Documenta Latomica Inedita.

They attributed to themselves the power of knowing by revelation those who were worth y to become members of the Fraternity . They professed to have the power of subjecting the demons , and of discovering treasures . Their Confraternity , they said besides , could never be destroyed , adding that God had surrounded them with an impenetrable cloud from their enemies . Neither hunger , nor thirst , nor sickness , nor any infirmity could incommode them . If any one of these brethren happened to diehis burial , place was to remain

, unknown , and the congregations were to be also very secret for 120 years . It was an article of faith of the sect" that if the company was falling to decay it could be resuscitated at the tomb of its founder . " Lastly , they boasted of having found out a new language to express the nature of all things . Nevertheless , and it is always Naude who speaks , they Aid not express themselves either by enigmata or by parables . They were

unwilling to pass as authors of novelties , ancl people were not to imagine that there was either imprudence , or folly , or malice , or knavery , in the details which they gave of their travels . In truth , it was necessary to believe them upon their own assurance , like as charlatans and alchemists so commonl y demand , with whom the pretended Illuminated Brethren had a great deal of likeness , as well for their jargon as for their mysteries and pretended science . Thus the one ancl the other have been formed ancl instructed in the schools

of the Arabs and the Germans . * . The Rose Croix said further , that a sun lighted up the grotto where the body of their founder was deposited , and that this sun received its light from the sun of the world , ancl that by this sun they discovered the marvels of the grotto . Some of these marvels were graved on a plate of copper placed on an altar . They saw , for example , four figures with these four inscriptions "Never empty ; " "The yoke of the law ; " "The liberty of the Gospel ;"

" The Glory of God . " We say nothing of the other marvels , which would be very worthy of the commentary of an alchemist or a visionary cabalist , among whom are to be foundf those who have promised , like the Brethren of the Rose Croix , to repair the breaches ancl the defects of the universe—as if Nature was capable of growing old , and that Providence which governs it was weakened so muchj as to allow it to fall

into decadency , the re-establishment of man in his vigour and primitive virtues , the abundance ancl the community of goods , the universal knowledge of science , the general conversion of all people , ancl the unity of reli gion . We may remark that a learned man of the past age has very well gone through the entirety of Nature to prove how constant it is in its laws in respect of all beings , and all their different conditions , etc ., etc ., ancl , in consequence , that it

does not grow old , that it is not in decadence , that it is not used up in its movements and revelations , like the force of works made by the hand of man . In truth , there is made in us and around us a mixture , a transmutation , a welding of the elements . Matter shows itself to us under an infinity of forms and different figures ; Nature increases ancl decreases its parts . The plants vegetatedry upandlastlydie ; men are borncome to perfectionare

, , , , , , revivified by the means of generation , decrease , grow weak , and , lastly , die . Reason itself , because it depends on us , the organs of our body , grows and degenerates with the body in proportion to the good or bad state of those organs ; and the soul , that " je ne sais qttai , " which is , according to its true