humanism, or special
names and disguises, as workshops or societies, have preserved more or
less truly the doctrine of the 'sacred numbers' and the number symbolism,
and found the keys of wisdom and knowledge in the rightly understood
doctrine of the eternal harmony of the spheres." (Keller, l. c., p. 38.)

Keller derives modern freemasonry from the academies of the renaissance,
which, as we have just heard, continued the spirit of the ancient
academies. Now it is interesting that the later branches of these
religious societies (after the renaissance) took among others the form of
alchemy companies and further that such fraternities or companies [as are
not called alchemical], still employed symbols that we recognize as
derived from alchemy. The hieroglyphics of alchemy appear to be peculiarly
appropriate to the religious and philosophic ideas to be treated of.
Rosicrucianism was, however, one of the forms into which alchemy was
organized. It is further important that in just those societies of the
beginning of the seventeenth century which outsiders called "alchymists"
or "rosicrucians," the characteristic emblems of the old lodge appeared,
as, for instance, the circle, the cubic stone, the level, the man facing
the right, the sphere, the oblong rectangle (symbol of the Lodge), etc.
(Keller, Zur Gesch. d. Bauh., p. 17.) These "alchymists" honored St. John
in the same way as can be shown for the companies of the fifteenth
century. I need not mention that modern masonry, in its most important
form, bears the name of Masons of St. John.

From the beginning of the 17th century attempts were made inside the
fraternity, as the company societies working in the same spirit may be
called, to bring to more general recognition a suitable name for this
company, which could also form a uniting bond for the scattered single
organizations. The leaders knew and occasionally said that a respected
name for the common interest would be advantageous. This view appears
especially in the letters of Comenius. It was then indeed an undecided
question what nation should place itself at the head of the great
undertaking. (Keller, in the M. H. der C. G., 1895, p. 156.) "As a matter
of fact precisely in the years when in Germany the brothers had won the
support of powerful princes and the movement received a great impetus,
very decided efforts were made both to create larger unions and to adopt a
unifying name. The founding of the Society of the