BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

ABOUT THE ROSICRUCIANS.

It is no part of my (the editor's) design to recount all the adventures of Beverly, nor to trace his paths through Egypt, Syria, Turkey, nor Europe. Suffice it, that I became so interested in his story that I accompanied him on more than one long journey. Occasionally I would lose sight of him for months together, but by the strangest seeming accident we would meet again, now on the top of Ghizeh’s great pyramid, now in the deserts of Dongola and Nubia; then in a French café, anon in the columned groves of Karnak and of Thebes. We often parted, and as often met again; and in the interim I had not failed to investigate certain grave secrets which he had confided to me. I did not fully believe his strange doctrines; but I am sure that he did, and therefore he commanded my sympathy and respect. As previously indicated, on my first acquaintance with him I was exceedingly sceptical in regard to the existence, in these days, of the Brotherhood of the Rosie Cross, and derided his assertions respecting their powers. True I had heard much, and read more, concerning the celebrated fraternity—an association that has proved a veritable God-send to scores of paper-stainers in all parts of the globe where letters reign, as witness Charles Mackay, Kingsley, Robert Southey, and fifty others, not omitting Bulwer Lytton, his “Zanoni,” and “Strange Story,” nor Hargrave Jennings and his “Curious Things” about “Fire” and the “Outside World.”

In my varied travels through Europe and the East, as well as in this, my native land, I have met with scores, not to say hundreds, who boasted themselves Rosicrucians; and it is but a little while since there appeared, in a “spiritual” sheet in Boston, first a learned lecture, by a female “medium,” on the Rosicrucians, and a long communication, purporting to come from a deceased adept of the Order, both of which were quite laughable by reason of the total and utter ignorance displayed. Probably both of these “enlighteners” had heard or read of Dr. Everard's “Compte de Gabalis,” and took that humorous bit of badinage as the real, simon-pure explanation of Rosicrucianism as, indeed, was natural, seeing that hundreds have fallen into the same comical error; for, upon applying the touch-stone to all these pretended adepts in the secrets, sublime and mighty, of the Order, it is found that, exceptionless, they are woefully deficient in even the rudiments of the genuine fraternity; nor have these modern pretenders any more real claims to the truth than the hordes of fanatics which swarmed all over Europe an age or two ago, and who brought ineffable disgrace both upon themselves and the sublime name which they stole.

A good gold coin passes very quietly through the world, but your counterfeit makes a great noise wherever it may chance to be; so with the pseudo-Rosicrucians. The latter created a sensation, and then disappeared, only occasionally jingling their bells to let the world know that the fools were not all defunct; while the true Brotherhood went on, and still goes on, quietly performing its mission.

Every student of history is, or ought to be, aware that the pretended “adepts” in past times laid claim to enormous amounts of the most wonderful knowledge, but when put to the proof, invariably failed to substantiate their claims. Such were the men who sought, and, in some instances, pretended to have succeeded, in accomplishing the composition of the Philosopher's Stone and the great Elixir.

Vaughan, in his “Hours with the Mystics,” laughs at the idea that there ever was really such a society as that of the Brethren of the Rosie Cross, and alleges that they were but the “Mrs. Harris” of certain romancers of the past two centuries; in other words, that they are altogether mistaken who suppose such a society ever had existence. Baron Fischer, now of San Francisco, declares that there really was such an order, but that it was composed of Fools, Fanatics, and Moon-struck Madmen, who in time became the laughing-stock of all Europe. On the other hand, Lydde, the traveller, asserts positively, in his great work, “The Asian Mystery,” that he has traced the Order, under one or more of its names, back into the very night-time of the world’s history. And Abdul Rahman, the Arabian author, boldly declares that he has proved the existence of this Brotherhood in ages so remote that Christian and Jewish history is modern in comparison.

Hein, Hun—Tse-Foh, the Chinese annalist, asserts, that the Order originated in Tartary thousands of years before the foundation of the Chinese empire, itself claiming an age of over thirty thousand solar years! From Tartary it went to Japan, thence to China, thence to Persia, thence to Arabia, thence to India, and, by stages, to Europe, having passed through Egypt, Jewry, and Phœnicia on its way down the ages.

So much for Vaughan; now for another “authority.” Under the letter “R,” in the American Encyclopedia, occurs the word “Rosicrucians,” followed by—“Members of a society, the existence of which became unexpectedly known at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Its object was ostensibly the reformation of Church, State, and individuals, but closer examination showed that the discovery of the Philosophers' Stone was the true object of the fully initiated. A certain Christian, Rosenkrauze, who was said to have lived long among the Brahmins in Egypt, etc., was pretended to have founded the Order in the fourteenth century; but the real founder is believed to have been one Andrea, a German scholar, of the beginning of the sixteenth century, whose object, as is thought, was to purify Religion, which had been degraded by Scholastic Philosophy. Others think that he only gave a new character to a society founded before him by Cornelius Agrippa, of Nettesheim. Krause, the author, says, that Andrea occupied his time from early youth with the plan of a secret society for the improvement of mankind. In 1614 he published his famous “Reformation of the Whole Wide World,” and his “Fama Fraternitas.” Christian enthusiasts and alchemists considered the poetical society, partially described in these books, as having a real existence, and thus Andrea became the author of the later Rosicrucian fraternities which extended over Europe. After a number of books had been written on the Rosicrucian system, and the whole exploded, the interest in it was revived in the latter half of the eighteenth century, in consequence of the abolition of the Order of Jesuits, and the story of their machinations, as well as of the frauds of Cagliostro and other notorious impostors.”

So much for the wiseacre who wrote this account at so much a line for the “American Encyclopedia.”

In juxta-position to the above, I quote part of pages 132-3-4 and 5, verbatim, of the autobiography of Heinrich Jung Stilling, late Aulic Counsellor to the Grand Duke of Baden. London: 1858. James Nisbet, Berners street. 3d Edition. Says this incomparable man:

“One morning in the spring of 1796, a handsome young man, in a green silk-plush coat, and otherwise well dressed, came to Stilling's house at Ockershaussen. This gentleman introduced himself in such a manner as betrayed a polished and genteel education. Stilling inquired who he was, and learnt that he was the remarkable ——. Stilling was astonished at the visit, and his astonishment was increased by the expectation of what this extremely enigmatical individual might have to communicate. After both had sat down, the stranger began by saying that he wished to consult Stilling relative to a person diseased in the eyes. However, the real object of his visit pressed him in such a manner that he began to weep; kissed, first, Stilling's hand, then his arm, and said: ‘Sir, are not you the author of the “Nostolgia?”' ‘Yes, sir.' ‘You are, therefore, one of my secret superiors' (in the Grand Lodge of the R. C.) Here he again kissed Stilling's hand and arm, and wept almost aloud. Stilling answered: ‘No, dear sir; I am neither your nor any one else’s secret superior. I am not in any secret connection whatever.’ The stranger looked at Stilling with a fixed eye, and inward emotion, and replied: ‘Dearest friend, cease to conceal yourself! I have been long tried, and severely enough. I thought you knew me already!' Stilling: ‘No, Mr. ----, I assure you solemnly that I stand in no secret connection, and in reality understand nothing of all that you require of me!’

“This speech was too strong and too serious to leave the stranger in uncertainty. It was now his turn to be astonished and amazed. He therefore continued: ‘But tell me, then, how is it that you know anything of the great and venerable connection in the East which you have so circumstantially described in the “Nostolgia,” and have even pointed out their rendezvous in Egypt, on Mount Sinai, in the Monastery of Canobin, and under the Temple at Jerusalem?' ‘I know nothing of all this,' replied Stilling. ‘But these ideas presented themselves in a very lively manner to my imagination. It was, therefore, mere fable and fiction.

“ ‘Pardon me, the matter is the truth and reality as you have described it. It is astonishing that you have hit it in such a manner—this cannot have come by chance!' The gentleman now related the real particulars of the association in the East. Stilling was amazed and astonished beyond measure; for he heard remarkable and extraordinary things, which are not, however, of such a nature as can be made public. I only affirm that what Stilling learnt from the gentleman had not the most remote reference to political matters.

“About the same time a certain great prince wrote to Stilling, and asked him ‘How it was that he knew anything about the association in the East, for the thing was as he had described it in the “Nostolgia.”’ The answer was naturally the same as that given verbally to the above-mentioned stranger. Stilling has experienced several things of this kind, in which his imagination exactly accorded with the real fact without previously having the least knowledge or presentiment of it. How it is, and why it is, God knows. Stilling makes no reflections upon the matter, but lets it stand upon its own value, and looks upon it as a direction of Providence, which purposes leading him in a distinguished manner. The development of the Eastern mystery is, however, a most important matter to him, because it has relation to the Kingdom of God. Much, indeed, remains in obscurity; for Stilling afterwards heard from another person of great consequence, something of an Oriental Alliance which was of a very different kind. It remains to be developed whether the two are distinct or identical.”

Thus far Jung Stilling. Quite recently I became aware of the existence of Rosicrucian Lodges in this country, obtained much information concerning the Fraternity, and have been privileged to publish the following Seven Paragraphs, concerning the exoteric practice of the Temple:

THE ROSICRUCIANS,

WHO AND WHAT THEY ARE.

Honor, Manhood, Goodness.

TRY.

I. The Rosicrucians are a body of good men, and true, working under a Grand Lodge Charter, deriving its power and authority from the Imperial Dome of the Third Supreme Temple of the Order, and the last (claiming justly to be the oldest association of men on earth, dating from the sinking of the New Atlantis Isle, nearly ten thousand years anterior to the days of Plato), and as a Grand Lodge, having jurisdiction over the entire continent of North America, and the Islands of the Sea. The Grand Lodge, and Temple, grant charters and dispensations to found or organize subsidiary lodges and temples, anywhere within the limits of its jurisdiction.

II. All Rosicrucians are practical men, who believe in Progress, Law and Order, and in Self-development. They believe firmly that God helps those that help themselves; and they consequently adopt as the motto of the Order, the word TRY, and they believe that this little word of three letters may become a magnificent bridge over which a man may travel from Bad to Better, and from Better to Best—from ignorance to knowledge, from poverty to wealth, and from weakness to power.

III. We constitute a large society in the world, and our ranks bid fair to largely swell in this land of Practical Men. There are hundreds of men of large culture, deep intuitions and liberal minds, who actually languish because they do not know each other—there being no organized body, save our own, which invites such men to join its ranks and find the fellowship which such men of such minds need. In our Lodges such men find all they seek, and more; in our weekly reunions the rarest and best intellects are brought in contact, the best thoughts are elicited, and the truest human pleasure experienced; forasmuch, as nothing impure, ignoble, mean or unmanly, is for an instant tolerated under any circumstance whatever; while, on the contrary, every inducement is held out to encourage all that is noble, good, true, beautiful, charitable and manly—and that, too, in a way totally unknown and unpractised in any other order, or association of men.

IV. Every Rosicrucian is known, and is the sworn brother of every other Rosicrucian the wide world over, and as such is bound to render all possible aid and comfort (except when such aid would sanction crime or wrong doing, or interfere with the demands of public justice, social order, decency, sound morals or National prosperity and unity). In all things else, every Rosicrucian is bound to help another, so long as he can do it with a clear conscience, and not violate his honor, derogate from his personal dignity, or sully his own manhood. In all things worthy, one assists the other; in sickness, sorrow, life, death, and the troubles and trials of the world and society. Each man is eligible to one, two, or three degrees; and after once becoming a true Rosicrucian, it is next to impossible that he can ever afterward come to want, either for protection in all that is just, counsel in difficulty, food, raiment, shelter, and all true human sympathy;—all of which is freely rendered so long as the man remains a worthy Dweller in the Temple!

Thus the Temple ensures its acolytes against want, mitigates their sorrow, enhances their usefulness to themselves and the world, braces and sharpens their intellects, fires their emulation, encourages all manly effort, assuages their grief, cultivates their hope, strengthens their self-reliance, self-respect, self-effort; it frowns on all wrong doing, seeks to elevate man in his own esteem, teaches due and loyal respect to woman, the laws, society and the world; it promotes stability of character, makes its votaries strive for Manhood in the full, true sense; adopts “Try” and “Excelsior” as living, practical mottoes; and thus, both directly and indirectly, does the Temple of Rosicrucia seek to increase the sum total of human happiness in the world, within and without its walls.

V. Every man pays an initiation fee, and a monthly tax of one dollar. In return for which, the member has the advantage of all information the Lodge may be able to procure in the shape of lectures, debates, books, scientific papers, models, experiments in all the physical sciences, essays on philosophy, etc.; in addition to which he is allowed a sum, varying from four to fourteen dollars a week when sick, provided he needs such aid; he is visited, comforted, nursed, doctored, and, should he die, the Temple buries him—as a man and a Rosicrucian should be buried. If he dies an officer (and every man is eligible), his widow and children are properly cared for by the Order.[4]

VI. This Order is a school of the highest and best knowledge the earth affords. It is unlike any and all others, for, in addition to being a Mutual Protection Society, it reaches out in far higher and nobler aims—only a few, very few, of which are alluded to in this hand-book, which is merely printed to save much explanatory talk on the part of Rosicrucians who are being continually importuned for information respecting the said Order. One of its main objects is to be a School of Men; to make men more useful by rendering them stronger, more knowing, therefore wiser—therefore happier. As Rosicrucians we recognize the immense value of Sympathy, Encouragement, Emulation and Persistency—

Nil mortalibus, ardum est.

THERE IS NO DIFFICULTY TO HIM WHO TRULY WILLS!

Whatever of good or great man has ever done, may still be accomplished by you and I, my brother, if we only think so, and set about in right good earnest, and no mistake. TRY! We proclaim the OMNIPOTENCE OF WILL! and we declare practically, and by our own achievements demonstrate, the will of man to be a supreme and all-conquering force when once fairly brought into play, but this power is only negatively strong when exerted for merely selfish or personal ends; when or wherever it is called into action for good ends, nothing can withstand its force. Goodness is Power; wherefore we take the best of care to cultivate the normal will, and thus render it a mighty and powerful engine for Positive Good. You cannot deceive a true Rosicrucian, for he soon learns how to read you through and through, as if you were a man of glass; and he attains this power by becoming a Rosicrucian only, nor can it be had through any other means whatever. The Temple teaches its acolytes how to rebuild this regal faculty of the human soul—the will; how to strengthen, purify, expand, and intensify it; and one of the first results observable after a man has become a true Rosicrucian, is that his vanity grows smaller by degrees, and beautifully less; for the first thing he fully realizes is that all he knows would probably make quite a large book, but that all he does not know would make a book considerably larger, and he therefore sets himself to learn. Where there's a will there's a way; and after getting rid of self-conceit, the man finds himself increasing in mental stature by imperceptible gradations, and finds himself a learned man by a process which he cannot fairly comprehend, and one which is neither appreciated or known outside of the Temple.

As a consequence of travelling on this royal road to knowledge, the Rosicrucian soon learns to despise the weakness of wickedness, not by reason of any long-faced cant being poured into his ear, but because he finds out practically that manhood and virtue are safe investments, while badness or meanness won't pay. It is the universal testimony of all who have become true Rosicrucians, that within its symbolic walls there is a deeply mysterious influence for good pervading its atmosphere, under which every man of the Order becomes rapidly but normally individualized and intensified in character, manhood, and influence.

VII. The doors of our Lodges are never closed against the honest, honorable or aspiring man; nor can any earthly potentate, no wielder of an empire's sceptre, no wearer of a kingly crown, gain admission by reason of his eminence; for though he be a king, he may not be a MAN, a title far above all others on the earth—a title nobler than any other ever earned by mortals! We Rosicrucians are proud of our eminence—and justly so—for we are a Brotherhood of Men! and recognize MANHOOD as the true kingship; hence we honor that man highest who knows the most, and puts his knowledge to the highest and noblest uses, not only toward his brothers, but in any field in the world's great garden, for are not we all brethren? Does not the one great God rule over and love us? Even so! No man can enter our doors by reason of his wealth, for riches, unless put to manly uses, are detrimental;—bad—positively injurious! No man can enter our doors by reason of his fame, politics, or religion. The Order has nothing to do with a man's politics or religion, and it matters not what a man's creed is, so long as he IS A MAN. The Baptist is welcome, but not as a Baptist; and so with men of all other faiths. No religion, no faith, no politics can be discussed from our platform, nor will their introduction be tolerated one moment. We accept men of all creeds, except such as outrage decency, manhood, sound morals, and public order, such as Free Lovers, Mormons, and birds of that feather; nor can any such person enter our ranks, no matter who he may be, or how high in fame or social place. No man is barred out of our Temple by reason of his poverty, for physical beggars are often kings in mind. All we ask or seek for in a man is HONOR, HONESTY, and ambition to KNOW MORE AND BE BETTER.

Usually the Lodges of Rosicrucia meet once a week to hear lectures, exchange courtesies, thoughts, news; to listen to invited guests, debate questions in art, science, and philosophy; to mutually inform and strengthen each other; to investigate any and all subjects of a proper nature, and to cultivate that manly spirit and chivalric bearing which so well entitles their possessor to be called A MAN. These are a few of the good things of Rosicrucia. We seek no man—men seek us. Our facilities for obtaining knowledge and information on all subjects are, as may well be conceived, unsurpassed—unequalled. Financially we are satisfied. A Temple of Rosicrucia never yet felt the pressure of an exhausted exchequer, and probably never will. But this last is the least commendable thing about the Institution; yet it uses money for good purposes, and therefore has its chest supplied. All other essential information respecting the Order can be obtained BY TRYING!

It will be seen that there is nothing magical here, yet I do not doubt but the members could tell strange stories if they chose.

Many, but by no means all, the Alchemists and Hermetic Philosophers were acolytes of that vast secret Brotherhood, which has thrived from the earliest ages, and, under different names in different lands, has performed, is still performing its mission. The members of this mystic union were the Magi of old, who flourished in Chaldea (Mesopotamia) ages before one of their number (Heber) left his native plains, and on foreign soil founded the Hebraic confederation. They were the original Sabi and Sabeans, who for long ages preceded the Sages of Chaldea. They were the men who founded that Semitic civilization, the faint shade of which we find, having leaped long avenues of centuries, in the mouldy records of early China, itself numbering its years by the thousand. Of this great Brotherhood sprung Brahma, Buddha, La-otze, Zoroaster, Plato, the Gnostics, the Essenes, and therefore Christ himself—who was an Essene, and who preached the sacred doctrines of the Mountain of Light. They were the Dreamers of the ages—the sun of the epochs—eclipsed occasionally, but anon bursting forth in glory again. They were the men who first discovered the significance of Fire; and that there was something deeper than Life in man; profounder than Intellect in the universe. Whatever of transcendant light now illumes the world, comes from the torches which they lit at the Fountain whence all light streameth upon that mystic mountain which they alone had courage and endurance to climb, and climbed, too, over a ladder whose rungs were centuries apart. Hermes Trismegistus, Egypt's mighty king, and that other Hermes (Asclepius IX.), was an adept, a brother, and a Priest—as was Malki Zadek before him—that famous Pre-Adamite monarch, that Melchisedek, who was reputed to have been born of a Thought, and to have lived for countless ages. And so with the Greek Mercurius. Theirs, too, was that wondrous learning wherein Moses was skilled; and at their fountain the Hebrew Joseph drank. Nothing original in Thaumaturgy, Theology, Philosophy, Psychology, Entology, and Ontology, but they gave it to the world; and when Philosophers thought they had gained new thoughts and truths, the records of the Order prove them to have been old ages before the Adamic era of Chronology, and to have been the common property of the adepts.

I have been led into these remarks and explanations, first, for the purpose of finally and authoritatively settling the vexed question concerning the Rosicrucians, and to throw light on that which is to follow.

FOOTNOTE:

[4] The Grand Lodge contemplates the enactment of laws looking to the providing for the families of members when sick, and to their burial when dead, which will be secured by the payment of additional fees from time to time. It also contemplates a system of life insurance of its members, who, by the payment of certain fees, may secure a certain sum to their families at death sufficient to maintain them in comfort, but not in luxury or idleness. The system will probably be one of graduated annuities.