I.

To what time is the actual origin of the Rosicrucians to be assigned?

After the death of Paracelsus, * frequent writings on magic, theosophy, and alchemy spread due to the misinterpretation of individual passages in his works. In particular, Thurneisser marked an epoch.

• The appreciation of this "Luther of chemistry" can be found in his biography in the second part of my new literary journal, where I have sought to portray the man as he was on pp. 177—285: he who laughed at gold-making, and whom many a minor doctor is accustomed to slander, who often hardly knows how antihecticum Poterii a specific medicinal preparation named after Pierre Potier came into being. One must attribute much to the taste of his times, and had a scoundrel of a priest not driven him from Basel, his writings would look quite different.