It is a fact well known to all well-informed readers, that at this time the European continent was saturated with the most degrading superstitions. Devils were supposed to walk the earth, and to mingle in the affairs of men; evil spirits, in the opinion even of the wise and learned, were thought to be at the call of any one who would summon them with the proper formalities; and witches were daily burned in all the capitals of Europe. The new sect taught a doctrine less repulsive. They sprang up in Germany, extended with some success to France and England, and excited many angry controversies. Though as far astray in their notions as the Demonologists and witch believers, the creed was more graceful. They taught that the elements swarmed not with hideous, foul and revengeful spirits, but with beautiful creatures, more ready to do man service than to inflict injury. They taught that the earth was inhabited by Gnomes, the air by Sylphs, the fire by Salamanders, and the water by Nymphs or Undines; and that man, by his communication with them, might learn the secrets of nature, and discover all those things which had puzzled philosophers for ages--Perpetual Motion, the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone, and the Essence of Invisibility. Respecting the origin and signification of the term Rosicrucian different opinions have been held and expressed. Some have thought it was made up of _rosa_ and _crux_ (a _rose_ and a _cross_) but it is maintained by others upon apparently good authority, that it is a compound of ros (dew) and crux (cross). Mosheim contends that it is abundantly attested that the title of Rosicrucians was given to the chemists who united the study of religion with the search after chemical secrets, the term itself being chemical, and not to be understood without a knowledge of the style used by the chemists. We shall give some extracts from very old Rosicrucian works presently which will enlighten our readers in such matters. A cross in the language of the fire philosophers is the same as Lux (light), because the figure of a + exhibits all the three letters of the word _Lux_ at one view. Moreover, this sect applied the term _Lux_ to the _seed or menstruum of the Red Dragon_, or to that crude and corporeal light which, being properly concocted and digested, produces gold. A Rosicrucian, therefore, is a philosopher who, by means of _dew_ seeks for _light_--that is, for the substance of the philosopher's stone. Mosheim declares the other interpretations of this name to be false and deceptive, being the inventions of the chemists themselves, who were exceedingly fond of concealment, for the sake of imposing on others who were hostile to their religious views. The true import of this title, he says, was perceived by the sagacity of Peter Gassendi, Examen Philosophiae Fluddanae, sec. 15, in his Opp. iii, 261; though it was more lucidly explained by the celebrated French physician Eusebius Renaudot, _Conferences Publiques_, iv. 87.