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PROGRESS OF ROSICRUCIANISM IN GERMANY. 265
and without prejudice to their Christianly convictions.
cites the common reproaches cast at the Order,
It
to wit :
that they are enemies of all lawful government, Jesuits, or
Calvinists, also the suspicion that there is no order at all,
but that the whole business is a farce, written for some un-
defined purpose. It maintains that there is such an order,
and that it is in possession of great secrets, because it con-
sists of pre-eminently learned men. Finally,
exhorts all to join it.
the author
Among the acknowledged works of Andreas which contain
satirical references to the Rosicrucian mystery may be
mentioned " Menippus, sive, Dialogorum Satyricorum Cen-
turia, inanitatum nostratium speculum," 1673, 8vo; " In-
stitutio Magica pro curiosis," and " Turns Babel, sive,
Judicium de Fraternitatis Roseau crucis Chaos." Argentorati,
1619, 12mo. They contain absolutely nothing which can be
tortured into a confession of the authorship of the mani-
festoes, nor any gleam of light on any subject connected
with the Society. They express simply the personal
opinions of Andreas, and those who make a contrary asser-
tion have read their own hypotheses between the lines of
their author.
By the year 1620, the subject
of the Rosicrucians was
completely exhausted in Germany. It had been discussed
from all standpoints by men of the most various character,
but, in the absence of ascertainable facts, no man was wiser;
and as the Rosicrucians, supposing them to have existed,
kept silent amidst the confusion of opinions and the unpro-
ductive clamour which they had created, making no further
sign, the interest concerning them gradually died away.
Seekers for the magnum opus, and persons imbued with the
ambition to reform the world, looked elsewhere for light