e has been unable to suppress it.

Somewhere between the middle of the first and second centuries, an effort
at union and reconciliation arose from another quarter. Ammonius Saccas, a
Neo-Platonist, endeavored to unite men of different cults and beliefs on
the lines of the Great Work, precisely as the Philalethean Society is
doing in New York to-day; but his movement was soon engulfed and lost
sight of by the tide of Ecclesiasticism, or suppressed by the soldiers of
Constantine.

I am not attempting a history, for that would fill volumes. I am only
giving a few sidelights of the Great Work.

In the Tenth Century, at Baghdad, a society was formed admitting Jews,
Christians, Mohammedans, and atheists, with a similar purpose.

During the time of Martin Luther, John Reuchlin made a similar attempt.
Both Reuchlin and Luther were pupils of Trithemius, the Abbot of St.
Jacob's at Wuerzburg, one of whose books I possess, printed in the year
1600, and also another book, "The Theosophical Transactions of the
Philadelphian Society," printed in London in 1697. Browning's "Paracelsus"
gives a splendid outline of the philosophy and teachings of Trithemius,
and rescues Paracelsus with all who can understand, from the vile slanders
of his monkish enemies; and Robert Browning wrote his "Paracelsus" at the
age of twenty-three! Can you wonder why so few "understand Browning"?

For more than fifteen hundred years mankind has been involved between the
speculations of Philosophy, on the one hand, and the creeds and dogmas of
Theology, on the other.

There was also the deliberate destruction of ancient monuments, scrolls,
and records, by religious fanatics. Diocletian, in A.D. 296, burned the
books of the Egyptians. Caesar burned 700,000 Rolls at Alexandria, and Leo
Isaurus 300,000 at Constantinople in the eighth century. Then came the
Mohammedans, who destroyed the remainder of the accessible scrolls at
Alexandria. Gangs of fanatical Monks, Christian and Pagan, roamed over
Europe destroying and defacing everything upon which they could lay their
hands, as witnesses against their dogmas and superstitions. Even to-day,
in India, it is difficult for Europeans to gain access to genuine ancient
records. The records of these barbarities are still fresh in the minds of
the guardians of sacred lore.

Even with such a record for thousands of years, Ecclesiasticism is as
arrogant and rampant as ever to-day. The wonder is, that there is anything