We may smile at jargon in which we have not been initiated, at whimsical combinations we do not fancy, at analogies where we lose all semblance, and at fables which we know to be nothing more; but we may credit that these mystical terms of the learned Fludd conceal many profound and original views, and many truths not yet patent. It is enough that one of the deepest scholars, our illustrious Selden, highly appreciated the volumes and their author. It is indeed remarkable that Bayle, Niceron, and other literary historians, have not ventured to lay their hands on this ark of theosophical science; too modest to dispute, or too generous to attack: unlike the great adversary of Fludd, Père Mersenne, who denounced the Rosacrusian to Europe as a caco-magician, who had ensured for himself perdition throughout eternity.
Père Mersenne, at Paris, stood at the head of the mathematical class, the early companion, and to his last day the earnest advocate, of Descartes. That great philosopher was secretly disposed not to reject all the reveries of the occult philosophers. It is certain that he had listened with complacency to the universal elixir, which was to preserve human life to an indefinite period; and one of his disciples, when he heard of his death, persisted in not crediting the account. His own vortices displayed the picturesque fancy of a Rosacrusian; and moreover, likewise, he was calumniated as an atheist. Père Mersenne not only defended his friend, but, to clear the French philosopher of any such disposition, he attacked the Rosacrusians themselves. Too vehement in his theological hatreds, he dared to publish too long a nomenclature of the atheists of his times;[7] and among Machiavel, Cardan, Campanella, and Vanini, appears the name of our pious Fludd. Mersenne expressed his astonishment that James the First suffered such a man to live and to write.
On this occasion Fludd was more fortunate than Dee. He obtained an interview with his learned sovereign, to clear himself of “the Frier’s scandalous report.” He found his Majesty “regally learned and gracious; excellent and subtile in his inquisitive objections, and instead of a check, I had much grace and honour from him, and I found him my kingly patron all the days of his life.” Mersenne, notwithstanding the odium he cast on the personal character of Fludd, was willing to bribe the Heresiarch, for he offered to unite with him in any work for the correction of science and art, provided Fludd would return to that Catholic creed which his ancestors had professed. “I tell this to my countrymen’s shame,” exclaims Fludd, “who, instead of encouraging me in my labours, as by letters from Polonia, Suevia, Prussia, Germany, Transylvania, France, and Italy, I have had, do pursue me with malice, which when a learned German heard of, it reminded him of the speech of Christ, that ‘no man is a prophet in his own country.’ Without any bragging of my knowledge, be it spoken, I speak this feelingly; but a guiltless conscience bids me be patient.”
The writings of Fludd are all composed in Latin; it is remarkable that the works of an English author, residing in England, should be printed at Frankfort, Oppenheim, and Gouda. This singularity is accounted for by the author himself. Fludd, in one respect, resembled Dee; he could find no English printers who would venture on their publication. When Foster insinuated that his character as a magician was so notorious, that he dared not print at home, Fludd tells his curious story: “I sent my writings beyond the seas, because our home-born printers demanded of me five hundred pounds to print the first volume, and to find the cuts in copper; but beyond the seas it was printed at no cost of mine, and as I could wish; and I had sixteen copies sent me over, with forty pounds in gold, as an unexpected gratuity for it.” It is evident that, throughout Europe, they were infinitely more inquisitive in their occult speculations than we in England; and however this may now seem to our credit, certainly our incuriosity was not then a consequence of our superior science, for he whose mighty mind was to give a new and enduring impulse to the study of nature, who was to teach us how to philosophize, and was now drawing us out of this dark forest of the human intellect into the lucid expanse of his creative mind, was himself still fascinated by magical sympathies, surmised why witches eat human flesh, and instructed us in the doctrine of spirits, angelic and demoniac. Bacon would have elucidated the theory of Dee, and the imaginative mysticism of the Rosacrusian.
[1] Fuller’s amusing explanation of the term Rosa-crusian was written without any knowledge of the supposititious founder. He says—“Sure I am that a Rose is the sweetest of flowers, and a Cross accounted the sacredest of forms and figures, so that much of eminency must he imported in their composition.”—Fuller’s Worthies.
[2] The chemists, in the style of their arcana, explain the term by the mystical union, in their secret operations, of the dew and the light. They derive the dew from the Latin Ros, and, in the figure of a cross X, they trace the three letters which compose the word Lux—light. Mosheim is positive in the accuracy of his information. I would not answer for my own, though somewhat more reasonable; it is indeed difficult to ascertain the origin of the name of a society which probably never had an existence.
[3] In the Harleian MSS., from 6481 to 6486, are several Rosacrusian writings, some translated from the Latin by one Peter Smart, and others by a Dr. Rudd, who appears to have been a profound adept.
[4] These are his words in reply to his adversary Foster, the only work which he published in English, in consequence of the attack being in the vernacular idiom. The term here introduced into the language is, perhaps, our most ancient authority for the modern term Encyclopædia, which Chambers curtailed to Cyclopædia.
[5] The collected writings of Robert Fludd, under the latinised name “De Fluctibus,” should form six volumes folio. His “Philosophia Mosaica” has been translated, 1659, fo. He makes Moses a great Rosacrusian. The secret brotherhood must be still willing to give costly prices for their treasure. At the recent sale of Mr. Hibbert, the “Opera” of Fludd obtained twenty pounds! The copy was doubtless “very fine,” but the price was surely cabalistical. Nor are these tomes slightly valued on the Continent.