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THE CASE OF JOHANN VALENTIN ANDREAS. 237
propriate members for his society. It would then be naturally
concluded that the publication of the "Fama Fraternitatis "
signified that his designs were matured. The subsequent
conduct of Andreas is, nevertheless, so completely in the face
of this conclusion, that Buhle is obliged to assume that the
manifestoes were printed without the author's consent, than
which nothing could be more gratuitous, and that the up-
roar of hostility which followed their publication made it
necessary
for Andreas to disavow them if he would succeed
in his ultimate designs. The hostility provoked by the
manifestoes bears no comparison with the welcome they
received among all those classes to whom they were indi-
rectly addressed, namely, the alchemists, theosophists, etc.
Had Andreas projected a society upon the lines laid down
by Buhle, nothing remained but to communicate with the
innumerable pamphleteers who wrote in defence of the
order during the years immediately succeeding the publica-
tion of the " Fama Fraternitatis," as well as with those other
persons who in various printed letters offered themselves
for admission therein, after which he could have proceeded
in the accomplishment of his heartless design.
That he did
not do so when the circumstances were so favourable is
proof positive that he had no such intention. In fact, at
this very period, namely, in the year 1614, we find Andreas
immersed in no dark and mysterious designs for the refor-
mation of the age by means of a planned imposture, but
simply celebrating his nuptials, and settling down into
a tranquil domestic life.
One more gross and ineradicable blemish upon this hypo-
thesis remains to be noticed. Not only is Andreas repre-
sented relinquishing his design at the very moment when it
was possible to put it in force, but diverted at the uni-