added, the consequence is excellent: that insofar as they are such as described, their existence certainly cannot be denied.

ADMONITION

See those things which will be cautioned below regarding the following chapter.

II. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ARE THEY?

Here, on account of the abundance of material, it will not be useless to adopt a sub-classification, so that first their studies, second their riches, third their travels, fourth their religion, and fifth, what sort of associates they take on, etc., may be briefly examined.

I. CONCERNING THEIR STUDIES

The Negative Opinion

original: Negans opinio. This marks the beginning of the skeptical or "pro-and-con" style of academic debate common in the 17th century.

That the brothers devote themselves to studies original: studiis navare could be denied on the grounds that they delight in many travels, just as those very men who profess to be of the society expressly concede—and especially he who not long ago signed his name as B. M. I. The initials "B. M. I." likely refer to a specific participant in the early 17th-century Rosicrucian pamphlet war; identity remains a point of scholarly debate. Now, there is a very well-known verse, drawn from the depths original: visceribus, literally "the entrails" or "the guts" of human nature, which says: