My Library

mistaken who suppose such a society ever had existence. Baron Fischer, now of San Francisco, declares that there really was such an order, but that it was composed of Fools, Fanatics, and Moon-struck Madmen, who in time became the laughing-stock of all Europe. On the other hand, Lydde, the traveller, asserts positively, in his great work, “The Asian Mystery,” that he has traced the Order, under one or more of its names, back into the very night-time of the world’s history. And Abdul Rahman, the Arabian author, boldly declares that he has proved the existence of this Brotherhood in ages so remote that Christian and Jewish history is modern in comparison. Hein, Hun—Tse-Foh, the Chinese annalist, asserts, that the Order originated in Tartary thousands of years before the foundation of the Chinese empire, itself claiming an age of over thirty thousand solar years! From Tartary it went to Japan, thence to China, thence to Persia, thence to Arabia, thence to India, and, by stages, to Europe, having passed through Egypt, Jewry, and Phœnicia on its way down the ages. So much for Vaughan; now for another “authority.” Under the letter “R,” in the American Encyclopedia, occurs the word “Rosicrucians,” followed by—“Members of a society, the existence of which became unexpectedly known at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Its object was ostensibly