Vaughan's notes on the 'Manifestos'...
Aug 29, 2014 6:33:08 GMT
Post by Goldenfleeced on Aug 29, 2014 6:33:08 GMT
As I said, I often find the 'notes' associated with certain works to be as interesting as the 'works' themselves; and, in this case, because they are written by one of my favorite philosophers, Thomas Vaughan, I can't help including these as a preface to a discussion of the Rosicrucians, and their contribution to the thoughts being discussed regarding our common Future.
I will highlight the passages that I felt were worth further contemplation; feel free to make any correlations that you feel appropriate...
If it were the Business of my Life or Learning, to procure my self that noyse which men call Fame, I am not to seek what might conduce to it. It is an Age affords many Advantages, and I might have the choyce of several Founddations, whereon to build my self. I can see withall, that Time and Imployment have made some persons Men, whom their first Adventures did not finde such. This suddain Growth might give my Imperfections also the Confidence of such another start: but as I live not by common Examples, so I drive not a Common Design. I have taken a course different from that of the World, for (Readers) I would have you know, that whereas you plot to set your selves up, I do here contrive to bring my self down. I am in the Humor to affirm the Essence, and Existence of that admired Chimera, the Fraternitie of R.C. And now Gentlemen I thank you, I have Aire and Room enough: me thinks you sneak and steal from me, as if the Plague and this Red Cross were inseparable. Take my Lord have mercy along with you, for I pitty your sickly Braines, and certainly as to your present State the Inscription is not unseasonable. But in lieu of this, some of you may advise me to an Assertion of the Capreols of del Phaebo, or a Review of the Library of that discreet Gentleman of the Mancha, for in your Opinion those Knights and these Brothers are equally Invisible. This is hard measure, but I shal not insist to disprove you: If there be any amongst the Living of the same Bookish faith with my self, They are the Persons I would speak to, and yet in this I shal act modestly, I invite them not, unless they be at Leasure.
When I consider the unjust Censure and indeed the Contempt, which Magic even in all Ages hath undergone, I can (in my opinion) finds no other Reasons for it, but what the Professors themselves are guilty of by Misconstruction, and this in Reference to a double Obscurity, of Life and Language. As for their nice (or to speak a better truth) their Conscientious Retirements, whereby they did separate themselvs from dissolute and brutish spirits, it is that which none can soberly discommend; nay, it is a very purging Argument, and may serve to wipe off those contracted, envious scandals, which Time and Man have injuriously fastned on their Memory.
For if we reason discreetly, we may not safely trust the Traditions and Judgement of the World, concerning such persons who sequestred themselves from the World, and were no way addicted to the Affairs or Acquaintance thereof. It is true, they were losers by this Alienation, for both their life and their Principles were crosse to those of their Adversaries: They lived in the shade, in the calm of Conscience and solitude, but their Enemies moved in the Sun-shine, in the Eye of worldly Transactions, where they kept up their own Repute with a clamarous Defamation of these innocent and contented Eremits. The second Obstacle to their Fame, was partly the simplicity of their style, which is Scripture-like, and commonly begins like Solomon's Text, with Mi Fili. But that which spoil'd all, and made them Contemptible even to some degree of miserie, was a corrupt Delivery of the Notions and Vocabula of the Art: for Magic like the Sun, moving from the East, carried along with it the Orientall Termes, which our Western Philosophers who skil'd not the Arabic or Chaldee, etc. did meet unhappily and corruptly transcribe, and verily at this day they are so strangely abus'd, it is more then a Task to guess at their Original. But this is not all, for some were so singular, as to invent certain Barbarous Termes of their own, and these conceited Riddles, together with their Magisterial way of Writing (for they did not so far condescend as to Reason their Positions) made the world conclude them a Fabulous Generation. Indeed this was a strange course of Theirs, and much different from that of Trismegistus, in whose genuine works there is not one Barbarous syllable, nor any point asserted, without most pregnant and Demonstrative Reasons...
I know this seems like the proverbial 'wall of text' deal, but believe me, the contemplation that ought to follow the reading will pay dividends, and even though many of you are familiar with the 'Rosicrucian Manifestos,' I daresay that most of you have not bothered yourselves much with the 'introduction.' For a man like Vaughan to have gone out of his way to compose this most 'enlightening' piece seems to me to have a point to it, that probably ought not to be missed. I don't intend to reproduce the entire piece here, but I will give enough to make his point, I think... as well as a link for further perusal, if you're interested.
www.alchemywebsite.com/vaughanp.html
I will highlight the passages that I felt were worth further contemplation; feel free to make any correlations that you feel appropriate...
If it were the Business of my Life or Learning, to procure my self that noyse which men call Fame, I am not to seek what might conduce to it. It is an Age affords many Advantages, and I might have the choyce of several Founddations, whereon to build my self. I can see withall, that Time and Imployment have made some persons Men, whom their first Adventures did not finde such. This suddain Growth might give my Imperfections also the Confidence of such another start: but as I live not by common Examples, so I drive not a Common Design. I have taken a course different from that of the World, for (Readers) I would have you know, that whereas you plot to set your selves up, I do here contrive to bring my self down. I am in the Humor to affirm the Essence, and Existence of that admired Chimera, the Fraternitie of R.C. And now Gentlemen I thank you, I have Aire and Room enough: me thinks you sneak and steal from me, as if the Plague and this Red Cross were inseparable. Take my Lord have mercy along with you, for I pitty your sickly Braines, and certainly as to your present State the Inscription is not unseasonable. But in lieu of this, some of you may advise me to an Assertion of the Capreols of del Phaebo, or a Review of the Library of that discreet Gentleman of the Mancha, for in your Opinion those Knights and these Brothers are equally Invisible. This is hard measure, but I shal not insist to disprove you: If there be any amongst the Living of the same Bookish faith with my self, They are the Persons I would speak to, and yet in this I shal act modestly, I invite them not, unless they be at Leasure.
When I consider the unjust Censure and indeed the Contempt, which Magic even in all Ages hath undergone, I can (in my opinion) finds no other Reasons for it, but what the Professors themselves are guilty of by Misconstruction, and this in Reference to a double Obscurity, of Life and Language. As for their nice (or to speak a better truth) their Conscientious Retirements, whereby they did separate themselvs from dissolute and brutish spirits, it is that which none can soberly discommend; nay, it is a very purging Argument, and may serve to wipe off those contracted, envious scandals, which Time and Man have injuriously fastned on their Memory.
For if we reason discreetly, we may not safely trust the Traditions and Judgement of the World, concerning such persons who sequestred themselves from the World, and were no way addicted to the Affairs or Acquaintance thereof. It is true, they were losers by this Alienation, for both their life and their Principles were crosse to those of their Adversaries: They lived in the shade, in the calm of Conscience and solitude, but their Enemies moved in the Sun-shine, in the Eye of worldly Transactions, where they kept up their own Repute with a clamarous Defamation of these innocent and contented Eremits. The second Obstacle to their Fame, was partly the simplicity of their style, which is Scripture-like, and commonly begins like Solomon's Text, with Mi Fili. But that which spoil'd all, and made them Contemptible even to some degree of miserie, was a corrupt Delivery of the Notions and Vocabula of the Art: for Magic like the Sun, moving from the East, carried along with it the Orientall Termes, which our Western Philosophers who skil'd not the Arabic or Chaldee, etc. did meet unhappily and corruptly transcribe, and verily at this day they are so strangely abus'd, it is more then a Task to guess at their Original. But this is not all, for some were so singular, as to invent certain Barbarous Termes of their own, and these conceited Riddles, together with their Magisterial way of Writing (for they did not so far condescend as to Reason their Positions) made the world conclude them a Fabulous Generation. Indeed this was a strange course of Theirs, and much different from that of Trismegistus, in whose genuine works there is not one Barbarous syllable, nor any point asserted, without most pregnant and Demonstrative Reasons...
I know this seems like the proverbial 'wall of text' deal, but believe me, the contemplation that ought to follow the reading will pay dividends, and even though many of you are familiar with the 'Rosicrucian Manifestos,' I daresay that most of you have not bothered yourselves much with the 'introduction.' For a man like Vaughan to have gone out of his way to compose this most 'enlightening' piece seems to me to have a point to it, that probably ought not to be missed. I don't intend to reproduce the entire piece here, but I will give enough to make his point, I think... as well as a link for further perusal, if you're interested.
www.alchemywebsite.com/vaughanp.html
