268 OP THE PROLONGATION 



nary men they are, is, that they are in pofleffion of the 

 true philofophy. This philofophy is built on the cab- 

 baliftic theory of man, namely, on the fundamental 

 notion, that man, in his original ftate of perfection, 

 was fomething altogether different from what he is at 

 preient ; that he was a living copy of the great Adam 

 Kadmon, or prototypical god-man, (the firft and pureft 

 cfrlux of all divine properties and powers) and therefore 

 was in the enjoyment of an eternal youth and immor- 

 tality, a familiar friend of fuperior fpirits, a lord of the 

 whole vilible world, and the poffeffor of an infinite 

 quantity of occult fciences and wonderful arts. The 

 reftoration of human nature to this its original per- 

 fection, or at leaft to a ftate nearly approaching it, is 

 the grand fecret of that true philofophy, which, with 

 the confent of the Supreme Being, was imparted by fu- 

 perior fpirits, from kind companion, to Adam, the 

 father of all mankind, after his fall, and after the long 

 and earnefr. repentance he underwent in confequence 

 thereof; and from that time forward, by tradition and 

 hieroglyphical or other myfterious writings, has been 

 preferred and propagated among a fmall number of 

 chofen fons of Adam. Seth, Enoch, Noah, Mofes, 

 Solomon, Elijah, Hermes Trifmegiftus, Zoroafter, 

 Orpheus, among the ancients, and king Geber, the 

 arabian phyficians Adfar and Ayicenna, the hermit 

 Morien, Artemis*, Raymund Lullus, Nicholas Fla- 

 mel, Bafilius Valentine, with many more, in modern 

 times, were members of this wonderful order, who dif- 



* Thete is it ill in being a myftical book of this adept, wherein 

 he lays, that he wrote ft, when he was a thoufaiid years of age. 



perfed 



