CHAPTER VI.

ON THE CONNECTION OF THE ROSICRUCIAN CLAIMS WITH
THOSE OF ALCHEMY AND MAGIC.

THE guise of antiquity being almost indispensable to the
pretensions contained in these singular documents, I have
preferred presenting them to my readers in the archaic
form of the original English translations, which, moreover,
represent the Rosicrucian period in this country, than to
undertake the somewhat superfluous task of a new version.
If the "Fama" and "Confessio Fraternitatis " are to be
taken in their literal sense, the publication of these documents
will not add new lustre to Rosicrucian reputations. We are
accustomed to regard the adepts of the Rose-Cross as beings
of sublime elevation and preternatural physical powers,
masters of Nature, monarchs of the intellectual world,
illuminated by a relative omniscience, and absolutely ex-
alted above all weakness and all prejudice. We imagine
them to be " holding no form of creed, but contemplating
all " from the solitary grandeur of the Absolute, and in-
vested with the " sublime sorrow of the ages as of the lone
ocean." But here in their own acknowledged manifestoes
they avow themselves a mere theosophical offshoot of the
Lutheran heresy, acknowledging the spiritual supremacy of
a temporal prince, and calling the pope Antichrist. We
have gauged in these days of enlightenment and universal
tolerance the intellectual capacities of all professors, past

198 HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.

and present, of that art prophetic which is represented by
Baxter and Gumming. We know the value of all the mul-
titudinous speculations in the theological no-man's land of
the Apocalypse. We do not expect a new Star of Jacob to
rise out of the Galilee of religious intolerance, and out of the
frantic folly of sectarian squabblings. We do not calculate
the number of the beast, we do not denounce the Jesuits,
we are not obsessed by an infectious terror of papal power
and its possible agressions ; on the contrary, we respect the
associations connected with sovereign pontiffs, grand lamas,
and chief patriarchs. We have, most of us, decided that
the pope is neither God's vicar nor the Man of Sin ; we
persistently refuse our adherence to any theory which con-
nects the little horn with Prince Jerome Napoleon, and we
are not open to any positive convictions on the identity
of the Scarlet Woman, or of the lost tribes of Israel. All
persons possessed of such positive convictions we justifiably
regard as fanatics, and after due and deliberate considera-
tion of the Eosi crucian manifestoes, we do not feel able to
make an exception in favour of this Fraternity, whose

" Manners have not that repose
Which marks the caste of Vere de Vere. "

In other words, we find them intemperate in their language,
rabid in their religious prejudices, and, instead of towering
giant-like above the intellectual average of their age, we see
them buffeted by the same passions and identified with all the
opinions of the men by whom they were environed. The voice
which addresses us behind the mystical mask of the Eose-
Cross does not come from an intellectual throne, erected on
the pinnacles of high thinking and surrounded by the serene
and sunny atmosphere of a far-sighted tolerance ; it comes

ROS1CRUCIANISM, ALCHEMY, AND MAGIC. 199

from the very heart of the vexatious and unprofitable strife
of sects, and it utters the war-cry of extermination. The
scales fall from our eyes, the romance vanishes ; we find our-
selves in the presence of some Germans of the period, not
of " the mystic citizens of the eternal kingdom."

We are dejected and disillusioned, but we are thankful,
notwithstanding, to know the truth, as distinguished from
the fictions of Mr Hargrave Jennings and the glamorous
fables of professed romancers. In this spirit we proceed to
a closer acquaintance with the Eosicrucians as represented
by themselves.

I have already said that " The Universal Eeformation "
has little internal connection with the society which is sup-
posed to have issued it in its Teutonic dress. The conclu-
sion which is reached in that curious tract is, indeed,
completely opposed to the expressed hopes of the Frater-
nity. It illustrates the ludicrous futility and abortiveness
of the attempt to reform society, even when undertaken by
the flower of the world's " literati." It bids the reformers
begin their work at home, and reduces their Utopian
scheming from the splendid scale of universal reconstruc-
tion to appraising sprats and cabbages. It considers
mankind to be as good as his surroundings will allow
him, and that " the height of human wisdom lies in the
discretion to be content with leaving the world as they
found it." On the other hand, the " Fama " and " Con-
fessio " invite " the learned of Europe to co-operate with a
secret society for the renovation of the age, the reform of
philosophy," and to remedy " the imperfection and incon-
sistencies of all the arts." The discrepancy is singularly
complete, and as " The Universal Keformation " throws no
light upon the history or the claims of the Rosicrucians, it

200 HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.

need not detain ns. " The Chymical Marriage of Christian
Rosencreutz " I shall also set aside for the present, because
it is an allegorical romance — pace Professor Buhle, as De
Quincey hath it — though otherwise of the first importance
and interest.

From the " Fama " and " Confessio " we gather the reli-
gious opinions of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, and classify
them as follows : —

a. They acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God.