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388
HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
De Quincey affirms that France was never wanting in the
"
ignobler elements of credulity," but that she has always
lacked its nobler or imaginative part.
" On this account
the French have always been an irreligious people. And
the scheme of Father Eosycross was too much connected
with religious feelings, and moved too much under a reli-
gious impulse,
to recommend itself to the French."
The first appearance of Eosicrucianism in France 1 was in
the year 1623, when the following mysterious placard was
affixed to the walls of Paris :
"
We, the deputies of our
chief college of the Brethren of the Eosy Cross, now so-
journing, visible and invisible, in this town, do teach, in
the name of the Most High, towards whom the hearts of
the Sages turn, every science, without either books, symbols,
or signs, and we speak the language of the country in
which we tarry, that we may extricate our fellow-men from
error and destruction."
There are at least four different versions of this mani-
festo. Gabriel Naude reads "By the grace of the Most
High ... we teach, without the assistance of books or
signs, how to speak the language of every country where
we elect to stay, in order that we may rescue our fellowmen
from the error of death." A French brochure, pub-
lished in 1623, and entitled "Effroyables pactions faites
entre le diable et les pretendus invisibles, avec leur dam-
nables instructions, perte deplorable de leurs escoliers, et
leur miserable fin," presents still more important variations.
" We, the deputies of the College of the Eosie-Cross,
advise all those who seek entrance into our society and
congregation, to become initiated into the knowledge of
the Most High, in whose cause we are at this day assembled,
1 See Additional Notes, No. VI.