The Society Of The Rose Croix.*

That they confess freely , and publish without fear of being arrested , that the Pope is Antichrist : That they condemn the black heresies of the East and West , that is to say , both of Mahomet and the Pope , and only recognize two sacraments with the ceremonies of the early church received by their congregation : That they recognize the fourth monarchyand the Emperor of the Romans

, for their head and that of nil christians : That they will supply him with more gold than the King of Spain has extracted from the Indies , whether East or West , so much the more because their treasures are inexhaustible : That their college , which they call the College of the Holy Spirit , could never suffer any attackthough seven hundred thousand persons have seen it

, and remarked it : That they have in their libraries many mysterious books , of which one , that which is most useful to them after the Bible , is the same which the revered Father Illumine Rose Croix held in his hand after his death :

Lastly , that they are certain and assured that the truth of their maxims will last until the last period of the world . * These are graces and powers assuredly very miraculous . Unfortunately the facts of the case were far from answering to them . The subsequent history of the society of the Rose Croix makes it sufficiently appear that all the propositions which we have recently enumerated , constituted the programme of questions which the fraternity proposed to reserveand not the catalogue

, of matter which was to be found in their own power . We have great difficulty , in truth , when we attempt to find out the wonders which the Rose Croix have realized . In medicine , the art which' they were bound to practise wherever they were , according to the terms of the first commandment of their master , the list of their triumphs is soon exhausted . We have alread y seen that they boasted of having ' cured an English count of leprosy . Thev

also pretended to have restored life to a king of Spain already dead for six hours . Besides the two cures , of which the second is doubtless a miracle , hue which has this defect to have only themselves as witnesses ancl guarantees , all their medical history consists in vague allegation , and on some insio-nificant facts as that which Gabriel Naude relates to us in these terms : —

" A certain pilgrim appeared like a flash of lightning , in 1615 , in a German town , and assisted in the quality of a medical man , in prognosticating the death of a woman whom he had aided and succoured with some remedies . He wished to appear to have the knowledge of languages , and much curiosity touching the knowledge of 'scruples . ' He gave some account of that which had passed in the town during his stay at that lodging . In short , except in the teaching , in which he greatly excelled , he was in all like to that wanderin " jew whom Cazet describes in his 'Histoire Septenaire , ' sober , taciturn , badly clothed , not residing willingly for long in the same placeand much less desirous of being met and

, recognized , for such as he professed himself to be , that is to say , the third brother of the Rose Croix , as he declared to Dr . Molther , who , though he probably knew as much as he did , could not be so well persuaded to give faith to his narratives , though he has presented us with this history , and left our judgment free to discover if it was capable of establishing a proof of the existence of their consistory . "f

This account appears to us more probable than that of a king of Spain raised from the dead . According to their statutes the brethren of the Rose Croix could not be dispensed from exercising medicine if onl y to see sometimes the sick persons die in their hands , as thus it- happens to ordinary medical men ; only what is astonishing is , that there is any question of remedies . Although it is true their master Paracelsus is handed clown to posterit y as being the first person to practice nervic remedies unknown to the followers of Galen , he thought