p. 467 p. 468

 


Footnotes

468:1 Original Writings, Vol. II. Part I. Sect. 11.

468:2 See this degree, Sect. 4, No. 2 and 3.

468:3 See second Instruction for this degree, No. 8.

468:4 Ibid.

468:5 Ibid. Reversal Letters.

468:6 Ibid. Sect. 7.

468:7 See the Last word of Philo, Page 100.

468:8 Chap. XI.

468:9 When treating in the Second Volume of the religious and political tenets of the Martinists, I did not extend my researches to their doctrine of Idealism, and I frankly confess that I did not sufficiently understand that part of their Apocalypse. Since the publication of that Volume, however, I have met with a Gentleman perfectly capable of comprehending any intelligible system whatever; I mean the Abbé Bertins, residing at present at Oxford. He reproached me in terms similar to those in which some other people had reproached me respecting the Rosicrucians. What you have written, said he, is ALL true, but you have not told the WHOLE truth. I had indeed said a great deal of those gentry, and I never will advance any point which I cannot prove. The Abbé Bertins condescended to give me some little insight into the doctrines of this famous St. Martin. It fully confirmed every thing which I had advanced on the tenets of the Martinists, with respect to the nature of the soul, and to the pretended origin of that soul forming a part of God, of the essence of God, and of the same substance—But what I had not said was, that according to the same system matter has no real existence, or at least has such a separate existence, and is so entirely null with respect to the soul, that there neither is nor can be any relation whatever between it and the soul; in fine, that it is, with respect to us, as if it were not. I had surmised these consequences in a conversation which I had had with an estimable young man, the Vicomte de Maimbourg, whom the Martinists had endeavoured to taint with their erroneous doctrines. When they came to treat of the pleasure of the senses, throw that to the fire, they say in their treatise of morality; to the fire: give to the fire all it asks; that is not the spirit, all that does not affect the soul; and this fire is matter; it is the senses, the body. It is not in the same sense that the Martinist tells us, “It is in vain that the enemy pursues me with his illusions. Matter shall not have remembrance of me here below. Does man taste the pleasures of matter? When the senses feel pain or pleasure, is it not easy to perceive that it is not man that feels this pain or pleasure?” (No. 235, of the Man of Desire, by the Author of a work On Errors and on Truth). How frightful is this enigmatical language! If all the passions and senses are foreign to man, if he may gratify them with affecting his soul either for the better or for the worse, what monstrous consequences must ensue to morals! And indeed a Danish Martinist was consulted by the Viscount, who, more candid than the recruiting Brethren, answered, “Beware, dear Sir, of ever entering into our mysteries;—I am unfortunately engaged, and should in vain attempt to withdraw myself from them. I could not succeed; but, for your part, take care never to deliver yourself over to those men.” The Viscount followed his advice. As to the Abbé Bertins, he was too much for Mr. de St. Martin, who had to argue with a man that perpetually objected—if my soul is part of God, and of the substance of God, my soul must be God. After three months lessons, which the reader will readily suppose the Abbé Bertins only submitted to through curiosity, the learned teacher violently exclaimed, “I see I never shall be able to convince  p. 468 a Divine:” and thus Mr. de St. Martin took leave of a scholar far more fitted to teach him real knowledge than to receive his sophisticated lessons.

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