Secret History of a Rosicrucian

...to know, who were Freemasons, and which then works all the more powerfully because they are not in a position to judge its truth or falsehood completely, yet believe they see probability before them.

The man whose secret history our readers will learn in the following pages only became a Freemason original: "Freymaurer" in the year 1779; and his admission was the fulfillment of a desire that a The word used here is "Vorurtheil" (prejudice). In the 18th century, this often referred to a preconceived opinion or "pre-judgment" that could be either positive or negative. prejudice had instilled in him ten years earlier. He was now thirty-three years old and a widower; and he had formed his first charming impressions of Freemasonry as a youth of twenty-one, in another place and in a different situation. He was admitted in Hamburg; and he had made his first acquaintance with Freemasons in Berlin.

These were upright people, helpful, obliging, and charitable; ready to seize every opportunity for good deeds and to make use of them even with great effort. They avoided notoriety instead of seeking it. They acted not so much on sudden impulses and the inspirations of the moment, but with more deliberation and awareness than the common mass of men usually demonstrate. Their respect for the laws of morality was not merely a consequence of devotion, but—