WHO AND WHAT THEY ARE.
Honor, Manhood, Goodness.
TRY.
I. The Rosicrucians are a body of good men, and true, working under a Grand Lodge Charter, deriving its power and authority from the Imperial Dome of the Third Supreme Temple of the Order, and the last (claiming justly to be the oldest association of men on earth, dating from the sinking of the New Atlantis Isle, nearly ten thousand years anterior to the days of Plato), and as a Grand Lodge, having jurisdiction over the entire continent of North America, and the Islands of the Sea. The Grand Lodge, and Temple, grant charters and dispensations to found or organize subsidiary lodges and temples, anywhere within the limits of its jurisdiction.
II. All Rosicrucians are practical men, who believe in Progress, Law and Order, and in Self-development. They believe firmly that God helps those that help themselves; and they consequently adopt as the motto of the Order, the word TRY, and they believe that this little word of three letters may become a magnificent bridge over which a man may travel from Bad to Better, and from Better to Best—from ignorance to knowledge, from poverty to wealth, and from weakness to power.
III. We constitute a large society in the world, and our ranks bid fair to largely swell in this land of Practical Men. There are hundreds of men of large culture, deep intuitions and liberal minds, who actually languish because they do not know each other—there being no organized body, save our own, which invites such men to join its ranks and find the fellowship which such men of such minds need. In our Lodges such men find all they seek, and more; in our weekly reunions the rarest and best intellects are brought in contact, the best thoughts are elicited, and the truest human pleasure experienced; forasmuch, as nothing impure, ignoble, mean or unmanly, is for an instant tolerated under any circumstance whatever; while, on the contrary, every inducement is held out to encourage all that is noble, good, true, beautiful, charitable and manly—and that, too, in a way totally unknown and unpractised in any other order, or association of men.
IV. Every Rosicrucian is known, and is the sworn brother of every other Rosicrucian the wide world over, and as such is bound to render all possible aid and comfort (except when such aid would sanction crime or wrong doing, or interfere with the demands of public justice, social order, decency, sound morals or National prosperity and unity). In all things else, every Rosicrucian is bound to help another, so long as he can do it with a clear conscience, and not violate his honor, derogate from his personal dignity, or sully his own manhood. In all things worthy, one assists the other; in sickness, sorrow, life, death, and the troubles and trials of the world and society. Each man is eligible to one, two, or three degrees; and after once becoming a true Rosicrucian, it is next to impossible that he can ever afterward come to want, either for protection in all that is just, counsel in difficulty, food, raiment, shelter, and all true human sympathy;—all of which is freely rendered so long as the man remains a worthy Dweller in the Temple!
Thus the Temple ensures its acolytes against want, mitigates their sorrow, enhances their usefulness to themselves and the world, braces and sharpens their intellects, fires their emulation, encourages all manly effort, assuages their grief, cultivates their hope, strengthens their self-reliance, self-respect, self-effort; it frowns on all wrong doing, seeks to elevate man in his own esteem, teaches due and loyal respect to woman, the laws, society and the world; it promotes stability of character, makes its votaries strive for Manhood in the full, true sense; adopts “Try” and “Excelsior” as living, practical mottoes; and thus, both directly and indirectly, does the Temple of Rosicrucia seek to increase the sum total of human happiness in the world, within and without its walls.
V. Every man pays an initiation fee, and a monthly tax of one dollar. In return for which, the member has the advantage of all information the Lodge may be able to procure in the shape of lectures, debates, books, scientific papers, models, experiments in all the physical sciences, essays on philosophy, etc.; in addition to which he is allowed a sum, varying from four to fourteen dollars a week when sick, provided he needs such aid; he is visited, comforted, nursed, doctored, and, should he die, the Temple buries him—as a man and a Rosicrucian should be buried. If he dies an officer (and every man is eligible), his widow and children are properly cared for by the Order.[4]
VI. This Order is a school of the highest and best knowledge the earth affords. It is unlike any and all others, for, in addition to being a Mutual Protection Society, it reaches out in far higher and nobler aims—only a few, very few, of which are alluded to in this hand-book, which is merely printed to save much explanatory talk on the part of Rosicrucians who are being continually importuned for information respecting the said Order. One of its main objects is to be a School of Men; to make men more useful by rendering them stronger, more knowing, therefore wiser—therefore happier. As Rosicrucians we recognize the immense value of Sympathy, Encouragement, Emulation and Persistency—