THE BROTHERHOOD OF ROSY CROSS

THE PREFACE

THE external facts connected with the Rosy Cross on the
historical side were set out with no inconsiderable accuracy,
so far as general lines are concerned, in a work which I
devoted to the subject at the beginning of my literary
life; and it appears even to have remained as a general
source of reference since its date of publication in the year
1887. It was impossible at the period that I should have
carried the research further, as-for example-into the
inward history of Rosicrucian symbolism.

There were seals upon the gates leading into such realms,
and they were not to be broken by the simple lettered student.
As such he depended solely on the resources of ascertainable
or public facts, and on the guidance of precursors who had
entered the region of debate, though after a certain point
most presumed authorities had to be set aside.

The book has been long out of print, and as since then it has
been given me to open many doors at which I had scarcely
knocked in 1887, while others were unknown, I feel that
the time has come to take up the old subject and to treat
it after a new manner, as one who can speak now not
only with different and much further knowledge on the
internal side but as one also who has travelled various
paths belonging to its sacred world. In the present volume
I shall be concerned therefore with the Rosy Cross
intus et foris scripta, like some of its own books. The present
era seems to offer a favourable opportunity for a record
of this kind and for the experiment which it involves,...