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ROSTCRUCIAN APOLOGISTS: MICHAEL MAIER. 269
spoke of it as already existing going so far even as to pub-
lish its laws." He was a voluminous and ingenious writer,
and, according to Langlet du Fresnoy, all his treatises were
excessively rare, even in the eighteenth century.
"
They
contain much curious material," says this writer, " and I
am astonished that the German booksellers, who publish
innumerable worthless works, have not condescended to
perceive that a complete collection of the writings of
Michael Maier would be more useful and command a larger
sale than the trash with which they overwhelm scholars
and the public generally."
This task still remains to be accomplished, and considera-
tions of space will prevent me from even supplying a
bibliography of these singular
works. The most curious
of all is " Atalanta Fugiens," which abounds with quaint
and mystical copperplate engravings, emblematically reveal-
ing the most unsearchable secrets of Nature. This pro-
duction, with the " Tripus Aureus," or three tracts of Basil
Valentin, Thomas Norton, and Cremer,
the Abbot of
Westminster, all of which were unearthed by the diligence
of Maier, seem to have appeared before he had immersed
himself in the insoluble Eosicrucian mystery. The
" Silentium Post Clamores," however, published at Franc-
furt in 1 6 1 7, professes to account not only for the speech in
season uttered by the Fraternity in its priceless manifestoes,
but for the silence which followed when it declined even to
reply to the pamphlets and epistles of persons seeking
initiation. The author asserts that from very ancient
times philosophical colleges have existed among various
nations for the study of medicine and of natural secrets, and
that the discoveries which they made were perpetuated from
generation to generation by the initiation of new members,