y 



OP HUMAN LIFE. 2*Jl 



that, during the three or four centuries now elapfed, 

 they may not always have remained fo invifible and in- 

 active, as that no traces of their exigence and their 

 activity were to be found, long before the cafual ac- 

 quaintance the honefb phyfician Lucas made with 

 them. 



I am very much deceived, or the violent alarm in 

 the flrft quarter of the laffc century, , caufed by the 

 report that was fpread throughout all chriliendom, of 

 the Rofencreutzians, was not fo totally a falfe alarm, 

 as fome of the learned would make us believe. Doubt- 

 lefs fome falfehoods may have been inferred in the ac- 

 count that is given us of Chriftian Rofencreutz, the 

 pretended founder of this fecret order ; perhaps deiign- 

 edly, perhaps too, as the publication under the title 

 of, Fama fraternitatis laudabilis ordinis RofecD -Cruris, 

 which was difperfed abroad in tlie year 1610. in five 

 feveral languages, did not come from the fource itfelf, 

 but was actually framed on bare reports, wherein the 

 truth is ufually adulterated by fanciful additions : yet 

 fomething true, that had relation to our uibec dervife 

 and his brethren, may well be fuppofed in the affair. 

 (i Chriftian Rofencreutz, it is there laid, born in the 

 ct year 1388. undertook a pilgrimage to the holy fe- 

 fi pulchre, and on the way became acquainted with 

 " fome chaldean fages at Damafcus, who initiated him 

 " in the myfteries of the magian and cabbalaftic philo- 

 " fophy. He greatly enlarged the frock of knowledge 

 iC he, had thus acquired, by journies in yiEgypt and 

 Sf Africa, and became, on his return, the founder of 

 iC a brotherhood, cemented together by the ties of 

 " the ftri&eft frienclmip, fidelity, and taciturnity, 



" which 



