In her calyx you will find the elixir of life and the secret of gold, if you walk in the path of duty; if you exercise unconditional obedience to the Invisible Fathers; if you submit yourselves in blind confidence to their wisdom; if you swear to abstain from every self-inquiry, and to distrust your own understanding." [Footnote: So run the very words in the laws of the Rosicrucians .-- See "New General German Library," vol.lvi., p.

10.] "We swear it!" cried solemn voices on all sides.
"Swear, blindly, silent obedience to all that the Invisible Fathers shall announce to you through their directors, or shall order you under the holy sign of the Rosicrucians by word or writing." "We swear it!" again resounded in solemn chorus.
"Shame, disgrace, perdition, and destruction, be your curse," thundered the priest, "if you deviate in thought even from your oath; if you seek to ponder and reflect; if you measure by your own limited reason the dispositions and operations of the sublime fathers, to whom Nature has revealed herself, and to whom all the secrets of heaven and earth are disclosed.

Eternal destruction, and all the tortures of hell and purgatory, be the portion of the doubting! Damned and proscribed be the traitor to the holy order! Listen, ye spirits of the deep, and ye spirits of darkness, withdraw from here in terror, ere the anger of the Invisible Fathers fall upon you like destroying lightning! Open, ye doors, that the wicked may flee, and only the good remain!" With a wave of the hand the great folding-doors now opened, and a flood of light from the adjoining apartment revealed the drawingroom to be filled with the dark forms of men enveloped in black cloaks, hoods drawn over the heads, and black masks covering the faces--all kneeling close together and exactly resembling one another.

No one moved, the doors closed again, darkness reigning.

The priest was no longer visible, though continuing to speak: "Only the good and obedient are now assembled here, and to them I announce that life is to us, and death awaits beyond the door to seize the traitor who would disclose the holy secrets of the order.