it was the constant endeavor of the female spirits to captivate the admiration of men, and of the male gnomes, sylphs, salamanders and undines to be beloved by a woman. The object of this passion, in returning their love, imparted a portion of that celestial fire, the soul; and from that time forth the beloved became equals to the lover, and both when their allotted course was run, entered together into the mansions of felicity. These spirits, they said, watched .constantly over mankind by night and day. Dreams, omens, and presentiments were all their work, and the means by which they gave warning of the approach of danger. But though so well inclined to befriend man for their own sake, the want of a soul rendered them at times capricious and revengeful; they took offence at slight causes, and heaped injuries instead of benefits on the heads of those who extinguished the light of reason that was in them by gluttony, debauchery, and other appetities of the body." (Mackay's Popular Delusions, Mysteries of the Rosie Cross, by A. Reader, Orange Street, Red Lion Square, London, 1891.) There is a book called Sub Mundanes, which in a vein of delicate humor deals with this belief of the Rosicrucians. It purports to be written by an acquaintance of one Count de Gabulis. It was published by the Abbot de Villars (nephew of Montfaucon), in 1670. Sub Mundanes refers to stories told of the Gothic Kings being born from a bear and a princess of Pegusians being born from a dog and a woman; of a Portuguese woman, who was exposed on a deserted island having children by a large monkey. The author goes on to say that the sylphs of the Rosicrucians seeing that they are taken for Demons when they appear, in order to diminish aversion, take the form of these animals, and accomodate themselves thus to the whimsical weakness of women, who would be horrified at the sight of a handsome sylph, but less so at a dog or monkey.
Sub Mundanes tells a story of a hard-hearted Spanish beauty who repulsed a Castillian gentleman so effectually that he left her and set off to travel to forget her. A sylph fell in love with her, took the shape of her absent lover, wooed her persistently and won her. A son was born;
