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Article MMONIC IMPOSTIJEES ← Page 3 of 3
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Mmonic Impostijees
Eichte ; the theology of Strauss ; the history of Niebuhr ; the chronology of Biinsen , pre-Baffaelitism , pedagogism , and whatever is newest in the world of literature and art , and will least bear the test of time and truth . Sir ~ Henry Bulwer , in his " Germany and the Germans , " pithily said that '" the Germans did not see deeper than other men , but only saw farther the wrong way ^ "
Masonry was too naked in its truths to be long undealt with by the Grermans ; and although it was only introduced about the first quarter of-the last century , it had hardly passed the half century before the German genius was exerted upon it . As , in the present century phrenology , mesmerism , and homoeopathy have occupied the German mind , so , in the age referred to , various phases of mysticism were gone through -indeed , they had hardly got through the ancestral
ordeal of magic , witchcraft , alchemy , the universal medicine , and fortune-telling . It may be said that they had hardly got through this ordeal—for Eosicrueianism was an early form to which Masonry was distorted / and numbers of Masons were duped by impostors pretending to be Eosicrueians , and professing to be able to communicate the secrets of alchemy , the philosopher ' s stone , the universal solvent ; ,
eternal life , and the transmutations of the base metals to gold and silver ; though , by the bye , while they were about it , as it was as easy to transmute lead to gold as to silver , they professed to prefer the more precious metal . Eosicrueianism , therefore , became the order of the day throughout Germany , and Eosicrucian Masons sprang up everywhere , with lodges professing to teach the highest Masonic secrets . Ghost-raising and other branches of magic were affirihed to
be accomplished m these lodges ; and it would be doing an injustice , perhaps , to the seventeenth century , to affirm that Germany was less grossly superstitious in the eighteenth century . Eosicrueianism could not spread beyond German bounds , it soon died in a less congenial atmosphere , the air of England or Holland was fatal to it ; and the Germans themselves became sick of it when some new vagary
excited their scientific aspirations . The number of Eosicrucian pretenders and founders of lodges and orders was great , and makes a history of itself . The death of Eosicrueianism is perhaps to be laid to Baron Hunde , who , as early as 1743 , prepared a new scheme for involving the
German Lodges in difficulties , by the establishment of another system of Masonry . Again , in 1756 , the Erench introduced into Germany the Scotch high degrees as practised , in France , which were of great number and variety , embracing various philosophic types , and the importation of which thoroughly unsettled the G-erman mind . This enabled Baron Hunde to make a second campaign , and
as the history of his achievements is worthy of distinct notice , we shall reserve it for a future number .
3 k 2
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Mmonic Impostijees
Eichte ; the theology of Strauss ; the history of Niebuhr ; the chronology of Biinsen , pre-Baffaelitism , pedagogism , and whatever is newest in the world of literature and art , and will least bear the test of time and truth . Sir ~ Henry Bulwer , in his " Germany and the Germans , " pithily said that '" the Germans did not see deeper than other men , but only saw farther the wrong way ^ "
Masonry was too naked in its truths to be long undealt with by the Grermans ; and although it was only introduced about the first quarter of-the last century , it had hardly passed the half century before the German genius was exerted upon it . As , in the present century phrenology , mesmerism , and homoeopathy have occupied the German mind , so , in the age referred to , various phases of mysticism were gone through -indeed , they had hardly got through the ancestral
ordeal of magic , witchcraft , alchemy , the universal medicine , and fortune-telling . It may be said that they had hardly got through this ordeal—for Eosicrueianism was an early form to which Masonry was distorted / and numbers of Masons were duped by impostors pretending to be Eosicrueians , and professing to be able to communicate the secrets of alchemy , the philosopher ' s stone , the universal solvent ; ,
eternal life , and the transmutations of the base metals to gold and silver ; though , by the bye , while they were about it , as it was as easy to transmute lead to gold as to silver , they professed to prefer the more precious metal . Eosicrueianism , therefore , became the order of the day throughout Germany , and Eosicrucian Masons sprang up everywhere , with lodges professing to teach the highest Masonic secrets . Ghost-raising and other branches of magic were affirihed to
be accomplished m these lodges ; and it would be doing an injustice , perhaps , to the seventeenth century , to affirm that Germany was less grossly superstitious in the eighteenth century . Eosicrueianism could not spread beyond German bounds , it soon died in a less congenial atmosphere , the air of England or Holland was fatal to it ; and the Germans themselves became sick of it when some new vagary
excited their scientific aspirations . The number of Eosicrucian pretenders and founders of lodges and orders was great , and makes a history of itself . The death of Eosicrueianism is perhaps to be laid to Baron Hunde , who , as early as 1743 , prepared a new scheme for involving the
German Lodges in difficulties , by the establishment of another system of Masonry . Again , in 1756 , the Erench introduced into Germany the Scotch high degrees as practised , in France , which were of great number and variety , embracing various philosophic types , and the importation of which thoroughly unsettled the G-erman mind . This enabled Baron Hunde to make a second campaign , and
as the history of his achievements is worthy of distinct notice , we shall reserve it for a future number .
3 k 2