458 On Phyftognomy. 



abofing with equal virulence the Galenical praftice of 

 medicine, then univerfally prevalent. The increafing ten- 

 dency about that period to alchemical ftudies, and the 

 great fuccefs which in certain cafes the chemical remedies 

 of Paracelfus met with, procured him many followers both 

 during his life and after his deceafe. Early in the feven- 

 teenth century. Dr. Robert Fludd an Englifli phyfician, 

 and Jacob Behmen a German tailor (or (hoe-maker) pub- 

 lifhed their works, containing (fo far as their meaning could 

 be difcovered) doftrines and fpeculations very fimilar in their 

 general complexion and tendency to the dogmata of the 

 Paracelfian philofophy ; but with variations of fuch fingular 

 eccentricity, and with ilyle and manner fo perfeftly anoma- 

 lous, that I ihould be ftrongly tempted to give fome farther 

 account of the lives, tenets and dialeft of thefe enthufiafts 

 (each diifering in fome degree from the other), had not this 

 appendix extended too far under my hands already. 



To this clafs of philofophers belong alfo the Rojlcrucian 

 fraternity, who firft began to be noticed about the com- 

 mencement of the feventeenth century, and profeffed the 

 fame general opinions, and made the fame theological and 

 alchemical pretenfions to immediate revelation, the phi- 

 lofopher's ftone and the univerfal medicine with the Para- 

 celfian theofophifts. They were faid moreover (whether 

 truly or falfely has been doubted) to have framed them- 

 felves into a myftic fociety, pretending, like the free mafons 

 of modern times, to certain fecrets as the bond of union 

 divulged only to the Injtiate. The limits of this appendix, 

 compel me alfo to decline any farther mention of this ex- 

 traordinary fedl. Thofe who wifh for farther information 

 on the general fubjedl of the theofophic myflics (one of the 

 moft curious which the hiftory of philofophy affords, may 

 confult the very admirable work of Brucker* who with a 



• Hift. Crit. Phllofophiae. vol. IV. p. 644, et feq. and the authors there 

 quoted, See alfo Mofheim's Ecclef, Hift. vol. IV. p. i6, 264 and 476. 



degree 



