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52
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HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
of five who are sick perish because the physitians know not
their disease ; such errors are indeed excusable, because
men are easily deceived in matters of mere conjecture, but
that we, who are judged by Apollo to be the salt of the
earth, should not know the evil under which the present age
labours, redounds much to our shame, since the malady
which we ought to cure lies not hidden in the veins, but is so
manifestly known to all men that it self cries aloud for help.
And yet, by all the reasons T have heard alledged, methinks
you go
about to mend the arm when it is the heart that
is fistula'd. Gentlemen, since it is Apollo's pleasure that
we should do so, since our reputation stands upon it, and
charity to our so afflicted age requires it at our hands, let
us, I beseech you, take from our faces the mask of respect,
which hath been hitherto worn by us all, and let us speak
freely. The fatal error then which has so long confirmed
mankind in their unhappiness is this, that while the vices
of the great have brought the world into confusion, a re-
formation of private men's faults has been thought sufficient
to retrieve it. But the falshood, avarice, pride and
hypocrisie of private men are not the vices (though
I con-
fess them to be hanious evils, which have so much depraved
our age, for fitting punishments being by the law provided
for every fault and foul action, man is so obedient to the
laws and so apprehensive of justice that a few ministers
thereof make millions of men tremble, and men live in such
peace that the rich cannot, without much danger to them-
selves, oppress the poor, and every one may walk safely
both by day and night with gold in their hand, not onely
in the streets but even in the highways. But the world's
most dangerous infirmities are discovered when publique
peace is disturbed, and we must all of us confess that the