720 Legends of Sepidchral ^November, 
other combustible lights, which scent is very prejudicial to 
the sick as well as to the healthy.” * 
Even in the eighteenth century we find anecdotes of these 
ever-burning lamps, clothed with new adornments and skil- 
fully adapted to the later epoch. One of the most enter- 
taining of these legends is that of Rosencreutz, the founder 
of the mysterious fraternity known as the Rosicrucians. 
The narrative runs as follows : — A certain person having 
occasion to dig somewhat deep in the ground, where the 
philosopher Rosencreutz lay interred, met with a small door 
having a wall on each side of it. His curiosity, and the 
hope of finding some hidden treasure, soon prompted him to 
force open the door. He was immediately surprised by a 
sudden blaze of light, and discovered a very fair vault. At 
the upper end of it was a statue of a man in armour, sitting 
by a table and leaning on his left arm. He held a truncheon 
in his right hand, and had a lamp burning before him. The 
man had no sooner set one foot within the vault than the 
statue, erecting itself from its leaning posture, stood bolt 
upright, and, upon the fellow advancing another step, lifted 
up the truncheon in his right hand. The man still ventured 
a third step, when the statue with a furious blow broke the 
lamp into a thousand pieces, and left his guest in sudden 
darkness. Upon the report of this adventure the country 
people came with lights to the sepulchre, and discovered that 
the statue, which was made of brass, was nothing more than 
a piece of clockwork ; that the floor of the vault was all 
loose and underlaid with several springs, which upon any 
man’s treading naturally produced that which had happened. 
Rosicrucius, said his disciples, made use of this method to 
show to the world that he had re-invented the ever-burning 
lamps of the ancients, though he was resolved no one should 
reap any advantage from the discovery.”t 
The Comte de Resie, in his curious “ Histoire et Traite 
des Sciences Occultes,”J gives a brief account of the sepul- 
chral lamps, and adds the following narrative : — In the reign 
of St. Louis (1226 — 1270) there lived in Paris a certain 
Rabbi named Jechiel, who was regarded by the Jews as a 
saint and by Christians as a sorcerer. He possessed a lamp 
which gave out light equal to daylight in brilliancy, which 
required no oil, and burned unceasingly. But what is more 
singular still, when hunest tradesmen or people of quality 
came at night to knock at the door, his lamp shone brightly 
* Glauber’s Works. London, 1689. Part H., p. 216. 
f Spectator, No. 379, May 15, 1712, written by Eustace Budgell. 
+ Vol. ii., p.67, 1857. 
