Hours with the Mystics: A Contribution to the History of Religious Opinion

by Robert Alfred Vaughan

[250]. For example, in the Drei Principien, cap. xxvi. §§ 13-34, and in the Aurora, cap. xii. § 65.

[251]. See [Note] on p. [121].

[252]. Theos. Sendbr. 46, §§ 51-54. See also [Note] on page [122].

[253]. Behmen supposed the latter day not far distant (Aurora, iv. 2), but his remarks on the vanity of eschatological speculations generally might be read with advantage by some of our modern interpreters of prophecy. See the letters to Paul Kaym, Theos. Send. viii. and xi.

[254]. Theos. Sendbr. x. § 20. See also [Note] on page [123].

[255]. Aurora, cap. xx. § 1; xxii. 26. See also second [Note] on page [123].

[256]. See, concerning the history of this book, and its author, Valentine Andreä, J. G. Buhle, Ueber den Ursprung und die Vornehmsten Schiksale der Orden der Rosenkreuzer und Freymaurer (Göttingen, 1804), chapp. iii. and iv. Arnold gives a full account of the controversy, and extracts, which appear to indicate very fairly the character of the Fama Fraternitatis, Kirchen-und-Ketzergeschichte, Th. ii. Buch xvii. cap. 18.

The derivation of the name Rosicrucian from ros and crux, rather than rosa and crux, to which Brucker alludes (Hist. Phil. Per. III. Pars i. lib. 3, cap. 3), is untenable. By rights, the word, if from rosa, should no doubt be Rosacrucian; but such a malformation, by no means uncommon, cannot outweigh the reasons adduced on behalf of the generally-received etymology. See Buhle, pp. 174, &c.

[257]. Le Comte de Gabalis, ou Entretiens sur les Sciences Secrètes (Metz, an cinq. républicain), pp. 53-56.

The following passage is a sample of those high-sounding promises with which the pretenders to the Rosicrucian science allured the neophyte:—