ished the complete works of
Socinus, two folio volumes in the collection, entitled _Bibliotheca
Fratrum Polonorum_. Three years later appeared his "Fraternity of R.C.,"
and in 1664 the _Medulla Alchymiae_. In 1667 he decided to publish the
"Open Entrance," the MS. of which was returned to him by the editor
Langius after printing, and was subsequently annotated in the way I have
previously mentioned. During the early days of the same year Vaughan
converted Helvetius, the celebrated physician of the Hague, who in his
turn became Grand Master of the Rosicrucian Fraternity. In 1668 he
published his "Experiments with Sophic Mercury" and _Tractatus Tres_,
while ten years later, or in 1678, the year of his infernal translation,
he produced his edition of "Ripley Revived" and the _Enarratio Trium
Gebri_.

From beginning to end, generally and particularly, the narrative I have
summarised above is a gross and planned imposture, nor would any
epithets be so severe as to be undeserved by the person who has
concocted it, because it does outrage to the sacred dead, in particular
to the greatest of the English spiritual mystics, Thomas Vaughan, and to
the greatest of the English physical mystics, Eirenaeus Philalethes. For
the mendacious history confuses two entirely distinct persons--Eugenius
and Eirenaeus Philalethes. It is true that this confusion has been made
frequently, and it is true also that at the beginning of my researches
into the archaeology of Hermetic literature I was one of its victims, for
which I was sharply brought to book by those who knew better. But a
young and unassisted investigator, imperfectly equipped, has an excuse
which will exonerate him at least from a malicious intention. It is
otherwise with a pretended family history. When documents of this kind
reproduce blunders which are pardonable to ignorance alone, and upon a
subject about which two opinions are no longer possible, it is certain
that such documents are not what they claim; in other words, they have
been fabricated, and the fabrication of historical papers is essentially
a work of malice. Furthermore, when such forgeries impeach persons long
since passed to their account, on the score of unheard of crimes, they
are the work of diabolical malice, and this is a moderately worded
judgment on the case now in hand. Thomas Vaughan, otherwise Eugenius
Philalethes, was born in the year 1621 at Newton, in Brecknockshire. The
accepted and perfectly correct