The real history of the Rosicrucians founded on their own manifestoes, and on facts and documents collected from the writings of initiated brethren

Front matter

THE

REAL HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.

THE

Introduction

Derivations of the name Rosicrucian — Derivation from the supposed founder, Christian Rosencreutz — Derivation from Bos and Crux — History of the term Eos in Alchemy — Derivation from Rosa and Cruz — On the Rose in Symbolism, the Cross in Symbolism, and on the significance of their union, with special reference to the Romance of the Rose and the Paradise of the Divine Comedy . .

Chapter The First

On the state of Mystical Philosophy in Germany at the close of the Sixteenth Century — Perpetuation of Neo-Platonic traditions — Revolution in Religion, Science, and Philosophy — Paracelsus and his successors — Rise of the Spiritual Alchemists . . 27

The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz .... 99

Chapter The Sixth

On the Connection of the Rosicrucian Claims with those of Alchemy and Magic — Fanaticism and Follies of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes— Discrepancies between the Universal Reformation and the Fama Fraternitatis — Religious Opinions of the Society — Scientific and Philosophical Pretensions— Doctrine of the Macrocosmos and of the Microcosmos — Theory of Elementals — Doctrine of Signatures — Physical Transmutations — The Great Elixir 197

Chapter The Seventh

On the Antiquity of the Rosicrucian Fraternity — Absence of historical traces before the seventeenth century — Researches of Semler — The Militia Crucifera Evangelica — Absurd pretensions of Mr Hargrave Jennings — The Templars and the Rosicrucians

Chapter The Eighth

Theories as to the authorship of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes — The story of Christian Rosencreutz not historically true— Claims of Taulerus, Joachim Junge, and JSgidius Guttmann — Case of Johann Valentin Andreas — Sketch of his Life — Predilection for Secret Societies — Digest of the Evidence adduced to prove that Andreas wrote the Rosicrucian Manifestoes — Examination of this Evidence — Futility and Repulsiveness of Professor Buhle's hypothesis — Facts of the Case — A tenable hypothesis— Character of the Rosicrucian Mystery 217

Chapter The Ninth

Progress of Rosicrucianism in Germany — Andreas Libavius — His hostile criticism — Echo of the God -illuminated Brotherhood R. C. — The Open Letter or Report of Julianus de Campis — Fama Remissa ad Fratres Rosea; Cruris — Confessio Recepta — Vicious attack by Johann Valentin Alberti — Other pamphlets of the Period ■ . .246

ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. vii

Chapter The Tenth

Rosicrucian Apologists : Michael Maier — His importance in the controversy — Publication of Silentium Post Clamores, Symbola Aurea? Mensoe, and Themis Aurea — Curious Colloquy and Echo Colloquii on the Rosicrucian Society — Was Michael Maier the founder of a pseudo-Rosicrucian Society ? — Reappearance of the Order — Laws of the Brotherhood as published by Sincerus Renatus 268

Chapter The Eleventh

Rosicrucian Apologists : Robert Fludd— Grandeur of the Kentish Mystic — Genealogy and life — Bibliographical matter — Fludd's Defence of the Rosicrucians — Analysis of this publication — Hostile criticism of Mersenne — Fludd's Rejoinder — Epistle from the Rosicrucian Society to a German Neophyte— Cosmical philosophy of Robert Fludd 283

Chapter The Twelfth

Rosicrucian Apologists : Thomas Vaughan — The mystery which surrounds him — List of his Writings— His translation of the Fame and Confession — His opinion concerning the Order, of which he was not a member 308

CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH.

Rosicrucian Apologists : John Hey don— Autobiography — Talbot's Life of Hey don — Bibliography — "The Rosie Cross Uncovered" — The Rosicrucians in England — "True narrative of a Gentleman R. C." — John Heydon encounters the spirit Euterpe — Voyage to the Land of the Rosicrucians 315

CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH.

Rosicrucianism in France — Gabriel Naude's ' ' Information on the truth of the Rosicrucians"— Strange manifesto placarded on the walls of Paris — "The Unknown and Novel Cabala of the Brethren of the Rose Cross "—" Frightful Compacts between the devils and the so-called illuminati " 387

CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH.

Connection between the Rosicrucians and Freemasons — Futility of Professor Buhle's hypothesis— The Rose-Cross degree in Freemasonry— Its modern origin 402 viii ANAL YS1S OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH.

Modern Rosicrucian Societies — Migration of true Rosicrucians eastward — Copy of the admission of Sigismund Bacstrom into the Rosicrucian Brotherhood — The English Rosicrucian Society — Its Laws and Objects — Harmless nature of the association — Incompetency of its members — The Rosicrucians in Literature and Legend 408

Conclusion -431

Appendix of Additional Documents — Preface to the Fama Frater-

nitatis — Curious Apologue — Rosicrucian Prayer to God . 440

Preface

T^ENEATH the broad tide of human history there flow -*—* the stealthy undercurrents of the secret societies, which frequently determine in the depths the changes that take place upon the surface. These societies have existed in all ages and among all nations, and tradition has invariably ascribed to them the possession of important knowledge in the religious scientific or political order according to the various character of their pretensions. The mystery which encompasses them has invested them with a magical glamour and charm that to some extent will account for the extravagant growth of legend about the Ancient Mysteries, the Templars, the Freemasons, and the Kosicrucians, above all, who were the most singular in the nature of their ostensible claims and in the uncertainty which envelopes them.

"A halo of poetic splendour," says Heckethorn,* "surrounds the Order of the Eosicrucians ; the magic lights of fancy play round their graceful day-dreams, while the mystery in which they shrouded themselves lends additional attraction to their history. But their brilliancy was that of a meteor. It just flashed across the realms of imagination and intellect, and vanished for ever; not, however, without leaving behind some permanent and lovely traces of its hasty passage. . . . Poetry and romance are deeply

1 " Secret Societies of all Ages and Countries." A indebted to the Rosicrucians for many a fascinating creation. The literature of every European country contains hundreds of pleasing fictions, whose machinery has been borrowed from their system .of philosophy, though that itself has passed away."

The facts and documents concerning the Fraternity of the Rose Cross, or of the Golden and Rosy Cross, as it is called by Sigmund Richter,1 are absolutely unknown to English readers. Even well-informed people will learn with astonishment the extent and variety of the Rosicrucian literature which hitherto has lain buried in rare pamphlets, written in the old German tongue, and in the Latin commentaries of the later alchemists. The stray gleams of casual information which may be gleaned from popular encyclopaedias cannot be said to convey any real knowledge, while the essay of Thomas De Quincey on the "Rosicrucians and Freemasons," though valuable as the work of a sovereign prince of English prose composition, is a mere transcript from an exploded German savant, whose facts are tortured in the interests of a somewhat arbitrary hypothesis. The only writer in this country who claims to have treated the subject seriously and at length is Hargrave Jennings, who, in "The Rosicrucians, their Rites and Mysteries," &c, comes forward as the historian of the Order. This book, however, so far from affording any information on the questions it professes to deal with, "keeps guard over"2 the secrets of the Fraternity, and is

2 ' ' No student of occult philosophy need fear that we shall most carefully keep guard — standing sentry (so to speak) over those other and more recondite systems which are connected with our subject. "

PREFACE. 3

simply a mass of ill-digested erudition concerning Phallicism and Fire- Worship, the Round Towers of Ireland and Serpent Symbolism, offered with a charlatanic assumption of secret knowledge as an exposition of Rosicrucian philosophy.1

The profound interest now manifested in all branches of mysticism, the tendency, in particular, of many cultured minds towards those metaphysical conceptions which are at the base of the alchemical system, the very general suspicion that other secrets than that of manufacturing gold are to be found in the Pandora's Box of Hermetic and Rosicrucian allegories,2 make it evident that the time has come to collect the mass of material which exists for the elucidation of this curious problem of European history, and to depict the mysterious Brotherhood as they are revealed in their own manifestos and in the writings of those men who were directly or indirectly in connection with them. Such a publication will take the subject out of the hands of unqualified writers, and of the self-constituted pontiffs of dark ness and mystery who trade upon the ignorance and curiosity of their readers.

As the result of conscientious researches, I have succeeded

1 In reviewing an enlarged edition of this work, published in 1879, the Westminster Review remarks : "In the ' Rosicrucians ' we have come across perhaps the most absurd book that it has ever been our fortune to review. ... It affords a great deal of disjointed information on very many subjects, . . . but the one subject on which we have vainly sought information in its pages is the ' History of the Rosicrucians.' . . . The whole book is an absurd jumble of passages and illustrations, for most of which no authority is, or could be, given. And through the whole runs a very unwholesome undercurrent."—W. R. N. S., vol. lvi. p. 256.

2 On this point see "A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery and Alchemy," published anonymously in the year 1850, in London, and Hitchock's " Remarks on Alchemy," also anonymous,

New York, 180.3.

in discovering several tracts and manuscripts in the Library of the British Museum, whose existence, so far as I am aware, has been unknown to previous investigators, while others, including different copies and accounts of the " Universal Reformation," as well as original editions of the " Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosy Cross," which are not in the Library Catalogue, though less generally obscure, I have met with in a long series of German pamphlets belonging to the first quarter of the seventeenth century. These, with all other important and available facts and documents, I have carefully collected and now publish them in the present volume, either summarised or in extenso according to their value, and I offer for the first time in the literature of the subject the Eosicrucians represented by themselves. I claim that I have performed my task in a sympathetic but impartial manner, purged from the bias of any particular theory, and above all uncontaminated by the pretension to superior knowledge, which claimants have never been able to substantiate.

INTRODUCTION.

" In cruce sub sphera venit sapientia vera." — Hermetic Axiom.

1 ■ La rose'qui a 6te de tout temps l'embleme de la beauts, de la vie, de l'amour et du plaisir, exprimait mystiquement toutes les protestations manifestoes a la renaissance. . . . Renuir la rose, a la croix, tel 6tait le probleme pose" par la Haute Initiation." — Miphas Levi.

THREE derivations are offered of the name Rosicrucian. The first, which is certainly the most obvious, deduces it from the ostensible founder of the order, Christian Rosenkreuze. ' I shall show, however, that the history of this personage is evidently mythical or allegorical, and therefore this explanation merely ^akes the inquiry a step backward to the question, What is the etymology of Rosenkreuze 1 The second derivation proposed is from the Latin words Eos, dew, and Crux, cross. This has been countenanced by Mosheim, who is followed by Ree's Encyclopaedia, and other publications. The argument in its favour may be fairly represented by the following quotation : — " Of all natural bodies, dew was deemed the most powerful dissolvent of gold; and the cross, in chemical language, was equivalent to light ; because the figure of a cross exhibits at the same time the three letters of which the word lux, or light, is compounded. Now, lux is called . . . the seed or menstruum of the red dragon, or, in other words, that gross and corporeal light, which, when properly digested and modified, produces gold. Hence it follows, if this etymology be admitted, that a Kosycrucian philosopher is one who by the intervention and assistance of the dew, seeks for light, or, in other words, the substance called the Philosopher's Stone." l

This opinion exaggerates the importance attributed to the dew of the alchemists. The universal dissolvent has figured under various names, of which ros is by no means most general; the comprehensive " Lexicon Alchymise" does not mention it. According to Gaston le Doux, in his " Dictionnaire Herm^tique," Dew, simply so called, signifies Mercury \ Dew of the Philosophers is the matter of the stone when under the manipulation of the artist, and chiefly during its circulations in the philosophical egg. The White and Celestial Dew of the Wise is the philosophical stone perfected to the White. Mosheim derived his opinion from Peter Gassendi, 2 and from a writer in Eusebius Renandot's "Conferences Publiques," 3 who confesses that he knew nothing whatsoever of the Rosicrucians till the task of speaking on the subject was imposed on him by the Bureau d'Addresse. He says : — " Dew, the most powerful dissolvent of gold which is to be found among natural and non-corrosive substances, is nothing else but light coagulated and rendered corporeal ; when it is artistically concocted and digested in its own vessel during a suitable period it is the true menstruum of the Red Dragon, i.e., of gold, the true matter of the Philosophers. The society desiring to bequeath to posterity the ineffaceable sign of this secret, caused them to adopt the name Frkres de la Rozde Cuite." The mystic triad

1 Mosheim, Book iv., sect. 1.

2 "Examen Philosophic Fluddana?," sect. 15, op. iii., 261. 8 "Conferences du Bureau d'Addresse," vol. v.. p. :~09.

of the Society, F. K. C, has been accordingly interpreted Frafres Boris Cocti, the Brotherhood of the Concocted or Exalted Dew, but the explanation has little probability in itself.

" Several chemists," says Pernetz, in his " Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermetique," " have regarded the dew of May and September as the matter of the Magnum Opus, influenced doubtless by the opinion of various authors that dew was the reservoir of the universal spirit of Nature. . . . But when we seriously study the texts of the true philosophers, wherein they make reference to dew, we are soon convinced that they only speak of it by a similitude, and that theirs is metallic, that is, it is the mercurial water sublimated into vapour within the vase, and precipitated at the bottom in the form of fine rain. Thus when they write of the dew of the month of May, they are referring to that of their philosophic Spring, which is governed by the gemini of the alchemical Zodiack, which differs from the ordinary astronomical Zodiack. Philalethes has positively said that their dew is their mercurial water rising from putrefaction."

The third derivation is that which was generally adopted, even from the beginning, by writers directly or indirectly connected with the Eosicrucians. It deduces the term in question from the words rosa, rose, and crux. This is sanctioned by various editions of the society's authoritative documents, which characterise it as the Broederschafft des Eoosen Creutzes, that is, the Bose-Crucians, or Fratres Bosatce Cruris, according to the " Confessio Recepta," terms quite excluding the conception of dew, which in German is Thau, while in Latin the Brothers of the Dewy Cross would be Fratres Boratce Cruris. This derivation is also supported by the supposed symbol of the Order, whose " emblem, monogram, or jewel," says Godfrey Higgins, "is a Red Rose on a Cross, thus : —

When it can be done it is surmounted with a glory and placed on a calvary. When it is worn appended and made of cornelian, garnet, ruby, or red glass, the calvary and glory are generally omitted." 1

Mr Hargrave Jennings, who borrows the whole of this passage 2 without acknowledgment of any kind, also tells us that " the jewel of the Rosicrucians is formed of a transparent red stone with a red cross on one side and a red rose on the other — thus it is a crucified rose."

All derivations, however, are to some extent doubtful and tentative. The official proclamations of the Society are contained in the " Fama Fraternitatis," and in the " Confessio Fraternitatis," which, in their original editions, appear to describe it simply as the Fraternitas de R. C, while the initials of its founder are given as C. R. " The Chemical Nuptials of Christian Rosen Kreuze," published anonymously at Strasbourg in 1616, and undeniably connected with the order, seem to identify it as the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross, and its founder as Father Rosycross. These designations at any rate were immediately adopted in Germany, and they appear in the subsequent editions of both mani-

1 Anacalypsis, ii., p. 243.

- " The Rosicrucians," &c, p. 281. Ed. 1870.

festos, though as early as 1618 I find Michael Maier, the alchemist, expressing a different opinion on this point in his " Themis Aurea, hoc est, De Legibus Fraternitatis R. C. Tractatus." "No long time elapsed, when the Society first became known by that which was written, before an interpreter came forward who conjectured those letters to signify the Rose Cross, in which opinion the matter remains till this present, notwithstanding that the Brothers in subsequent writings do affirm it to be erroneously so denominated, and testify that the letters R. C. denote the name of their first inaugurator.1 If the mind of one man could search that of another and behold formed therein the idea or sensible and intelligible form, there would be no necessity for speech or writing among men. But this being denied to us while we subsist in this corporeal nature, though doubtless granted to pure intelligences, we explain our rational conceptions one to another by the symbols of language and writing. Therefore letters are of high efficacy when they embrace a whole society and maintain order therein, nor is an opportunity afforded to the curious to draw omens from integral names, nor from families situations, nor from places persons, nor from persons the secrets of affairs."

Proposing his own definitions, he says : — " I am no augur nor prophet, notwithstanding that once I partook of the laurel, and reposed a few brief hours in the shadow of Parnassus ; nevertheless, if I err not, I have unfolded the significance of the characters R. C. in the enigmas of the sixth book of the Symbols of the Golden Table. R signifies Pegasus, and C, if the sense not the sound be considered,

1 The " Fama Fraternitatis " makes use of the initials C. R., afterwards of R. C, C. R. C, &c, to designate their founder.

io HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCTAXS.

lllium. Let the Knowledge of the Arcana be the key to thee. Lo, I give thee the Arcanum ! d. wmml. zii. w. sgqqhka. x. Open if thou canst. ... Is not this the hoof of the Eed Lion or the drops of the Hippocrene fountain ? " Beneath this barbarous jargon we discern, however, an analogy with the Eose symbolism. Classical tradition informs us that the Red Eose sprang from the blood of Adonis, but Pegasus was a winged horse which sprang from the blood of Medusa, and the fountain of Hippocrene was produced by a stroke of the hoof of Pegasus.

In England the pseudonymous author of the " Summum Bonum," who is supposed to be Eobert Fludd, gives a purely religious explanation of the Eose Cross symbol, asserting it to mean "the Cross sprinkled with the rosy blood of Christ." 1 The general concensus of opinion is preferable to fanciful interpretations, and we may therefore safely take the words Rosa and Crux as explanatory of the name Eosicrucian, and by Fratres R. C. we may understand Fratres Rosea? Cruris, despite the silence of the manifestos and the protests of individual alchemists.

The next question which occurs is the significance of this curious emblem — a Eed Eose affixed to a red, or, according to some authors, a golden cross. This question cannot be definitely answered. The characteristic sign of a secret society will be naturally as mysterious as itself in the special meaning which the society may attach to it, but some intelligence concerning it can perhaps be gleaned from its analysis with universal symbolism. Now, the Eose and the Cross, in their separate significance, are emblems of the most palmary importance and the highest antiquity.

1 Elsewhere he interprets the letters F.JR.C. to mean Faith, Religion, and Charity. See Renandot. " Conferences Publiques," v., p. 509.

INTRODUCTION. u

There is a Silver Rose, called Tamara Pua, in the Paradise of the Brahmans. " This Paradise is a garden in heaven, to which celestial spirits are first admitted on their ascent from the terrestrial sphere. The Rose contains the images of two women, as bright and fair as a pearl ; but these two are only one, though appearing as if distinct according to the medium, celestial or terrestrial, through which they are viewed. In the first aspect she is called the Lady of the Mouth, in the other, the Lady of the Tongue, or the Spirit of Tongues. In the centre of this Silver Rose, God has his permanent residence."

A correspondence will be readily recognised between this divine woman or virgin — two and yet one, who seems to typify the Logos, the Spirit of Wisdom, and the Spirit of Truth — and the two-edged sword of the Spirit in the Apocalypse, the Sapientia quce ex ore Altissimii prodiit, as it is called in the sublime Advent antiphon of the Latin Church. The mystical Rose in the centre of the allegorical garden is continually met with in legend. Buddha is said to have been crucified for robbing a garden of a flower,1 and after a common fashion of mythology, the divine Avatar of the Indians is henceforth identified with the object for which he suffered, and he becomes himself " a flower, a Rose, a Padma, Lotus, or Lily." Thus he is the Rose crucified, and we must look to the far East for the origin of the Rosicrucian emblem. According to Godfrey Higgins, this is " the Rose of Isuren, of Tamul, and of Sharon, crucified for the salvation of men — crucified," he continues, " in the heavens at the vernal equinox." In this connection we may remember the

1 The same story is told of Indra, who was crucified by the keepers of the Hindoo Paradise for having robbed it.

Gnostic legend that Christ was crucified in the Empyrean ; and as Nazareth, according to St Jerome, signified the flower, and was situated in Carmel, " the vineyard or garden of God," Jesus of Nazareth, by a common extension of the symbolism, is sometimes identified as this crucified flower.1

In classical fable, the garden of Midas, the King of the Phrygians, was situated at the foot of Mount Bermion, and was glorified by the presence of roses with sixty petals, which exhaled an extraordinary fragrance. Now, the rose was sacred to Dionysius, or Bacchus, and Bacchus endowed Midas with the power of transmuting everything into gold ; so here is a direct connection between the Eose and Alchemy.

In the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, Lucius is restored to his human shape by devouring a chaplet of roses. Everywhere the same typology meets us. The Peruvian Eve sinned by plucking roses, which are also called Frute del Arbor.2 A messenger from heaven announces to the Mexican Eve that she will bear a Son who shall bruise the serpent's head ; he presents her with a Eose, and this gift was followed by an Age of Eoses, as in India there was the Age of the Lotus.

There are occasional allusions to the Eose in the Hebrew Scriptures, but it is used as a poetic image rather than an arcane symbol, and as such it has been always in high favour with poets.3

1 Professor Max Miiller considers the word p65ov to be Aryan, and originally to have meant simply a sprig or flower.

2 " Mexican Antiquities," vol. vi., p. 120.

3 Tn Persia it is connected with the nightingale. " Tradition says that the bird utters a plaintive cry whenever the flower is gathered, and that it will hover round the plant in the spring-time, till, overpowered with its fragrance, it falls senseless to the ground. The Rose is supposed to burst forth from its bud at the opening song of the nightingale. You may place a handful of fragrant herbs

In the west it appears for the first time in allegorical literature as the central figure in the "four-square garden " of the ancient " Romance of the Rose." The first part of this poem was written by Guillaume de Lorris before the year 1260, and it was completed by Jean de Meung, whose death occurred in the year 1316, according to the general opinion. This extraordinary work, once of universal popularity, is supposed by some of its commentators to admit of an alchemical interpretation, and openly professes the principles of the Magnum Opus.1 The garden, or vergier, which contains the Rose, is richly sculptured on its outer walls with symbolical figures of Hatred, Treason, Meanness, Covetousness, Avarice, Envy, Sadness, Age, Hypocrisy, Poverty — all the vices and miseries of mortality. Idleness opens the gate to him, Merriment greets him and draws him into the dance, and then he beholds the God of Love, accompanied by Dous-fiegars, a youth who carries his bows and arrows, by Beauty, Wealth, Bounty, Frankness, Courtesy, &c. The lover, while he is contemplating the loveliness of the Rose,

Qui est si vermeille et si fine . . .

Des foilles i ot quatre paire, Que Nature par grand mestire I ot assises tire a tire.

and flowers before the nightingale," say the Persian poets. " Yet he wishes not, in his constant andf aithful heart, for more than the sweet breath of his beloved Rose." — Friend, "Flowers and Flower Lore." There is a Persian Feast of Roses, which lasts the whole time the flower is in bloom.

1 See in particular the verses 16914 to 16997, and the speech of Genius.

"Jean de Meung," says Langlet du Fresnoy in his "Histoire de la Philosophic Hermetique," flourished at the Court and at Paris in the pontificate of John XXII. , and according to the fashion of the times was addicted to the curious sciences, and in particular to Hermetic Philosophy. He composed two treatises called " Nature's Remonstrances to the Alchemist," and "The Alchemist's Answer to Nature."

H HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.

Le coe ot droite comme jons, Et par dessus siet li boutons, Si qu 'il ne cline ne ne pent.

L' odor de lui entor s' espent : La soatisme qui en ist, Toute la place replenist,1

is pierced by the shafts of the deity, but he does not in spite of his sufferings abandon his project, which is to possess the Rose, arid after imprisonment and various adventures,

La conclusion du Rommant Est que vous voj'ez cy l'Amant Qui prent la Rose a son plaisir, En qui estoit tout son desir.

It will require no acquaintance with the methods of the symbolists to discern the significance of this allegory : —

La Rose c'est d' Amour le guerdon gracieux.2

But a little later the same emblem reappears in the sublime poem of Dante. The Paradise of the Divina Commedia

1 Amongs th^ knoppes I chese one So faire, that of the remnant none Ne preise I halfe so well as it, Whan I avise in my wit, For it so well was enlumined With colour red, as well fined As nature could it make faire, And it hath leaves well foure paire, That kinde hath set through his knowing About the red roses springing, The stalke was as rishe right, And thereon stood the knoppe upright.

That it ne bowed upon no side, The swote smell sprung so wide, That it died all the place about.

Chaucer, " The Romaunt of the Rose." 2 Baif— "Sonnet to Charles IX."

i consists, says Eliphas Levi, of " a series of Kabbalistic circles divided by a Cross, like Ezekiel's pantacle ; a Rose blossoms in the centre of this Cross, and it is for the first time that we find the symbol of the Rosicrucians publicly and almost categorically revealed."

The passage referred to, so far as regards the Rose, is as follows : —

" There is in heaven a light, whose goodly shine Makes the Creator visible to all Created, that in seeing him alone Have peace ; and in a circle spreads so far, That the circumference were too loose a zone To girdle in the sun. All is one beam, Reflected from the summit of the first, That moves, which being hence and vigour takes. And as some cliff, that from the bottom eyes His image mirror'd in the crystal flood, As if to admire his brave apparelling Of verdure and of flowers ; so, round about, Eyeing the light, on more than million thrones, Stood, eminent, whatever from our earth Has to the skies retum'd. How wide the leaves Extended to their utmost, of this Rose, Whose lowest step embosoms such a space Of ample radiance ! Yet, nor amplitude Nor height impeded, but my view with ease Took in the full dimension of that joy. Near or remote, what then avails, ivhere God Immediate rules,1 and Nature, awed, suspends Her sway ? Into the yellow of the Rose Perennial, which, in bright expansiveness,' Lays forth its gradual blooming, redolent Of praises to the never- wintering sun. . . . Beatrice led me. . . .

1 Compare the Oriental legend, previously cited, of that Silver Rose in which God has His permanent residence. It is an extraordinary instance of identity in the celestial symbolism of East and