GENESIS ANDEVOLUTION OF OURSOLARSYSTEM 251
relatives know of a man's connection with the order. Those
only who are Initiates themselves know the writers of the
past who were Rosicrucians, because ever through their
works shine the unmistakable words, phrases and signs
indicative of the deep meaning that remains hidden from the
non-Initiate. The Rosicrucian Fellowship is composed of
students of the teachings of the Order which are now given
publicly, because the world's intelligence is growing to the
necessary point of comprehension. This work is one of the
first few fragments of the Rosicrucian knowledge being
publicly given out. All that has been printed as such,
previous to the last few years, has been the work of either
charlatans or traitors.
Rosicrucians such as Paracelsus, Comenius, Bacon,
Helmont and others gave hints in their works and influenced
others. The great controversy concerning the authorship of
Shakespeare (which has to no avail blunted so many goose-
quills and wasted so much good ink that might have served
useful ends) would never have arisen had it been known that
the similarity in Shakespeare and Bacon is due to the fact
that both were influenced by the same Initiate, who also
influenced Jacob Boehme and a pastor of Ingolstadt, Jacobus
Baldus, who lived subsequent to the death of the Bard of
Avon, and wrot e Latin lyric verse. If the first poem of Jacob
Baldus is read with a certain key, it will be found that by
reading down and up the lines, the following sentence will
appear: “Hitherto I have spoken from across the sea by
means of the drama; now I will express myself in lyrics.”
In his “Physica,” Helmont, the Rosicrucian wrote: “Ad
huc spiritum incognitum Gas voco,” i.e., “This hitherto
unknown Spirit I call Gas.” Further on in the same work he
says, “This vapor which I have called Gas is not far removed
from the Chaos the ancients spoke of.”