book is entitled rather

dryly, Disquisitions on the Anti Papal Spirit which •produced the Reforma- tion : Its Secret Influence in the Literature of Eu- rope in General^ and of Europe in Particular. It is a cultured book, a truly exquisite piece of work, full of instructive suggestion and erudite information upon these poets, and well-termed disquisitions.
Sun-dial on Eastern Gable of Sherborne Abbey.
Pillar-dial in Market-place, Carlisle, England. From an Old Print.
The Rosicrucians 389
A distinct impress of Rosicrucian notions is found in The Rape of the Lock ; indeed, Pope says plainly that he composed his poem " on a new and odd foundation, the Rosicrucian doctrine of spirits." But the sylphs and gnomes and salamanders of the poets' fanciful brain had other pursuits and manners than those of the Rosicrucian philosophy. There have been learned papers written to prove that Shakespeare knew of the existence of the sect and felt its influence. The Tempest was written about six years after the outburst of Rosicrucian contro- versy in Germany ; but any thought of a connection between that exquisite creation Ariel and the com- paratively clumsy sylphs of the Rosicrucians is un- worthy any notice or refutation. Milton's masque of Comus is no less zealously claimed for the German sylph-makers, but in vain ; the graceful mythology of Greece stimulated the brain of the poet. The masques of the times of James I and Charles I, however, plainly show Rosicrucian influences.