A. C. R. C. Hoc, universi compendium, vivus mihi sepul chrum 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. Hereupon they all knelt down, and returned thanks to heaven for having made them so much wiser than the rest of the world, a naive 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 the secret books of the order, the vocabulary of Paracelsus, and other things of the same nature, which it was - allowable to impart even to the profane. In one they discovered the life and itinerary of their founder; in another they lighted upon mirrors possessed of different qualities, a little bell, burning lamps, and a variety of curious matters, intended to help in rebuilding the order, which after the lapse of many centuries was to fall into decay. Curiosity to see their founder induced them to push aside the altar, when they came upon a strong brass plate, and this too being removed, "Before their eyes the wizard lay, As if he had not been dead a day." Moreover, like the celebrated character described in these lines, he had a volume under his arm, which proved to be of vellum with letters of gold, and at the end of it, in two separate circles, were the names of eight brethren, who had assisted at their founder's interment. Next to the Bible, the Rosicrucians valued this book beyond any portion of their inheritance, yet it is not said whether they took away any of these rarities, or left the dead man in quiet possession of his treasures. Most probably they acted after the usual manner of heirs, and then paid the deceased all possible respect by replacing the metal plate and altar, and closing up the door, which they still farther secured by affixing their respective seals to it. Such is the brief sketch of the Rosicrucians as given in the Fama, which then concludes with an invitation to the wise and good to join them, and a declaration of their opinions, moral, religious, and political. They respect all established governments, they are true Lutherans,* and, as to their philosophy, it is nothing new, but such as it was received by Adam after the Fall, and practised both by Moses and Solomon." They deprecate the general passion for gold-making, yet allow that they are possessed of the art, though they look upon it as a parergy, and one of the least of their many valuable secrets. They then point out the manner in which the aspirants for * Damit aber auch ein jeder Christ wisse was Confession und Glaubens wir seyen, so bekennen wir uns zur Erkanntniss Jesu Christi wie dieselbige zu dieser letzter zeit, besonders in Teutschland, hell und klar ausgangen, und noch heut zu Tag, ausgeschlossen aller Schwermer, Ketzern, und falschen Propheten, von gewissen und aufgezeigten Ländern erhalten, bestritten, und propagirt, wirt; geniessen auch der Sacramentum, wie die eingesetzt mit allen Phrasib. und Ceremoniis der ersten renovirten Kirchen. In der Policey erkennen wir das Römische Reich und die Quartam Monarchiam fur unser und die Christen Haupt.-Fama, p. 30. +Auch ist unser Philosophia nichts neues, sondern wie sie Adam nach seinem Fall erhalten, und Moses und Salomon geubet.-Idem., p 30. Rosicrucian mysteries may communicate with them, namely, by means of printed pamphlets-" for though at the present time we name neither ourselves nor our place of meeting, yet in whatever language they write, full surely will it come to our knowledge. Nor shall any one, who gives his name, fail either of a meeting with some of us, or of a written reply. This too we say for certain, whoever means well and fairly by us shall have the benefit of it both in soul and body. But he who is false of heart, or who is only looking after gold, he shall do no harm to us, but shall bring assured destruction upon himself. As to our House of the Holy Spirit, though thousands may have seen it, yet shall it ever remain unvisited, and undisturbed, and to the godless world a mystery." The Rosicrucians were quite correct in saying there was nothing new in their system, though they certainly had no occasion to travel all the way to Adam for it; the whole affair lay much nearer home. With the exception of Father Rosenkreutz, his fraternity of eight, and the House of the Sanctus Spiritus, there was not a syllable in the whole pamphlet that might not be found in the writings of Paracelsus and his followers. Nay even the mysterious building can hardly be called an original erection; it was in all probability taken from the Arabian institution of the same name, of which I shall have occasion to speak presently; or they might even have found it without leaving Europe; we meet with something very like it in the New Atlantis of Bacon, which, as it appeared in Latin as well as English, may easily have been known to the author of the Fama. The SOLOMON'S HOUSE, or COLLEGE OF THE SIX DAYES' WORKS, though of a sound and philosophic nature as befitted the genius of Bacon, is yet full of fanciful devices, and even while of so opposite a tendency may have given rise to the Rosicrucian building. It is true VOL. II. D that the one looks upon the work of the seven days as a volume open to the eyes of all, and which is to be studied by the usual means, while the others considered it as a profound mystery, that, defying the usual forms of exoteric enquiry was only to be attained by light from the east ; yet I can see nothing in this opposition of ideas and objects that at all militates against the notion of the thing having been derived from the source mentioned. However little claims the Fama might in truth have to novelty, it did not fail to set all Germany in commotion, and to give a keener edge to the war between the Paracelsists and their opponents, the attack and defence assuming all the shapes of Proteus. While some maintained that the Fama was intended only as a satire upon the alchemists and cabalists, and that there was no such thing as a society of Rosicrucians in existence, others allowed the entity of the brotherhood, but would insist that they had their art from the devil, who indeed would seem in their day to have been very fond of playing the schoolmaster. This, however, was "the unkindest cut of all" to the Rosicrucians, and they resisted it accordingly. They declared themselves zealous Lutherans, equally opposed to Catholic and Calvinist, Jew and Mahomedan, in which there seems no reason for disbelieving them. So far as Rosicrucianism is connected with religion, its tenets are Protestant, and the state of the European world in that age, when the thirty years' war was raging throughout Germany, admitted of no compromise between the two great divisions of Christianity, even if Catholicism had not in its principles been opposed to a society having a secret theology for one of its objects. Besides, we have the repeated declarations of the Rosicrucian writers on the subject, themselves zealous Protestants. To quote one of many such instances, Flood says in his Compendious Apology; "Thus Lutherans, Calvinists, and others of the kind-thus also the BROTHERS-because they con demn the Pope, and Mahomet, are to be deemed heretics, if we may believe the vain and threatening declarations of the Papists." Nor were they at less pains to shew the difference between their magia,† which they interpreted to mean wis *"Sic Lutherani, Calviniani, et hujusmodi alii, sic etiam fratres isti-quoniam Papam cum Mahumetâ damnaverunt-pro hæreticis habendi sunt, si Papistarum assertionibus vanis et minabundis fides adhibenda.”—Apologia Compendiaria—Proœmiùm, p. 11. In another part of the same work (p. 23,) he tells us that Magia is a Persian word signifying wisdom, and that there are different sorts of it, "naturalis," "mathematica," "venefica," "necromantica," and "præstigiatrix." The author of the Echo says, "So muss man wissen das nehmlich dreyerley Magie sey. Die erste, und allein rechte Magie ist die Göttliche, so sonsten Magia Cælestis, oder Divina Sapientia, das ist die Himlische oder Göttliche Weisheit, mag genennet werden, und von den Hebreern Mercana, zu Latein Sapientia Divinitatis, genandt wird, sonsten von ihnen Cabala geheissen." Echo, &c., Vorrede, p. 9. "It must be understood that there are three sorts of magic. first, and the only right one, is the Heavenly, which may be otherwise called Magia Cælestis, or Divina Sapientia, (that is the Celestial or Divine Wisdom) and is named by the Hebrews Mercana (Sapientia Divinitatis) or sometimes Cabala. 66 The Flood goes upon a somewhat different tack, though with the same object in view. 'Quid, quæso, sibi proderint fratres sermone claro et clangore quasi buccinæ operationes suas mirabiles mundo divulgare, auresque hominum vanis rumoribus permulcere, si fidem promissorum absque iniquis magiæ astutiis præstare nequeant, cum in omni republicâ Christianâ ut necromantici, venefici, et incantatores, pæna capitali, patibulo aut igne multentur, decretum sit atque lege peculiari ordinatum. Sed quoniam D. Libavius in eâ sententiâ atque opinione fixus et nullo modo ab eâ removendus videtur, &c." Apologia Compendiaria, p. 9. 12mo. Leyden 1616.-"What, I pray you, would it avail the brethren to announce their marvellous operations to the world, plainly and as with the sound of a trumpet, and to tickle men's ears with vain reports, if they are unable to fulfil their promises without the evil sleights of magic, when in every Christian republic it is decreed and ordained by a special law that all necromancers, sorcerers, and en |