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THOMAS VAUGHAN. 313
also written and published, by some other creatures then
men. It is true, indeed, that their knowledg at first was
not purchased by their own disquisitions, for they received
it from the Arabians, amongst whom it remained as the
monument and legacy of the children of the East. Nor is
this at all improbable, for the eastern countries have been
always famous for magical and secret societies."
He compares the habitation of the Brachmans, as it is
described by Philostratus in his life of Apollonius, with the
Rosicrucian Locus Sancti Spiritus, concerning which he quotes
the following curious passage by a writer whom he does not
"
Vidi aliquando Olympicas domes, non procul a Flu-
name :
violo et Civitate notd, quas S. Spiritus vocari imaginamur.
Helicon est de quo loquor, aut biceps Parnassus, in quo Equuv
Pegasus fontem aperuit perennis aquce adliuc stillantem, 1 in quo
Diana se lavat, cui Venus ut Pedissequa et Saturnus ut Anteam-
bulo, conjunguntur. Intelligent* nimium, inexperto minimum
hoc erit dictum" Quoting afterwards the description of the
Elysium of the Brachmans " I have seen (saith Apollonius)
the Brachmans of India dwelling on the earth and not on
the earth ; they were guarded without walls, and possessing
nothing, they enjoyed all things" this is plain enough,
says Philalethes, " and on this hill have 1 also a desire to
live, if it were for no other reason but what the sophist
to the mountains
applyed
Hos primum sol salutat, ulti mosque deserit,
Quis locum non amet, dies longiores habentem ?
But of this place I will not speak any more, lest the readers
should be so mad as to entertain a suspicion that I am of
the Order." He attempts, however, to show "the confor-
1 See Introduction, ante, p. 10.