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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.

[Pg iii]

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.

[Pg iv]

CONTENTS.

[Pg v]

AUTHORITIES.

[Pg 1]

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 encyclopædias, 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[Pg 2] 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[Pg 3] 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.

[Pg 4]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[Pg 5] 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[Pg 6] 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[Pg 7] 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 Philosophiæ Fluddanæ, 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 Andreæ, 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.

[Pg 8]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 Rosæcrusis: “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[Pg 9] 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[Pg 10] 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[Pg 11] 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[Pg 12] 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,
[Pg 13]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 Encyclopædia, 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 Andreæ. 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 Andreæ 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[Pg 14] 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.”

[Pg 15]

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;[Pg 16] 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[Pg 17] 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[Pg 18] 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[Pg 19] 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[Pg 20] 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[Pg 21] 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.

[Pg 22]

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[Pg 23] 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[Pg 24] 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,[Pg 25] 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[Pg 26] 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[Pg 27] 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[Pg 28] 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[Pg 29] 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[Pg 30] 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, 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[Pg 31] 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[Pg 32] 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[Pg 33] 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]

[Pg 34]

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[Pg 35] 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,[Pg 36] 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.

[Pg 37] 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 Naturæ, 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 [Pg 38]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[Pg 39] 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,[Pg 40] 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[Pg 41] 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[Pg 42] 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,[Pg 43] 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[Pg 44] 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[Pg 45] 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[Pg 46] 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 gloriæ 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[Pg 47] 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[Pg 48] 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[Pg 49] 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,[Pg 50] 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 sextæ ætatis, 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[Pg 51] 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[Pg 52] 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[Pg 53] 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[Pg 54] 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,[Pg 55] 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[Pg 56] 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[Pg 57] 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 [Pg 58]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[Pg 59] 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.

[Pg 60]

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 Cæsar 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[Pg 61] 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[Pg 62] 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[Pg 63] 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[Pg 64] 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[Pg 65] 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[Pg 66] 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,[Pg 67] 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.

[Pg 68]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
[Pg 69]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.”

[Pg 70] “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.
[Pg 71]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.”

[Pg 72] “A Labyrinth doth need a clew to find
The passage out, and a Dædalian 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,
[Pg 73]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 Adæquate to what’s contain’d in it;
Should it be styled the Encyclopædy
Of Curious Arts, or term’d a Mystery
In folio, or be named the Vatican
Reduc’d unto an Enchiridion,
Or all the Hermæ in a Senary,
The Urim and Thummim of Philosophy,
The Art of Hieroglyphicks so revealed
And like the Apocalyps they are conceal’d
[Pg 74]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[Pg 75] 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[Pg 76] 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,[Pg 77] 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[Pg 78] 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[Pg 79] 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,[Pg 80] 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.

[Pg 81]

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;[Pg 82] 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;[Pg 83] 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[Pg 84] 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[Pg 85] 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[Pg 86] 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[Pg 87] 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.[Pg 88] 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[Pg 89] 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[Pg 90] 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[Pg 91] 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[Pg 92] 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[Pg 93] 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[Pg 94] 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[Pg 95] 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[Pg 96] 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[Pg 97] 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—

[Pg 98]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[Pg 99] 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[Pg 100] 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[Pg 101] 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.

[Pg 102]

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[Pg 103] 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[Pg 104] 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[Pg 105] 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,[Pg 106] 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
[Pg 107]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[Pg 108] 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,
[Pg 109]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[Pg 110] 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[Pg 111] 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[Pg 112] 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 [Pg 113]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[Pg 114] 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[Pg 115] 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[Pg 116] 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[Pg 117] 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[Pg 118] 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[Pg 119] 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[Pg 120] 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[Pg 121] 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[Pg 122] 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[Pg 123] 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[Pg 124] 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[Pg 125] 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.”

[Pg 126]

CHAPTER VIII.

Conclusion—Modern Rosicrucianism.

In Notes and Queries for Nov. 15th, 1886, we find the following:—“In the Student’s Encyclopædia, 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[Pg 127] 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[Pg 128] 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:—

[Pg 129]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[Pg 130] 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[Pg 131] 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 Cyclopædia 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[Pg 132] 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.

ᐃ

“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[Pg 133] 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[Pg 134] 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.

Transcriber’s Note:

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Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.