THE ROSICRUCIAN.

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"AND after all," said Lubeck Schieffel, soliloquising aloud, "what do I know? It is true, I have obtained the first honours of the university,-have learned all the professors can teach, and am considered the ablest scholar in Got tingen: still, how little do I know, and how unsatisfactory that knowledge is !" Ay, what do you know?" said a voice so near that it made him start. "I know," said Lubeck, "that you are some idle fool to be prating here at this time of night;" for he felt ashamed and angry his soliloquy had been overheard: but both shame and anger gave way to surprise, when upon turning suddenly round to discover the speaker, he was not able to perceive any one, though the moon shone brightly, and for a considerable distance around was a level plain, without a single tree or other object which could have afforded concealment.

The astonishment of Lubeck was beyond descriptionhe tried to persuade himself that it was some trick, but the nearness of the voice, and the nature of the place, forbade such a conclusion. Fear now urged him to hasten from the spot; being resolved, however, that if it were a trick of a fellow-student, he should have no advantage, he exclaimed in as jocular a tone as he could command, “Tush, I know you, and wish you better success the next time you attempt the incognito." He then made the best of his way to the high road, and, musing upon this curious and unaccountable circumstance, returned to his apartments.

Next morning Lubeck went to the site of the preceding night's adventure, with the intention of ascertaining the manner in which this curious trick had been performed (for with returning daylight he felt reassured that it was such); but his dismay was very considerable when he arrived at

the spot; for, owing to the nature of the ground, he was at once compelled to decide that it could not be a trick performed by human actors.

How unsteady is the balance of the human mind! The manner in which the strongest understandings are sometimes swayed by the most minute circumstances is perfectly unaccountable; and the smallest foundation, like the stem of a tree, often carries a wide-spreading superstructure. The wild stories of his romantic countrymen were for a time eagerly perused by Lubeck; and the mind, which had before delighted in them as entertaining compositions, lent them that deep attention which admitted the possibility of their reality.

Expecting that the invisible person (for such he was now persuaded existed) would again address him, Lubeck went night after night to the same spot, but in vain! till at length, as the event became more remote, the impressions of that night became more faint; at last, he felt convinced that the whole must have been the result of his own imagination, and was quietly perusing his studies, when one morning a stranger was ushered into his apartment.

"I believe," said the stranger, "I am addressing Lubeck Schieffel, who gained, with so much honour, the last prize of this university."

Lubeck bowed assent.

"You may probably feel surprised," continued he, " that a perfect stranger should obtrude himself upon you; but I concluded that a person who had already obtained so much information would naturally be desirous of embracing any means of increasing it, and I believe it is in my power to point out to you a way by which that increase may be obtained."

"I certainly feel an ardent thirst for knowledge," said

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Lubeck; 66 as yet, I cannot agree with him who said, all I know is, that I know nothing.' I have read the books pointed out by the professors, and all that I have read only confirms the justness of this conclusion."

"And rightly," said the stranger, "for of what use are the majority of the ancient writings, but as they furnish excellent rules of morality, and specimens of elegant or amusing compositions! we may admire the descriptions of Tacitus-the simple style of Livy-be dazzled by the splendid imagery of Homer, or melted by the tender traits of Tibullus or Euripides-we may laugh with Anacreon, or enjoy the still beauties of nature with Theocritus-we have love in Sappho, satire in Juvenal, and man in Horace-we

Stay, stay," said Lubeck. "Swell the list no further; from all these books some knowledge I have drained, but am still not satisfied. I still thirst, still pant for knowledge; and am sick to the soul of knowing no more than the rest of the world. I would

"If you look to gain," said the stranger, interrupting him," for such universal knowledge from books, you must be diappointed. It would consume nearly a life to read all that has been written upon any one science, which, when known, is but one step forward, and while we are striving to reach wisdom, death overtakes us. Besides, you learn nothing new from books, for invention must precede science, and clear a path for her, while the compilers of books but follow at a distance and record her steps. Still you need not despair, for though thousands in vain strive to open the portals to that knowledge, which is closed by a bar which no force can remove-still, to some, it may be given to find a hidden spring, which touched

"And you have found this spring," said Lubeck, sarcastically.

"It has been found!" said the stranger, "It has been touched! the hitherto sealed portals have been opened, and the hidden knowledge full-complete-is revealed, but only to few, and even those conditionally."

"You speak allegorically," said Lubeck, "what mean you ?"

"You must be aware,” said the stranger," that he who wishes to excel in any one science gives it his undivided attention. Is it not rational then to suppose that something extraordinary must be exacted of him who wishes to excel in all?”

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Full, complete attention," said Lubeck, " and intense and unwearied application."

"If undivided attention, or intense and unwearied application would have availed," said the stranger, "would you now have been seeking it? Attend :-Suppose a fraternity had existed for many centuries, living in a place, rendered invisible to all the world but themselves, by an extraordinary secret, who are acquainted with every science, some of which they have improved to the highest degree of perfection, who possess a multitude of valuable and almost incredible secrets; possessed of the art of prolonging life very much, indeed, beyond its usual limits, and having so great a knowledge of medicine, that no malady can withstand them, they laugh at the diseases which you consider mortal; they possess a key to the Jewish Cabbala; they have copies of the Sibylline books; but, alas! how many discoveries which they have made, and have divulged, with the intention of benefiting mankind generally, have proved in the event a heavy curse to part!"

Lubeck began to feel a strong conviction that he was listening to either the dreams of some wild enthusiast, or the reveries of a madman, but though the ideas of the

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stranger were so wild, neither his look, tone, nor manner, seemed to warrant such a conclusion; he, therefore, was greatly embarrassed how to proceed. At length he observed, "For what purpose, may I ask, do you endeavour to amuse me, with relating what to me seems simply impossible?"

"Impossible!" repeated the stranger, "Impossible !— thus it ever is with mankind. Whatever escapes their investigation-whatever they cannot readily comprehend or explain, they pronounce to have no existence, or to be utterly inexplicable. Consider how many things, which to you appear possible, to one of less information would appear what you pronounce this to be, and thus was Galileo imprisoned, and forced to deny truths which were not comprehended. You admitted to me, a short time past, that all your knowledge amounted to nothing. Still, the moment I tell you of what you cannot comprehend, you at once pronounce it to be impossible. Listen!" continued the stranger, and immediately the same remarkable voice, which Lubeck had before heard, exclaimed

"Ay! what do you know?"

The tenour of the stranger's conversation had not recalled to Lubeck Schieffel the events of that memorable night, but now it rushed upon him in an instant, and before him he conceived was the supernatural being who had haunted his steps.

“This extraordinary society, of which I was telling you," continued the stranger, "received its name from Christian Rosencrux, who was born in Germany, in the year 1359. He was educated in a monastery, and excelled in most ancient and modern languages. A powerful desire urged him to seek a more extensive range of information than could be obtained within the precincts of a cloister, and he determined to travel. The religious feelings common about