The Society Of The Rose Croix.*

They were distinguished one from the other only by the numbers of the order . Individually and collectively they were bound to be contented with taking the name of the fraternity after the example of their founder , who only was . known by the title of Brother Illumine of the Rose Croix . This method of self absorption in the person of their master proves sufficiently in what close

union they intended to live with his spiritual teaching , and how resolved they were to follow faithfully the rule which he had traced out for them , of which the following are the principal articles : — To practice medicine charitably and without having from any one any

recompense : To clothe themselves according to the usage of the country where they found themselves : To go once a year to the place of the general assembly , or furnish in writing a legitimate excuse for their absence : To choose each one , when he" felt the necessity , that is to say , when he was about to diea successor capable of taking his place and representing him :

, To have the mark of the Rose Croix for a sign of recognition among them , ancl as a symbol of their association : To take the necessary precaution that the place of their burial should be unknown when it should arrive to any one to die in a strange country : To keep their society secret and hidden for one hundred and twenty years , and firmly to believe that if it happened to come to an end it could be

resuscitated at the tomb and monument of their original founder . * With a strict observance of these precepts , whose application , as we see , presents but few difficulties , the Rose Croix boasted of obtaining for themselves graces and honour such as God had never before communicated the like to any of His creatures . The Rose Croix affirm , for instance , — That they are destined to accomplish the re-establishment of all things

in a better state before the end of the world arrives : That they possess , in a supreme degree , both piety and wisdom , and as regards all that can be desired of natural graces , they are peaceable possessors of them , and can dispense them as they think fit : That in whatever place they find themselves they know better about the things which happen in the rest of the world than if they were there present :

That they are subject neither to hunger , nor thirst , nor old age , nor disease , nor to any inconvenience of nature : That they know hy revelation those who are worthy of being admitted in their society : That they can at all times live as if they had existed from the beginning of the world , or if they were bound to live until the end of the ages :

That they have a book in which they can learn all in the other books composed or yet to be composed : That they can force the spirits and the demons , even the most powerful , to place themselves at their service , and draw to them , by the virtue of their " chant , " pearls and precious stones : That God has covered them with a cloud to hide them from the view of their enemies , and that no one can see them , unless his eyes indeed are more

piercing thanthose of an eagle : That the first eight brethren of the Rose Croix had the gift of healing all maladies to such an extent that they were encumbered b y the multitude of the afflicted who came to them , ancl that one of them , very learned in the Cabala , as his Book H . witnesses , had cured the Count of Norfolk of leprosy in England . That they had found a new idiom to express the nature of all things :