreams for the regulation of his fate. But "alas," continues the Count,
+"men ignorantly misunderstand and reject their kindness. A poor Sylph
+hardly dares to shew himself lest he should be mistaken for an imp of
+evil; an Undine cannot endeavour to acquire an immortal soul, by loving a
+man, without running the risk of being considered a vile, impure phantom;
+and a Salamander, if he shews himself in his glory, is taken for a devil,
+and the pure light which surrounds him considered the fire of hell. It is
+in vain that, to dispel these unworthy suspicions, they make the sign of
+the cross when they appear, and bend their knees when the Divine name is
+uttered. All their efforts are useless. Obstinate man persists in
+considering them enemies of that God whom they know, and whom they adore
+more religiously than men do. The prayer which you will find preserved by
+Porphyne, and which was offered up in the Temple of Delphos for the
+enlightenment of the Pagans, was the prayer of a Salamander." In short
+without continuing to quote the words of the Count de Gabalis, he asserted
+that all the supernatural appearances with which the history of every age
+and nation was full, were to be, and could only be, explained by the
+agency of these elemental sprites; that the deeds attributed to devils,
+imps and witches, were the creations of a false and degrading
+superstition, unworthy to be believed by philosophers. There were no
+fiends with
+
+  "----'aery tongues that syllable mens' names
+  On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses."
+
+but beneficent spirits, the friends of man. The _peris_ of eastern
+romance, the _fées_, the _fatas_, and the fairies of European legends,
+were names which, in their ignorance, the people of different countries
+had given to the Sylphs. Vulcan, Bacchus, and Pan, though the Greeks did
+not know it, were Gnomes; Neptune and Venus, and all the Naiads and
+Nereids, were but the Undines of the Rosicrucians; Apollo was a
+Salamander, and Mercury a Sylph; and not one of the personages of the
+multifarious mythology of the Greeks and Romans, but could be ranged under
+one or other of these classes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_The Hermetick Romance; or Chymical Wedding._
+
+
+A remarkable work was published at Strasbourg, in the year 1616, entitled,
+"The Hermetick Romance: or the Chymical Wedding. Written in High Dutch by
+Christian Rosencreutz." This book though not given out to the world until
+the above year, is said to have existed in manuscript for some time
+previously, as far back in fact as 1601, thus making it the oldest
+Rosicrucian book extant. A modern writer says: The whole Rosicrucian
+controversy centres in this publication, which Buhle describes as a comic
+romance of extraordinary talent.
+
+Owing to its importance, we shall have to make some lengthy extracts from
+the translation made in 1690, by E. Foxcroft of King's College, Cambridge.
+It is arranged in chapters, denominated days, marked from one to seven.
+
+
+The First Day.
+
+On an evening before Easter Day, I sate at a Table, and having (as my
+custom was) in my humble prayer sufficiently conversed with my Creator,
+and considered many great mysteries (whereof the Father of Lights his
+Majesty had shewn me not a few) and being now ready to prepare in my
+heart, together with my dear Paschal Lamb, a small unleavened, undefiled
+cake; all on a sudden ariseth so horrible a tempest, that I imagined no
+other but that through its mighty force, the hill whereon my little house
+was founded, would fly in pieces. But in as much as this, and the like
+from the devil (who had done me many a spite) was no new thing to me; I
+took courage and persisted in my meditation, till somebody (after an
+unusual manner) touched me on the back; whereupon I was so highly
+terrified, that I durst hardly look about me; yet I shewed myself as
+cheerful as (in the like occurrences) human frailty would permit. Now the
+same thing still twitching me several times by the coat, I looked back,
+and behold it was a fair and glorious lady whose garments were all skye
+colour, and curiously (like Heaven) bespangled with golden stars. In her
+right hand she bare a trumpet of beaten gold, whereon a name was engraven
+(which I could well read in) but am as yet forbidden to reveal it. In her
+left hand she had a great bundle of letters of all languages, which she
+(as I afterwards understood) was to carry into all countries. She had also
+large and beautiful wings, full of eyes throughout, wherewith she could
+mount aloft and fly swifter than any eagle. I might perhaps have taken
+further notice of her, but because she staid so small a time with me, and
+terror and amasement still possessed me, I was fain to be content. For as
+soon as I turned about, she turned her letters over and over, and at
+length drew out a small one, which with great reverence she laid down upon
+the table, and without giving one word departed from me. But in her
+mounting upwards, she gave so mighty a blast on her gallant trumpet, that
+the whole hill echoed thereof, and for a full quarter of an hour after, I
+could hardly hear my own words.
+
+In so unlooked-for an adventure, I was at loss, how either to advise or
+assist my poor self, and therefore fell upon my knees, and besought my
+Creator to permit nothing contrary to my eternal happiness to befall me;
+whereupon with fear and trembling I went to the letter which was now so
+heavy, as had it been mere gold, it could hardly have been so weighty. Now
+as I was diligently viewing it, I found a little Seal, whereupon a curious
+cross with this inscription, IN HOC SIGNO VINCES, was engraven.
+
+Now as soon as I espied this sign I was the more comforted, as not being
+ignorant that such a Seal was little acceptable, and much less useful to
+the Devil. Whereupon I tenderly opened the letter and within it, in an
+Azure Field, in Golden Letters, found the following verses written--
+
+      This day, this day, this, this
+      The Royal wedding is.
+  Art thou thereto by birth inclin'd
+  And unto joy of God design'd,
+  Then mayst thou to the mountain tend
+  Whereon three stately Temples stand,
+  And there see all from end to end.
+      Keep watch and ward,
+      Thyself regard;
+  Unless with diligence thou bathe,
+  The Wedding can't thee harmless save:
+  He'll damage have that here delays,
+  Let him beware, too light that weighs.
+
+Underneath stood Sponsus and Sponsa.
+
+As soon as I had read this letter, I was presently like to have fainted
+away, all my hair stood on end, and a cold sweat trickled down my whole
+body. For although I well perceived that this was the appointed wedding,
+whereof seven years before I was acquainted in a bodily vision, and which
+now so long time I had with great earnestness attended, and which lastly,
+by the account and calculation of the Planets, I had most diligently
+observed, I found so to be, yet could I never foresee that it must happen
+under so grievous and perilous conditions. For whereas I before imagined
+that to be a welcome and acceptable guest, I needed only be ready to
+appear at the wedding; I was now directed to Divine Providence, to which
+until this time I was never certain. I also found by myself, the more I
+examined myself, that in my head there was nothing but gross
+misunderstanding and blindness in mysterious things, so that I was not
+able to comprehend even those things which lay under my feet, and which I
+daily conversed with, much less that I should be born to the searching
+out and understanding of the secrets of Nature; since in my opinion Nature
+might everywhere find a more _vertuous_ disciple, to whom to intrust her
+precious, though temporary and changeable treasures. I found also that my
+bodily behaviour, and outward good conversation, and brotherly love
+towards my neighbour, was not duly purged and cleansed; moreover, the
+tickling of the flesh manifested itself, whose affection was bent only to
+pomp and bravery, and worldly pride, and not to the good of mankind; and I
+was always contriving how by this art I might in short time abundantly
+increase my profit and advantage, rear up stately palaces, make myself an
+everlasting name in the world, and other the like carnal designs. But the
+obscure words concerning the Three Temples did particularly afflict me,
+which I was not able to make out by any after speculation, and perhaps
+should not yet, had they not been wonderfully revealed to me. Thus
+sticking betwixt hope and fear, examining myself again and again, and
+finding my own frailty and impotency, not being in any wise able to
+succour myself, and exceedingly amazed at the fore-mentioned threatening;
+at length I betook myself to my usual and most secure course; after I had
+finished my earnest and most fervent prayer, I laid me down in my bed,
+that so perchance my good angel by the Divine permission might appear, and
+(as it had formerly happened) instruct me in this doubtful affair, which
+to the praise of God, my own good, and my neighbour's hearty and faithful
+warning and amendment did now likewise fall out. For I was scarce fallen
+asleep, when me-thought, I, together with a numberless multitude of men
+lay fettered with great chains in a dark dungeon, wherein, without the
+least glimpse of light, we swarmed like bees over one another, and thus
+rendered each other's affliction more grievous. But although neither I,
+nor any of the rest could see one jot; yet I continually heard one heaving
+himself above the other, when his chains or fetters were become ever so
+little lighter, though none of us had much reason to shove up the other,
+since we were all captive wretches. Now as I with the rest had continued a
+good while in this affliction, and each was still reproaching the other
+with his blindness and captivity, at length we heard many trumpets
+sounding together, and kettle-drums beating so artificially thereto, that
+it even revived and rejoiced us in our calamity.
+
+During this noise, the cover of the dungeon was from above lifted up, and
+a little light let down unto us. Then first might truly have been
+discerned the bustle we kept, for all went pesle-mesle, and he who
+perchance had too much heaved up himself, was forced down again under the
+others feet. In brief, each one strove to be uppermost, neither did I
+myself linger, but with my weighty fetters slipped up from under the rest,
+and then heaved myself upon a stone, which I laid hold of; howbeit, I was
+several times caught at by others, from whom yet as well as I might, with
+hands and feet, I still guarded myself. For we imagined no other but that
+we should all be set at liberty, which yet fell out quite otherwise. For
+after the nobles, who looked upon us from above through the hole, had a
+while recreated themselves with this our struggling and lamenting, a
+certain hoary headed Ancient Man, called to us to be quiet, and having
+scarce obtained it, began (as I still remember) thus to say:--
+
+  If wretched mankind would forbear
+    Themselves so to uphold,
+  Then sure on them much good confer
+    My righteous mother would.
+  But since the same will not insue
+  They must in care and Sorrow rue,
+    And still in Prison lie.
+  Howbeit my dear mother will
+    Their follies over-see,
+  Her choicest gifts permitting still
+    Too much in th' Light to be.
+  Though very rarely it may seem
+  That they may still keep some esteem,
+  Which else would pass for forgery.
+  Wherefore in honour of the Feast
+    We this day solemnize,
+  That so her Grace may be increast
+    A good deed she'll devise,
+  For now a cord shall be let down,
+  And whosoe'er can hang thereon,
+    Shall freely be releast.
+
+He had scarce done speaking, when an ancient matron commanded her servants
+to let down the cord seven times into the dungeon, and draw up whosoever
+could hang upon it. Good God! that I could sufficiently describe the hurry
+and disquiet that then arose amongst us, for every one strove to get at
+the cord, and yet only hindered each other. But after seven minutes a sign
+was given by a little bell, whereupon at the first pull the servants drew
+up four. At that time I could not come near the cord by much, having to my
+huge misfortune, betaken myself to a stone at the wall of the dungeon, and
+thereby was disabled to get to the cord which descended in the middle. The
+cord was let down the second time, but divers because their chains were
+too heavy, and their hands too tender, could not keep their hold on the
+cord, but with themselves beat down many another, who else, perhaps, might
+have held fast enough; nay, many an one was forcibly pulled off by another
+who yet could not himself get at it; mutually envious were we even in this
+our great misery. But they of all others most moved my compassion whose
+weight was so heavy that they tore their very hands from their bodies, and
+yet could not get up. Thus it came to pass that at these five times, very
+few were drawn up. For as soon as the sign was given, the servants were
+so nimble at the draught, that the most part tumbled one upon another, and
+the cord, this time especially, was drawn up very empty. Whereupon the
+greatest part, and even I myself, despaired of Redemption, and called upon
+God that he would have pity on us, and (if possible) deliver us out of
+this obscurity, who also then heard some of us: for when the cord came
+down the sixth time, some of them hung themselves fast upon it, and whilst
+in the drawing up, the cord swung from one side to the other, it (perhaps
+by the will of God) came to me, which I suddenly catching, got uppermost
+above all the rest, and so at length beyond hope came out; whereat I
+exceedingly rejoiced, so that I perceived not the wound, which in the
+drawing up I received on my head by a sharp stone, till I with the rest
+who were released (as was always before done) was fain to help at the
+seventh and last pull, at which time through straining, the blood ran down
+all over my clothes, which I nevertheless for joy regarded not. Now when
+the last draught whereon the most of all hung was finished, the matron
+caused the cord to be laid away and willed her aged son (at which I much
+wondered) to declare her resolution to the rest of the Prisoners, who
+after he had a little bethought himself, spoke thus unto them:
+
+                   Ye children dear,
+                   All present here,
+  What is but now compleat and done,
+  Was long before resolved on:
+  What ev'r my mother of great grace
+  To each on both sides here hath shewn
+  May never miscontent misplace;
+  The joyful time is drawing on,
+  When every one shall equal be,
+  None wealthy, none in penury.
+  Who ev'r receiveth great commands,
+  Hath work enough to fill his hands.
+  Who ev'r with much hath trusted been,
+  'Tis well if he may save his skin.
+  Wherefore your lamentations cease,
+  What is't to waite for some few days.
+
+As soon as he had finished the words, the cover was again put and locked
+down, and the trumpet and kettle-drums began afresh, yet could not the
+noise thereof be so loud but that the bitter lamentation of the prisoners
+which arose in the dungeon was above all, which soon also caused my eyes
+to run over. Presently after the ancient matron, together with her son,
+sat down upon seats before prepared, and commanded the Redeemed should be
+told. Now as soon as she understood the number, and had written it down in
+a gold-yellow tablet, she demanded every one's name, which were also
+written down by a little page; having viewed us all, one after another,
+she sighed, and spoke to her son, so as I could well hear her. 'Ah? how
+heartily am I grieved for the poor men in the dungeon! I would to God, I
+durst release them all,' whereunto her son replied; 'It is, mother, thus
+ordained of God, against whom we may not contend. In case we all of us
+were lords, and possessed all the goods upon earth, and were seated at
+table, who would there then be to bring up the service?' whereupon his
+mother held her peace, but soon after she said; 'Well, however, let these
+be freed from their fetters,' which was likewise presently done, and I,
+except a few, was the last, yet could I not refrain, but (though I still
+looked upon the rest) bowed myself before the ancient matron, and thanked
+God that through her, He had graciously and fatherly vouchsafed to bring
+me out of such darkness into the light: after me the rest did likewise, to
+the satisfaction of the matron. Lastly, to every one was given a piece of
+gold for a remembrance, and to spend by the way; on the one side whereof
+was stamped the rising sun, on the other (as I remember) these three
+letters, D. L. S., and therewith everyone had license to depart, and was
+sent to his own business, with this annexed intimation, that we to the
+glory of God should benefit our neighbours, and reserve in silence what we
+had been intrusted with, which we also promised to do, and so departed one
+from another. But in regard of the wounds which the fetters had caused me,
+I could not well go forward, but halted on both feet, which the matron
+presently espying, laughing at it, and calling me again to her, said thus
+to me, My son, let not this defect afflict thee, but call to mind thy
+infirmities, and therewith thank God who hath permitted thee even in this
+world, and in the state of thy imperfection to come into so high a light,
+and keep these wounds for my sake. Whereupon the trumpets began again to
+sound, which so affrighted me that I awoke, and then first perceived that
+it was only a dream, which yet was so strongly impressed upon my
+imagination, that I was still perpetually troubled about it, and methought
+I was yet sensible of the wounds on my feet. Howbeit, by all these things
+I well understood that God had vouchsafed that I should be present at this
+mysterious and hidden wedding; wherefore with child-like confidence I
+returned thanks to his Divine Majesty, and besought him that he would
+further preserve me in this fear, that he would daily fill my heart with
+wisdom and understanding, and at length graciously (without my desert)
+conduct me to the desired end. Hereupon I prepared myself for the way, put
+on my white linen coat, girded my loins with blood-red ribbon, bound
+crossways over my shoulder; in my hat I stuck four red roses, that I might
+sooner by this token be taken notice of among the throng. For food I took
+bread, salt, and water, which by the counsel of an understanding person, I
+had at certain times used, not without profit, in the like occurrences.
+Before I parted from my cottage I first in this dress and wedding garment,
+fell down on my knees and besought God, that in case such a thing were,
+he would vouchsafe me a good issue. And thereupon in the presence of God I
+made a vow, that if anything through his grace should be revealed unto me,
+I would employ it neither to my own honour nor authority in the world, but
+to the spreading of his name, and the services of my neighbour. And with
+this vow and good hope, I departed out of my cell with joy.
+
+
+The Second Day.
+
+I was hardly got outside of my Cell into a Forest, when methought that the
+whole heavens had already trimmed themselves against this wedding, for
+even the birds in my opinion chanted more pleasantly than before, and the
+young fawns skipped so merrily that they rejoiced my old heart, and moved
+me to sing. At length I espied a curious green heath, whither I betook
+myself out of the forest. Upon the heath stood three tall Cedars, to one
+of which was fastened a tablet, upon which was curious writing, offering
+to him who had heard anything concerning the nuptials of the king, four
+ways, all of which would lead to the royal court. The reader was exhorted
+to choose which he would, and to persevere therein, receiving at the same
+time warning as to the dangers to which he would be committed. As soon as
+I had read this writing, all my joy was near vanished again, and I, who
+before sang merrily, began now inwardly to lament, for although I saw all
+the three ways before me, and understood that henceforward it was
+vouchsafed me to make choice of one of them; yet it troubled me that in
+case I went the stormy and rocky way, I might get a miserable and deadly
+fall; or taking the long one, I might wander out of it through byways, or
+be otherwise detained in the great journey. Neither durst I hope that I
+should be the very he, who should choose the royal way. I saw likewise the
+fourth before me, but it was so invironed with fire and exhalations, that
+I durst not draw near it, and therefore again and again considered
+whether I should return back, or take any of the ways before me. I
+presently drew out my bread and cut a slice of it, which a snow white
+dove, of whom I was not aware, sitting upon the tree, espyed and thereupon
+came down and betook herself very familiarly to me, to whom I willingly
+imparted my food, which she received, and so with her prettiness did again
+a little refresh me. But as soon as her enemy, a black raven, perceived
+it, he straight darted himself down upon the dove, and taking no notice of
+me, would needs force away the dove's meat, who could no otherwise guard
+herself but by flight; whereupon they both together flew towards the
+south, at which I was so hugely incensed and grieved, that without
+thinking what I did, I made haste after the filthy raven and so against my
+will ran into one of the forementioned ways a whole field's length, and
+thus the raven being chased away, and the dove delivered, I then first
+observed what I had inconsiderately done, and that I was already entered
+into a way, from which under peril of great punishment I durst not retire,
+and though I had still wherewith in some measure to comfort myself, yet
+that which was worst of all to me was, that I had left my bag and bread at
+the tree, and could never retrieve them again. At length upon a high hill
+afar off I espied a stately portal, to which not regarding how far it was
+distant, I hasted, because the sun had already hid himself under the
+hills, and I could elsewhere espy no abiding place, and this verily I
+ascribe only to God, who might well have permitted me to go forward in
+this way, and with-held my eyes that so I might have gazed beside this
+gate, to which I now made mighty haste, and reached it by so much
+daylight, as to take a very competent view of it. Now it was an exceeding
+Royal beautiful portal. As soon as I was come under it there stepped forth
+one in a sky coloured habit, whom I in friendly manner saluted, which
+though he thankfully returned it, yet he instantly demanded of me my
+letter of invitation. O how glad was I that I had then brought it with
+me. I quickly presented it, wherewith he was not only satisfied, but
+showed me abundance of respect, saying, come in, my brother, an acceptable
+guest you are to me; and withall intreated me not to with-hold my name
+from him. Now having replied that I was a brother of the Red-Rosie Cross,
+he both wondered and seemed to rejoice at it, and then proceeded thus, My
+brother, have you nothing about you wherewith to purchase a token? I
+answered my ability was small, but if he saw anything about me he had a
+mind to, it was at his service. Now he having requested of me my bottle of
+water, and I granted it, he gives me a golden token, whereon stood no more
+but these two letters, S. C., intreating me that when it stood me in good
+stead, I would remember him. After which I asked him, how many were got in
+before me, which he also told me, and lastly out of mere friendship, gave
+me a sealed letter to the second porter. Now having lingered some time
+with him, the night grew on, whereupon a great beacon upon the gate was
+immediately fired, that so if any were still upon the way, he might make
+haste thither. At length after sufficient information, and an advantageous
+instruction, I friendly departed from the first porter. On the way,
+though, I would gladly have known what was written in my letter, yet since
+I had no reason to mistrust the porter, I forbare my purpose, and so went
+on the way, until I came likewise to the second gate which although it was
+very like the other, yet was it adorned with images and mystic
+significations. Under this gate lay a terrible grim lion, chain'd, who as
+soon as he espied me arose and made at me with great roaring: whereupon
+the second porter, who lay upon a stone of marble, awaked, and wished me
+not to be troubled or affrighted, and then drove back the lion, and having
+received the letter, which I with trembling reached him, he read it, and
+with very great respect, spoke thus to me; Now well-come in God's Name
+unto me the man who of long time I would gladly have seen. Meanwhile he
+also drew out a token, and asked me whether I could purchase it. But I
+having nothing else but my salt, presented it to him, which he thankfully
+accepted. Upon this token again stood only two letters, namely, S. M.
+Being now just about to enter discourse with him, it began to ring in the
+Castle, whereupon the porter counselled me to run apace, or else all the
+pains and labour I had hitherto taken would serve to no purpose, for the
+lights above began all ready to be extinguished; whereupon I dispatched
+with such great haste that I heeded not the porter, in such anguish was I,
+and truly it was but necessary, for I could not run so fast but that the
+Virgin, after whom all the lights were put out, was at my heels, and I
+should never have found the way, had not she with her torch, afforded me
+some light. I was moreover constrained to enter the very next to her, and
+the gate was so suddenly clapped to, that a part of my coat was locked
+out, which I verily was forced to leave behind me, for neither I nor they
+who stood ready without and called at the gate could prevail with the
+porter to open it again, but he delivered the keys to the Virgin, who took
+them with her into the court. Under this gate I was again to give my name,
+which was this last time written down in a little vellum book, and
+immediately with the rest dispatched to the Lord Bridegroom. Here it was
+where I first received the true Guest-Token, which was somewhat less than
+the former, but yet much heavier; upon this stood three letters S. P. N.
+Besides this, a new pair of shoes were given me, for the floor of the
+castle was laid with pure shining marble; my old shoes I was to give way
+to one of the poor who sat in throngs under the gate. Two pages, with as
+many torches, then conducted me into a little room; there they willed me
+to sit down on a form, which I did, but they, sticking their torches in
+two holes in the pavement, departed, and left me thus alone. Soon after I
+heard a noise, but saw nothing, and it proved to be certain men who
+stumbled in upon me; but since I could see nothing I was fain to suffer
+and attend what they would do with me, but presently perceiving them to be
+barbers, I intreated them not to justle me so, for I was content to do
+whatever they desired, whereupon they quickly let me go, and so one of
+them fine and gently cut away the hair round about from the crown of my
+head, but on my forehead, ears, and eyes, he permitted my grey locks to
+hang.
+
+In this first encounter I was ready to despair, for inasmuch as some of
+them shoved me so forcibly, and I could yet see nothing I could think no
+other but that God, for my curiosity, had suffered me to miscarry. Now
+these invisible barbers carefully gathered up the hair which was cut off
+and carried it away with them. After which the two pages entered again,
+and heartily laughed at me for being so terrified. But they had scarcely
+spoken a few words with me when again a little bell began to ring, which
+was to give notice for assembling, whereupon they willed me rise, and
+through many walks, doors, and winding stairs lighted me into a spacious
+hall. In this room was a great multitude of guests, emperors, kings,
+princes, and lords, noble and ignoble, rich and poor, and all sorts of
+people, at which I hugely marvelled, and thought to myself, ah, how gross
+a fool hast thou been to engage upon this journey with so much bitterness
+and toil, when here are even those fellows whom thou well knowest, and yet
+had'st never any reason to esteem. They are now all here, and thou with
+all thy prayers and supplications art hardly got in at last. This, and
+more, the devil at that time injected, whom I notwithstanding (as well as
+I could) directed to the issue. Meantime one or other of my acquaintance
+here and there spake to me: Oh Brother Rosencreutz! art thou here too?
+Yea, my brethren, replied I, the grace of God hath helped me in also; at
+which they raised a mighty laughter, looking upon it as ridiculous that
+there should be need of God in so slight an occasion. Now having demanded
+each of them concerning his way, and found that most were forced to
+clamber over the rocks, certain trumpets (none of which we saw) began to
+sound to the table, whereupon they all seated themselves, everyone as he
+judged himself above the rest, so that for me and some other sorry fellows
+there was hardly a little nook left at the lower-most table. Presently the
+two pages entered, and one of them said grace; after this meat was brought
+in, and albeit none could be seen, yet everything was so orderly managed,
+that it seemed to me as if every guest had had his proper attendant. Now
+my artists having somewhat recruited themselves, and the wine having a
+little removed shame from their hearts, they presently began to vaunt and
+brag of their abilities. One would prove this, another that, and commonly
+the most sorry idiots made the loudest noise. Ah, when I call to mind what
+preternatural and impossible enterprises I then heard, I am still ready to
+vomit at it. In fine they never kept in their order, but whenever one
+rascal here, another there, could insinuate himself in between the nobles;
+then pretended they the finishing of such adventures as neither Sampson
+nor yet Hercules with all their strength could ever have achieved. This
+would discharge Atlas of his burden; the other would again draw forth the
+three-headed Cerberus out of Hell. In brief, every man had his own prate,
+and yet the great lords were so simple that they believed their pretences,
+and the rogues so audacious, that although one or other of them was here
+and there rapped over the fingers with a knife, yet they flinched not at
+it, but when any one perchance had filched a gold chain, then would all
+hazard for the like. I saw one who heard the rustling of the heavens. The
+second could see Plato's ideas. A third could number Democritus's atoms.
+There were also not a few pretenders to perpetual motion. Many an one (in
+my opinion) had good understanding, but assumed too much to himself, to
+his own destruction. Lastly, there was one also who would needs out of
+hand persuade us that he saw the servitors who attended, and would still
+have pursued his contention, had not one of those invisible waiters
+reached him so handsome a cuff upon his lying muzzle, that not only he,
+but many who were by him became as mute as mice. But it best of all
+pleased me, that all those, of whom I had any esteem were very quiet in
+their business, and made no loud cry of it, but acknowledged themselves to
+be _misunderstanding_ men, to whom the mysteries of nature were too high,
+and they themselves much too small. In this tumult I had almost cursed the
+day wherein I came hither, for I could not but with anguish behold that
+those lewd vain people were above at the board, but I in so sorry a place
+could not, however, rest in peace, one of those rascals scornfully
+reproaching me for a motley fool. Now I thought not that there was yet one
+gate behind, through which we must pass, but imagined I was during the
+whole wedding, to continue in this scorn, contempt and indignity, which
+yet I had at no time deserved, either of the Lord Bridegroom or the Bride,
+and therefore (in my opinion) he should have done well to have sought out
+some other fool to his wedding than me. Behold, to such impatience doth
+the iniquity of this world reduce simple hearts. But this really was one
+part of my lameness, whereof I dreamed. And truly this clamour the longer
+it lasted, the more it increased. For there were already those who boasted
+of false and imaginary visions, and would persuade us of palpably lying
+dreams. Now there sat by me a very fine quiet man, who oftentimes
+discoursed of excellent matters, at length he said, Behold, my brother, if
+any one should now come who were willing to instruct these blockish people
+in the right way, would he be heard? No, verily, replied I. The world,
+said he, is now resolved (whatever comes on it) to be cheated, and cannot
+abide to give ear to those who intend its good. Seest thou also that same
+coxcomb, with what whimsical figures and foolish conceits he allures
+others to him. There, one makes mouths at the people with unheard of
+mysterious words. Yet believe me in this, the time is now coming when
+those shameful Vizards shall be plucked off, and all the world shall know
+what vagabond impostors were concealed behind them. Then perhaps that will
+be valued which at present is not esteemed. Then there began in the hall
+such excellent and stately music as all the days of my life I never heard
+the like of. After half an hour this music ceased. Presently after began a
+great noise of kettle drums, trumpets, etc. The door opened of itself and
+many thousand small tapers came into the hall, all which of themselves
+marched in so very exact order as altogether amazed us, till at last the
+two fore-mentioned pages with bright torches, lighting in a most beautiful
+virgin, all drawn on a gloriously gilded triumphant self-moving throne,
+entered the hall. It seemed to me she was the very same who before on the
+way kindled and put out the lights, and that these her attendants were the
+very same whom she formerly placed at the trees. She was not now as before
+in sky colour, but arrayed in a snow white glittering robe which sparkled
+of pure gold and cast such a lustre that we durst not steadily behold it.
+
+Such guests as chose to stay throughout the night, having announced their
+intention of so doing, were bound in their chambers with cords, in such a
+way that they could by no means free themselves. At length in my sorrowful
+thoughts I fell asleep.
+
+
+The Third Day.
+
+On the morrow all being assembled, the Trumpets, etc., began again to
+sound and we imagined that the Bridegroom was ready to present himself,
+which nevertheless was a huge mistake. For it was again the yesterday's
+Virgin who had arrayed herself all in red velvet and girded herself with a
+white scarf. Her train was now no more of small tapers, but consisted of
+two hundred men in harness who were all clothed in red and white. As soon
+as they were alighted from the throne, she comes straight to us prisoners,
+and after she had saluted us, she said in a few words: That some of you
+have been sensible of your wretched condition is hugely pleasing to my
+most mighty lord, and he is also resolved you shall fare the better for
+it. And having espied me in my habit, she laughed and spake, good lack!
+Hast thou also submitted thyself to the yoke? I imagined thou would'st
+have made thyself very snug, which words caused my eyes to run over. After
+which she commanded we should be unbound, and coupled together and placed
+in a station where we might behold the scales, for, said she, it may yet
+fare better with them than with the presumptuous who yet stand here at
+liberty. Meanwhile the scales which were entirely of gold were hung up in
+the midst of the hall. There was also a little table covered with red
+velvet, and seven weights placed thereon. First of all stood a pretty
+great one, next four little ones, lastly, two great ones severally; and
+these weights in proportion to their bulk were so heavy that no man can
+believe or comprehend it. The Virgin having sprung up into her high
+throne, one of the pages commanded each one to place himself according to
+his order, and one after the other, step into the scales. One of the
+emperors made no scruple of it, but first of all bowed himself a little
+towards the Virgin, and afterwards in all his stately attire went up,
+whereupon each captain laid in his weight, which (to the wonder of all) he
+stood out. But the last was too heavy for him, so that forth he must, and
+that with such anguish that the Virgin herself had pity on him, yet was
+the good emperor bound and delivered over to the sixth band. Next came
+forth another emperor, who stepped haughtily into the scale and having a
+great thick book under his gown, he imagined not to fail; but being scarce
+able to abide the third weight, and being unmercifully slung down, and
+his book in that affrightment slipping from him, all the soldiers began to
+laugh, and he was delivered up bound to the third band. Thus it went with
+some others of the emperors. After these came forth a little short man
+with a curled beard, an emperor too, who after the usual reverence got up
+also, and held out so steadfastly, that methought had there been more
+weights ready, he would have outstood them; to whom the Virgin immediately
+arose, and bowed before him, causing him to put on a gown of red velvet,
+and at last reached him a branch of laurel, having good store of them upon
+her throne, upon the steps whereof she willed him to sit down. After him,
+how it fared with the rest of the emperors, kings and lords would be too
+long to recount, but I cannot leave unmentioned that few of those great
+personages held out. After the inquisition had also passed over the
+gentry, the learned, and unlearned, and the rest, and in each condition
+perhaps one, it may be, two, but for the most part none, was found
+perfect, it came at length to those honest gentlemen the vagabond
+cheaters, and rascally Lapidem Spitalanficum, who were set upon the scale
+with such scorn that I myself for all my grief was ready to burst with
+laughing, neither could the very prisoners themselves refrain, for the
+most part could not abide that severe trial, but with whips and scourges
+were jerked out of the scale, and led to the other prisoners. Thus of so
+great a throng so few remained, that I am ashamed to discover their
+number.
+
+The Inquisition being completely finished, and none but we poor coupled
+hounds standing aside, at length one of the captains stepped forth and
+said, Gracious Madam, if it please your ladyship, let these poor men who
+acknowledged their misunderstanding be set upon the scale, also without
+their incurring any danger of penalty, and only for recreation's sake, if
+perchance anything that is right may be found amongst them. We being
+untied were one after another set up. My companion was the fifth who held
+out bravely, whereupon all, but especially the captain, applauded him, and
+the Virgin shewed him the usual respect. I was the eighth. Now as soon as
+(with trembling) I stepped up, my companion who already sat by in his
+velvet, looked friendly upon me, and the Virgin herself smiled a little.
+But for as much as I outstayed all the weights, the Virgin commanded them
+to draw me up by force, wherefore three men moreover hung on the other
+side of the beam, and yet could nothing prevail. Whereupon one of the
+pages immediately stood up and cried out exceeding loud, THAT'S HE, upon
+which the other replied, then let him gain his liberty, which the Virgin
+acceded, and being received with due ceremonies, the choice was given me
+to release one of the captives, whosoever I pleased. Afterwards a Council
+of the seven captains and us was set, and the business was propounded by
+the Virgin as president, who desired each one to give his opinion, how the
+prisoners were to be dealt with.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The story is a long one, and we must present the rest only in outline. It
+goes on to say that the kinds of punishment to be dealt out to the
+prisoners were then discussed and arranged, after which another banquet
+took place, when these captives were required to make confession of being
+cheats and vagabonds, which after some expostulation they agreed to,
+appealing at the same time for mercy which was refused, though variations
+in the degrees of punishment were promised.
+
+When the sentences had all been executed, there came forward "a beautiful
+snow white Unicorn with a golden collar about his neck. In the same place
+he bowed himself down upon both his fore feet, as if hereby he had shewn
+honour to the Lyon, who stood so immoveably upon the fountain, that I took
+him to be of stone or brass, who immediately took the naked sword, which
+he bare in his Paw and break it in the middle in two, the pieces whereof
+to my thinking sunk into the fountain, after which he so long roared,
+until a white dove brought a branch of olive in her bill, which the Lyon
+devoured in an instant, and so was quieted. And so the Unicorn returned to
+his place with joy, while our Virgin led us down by the winding stairs."
+
+The narrative grows complicated as it proceeds, and none the less strange
+in its character; its details are inexplicable and tedious, and it will be
+impossible to lay them before our readers. The writer proceeds to describe
+his rambles about the castle, the wonders which there met his gaze, his
+respectful treatment at the banquet, and a problem proposed by the Virgin
+which was duly debated by each in turn.
+
+
+Fourth Day.
+
+Presented to the King by the Virgin who explained that the lords had
+ventured hither with peril of body and life--assured by Atlas of the
+King's welcome--promised by the Virgin that she would remove the burden of
+his old age--performance of a comedy.
+
+
+Fifth Day.
+
+Further explorations of the castle--discovery of the burial place of Lady
+Venus, "that beauty which hath undone many a great man both in fortune,
+honour, blessing, and prosperity." Journey with the Virgin to the Tower of
+Olympus.
+
+
+Sixth Day.
+
+Distribution by lot of Ladders, Ropes and Wings--the mysterious
+bird--restoring the dead to life.
+
+
+Seventh Day.
+
+"After eight o'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 and various that I wandered a good while before I could find
+the way out. The same happened to the rest, too, till at last we all met
+again in the neathermost vault, and habits entirely yellow were given us,
+together with our golden fleeces. At that time the Virgin declared to us
+that we were Knights of the Golden Stone, of which we were before
+ignorant. After we had now thus made ourselves ready and taken our
+breakfasts, the old man presented each of us with a medal of gold; on the
+one side stood these words: AR. NAT. MI. On the other these, TEM. NA. F.
+
+Exhorting us, moreover, we should enterprise nothing beyond and against
+this token of remembrance. Herewith we went 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; our flags were the twelve celestial signs, and we sate in Libra.
+Besides other things, our ship had also a noble and curious clock, which
+shewed us all the minutes. The ships passed on and before we had sailed
+two hours the mariner told us that he already saw the whole lake almost
+covered with ships, by which we could conjecture they were come but to
+meet us, which also proved true. 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 kettledrums that all the ships upon the sea capered
+again. Finally as soon as we came near they brought our ships together and
+so made a stand. Immediately the old Atlas stepped forth on the King's
+behalf, making a short but handsome oration, wherein he welcomed 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's 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 up a curious small
+casket, but what was in it I know not; only it was committed to Cupid, who
+hovered between them both, to keep. After the oration was finished, they
+again let off a joyful volley of shot, and so we sailed on a good time
+together, till at length we arrived at another shore. This was near the
+first gate at which I first entered. At this place again there attended a
+great multitude of the King's family together with some hundreds of
+horses. Our old lord and I most unworthy were to ride even with the King,
+each of us bearing a snow white ensign, with a red cross. I had fastened
+my tokens round my hat of which the young King soon took notice, and
+demanded if I were he, who could at the gate redeem those tokens? I
+answered in the most humble manner, Yes. But he laughed on me, saying,
+there henceforth needed no ceremony; I was his father. Then he asked
+wherewith I had redeemed them. I replied, with water and salt, whereupon
+he wondered who had made me so wise, upon which I grew somewhat more
+confident, and recounted unto him, how it had happened to me with my
+bread, the dove, and the raven, and he was pleased with it, and said
+expressly that it must needs be that God had herein vouchsafed me a
+singular happiness.... Meantime the tables were prepared in a spacious
+room, in which we had never been before; into this we were conducted with
+singular pomp and ceremony. This was the last noblest meal at which I was
+present. After the banquet the tables were suddenly taken away, and
+certain curious chairs placed round about in circle, in which we together
+with the King and Queen, both their old men, the ladies and virgins were
+to sit. After which a very handsome page opened the above mentioned
+glorious little book, when Atlas immediately placing himself in the midst,
+began to bespeak us to the ensuing purpose. That his royal majesty had not
+yet committed to oblivion the service we had done, and how carefully we
+had attended our duty, and therefore by way of retribution had elected all
+and 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 now swear too upon the following articles, and then his
+royal majesty would likewise know how to behave himself towards his liege
+people. Upon which he caused the page to read over the articles, which
+were these:--
+
+1.--You my lords the knights, shall swear, that you shall at no time
+ascribe your order either unto any devil, or spirit, but only to God your
+Creator, and his handmaid Nature.
+
+2.--That you will abominate all whoredom, incontinency and uncleanness,
+and not defile your order with such vices.
+
+3.--That you through your talents will be ready to assist all that are
+worthy, and have need of them.
+
+4.--That you desire not to employ this honour to worldly pride and high
+authority.
+
+5.--That you shall not be willing to live longer than God will have you.
+
+Now being to vow to them all by the King's sceptre, we were afterwards
+with the usual ceremonies installed knights, and amongst other privileges
+set our ignorance, poverty and sickness; to handle them at our pleasure.
+And this was afterwards ratified in a little chapel, and thanks returned
+to God for it. And because every one was there to write his name, I writ
+thus,
+
+  Summa Scientia nihil Scire,
+  Fr. Christianus Rosencreutz,
+  Eques aurei Lapidis,
+  Anno 1549."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_Conclusion--Modern Rosicrucianism._
+
+
+In Notes and Queries for Nov. 15th, 1886, we find the following:--"In the
+Student's Encyclopĉdia, published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1883, I find
+the following twofold statement: 'Even to-day a Rosicrucian lodge is said
+to exist in London, whose members claim by asceticism to live beyond the
+allotted age of man, and to which the late Lord Lytton vainly sought
+admission.' May I ask whether anything authentic can be learnt (1) as to
+the existence of these modern Rosicrucians, and (2) as to Lord Lytton's
+failure to gain admission among them?"
+
+In the number of Dec. 13 of the same year, the above query was thus
+answered: "The Soc. Rosic. in Anglia still holds several meetings a year
+in London. The Fratres investigate the occult sciences; but I am not aware
+that any of them now practice asceticism, or expect to prolong life on
+earth indefinitely. It is not customary to divulge the names of candidates
+who have been refused admission to the first grade, that of Zelator, so
+must ask to be excused from answering the question as to Lord Lytton.
+
+  WYNN WESTCOTT, _M.B., Magister Templi_."
+
+In September of the previous year a correspondent asked if any one could
+inform him if there were still any members of the society of the Rosy
+Cross (or Rosicrucians); and if there were, how could one communicate with
+them? Also if there were still any alchemists searching for the
+philosopher's stone and the transmutation of metals? This evoked the
+following reply:--
+
+"Some say the modern Rosicrucians are the same as the Freemasons; but as
+in the main they lived isolated, they could have been but slightly
+connected with the masons. The range of celebrated men included in the
+society is large:--Avicenna, Roger Bacon, Cardan, down to Mr. Peter
+Woulfe, F.R.S., who lived at No. 2, Barnard's Inn, and was, according to
+Mr. Brand, the last true believer in alchemy. But no doubt some few still
+dabble in these occult things." Notes and Queries, Series 6, vol 8, 317.
+
+On the same page of the same volume we have:--"The Rosicrucians are now
+(how I know not) incorporate with, and form one of the highest ranks, if
+not the highest rank, of English Freemasons." Also:--"In reply to Charles
+D. Sunderland, allow me to say there are yet living both Rosicrucians and
+Alchemists."
+
+De Quincey does not hesitate for a moment in deciding as to the identity
+between Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. He says:--"I shall now undertake
+to prove that Rosicrucianism was transplanted to England, where it
+flourished under a new name, under which name it has been since
+re-exported to us in common with other countries of Christendom. For I
+affirm as the main thesis of my concluding labours, that Freemasonry is
+neither more nor less than Rosicrucianism as modified by those who
+transplanted it to England." He then proceeds with an argument to shew
+this identity between the two, an argument to which our limited space
+forbids us to do more than briefly allude. He says:--"In 1633 we have seen
+that the old name was abolished; but as yet no new name was substituted;
+in default of such a name they were styled _ad interim_ by the general
+term, wise men. This, however, being too vague an appellation for men who
+wished to form themselves into a separate and exclusive society, a new one
+had to be devised bearing a more special allusion to their characteristic
+objects. Now the immediate hint for the Masons was derived from the legend
+contained in the _Fama Fraternitatis_, of the "House of the Holy Ghost."
+This had been a subject of much speculation in Germany; and many had been
+simple enough to understand the expression of a literal house, and had
+inquired after it up and down the empire. But Andrea had made it
+impossible to understand it in any other than an allegoric sense, by
+describing it as a building that would remain invisible to the godless
+world for ever." Theophilus Schweighart also had spoken of it thus: "It is
+a building," says he, "a great building, _carens fenestris et foribus_, a
+princely, nay an imperial palace, everywhere visible, and yet not seen by
+the eyes of man." This building in fact, represented the purpose or object
+of the Rosicrucians. And what was that? It was the secret wisdom, or, in
+their language, _magic_--viz., 1. Philosophy of nature, or occult
+knowledge of the works of God; 2. Theology, or the occult knowledge of God
+himself; 3. Religion, or God's occult intercourse with the spirit of man,
+which they imagined to have been transmitted from Adam through the
+Cabbalists to themselves. But they distinguished between a carnal and a
+spiritual knowledge of this magic. The spiritual knowledge is the business
+of Christianity, and is symbolised by Christ himself as a rock, and a
+building of human nature, in which men are the stones and Christ the
+corner stone. But how shall stones move and arrange themselves into a
+building? "They must become living stones." But what is a living stone? "A
+living stone is a mason who builds himself up into the wall as a part of
+the temple of human nature." In these passages we see the use of the
+allegoric name masons upon the extinction of the former name. In other
+places Fludd expresses this still more distinctly. The society was
+therefore to be a masonic society, in order to represent typically that
+temple of the Holy Spirit which it was their business to erect in the
+spirit of man. This temple was the abstract of the doctrine of Christ, who
+was the Grand-master: hence the light from the East, of which so much is
+said in Rosicrucian and Masonic books. After pursuing the matter in a
+similar strain somewhat further, De Quincey sums up the results of his
+inquiry into the origin and nature of Freemasonry as follows:--
+
+1. The original Freemasons were a society that arose out of the
+Rosicrucian mania, certainly within the thirteen years from 1633 to 1646,
+and probably between 1633 and 1640. Their object was magic in the
+cabbalistic sense--_i.e._, the occult wisdom transmitted from the
+beginning of the world, and matured by Christ; to communicate this when
+they had it, to search for it when they had it not: and both under an oath
+of secrecy.
+
+2. The object of Freemasonry was represented under the form of Solomon's
+Temple, as a type of the true Church, whose cornerstone is Christ. This
+Temple is to be built of men, or living stones: and the true method and
+art of building with men it is the province of magic to teach. Hence it is
+that all the masonic symbols either refer to Solomon's Temple, or are
+figurative modes of expressing the ideas and doctrines of magic in the
+sense of the Rosicrucians, and their mystical predecessors in general.
+
+3. The Freemasons having once adopted symbols, &c., from the art of
+masonry, to which they were led by the language of Scripture, went on to
+connect themselves in a certain degree with the order itself of handicraft
+masons, and adopted their distribution of members into apprentices,
+journeymen, and masters. Christ is the Grand-Master, and was put to death
+whilst laying the foundation of the temple of human nature.
+
+4. The Jews, Mahomedans and Roman Catholics were all excluded from the
+early lodges of Freemasons. The Roman Catholics were excluded on account
+of their intolerance: for it was a distinguishing feature of the
+Rosicrucians that they first conceived the idea of a society which should
+act on the principle of religious toleration, wishing that nothing should
+interfere with the most extensive co-operation in their plans except such
+differences about the essentials of religion as make all co-operation
+impossible.
+
+5. Freemasonry, as it honoured all forms of Christianity, deeming them
+approximations more or less remote to the ideal truth, so it abstracted
+from all forms of civil polity as alien from its own objects, which,
+according to their briefest expressions, are (1) The Glory of God; (2) The
+service of men.
+
+6. There is nothing in the imagery, mythi, ritual, or purposes of the
+elder Freemasonry, which may not be traced to the romances of Father
+Rosycross, as given in the Fama Fraternitatis.
+
+De Quincey is not the only writer who has expressed himself to the effect
+that the systems of Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism are virtually
+identical; others have said so as well, and in stating their views have
+not scrupled to write most severely respecting what they believed to be
+the tricks and impositions of both. Mr. George Soane in his "New
+Curiosities of Literature," says of the Freemasons, that he can shew their
+society sprang out of decayed Rosicrucianism just as the beetle is
+engendered from a muck-heap. And further he says, "not a few of the old
+nursery tales still maintain their ground amongst us; and of these
+Freemasonry is the most disseminated and the most ridiculous." "Of
+course," he continues "such an opinion will shock many gentlemen, who wear
+aprons, leather or silk as the case may be, and who amuse themselves with
+talking of light from the east, and the building of Solomon's Temple, and
+with many other childish pranks, which if played off in the broad daylight
+would be ridiculous."
+
+He goes on to say:--"In wading through a mass of alchemical trash for very
+different purposes, I was struck by the great similarity both of the
+doctrine and symbols existing between the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons.
+With more haste than judgment I at first imagined that the brethren of the
+Rosy Cross were only imitators of the Freemasons, but after a long and
+patient enquiry, pursued through more volumes than I should like to
+venture upon again for such an object, I was forced to abandon my
+position. The Freemasons did indeed, like the Rosicrucians, lay claim to
+great antiquity, but while some of them modestly dated the origin of their
+order from Adam, I could by no means trace it back farther than the first
+half of the seventeenth century. Their historical assertions, when fairly
+tested and examined, crumbled into dust; the negative proofs were as
+strong against them as they well could be; and at length the conclusion
+was to my mind inevitable."
+
+Soane then proceeds to say:--"I feel not the slightest hesitation in
+saying that the Freemasons have no secret beyond a few trumpery legends
+and the attaching of certain religious and moral meanings to a set of
+emblems, principally borrowed from the mechanical art of the builder. I
+affirm too that all such symbols, with their interpretations, are of
+Rosicrucian origin, and that the Freemasons never belonged to the working
+guilds, their objects being totally different."
+
+Professor Buhle in his last chapter maintains that "Freemasonry is neither
+more nor less than Rosicrucianism as modified by those who transplanted it
+into England." Dr. Mackey, however, takes a contrary view, and in the
+Synoptical Index to his "Symbolism of Freemasonry, and Rosicrucians,"
+says:--"A sect of hermetical philosophers, founded in the fifteenth
+century, who were engaged in the study of abstruse sciences. It was a
+secret society much resembling the masonic in its organization and in some
+of the subjects of its investigation, but it was no other way connected
+with Freemasonry."
+
+Fifty years ago a writer in the Penny Cyclopĉdia said:--"Some say that the
+order of Rosicrucians is identical with that of Freemasons, one of whose
+degrees or dignities is called in some countries the degree of the Red
+Cross. The Rosicrucians have not been heard of as a separate order for
+nearly a century past, but some have thought that they continued to exist
+under the name of the Illuminati, who were much talked of in Germany and
+France in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Barruel, after
+describing the ceremonies with which candidates were admitted to the
+degree of Red Cross in some Freemasons' Lodges, which however, he says,
+vary in different countries, observes that these ceremonies which were
+apparently allusive to the Passion of Jesus Christ, were differently
+interpreted, according to the dispositions of the candidates; that some
+saw in it a memento of the Passion, others an introduction to the arcana
+of alchemy and magic, and others at last a blasphenous invective against
+the founder of Christianity which the Rosicrucians had derived from the
+Templars of old."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ROSIE CRUCIAN PRAYER TO GOD.
+
+JESUS MIHI OMNIA.
+
+[Triangle]
+
+
+"Oh Thou everywhere and good of All, whatsoever I do, remember, I beseech
+thee, that I am but Dust, but as a Vapour sprung from Earth, which even
+thy smallest Breath can scatter; Thou hast given me a Soul, and Laws to
+govern it; let that Eternal Rule, which thou didst first appoint to sway
+Man, order me; make me careful to point at thy Glory in all my wayes; and
+where I cannot rightly know Thee, that not only my understanding, but my
+ignorance may honour thee. Thou art All that can be perfect; Thy
+Revelation hath made me happy; be not angry, O Divine One, O God the most
+high Creator, if it please thee, suffer these revealed Secrets, thy Gifts
+alone, not for my praise, but to thy Glory, to manifest themselves. I
+beseech thee most gracious God, they may not fall into the hand of
+ignorant envious persons, that cloud these truths to thy disgrace, saying,
+they are not lawful to be published, because what God reveals, is to be
+kept secret. But Rosie Crucian Philosophers lay up this Secret into the
+bosome of God, which I have presumed to manifest clearly and plainly. I
+beseech the Trinity, it may be printed as I have written it, that the
+truth may no more be darkened with ambiguous language. Good God, besides
+thee nothing is. Oh stream thyself into my Soul, and flow it with thy
+Grace, thy Illumination, and thy Revelation. Make me to depend on Thee;
+Thou delightest that Man should account Thee as his King and not hide what
+Honey of Knowledge he hath revealed. I cast myself as an honourer of Thee
+at thy feet. O establish my confidence in Thee, for thou art the fountain
+of all bounty, and canst not but be merciful, nor canst thou deceive the
+humbled Soul that trusts Thee: And because I cannot be defended by Thee,
+unless I live after thy Laws, keep me, O my Soul's Sovereign, in the
+obedience of thy Will, and that I wound not my Conscience with vice, and
+hiding thy Gifts and Graces bestowed upon me; for this I know will destroy
+me within, and make thy Illuminating Spirit leave me: I am afraid I have
+already infinitely swerved from the Revelations of that Divine Guide,
+which thou hast commanded to direct me to the Truth; and for this I am a
+sad Prostrate and Penitent at the foot of thy Throne; I appeal only to the
+abundance of thy Remissions. O my God, my God, I know it is a mysterie
+beyond the vast Soul's apprehension, and therefore deep enough for man to
+rest in safety in. O Thou Being of all Beings, cause me to work myself to
+Thee, and into the receiving armes of thy paternal Mercies throw myself.
+For outward things I thank Thee, and such as I have I give unto others, in
+the name of the Trinity, freely and faithfully, without hiding anything of
+what was revealed to me, and experienced to be no Diabolical Delusion or
+Dream, but the Adjectamenta of thy richer Graces; the Mines and
+deprivation are both in thy hands. In what thou hast given me I am
+content. Good God ray thyself into my Soul, give me but a heart to please
+Thee, I beg no more than thou hast given, and that to continue me,
+uncontemnedly and unpittiedly honest. Save me from the Devil, Lusts and
+Men: and for those fond dotages of Mortality, which would weigh down my
+Soul to Lowness and Debauchment, let it be my glory (planting myself in a
+Noble height above them) to contemn them. Take me from myself, and fill me
+but with thee. Sum up thy blessings in those two, that I may be rightly
+good and wise; And these for thy eternal Truths' sake grant and make
+grateful."[5]
+
+
+THE END.
+
+S. & J. BRAWN, Printers, 13, Gate Street, Holborn, London, W.C.
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+[1] Mackay, Pop. Delusions.
+
+[2] Hist. of Philosophy, ii. 462.
+
+[3] Mackay.
+
+[4] New Curiosities of Literature, vol. 2, p. 46.
+
+[5] The Holy Guide, 1652.
+
+
+
+
+Phallic and Mystical Series,
+
+Cr. 8vo, Vellum, 7s. 6d. each.
+
+_Only a very limited number_, PRIVATELY PRINTED.
+
+
+PHALLICISM.--A Description of the Worship of =Lingam-Yoni= in various parts
+of the World, and in different Ages, with an Account of Ancient and Modern
+Crosses, particularly of the =Crux Ansata= (or Handled Cross) and other
+Symbols connected with the Mysteries of =Sex Worship=. (_Out of print_).
+
+
+OPHIOLATREIA.--An Account of the Rites and Mysteries connected with the
+Origin, Rise, and Development of =Serpent Worship= in various parts of the
+World, enriched with Interesting Traditions, and a full description of the
+celebrated Serpent Mounds and Temples, the whole forming an exposition of
+one of the phases of =Phallic=, or =Sex Worship=.
+
+
+PHALLIC OBJECTS, MONUMENTS AND REMAINS; Illustrations of the Rise and
+Development of the =Phallic Idea= (Sex Worship), and its embodiment in
+Works of Nature and Art. _Etched Frontispiece._
+
+
+CULTUS ARBORUM.--A Descriptive Account of =Phallic Tree Worship=, with
+illustrative Legends, Superstitious Usages, etc.; exhibiting its Origin
+and Development amongst the Eastern and Western Nations of the World, from
+the earliest to modern times.
+
+This work has a valuable bibliography which will be of the greatest use
+and value to the student of Ancient Faiths. It contains references to
+nearly five hundred works on Phallism and kindred subjects.
+
+
+FISHES, FLOWERS, AND FIRE as ELEMENTS AND DEITIES in the =Phallic Faiths
+and Worship= of the Ancient Religions of GREECE, BABYLON, ROME, INDIA,
+etc., with illustrative Myths and Legends.
+
+
+ARCHAIC ROCK INSCRIPTIONS; an Account of the Cup and Ring Marking on the
+Sculptural Stones of the Old and New Worlds.
+
+This subject, though comparatively a new one, and upon which a very
+limited amount of literature has been written, has excited considerable
+curiosity among its discoverers. These strange figures and marks bear the
+same resemblance whether found in England, Ireland, Scotland, India,
+Mexico, Brazil, North America, Sweden, etc. Probably the cup and ring
+markings were connected with the religious mysteries surrounding the
+worship of Baal. They are asserted on good authority to be Phallic
+Symbols, which subject the author has treated of in the present work.
+
+
+_IN THE PRESS._
+
+A new work on the =MASCULINE CROSS= Theory, and recent discoveries
+connected with Phallicism.
+
+
+_OTHER WORKS._
+
+MATRIMONIAL CEREMONIES DISPLAYED.--Wherein are exhibited the various
+Customs, Odd Pranks, Whimsical Tricks and Surprising Practises of near one
+hundred different Kingdoms and Peoples in the World, now used in the
+Celebration and Consummation of Matrimony, collected from the Papers of a
+=Rambling Batchelor=, with the Adventures of Sir Harry Fitzgerald and his
+=Seven Wives=. Cr. 8vo, Japanese parchment, 6s.
+
+The above volume describes the extensive and extraordinary ceremonies of
+the different nations of the world, including an interesting account of
+the more free and easy rites of the savage tribes. There will also be
+found an entertaining description of the ceremonies of the Indians in
+America, at the time of its first colonisation by the Europeans.
+
+
+FLAGELLATION, History of, among different Nations, a Narrative of the
+Strange Customs and Cruelties of the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, etc., with
+an Account of its Practice among the Early Christians as a Religious
+Stimulant and Corrector of Morals, also Anecdotes of Remarkable Cases of
+Flogging and of celebrated Flagellants. Cr. 8vo, parchment, 6s.
+
+A curious history of whipping inflicted by force, and voluntarily
+practised by the Monks, Heathens, etc., with Anecdotes of its use by
+Kings, Bishops, Abbots, etc.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Punctuation has been corrected without note.
+
+The following misprints have been corrected:
+  "the the" corrected to "the" (page 5)
+  "Sytsem" corrected to "System" (page 11)
+  "Morever" corrected to "Moreover" (page 33)
+  "his" corrected to "is" (page 47)
+  "yon" corrected to "you" (page 58)
+  "nevertherless" corrected to "nevertheless" (page 59)
+  "inhabttants" corrected to "inhabitants" (page 89)
+  "and and" corrected to "and" (page 93)
+  "kness" corrected to "knees" (page 103)
+  "understauding" corrected to "understanding" (page 105)
+  "mdae" corrected to "made" (page 128)
+
+Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and
+hyphenation have been retained from the original.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTERIES OF THE ROSIE CROSS***
+
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+******* This file should be named 35350-8.txt or 35350-8.zip *******
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