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Article ANCIENT WEITEES AND MODEEN PEACTICES ← Page 4 of 7 →
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Ancient Weitees And Modeen Peactices
in the form of a Eosicrucian Society , and in it he mingled some features that were at variance with the gravity of its purposes . Young as he then was , Andrea knew that men of different characters could not be brought to co-operate steadily for any object so purely disinterested as the elevation of human nature : he therefore addressed them by the common foible of their age , by holding out promises of
occult knowledge , which should lengthen life and confer wealth ; for in an age of theosophy , cabbalism , and alchemy , he knew that the popular ear would be caught by an account , issuing no one knew whence , of a secret society which professed to be the depositary of Oriental mysteries , and to have existed for two centuries . Many would seek to connect themselves with such a society , and from these candidates he might gradually select the members of the real society which he projected . How then , it may be asked , arises any
any doubt as to the authorship of these three w orks ? Or , why did he not own them ? For the simple reason , that for him to have owned them , would have been to defeat his own object ; and , on the contrary , he joined , in public as being a suspected person , in the ridicule of those who regarded the whole scheme as a chimera . And if Andrea was not the author , who was ? There is no authority for attributing it to any one else , and great reason to attribute it to him .
Next arises another question , viz ., was the brotherhood of the Rosicrueians , as described in these books , an historical matter of fact or a romance ? As to the " Fama Eraternitatis , " ( says De Quincey ) , —which properly contains the pretended history of the order—it teems with internal arguments against itself ; one of which was so very gross that we could not avoid noticing it as we wrote it , viz ., the allusion to the eight brethren who witnessed the burial of Father Eosycross . The other discrepancies are as great , and can be as easily discovered by any one who reads the narrative carefully , or
perhaps even carelessly . But here De Quincey again jumps very hastily to a conclusion , —one , indeed , to which , though not ourselves belonging to the order , we cannot follow him . " Whoever , " he says , " was its author , must be looked upon as the founder , in effect , of the Hosicrucian order (!) , inasmuch as this fiction was the accidental
cause of such an order ' s being really founded . " Here we cannot agree with him ( though w e quite think with him , that the history contained in the " Eama Eraternitatis " is full of contradictions and absurdities ) any more than we can in his final argument to prove that Andrea was that author—viz ., that the armorial bearings of Andrea ' s family were a St . Andrew ' s cross and four roses ; and that ,
for this reason , by the " Order of the Rosy Cross " he meant an order fohnded by himself ; and that therefore the origin of the Eosicrucian order was founded by him in the year 1610 . The sensation however which was produced throughout Germany , we are informed , is sufficiently proved by the repeated editions of them between the years 1614 and 1617 , as also by the great excitement which ensued in the literary world . Printed letters , addressed to the 2 t 2
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ancient Weitees And Modeen Peactices
in the form of a Eosicrucian Society , and in it he mingled some features that were at variance with the gravity of its purposes . Young as he then was , Andrea knew that men of different characters could not be brought to co-operate steadily for any object so purely disinterested as the elevation of human nature : he therefore addressed them by the common foible of their age , by holding out promises of
occult knowledge , which should lengthen life and confer wealth ; for in an age of theosophy , cabbalism , and alchemy , he knew that the popular ear would be caught by an account , issuing no one knew whence , of a secret society which professed to be the depositary of Oriental mysteries , and to have existed for two centuries . Many would seek to connect themselves with such a society , and from these candidates he might gradually select the members of the real society which he projected . How then , it may be asked , arises any
any doubt as to the authorship of these three w orks ? Or , why did he not own them ? For the simple reason , that for him to have owned them , would have been to defeat his own object ; and , on the contrary , he joined , in public as being a suspected person , in the ridicule of those who regarded the whole scheme as a chimera . And if Andrea was not the author , who was ? There is no authority for attributing it to any one else , and great reason to attribute it to him .
Next arises another question , viz ., was the brotherhood of the Rosicrueians , as described in these books , an historical matter of fact or a romance ? As to the " Fama Eraternitatis , " ( says De Quincey ) , —which properly contains the pretended history of the order—it teems with internal arguments against itself ; one of which was so very gross that we could not avoid noticing it as we wrote it , viz ., the allusion to the eight brethren who witnessed the burial of Father Eosycross . The other discrepancies are as great , and can be as easily discovered by any one who reads the narrative carefully , or
perhaps even carelessly . But here De Quincey again jumps very hastily to a conclusion , —one , indeed , to which , though not ourselves belonging to the order , we cannot follow him . " Whoever , " he says , " was its author , must be looked upon as the founder , in effect , of the Hosicrucian order (!) , inasmuch as this fiction was the accidental
cause of such an order ' s being really founded . " Here we cannot agree with him ( though w e quite think with him , that the history contained in the " Eama Eraternitatis " is full of contradictions and absurdities ) any more than we can in his final argument to prove that Andrea was that author—viz ., that the armorial bearings of Andrea ' s family were a St . Andrew ' s cross and four roses ; and that ,
for this reason , by the " Order of the Rosy Cross " he meant an order fohnded by himself ; and that therefore the origin of the Eosicrucian order was founded by him in the year 1610 . The sensation however which was produced throughout Germany , we are informed , is sufficiently proved by the repeated editions of them between the years 1614 and 1617 , as also by the great excitement which ensued in the literary world . Printed letters , addressed to the 2 t 2