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270
HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
whence the existence of a similar association at that present
time was no subject for astonishment. The philosophical
colleges referred to are those of old Egypt, whose priests in
reality were alchemists, " seeing that Isis and Osiris are
sulphur and "
argmtum vivum ; of the Orphic and Eleusinian
mysteries, of the Samothracian Cabiri, the Magi of
Persia, the Brachmans of India, the Gymnosophists,
Pythagoreans, c. He maintains that one and all of these
were instituted, not for the teaching of exoteric doctrines,
but the most arcane mysteries of Nature. Afterwards he
argues that if the German Fraternity had existed,
clares, for so many years,
as it de-
it was better that it should reveal
itself, than be concealed for ever under the veil of silence,
and that it could not manifest itself otherwise than in the
" Fama " and " Confessio Fraternitatis," which contain
nothing contrary to reason, nature, experience,
or the
possibility of things. Moreover, the Order rightly observes
that silence which Pythagoras imposed on his disciples, and
which alone can preserve the mysteries of existence from the
prostitution of the vulgar.
The contents of the two mani-
festoes are declared to be true, and we are further informed
that we owe a great debt to the Order for their experimental
investigations, and for their discovery
of the universal
Catholicon. The popular objections preferred against it are
disposed of in different chapters, e.g., the charges
of necro-
mancy and superstition. The explicit statement of the
Society,
that all communications addressed to it should
not fail to reach their destination, although they were
unknown and anonymous, proving apparently false, was a
special cause of grievance ; those who sought
health and
those who coveted treasures at their hand were equally dis-
appointed, and, according to Michael Maier, appear to have