means you will see that these philosophers wrote one thing and meant another" [the hidden or esoteric wisdom]. 1

2. "We must conclude, then, that Jesus is the corner-stone of the human temple, by whose exaltation alone this temple will be exalted; as in the time of Solomon, when his prayers were ended, it is said that he was filled with the glory of God; and so from the death of Capha or Aben, pious men became living stones, and that by a transmutation from the state of fallen Adam to the state of his pristine innocence and perfection,—that is, from the condition of vile and diseased [lit. leprous] lead to that of the finest gold, and that by the medium of this living gold, the mystic philosopher's stone [whatever Fludd may have dreamt, the generality took it in a much more practical sense], I mean wisdom, and by the divine emanation which is the gift of God and not otherwise." 2

3. "But in order that we may treat this brotherhood in the same way as we have the three special columns of wisdom,—namely: Magic, the Cabbala, and Chymistry,—we may define the Rosicrucian fraternity as being either

1 "Transmutemini [ait Darnæus] de lapidibus mortuis in lapides vivos Philosophicos; viam hujusmodi transmutationis, nos docet Apostolus dum ait: Eadem mens sit in vobis, quæ est in Jesu, mentem autem explicat in sequentibus, nimirum cum in formâ Dei esset, non rapinam arbitratus est se æqualem esse Deo. Sed ut Chymicis gradibus hoc præstare possumus, necesse est, ut Sapientum Chymicorum sensum, paulo accuratiori intuitu aperiamus, quo videatis aliud scripsisse, aliud intellexisse Sapientes" (pp. 36, 37).

"Concludimus, igitur quod Jesus sit templi humani lapis angularis, cujus exaltatione non aliter exaltabitur ejus templum, quam tempore Salomonis, finitis ejus precibus, gloriâ Domini, dictum est fuisse repletum, atque ita ex Cæpha seu Aben mortuis, lapides vivi facti sunt homines pii, idque transmutatione reali, ab Adami lapsi statu in statum suæ innocentiæ et perfectionis, hoc est à vili et leprosi plumbi conditione in auri purissimi perfectionem, idque mediante auro illo vivo, lapide Philosophorum mystico, Sapientiâ dico, et emanatione divinâ quæ est donum Dei et non aliter" (p. 37). 3 "Sed ut rem pari methodo cum Fraternitate istâ ac cum præcedentibus tribus præcipuis Sapientia columnis videlicet, Magia Cabbala atque Chymia æquamus, dicimus quod

4. Finally, the sacred pages show us how we ought to work in investigating the [nature of] this incomparable gem, namely, by proceeding either by general or particular form [or 'method']. The Apostle teaches us the general, where he says, 'We beseech you, brethren, that ye take heed that ye be at peace and conduct your own business, labouring with your hands as we have taught you, so that you seek nothing of any one.' In his particular instruction he teaches you to attain to the mystical perfection, using the analogy of either an husbandman or an architect. Under the type of an husbandman, he speaks as follows:-'I have planted, Apollos watered, but the Lord will give the increase.' For we are the helpers of and fellow-workers with God, hence he says, 'Ye are God's husbandry'" [or 'tillage.'1 See 1 Cor., ch. iii., v. 10].

5. "Finally, a brother labours to the perfecting of this task under the symbol of an architect. Hence the Apostle says in the text, 'As a wise architect have I laid the foundation according to the grace which God has given me, but another builds upon it, for none other can lay the foundation save that which is laid, who is Christ alone.' It is in reference to this architectural simile that St Paul says, 'We are the fellow-labourers with God, as a wise architect have I laid the foundation and another builds upon it;' and David also seems to agree with this when he says, 'Except the Lord build the house the workmen labour but in vain.' All of which is the same as what St Paul brings forward under the type of an husbandman, ‘For neither is he that planteth anything nor he that watereth but God who gives the increase, for we are the fellow-labourers with God.' Thus, although the incorruptible Spirit of God be in a grain of wheat, nevertheless it can come to nothing without the labour and arrangements of the husbandman, whose duty it is to cultivate the earth, and to consign to it the seed that it may putrefy, otherwise it would do no good to that living grain that dwells in the midst [of the seed]. And in like manner, under the type of an architect, the prophet warns us, 'Let us go up into the mountain of reason and build there the temple of wisdom.'

I shall not attempt to discuss the vexed question, and one which, after all, is impossible of any clear solution, whether some of the ideas inculcated by Fludd, and adopted doubtless more or less in their entirety by numerous visionaries, may not have found their way, may not have percolated, as it were, into the Masonic ranks; but it is, I think, tolerably clear that

25.

14. "Denique; qualiter debent operari ad gemmæ istiusmodi incomparabilis inquisitionem, nos docet pagina sancta, videlicet, vel generali formå vel particulari. Generaliter nos instruit Apostolus sic: 'Rogamus vos fratres ut operam detis, ut quieti sitis, et ut vestrum negotium agatis, et operamini manibus vestris, sicut præcepimus vobis, ut nullius aliquid desideretis.' In particulari suâ instructione more analogico discurrens, nos docet ad mysterii perfectionem, vel sub Agricolæ vel sub Architecti typo pertingere. Sub Agricolæ, inquam, titulo. Unde sic loquitur 'Ego plantavi, Appollos rigavit, sed Deus incrementum dabit. Dei enim sumus adjutores et operatores: unde dixit Dei agricultura estis '" (p. 49). Denique; sub architecti figurâ operatur frater ad hujus operis perfectionem, unde Apostolus ait loco citato Secundum gratiam Dei quæ mihi data est, ut sapiens Architectus, fundamentum posui, alius antem superædificat, fundamentum enim nemo aliud potest ponere præter id quod positum est, quod est solus Christus. De hujusmodi Architecturâ intelligens Paulus, ait 'Dei sumus adjutores, ut sapiens architectus fundamentum posui; alius tamen superædificat, cui etiam David astipulari videtur dicens: Domum nisi ædificaverit Deus in vanum laboraverunt qui eam superædificaverunt. Quod est idem cum illo à Paulo sub typo Agricolæ prolato.' Neque qui plantat est aliquid, neque qui rigat, sed qui incrementum dat, Deus, Dei autem sumus adjutores. Sic etiam licet incorruptibilis Dei spiritus sit in grano tritici, nihil tamen præstare potest sine Agricolæ adaptatione et dispositione, cujus est terram cultivare, et semen in eâ ad putrefactionem disponere aut granum illud vivam in ejus centro habitans nihil operabitur. Atque sub istiusmodi Architecti typo nos monet Propheta, 'ut ascendamus montem rationabilem ut ædificemus domum sapientiæ (p. 49).

not only was there no deliberate adoption of the Rosicrucian, or rather Fluddian tenets by the Masons, and no taking of the old masonic name and organisation as a cloak for the new society, but no possibility of such a thing having occurred.

The expression "living stones"-upon which so much has been founded-or "living rock" (vivam rupem), occurs very frequently in the old chronicles.1 The title "Magister de Lapidibus Vivis," according to Batissier, was given in the Middle Ages to the chief or principal artist of a confraternity-" master of living stones," or "pierres vivantes." On the same authority we learn that the official just described was also termed "Magister Lapidum,” and some statutes of a corporation of sculptors in the twelfth century, quoted by a certain “Father Della Valle," are referred to on both these points.

In

It is tolerably clear that no Rosicrucian Society was ever formed on the Continent. other words, whatever number there may have been of individual mystics calling themselves Rosicrucians, no collective body of Rosicrucians acting in conjunction was ever matured and actually established in either Germany or France.* Yet it is assumed, for the purposes of a preconceived argument, that such a society existed in England, although the position maintained is not only devoid of proof, but conflicts with a large body of indirect evidence, which leads irresistibly to an opposite conclusion.

The literature of the seventeenth century abounds with allusions to the vagaries of Alchymists and Astrologers. There was an Astrologers' feast, if indeed an Astrologers' College or Society was not a public and established institution, and sermons, even if not always preached, were at least written on their side. A school certainly existed for a time at Oxford, as I have already shown, presided over by a noted Rosicrucian. In fact, there seems to have been no kind of concealment as regards the manner in which all descriptions of what may, without impropriety, be termed the "black art" were prosecuted. There is, however, no trace whatever of any Rosicrucian Society, and it is consonant to sound reason to suppose that nothing of the kind could either have been long established, or widely spread, without at least leaving behind some vestiges of its existence, in the writings of the period.

It is worthy of note, moreover, that perhaps the most ardent supporter of that visionary scheme, a Philosophical College, with which so many minds were imbued by Bacon's "New Atlantis "-Samuel Hartlib'-of whom a full memoir is still a desideratum in English

1 Church Historians of England, 1852-56, vol. i., pt. ii., p. 554; W. H. Rylands, The Legend of the Introduction of Masons into England, pt. iii. (Masonic Monthly, Nov. 1882).

* Elements d'Archæologie, 1843; Freemason, July 8, 1882, note 19.

3 In the opinion of Woodford, he is the same person who wrote, in 1791, the "Storia del Duomo d'Orvieto," published at Rome (Freemason, loc. cit.).

It is true that, according to the preface of the "Echo of the Society of the Rosy Cross," 1615, "meetings were held in 1597 to institute a Secret Society for the promotion of Alchymy." See ante, p. 87, note 3.

5 Stella Nova, a new Starre, Preached before the learned Society of Astrologers, August 1649, by Robert Gell, D.D.; Astrology Proved Harmless, Useful, Pious, Being a Sermon written by Richard Carpenter, 1657. The latter, a discourse on Gen. i. 14, "And let them be for signs," was dedicated to Elias Ashmole. The author, according to Wood, 'was esteemed a theological mountebank."

The late Mr James Crossley alludes to two continuations of that fine fragment, Bacon's "New Atlantis "-one by R. H., Esquire, printed in 1660; the other (in his own possession) written by the celebrated Joseph Glanvill, and still in MS. (Chetham Soc. Pub., vol. xiii., p. 214).

7 A friend of Evelyn and Dr Worthington. Milton's "Tractate on Education" was addressed to him. According to Evelyn, he was a "Lithuanian" (Diary, Nov. 27, 1655); whilst Wood styles him "a presbyterian Dutchman, a witness against Laud” (Athenæ Oxonienses, vol. iii., col. 965).