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406
HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
11 Dictionnaire Ma9onnique " J declares that it was created
in Palestine by Godfrey de Bouillon in the year 1100,
and that the Kose was emblematic of secrecy and the Cross
of immortality. It professes to deal with the spiritual
side of alchemy, and to seek that same mysterious Stone
which was the object of Basil Valentin, Paracelsus, Khun-
rath, and the true turbo, philosophorum of psycho-chemical
transmutations. But the shallow pretence has deceived
no one, for the sublime tradition of the veritable magnum
opus exclusively points to transcendent spiritual secrets,
and not to the eternal commonplace of moral and masonic
platitudinarians that is to say, the illiterate initiations
of Masonry, ignorantly adopting a garbled alchemical ter-
minology, have fallen into the gross and porcine
error of
interpreting alchemical symbolism morally instead of pneu-
matically. Sovereign chapters and sovereign princes of
Rose-Croix, Knight Princes of the Eagle and the Pelican,
and Prince Perfect Masters, should continue to dine sumptu-
ously ; no one will dispute their proficiency as initiates of
the gastronomical mystery, but, in the name of the Grand
Architect, let them leave the morally unsearchable mystery
of the philosophick gold to the true Sons of the Doctrine.
The Eose-Cross degree is represented by Carlile as the
ne plus ultra of Masonry. It has three points, of which the
two first are called Sovereign Chapters, and the third the
Mystic Supper, which is held four times a year. The pre-
siding officer is dignified with the sublime title of " Ever
"
Most Perfect Sovereign ; the two Wardens are
"
Most Ex-
cellent and Perfect Brothers." There is also a Master of
1 ' '
Dictionnaire Maconnique, ou Recueil d'Esquisses de toutes les
parties de 1'edifice connu sous le nom de Ma9onnerie." A Paris :
5825, 8vo.