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232
HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
poses, and, by implication, expresses,
astonishment that his
so-called ludibrium became the object of earnest investigation
and of high esteem, I freely confess that I, for one, cannot
interpret him seriously ; in other words, that I reject
the statement. This, however, is only the initial difficulty.
The same passage of the " Vita ab ipso Conscripta " con-
tains another piece of incredible information, namely that
Andreas wrote the "Nuptiae Chymicse" before he was
sixteen. This story gives evidence of an acquaintance
with the practice and purposes of alchemy which was
absolutely impossible to the most precocious lad. Moreover,
the boldness of its conception and the power which
is displayed in its execution, setting
aside the debateable
question of its occult philosophical character, are things
utterly transcending the cacoethes scribendi of a youngster
barely attained to the age of puberty. I appeal to the discrimination
of my readers whether the curious and ingenious
perplexities propounded at the supper on the third
day are in any way suggestive of " the light fire in the
veins of a boy." The romance supposed to have been
written in 1602-3 did not see the light till 1616, when it
appeared in the full tide of the Rosicrucian controversy.
Why did it remain in manuscript for the space of thirteen
years at a period when everything treating of alchemy was
devoured with unexampled avidity 1 The " Chymical Mar-
riage," in its original draft, may have been penned at the
age of fifteen, but it must have been subjected to a searching
revision, though I confess that it betrays no trace of subse-
These grave difficulties are enhanced
quent manipulation.
by a fact which is wholly unknown to mostEosicrucian critics,
and which was certainly not to be expected in the jest of a
schoolboy, namely, that the barbarous enigmatical writings