CHAPTER II.

THE PROFHECT OF PARACELSUS, AND THE UNIVERSAL REFORliATION OF THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD.
" So give Anthora their due as yon give time hie due, which is to discover trath."— Baoon's 'Promus,' 341.
" Paracelsus, in the eighth chapter of his * Treatise on Metak/ gave utterance to the following prognostication: — Quod uiilius Deu8 pcdefieri sinet, quod aulem majoris momenii est^ vulgo adhuc laid usque ad Elice Artistas advenium, quando ia venerU, 'God will permit a discovery of the highest importance to be made, it must be hidden till the advent of the artist Elias.' In the first chapter of the same work, he says : — Hoc item verum est mhil est abacondi- fum quod non sit retegendum; ideOy post me veniet cujus magnale nundum vivit qui mv2ta revelahiL ' And it is true, there is nothing concealed that shall not be discovered ; for which cause a marvel- lous being shall come after me, who as yet lives not, and who shall reveal many things.' These passages have been claimed as referring to the founder of the Eosicrucian order, and as pro- phecies of this character are usually the outcome of a general desire rather than of an individual inspiration, they are interesting evidence that then as now many thoughtful people were looking for another saviour of society. At the beginning of the seven- teenth centuiy ' a great and general reformation,' says Buhle — a reformation far more radical and more directed to the moral improvement of mankind than that accomplished by Luther, — ' was believed to be impending over the human race.' "^ Louis Figuier, in his " Alchemy and Alchemists," thinks that Andreas was filled with a desire to fulfil this prophecy of Paracelsus. And that out of this arose the idea to found the famous Eosicru-
1 From Waiters '
THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS. 31
cian Brotherhood. But this in no way answers the problem of the prophecy put forward of the advent of an artist. What sort of artist could this be 1 How answer to it 1 It is indeed striking that at a time, when thousands are beginning to believe that Lord Bacon was the author of the plays attributed hitherto to Shake- speare, and to see that these plays are as profound as Nature, and are promising an astounding revelation or rebirth of miraculous character, we should find those strange initials among the chosen brethren of the Bosy Cross set down in the narrative of the discovery of the body of Christian Bosencreutz —
4. F. B. M. P. A., PkU/r d Archiiedus. At any rate, here is an Artist, whose initials answer to those of Francis Bacon. The letters P. A. seem to be only initials for Pidar et ArchUedus, and we like to indulge in the theory that