Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

258 FRANCIS BACON
But all this is, after all, mere conjecture; it is only submitted
as such in order that others may pin down these statements,
proving or disproving them. Having no means of doing so, we
fall back, for the present, upon our old plan of quoting " the
best authorities," and when, as is frequently the case, these
doctors disagree, readers will, perhaps, cross-examine them, and
decide between them.
Dr. Mackey is positive that the Rosicrucians have no connection
with the Masons. He is indignant that any one should
doubt this. " Notwithstanding this fact," says the Doctor (but
bringing no proof of the fact), " Barnel, the most malignant of
our revilers, with a characteristic spirit of misrepresentation,
attempted to identify the two institutions. This is an error into
which others might unwittingly fall, from confounding the Prince
of Rose Croix, a Masonic degree somewhat similar in name, but
entirely different in character. " Here, again, it is not explained
how the writer has become so intimately acquainted with the
characteristics of the Rosicrucians, seeing that he is not himself
an initiate of that brotherhood. He proceeds in the same
strain of assertion, without proof: " The Rosicrucians do not
derive their name, like Rose Croix Masons, from the rose and cross,
for they have nothing to do with the rose, but with the Latin ros,
dew, and crux, the cross, as a hieroglyphic of light. ... A
Rosicrucian philosopher is one who, by the assistance of dew
(previously explained as the most powerful solvent of gold)
seeks for light, or the philosopher's stone. " l
This author is evidently possessed with the notion that there is
something rather discreditable in Rosicrucianism, for he concludes
with an apology for having introduced the subject, which
only a fear of the error into which Masons might unwittingly fall
would, apparently, have induced him to touch upon.
Another work of the same kind has a long article on Rosicrucianism,
in which all the old traditions and errors are repeated:
that the Rosy Cross brethren were alchemists; that their origin
was of great antiquity, etc.; adding, also, other errors, namely,
l Lexicon of Freemasonry, A. G. Mackey, D. D. (Griffin & Co., Exeter St.,
Strand), 7th edition, 1883.