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Article ANCIENT WEITEES AND MODEEN PEACTICES ← Page 6 of 7 →
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Ancient Weitees And Modeen Peactices
i " claiming admission into the airy college of Father Eosycross , though all pretended that the mystic wisdom which he promised was the object of their anxiety , yet by far the larger number were in search of the gold wdiich he had hinted at—it is clear that his satirical propensities were keenly gratified , and he accordingly flung out two pamphlets to amuse the hungry crowd , which were entitled , "
Epistola ad Reverendam Fraternitatem Eosese Crucis , " and " Assertio Eraternitatis Eosese Crucis a quodam Eraterno ejus Socio Carmine expressa" ( A Letter to thel & ev ^ rend Eosicrucian Society ; and A Declaration , in Yerse , of tl ^ RosierucianyFraternity , by a Brotherly Eellow of that Society ) , in ^ tl )^ yea ^ lmS and 1614 . But , after a few years , Andrea was shocked to findthat the delusion had taken so
strong ahold of the public mind , and that what he had intended to originate for far other and higher purposes , had been perverted and prostituted to alchemy and cabbalism of the lowest kind . He had intended by his satirical publications to lead men to inquire after hidden truths—he found that they had taken his satire in sober earnest , and had built on a foundation , which existed only in his imagination , an edifice which , nevertheless , seemed likely to be a
lasting one . De Quincey here mentions a few of the most remarkable writers on the original pretended Eosicrucian Society , such as was Julianus a Campis , who wrote to account for the non-revelation of themselves by the Rosicrueians , and for their non-recognition of the letters addressed to them . Tie was himself , he said , a member of the order , and having only in all his travels met with three others , he concluded that there were no others who were considered worthy
of admission . Another was Julius Sperber , of Anhalt-Dessau ; a third was Radtich Brotoffer , who understood the three Rosicrucian books not in a literal or historical sense , but allegorically , as a description of the art of making gold and finding the philosopher ' s stone . A far more important history w as written by Michael Maier , who is said first to have transplanted it into
England , where its effects were more lasting than in Germany . He wrote a work dedicated " Omnibus verce tyiyniice Amantibi \ iS per Germaniam , el preocipne illi Ordini adhuc delitescenti , at JFanid Jfrnlcrnitatis el Confessione sua admiranda et probabile nianifestato " ( " To all Lovers of true Chemistry throughout Germany , especially to
that Order which lias hitherto lain concealed , but is now made known by the Report of the Fraternity , and their admirable and probable Confession . " ) Theophilus Schweighart of Constance , Josephus Stellatus , and Giles Gutmann , were also writers on the same subject . All these Avorks were enough to convince Andrea that his romance bad succeeded in a way which he never designed . The public had credited the charlatanerie of his books , but gave no welcome to that for the sake of which this charlatanerie was adopted as a vehicle .
The alchemy had been approved—the moral and religious scheme slighted . In order , therefore , to counteract the effects which he had then unintentionally produced , he now published a work which he had written in 1601 , when only sixteen years old , to which
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ancient Weitees And Modeen Peactices
i " claiming admission into the airy college of Father Eosycross , though all pretended that the mystic wisdom which he promised was the object of their anxiety , yet by far the larger number were in search of the gold wdiich he had hinted at—it is clear that his satirical propensities were keenly gratified , and he accordingly flung out two pamphlets to amuse the hungry crowd , which were entitled , "
Epistola ad Reverendam Fraternitatem Eosese Crucis , " and " Assertio Eraternitatis Eosese Crucis a quodam Eraterno ejus Socio Carmine expressa" ( A Letter to thel & ev ^ rend Eosicrucian Society ; and A Declaration , in Yerse , of tl ^ RosierucianyFraternity , by a Brotherly Eellow of that Society ) , in ^ tl )^ yea ^ lmS and 1614 . But , after a few years , Andrea was shocked to findthat the delusion had taken so
strong ahold of the public mind , and that what he had intended to originate for far other and higher purposes , had been perverted and prostituted to alchemy and cabbalism of the lowest kind . He had intended by his satirical publications to lead men to inquire after hidden truths—he found that they had taken his satire in sober earnest , and had built on a foundation , which existed only in his imagination , an edifice which , nevertheless , seemed likely to be a
lasting one . De Quincey here mentions a few of the most remarkable writers on the original pretended Eosicrucian Society , such as was Julianus a Campis , who wrote to account for the non-revelation of themselves by the Rosicrueians , and for their non-recognition of the letters addressed to them . Tie was himself , he said , a member of the order , and having only in all his travels met with three others , he concluded that there were no others who were considered worthy
of admission . Another was Julius Sperber , of Anhalt-Dessau ; a third was Radtich Brotoffer , who understood the three Rosicrucian books not in a literal or historical sense , but allegorically , as a description of the art of making gold and finding the philosopher ' s stone . A far more important history w as written by Michael Maier , who is said first to have transplanted it into
England , where its effects were more lasting than in Germany . He wrote a work dedicated " Omnibus verce tyiyniice Amantibi \ iS per Germaniam , el preocipne illi Ordini adhuc delitescenti , at JFanid Jfrnlcrnitatis el Confessione sua admiranda et probabile nianifestato " ( " To all Lovers of true Chemistry throughout Germany , especially to
that Order which lias hitherto lain concealed , but is now made known by the Report of the Fraternity , and their admirable and probable Confession . " ) Theophilus Schweighart of Constance , Josephus Stellatus , and Giles Gutmann , were also writers on the same subject . All these Avorks were enough to convince Andrea that his romance bad succeeded in a way which he never designed . The public had credited the charlatanerie of his books , but gave no welcome to that for the sake of which this charlatanerie was adopted as a vehicle .
The alchemy had been approved—the moral and religious scheme slighted . In order , therefore , to counteract the effects which he had then unintentionally produced , he now published a work which he had written in 1601 , when only sixteen years old , to which