to give us an easier victory over the natural or instinctive
attachments of mankind, and make the sacrifice to universal
philanthropy less costly to the heart. I do not however pretend to
say that this is really the case: but I think myself fully warranted
to say, that increase of virtuous affections in general has not
been the fruit of modern Illumination. I will not again sicken the
reader, by calling his attention to Weishaupt and his associates or
successors. But let us candidly contemplate the world around us,
and particularly the perpetual advocates of universal philanthropy.
What have been the general effects of their continual declamations?
Surely very melancholy; nor can it easily be otherwise.--An ideal
standard is continually referred to. This is made gigantic, by being
always seen indistinctly, as through a mist, or rather a fluttering
air. In comparison with this, every feeling that we have been
accustomed to respect vanishes as insignificant; and, adopting the
Jesuitical maxim, that "the great end sanctifies every mean," this
sum of Cosmo-political good is made to eclipse or cover all the
present evils which must be endured for it. The fact now is, that
we are become so familiarised with enormities, such as brutality
to the weaker sex, cruelty to old age, wanton refinement on
barbarity, that we now hear unmoved accounts of scenes, from which,
a few years ago, we would have shrunk back with horror. With cold
hearts, and a metaphysical scale, we measure the present miseries
of our fellow creatures, and compare them with the accumulated
miseries of former times, occasioned through a course of ages, and
ascribed to the ambition of Princes. In this artificial manner are
the atrocities of France extenuated; and we struggle, and partly
succeed, in reasoning ourselves out of all the feelings which link
men together in society.--The ties of father, husband, brother,
friend--all are abandoned for an emotion which we must even strive
to excite,--universal philanthropy. But this is sad perversion of
nature. "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can
he love God whom he hath not seen?" Still less can he love this
ideal being, of which he labours to conjure up some indistinct and
fleeting notion. It is also highly absurd; for, in trying to collect
the circumstances which constitute the enjoyments of this Citizen
of the World, we find ourselves just brought back to the very moral
feelings which we are wantonly throwing away. Weishaupt allures
us by the happiness of the patriarchal life as the _summum bonum_
of man. But if it is any thing more than eating and sleeping, and
squabbling with the neighbouring patriarchs, it must consist in the
domestic and neighbourly affections, and every other agreeable moral
feeling, all which are to be had in our present state, in greater
abundance.
But this is all a pretence;--the wicked corrupters of mankind have
no such views of human felicity, nor would they be contented with
it; they want to intrigue and to lead; and their patriarchal life
answers the same purpose of tickling the fancy as the Arcadia of the
poets. Horace shows the frivolity of these declamations, without
formally enouncing the moral, in his pretty Ode,
Beatus ille qui procul negotiis.
The usurer, after expatiating on this Arcadian felicity, hurries
away to change, and puts his whole cash again out to usury.
Equally ineffective are the declamations of Cosmo-politism on
a mind filled with selfish passions;--they just serve it for a
subterfuge.--The ties of ordinary life are broken in the first
place, and the Citizen of the World is a wolf of the desart.
The unhappy consequence is, that the natural progress of liberty
is retarded. Had this _ignis fatuus_ not appeared and misled us,
the improvements which true Illumination has really produced, the
increase in sciences and arts, and the improvement in our estimate
of life and happiness, would have continued to work silently and
gradually in all nations; and those which are less fortunate in
point of government would also have improved, by little and little,
without losing any sensible portion of their present enjoyments in
the possession of riches, or honours, or power. Those pretensions
would gradually have come to balance each other, and true liberty,
such as Britons enjoy, might have taken place over all.
Instead of this, the inhabitants of every state are put into a
situation where every individual is alarmed and injured by the
success of another, because all pre-eminence is criminal. Therefore
there must be perpetual jealousy and struggle. Princes are now
alarmed, since they see the aim of the lower classes, and they
repent of their former liberal concessions. All parties maintain
a sullen distance and reserve;--the people become unruly, and the
sovereign hard-hearted; so that liberty, such as _can_ be enjoyed in
peace, is banished from the country.
VIII. When we see how eagerly the Illuminati endeavoured to
insinuate their Brethren into all offices which gave them influence
on the public mind, and particularly into seminaries of education,
we should be particularly careful to prevent them, and ought to
examine with anxious attention the manner of thinking of all who
offer themselves for teachers of youth. There is no part of the
secret correspondence of Spartacus and his Associates, in which
we see more varied and artful methods for securing pupils, than
in his own conduct respecting the students in the University, and
the injunctions he gives to others. There are two men, Socher
and Drexl, who had the general inspection of the schools in the
Electorate. They are treated by Spartacus as persons of the greatest
consequence, and the instructions given them stick at no kind of
corruption. Weishaupt is at pains, circuitous and mean arts, to
induce young gentlemen to come under his care, and, to one whom he
describes in another letter as a little master who must have much
indulgence, he causes it to be intimated, that in the quarters where
he is to be lodged, he will get the key of the street-door, so that
he can admit whom he will. In all this canvassing he never quits the
great object, the forming the mind of the young man according to
the principles of universal Liberty and Equality, and to gain this
point, scruples not to flatter, and even to excite his dangerous
passions. We may be certain, that the zeal of Cosmo-politism will
operate in the same way in other men, and we ought therefore to be
solicitous to have all that are the instructors of youth, persons
of the most decent manners. No question but sobriety and hypocrisy
may inhabit the same breast. But its immediate effect on the pupil
is at least safe, and it is always easy for a sensible parent to
represent the restrictions laid on the pupil by such a man as the
effects of uncommon anxiety for his safety. Whereas there is no cure
for the lax principles that may steal upon the tender mind that is
not early put on its guard. Weishaupt undoubtedly thought that the
principles of civil anarchy would be easiest inculcated on minds,
that had already shaken off the restraints of Religion, and entered
into habits of sensual indulgence. We shall be safe if we trust his
judgment in this matter.--We should be particularly observant of the
character and principles of _Men of Talents_, who offer themselves
for these offices, because _their_ influence must be very great.
Indeed this anxiety should extend to all offices which in any way
give holders any remarkable influence on the minds of considerable
numbers. Such should always be filled by men of immaculate
characters and approved principles; and, in times like the present,
where the most essential questions are the subjects of frequent
discussion, we should always consider with some distrust the men who
are very cautious in declaring their opinions on these questions.
It is a great misfortune undoubtedly to feel ourselves in a
situation which makes us damp the enjoyments of life with so much
suspicion. But the history of mankind shows us that many great
revolutions have been produced by remote and apparently frivolous
causes. When things come to a height, it is frequently impossible
to find a cure--at any rate _medicina sero paratur_, and it is much
better to prevent the disease--_principiis obsta--venienti occurrite
morbo_.
IX. Nor can it be said that these are vain fears. We know that the
enemy is working among us, and that there are many appearances in
these kingdoms which strongly resemble the contrivance of this
dangerous association. We know that before the Order of Illuminati
was broken up by the Elector of Bavaria, there were several Lodges
in Britain, and we may be certain that they are not all broken up. I
know that they are not, and that within these two years some Lodges
were ignorant or affected to be so, of the corrupted principles and
dangerous designs of the Illuminati. The constitution of the Order
shews that this may be, for the Lodges themselves were illuminated
by degrees. But I must remark, that we can hardly suppose a Lodge
to be established in any place, unless there be some very zealous
Brother at hand to instruct and direct it. And I think that a person
can hardly be advanced as far as the rank of Scotch Knight of the
Order, and be a safe man either for our Church or State. I am very
well informed, that there are several thousands of subscribing
Brethren in London alone, and we can hardly doubt, but that many of
that number are well advanced. The vocabulary also of the Illuminati
is current in certain societies among us. These societies have taken
the very name and constitution of the French and German societies.
Corresponding--Affiliated--Provincial--Rescript--Convention--Reading
Societies--Citizen of the World--Liberty and Equality, the
Imprescriptible Rights of Man, &c. &c. And must it not be
acknowledged that our public arbiters of literary merit have greatly
changed their manner of treatment of Theological and political
writings of late years? Till Paine's Age of Reason appeared, the
most sceptical writings of England kept within the bounds of decency
and of argument, and we have not, in the course of two centuries,
one piece that should be compared with many of the blackguard
productions of the German presses. Yet even those performances
generally met with sharp reproof as well as judicious refutation.
This is a tribute of commendation to which my country is most justly
entitled. In a former part of my life I was pretty conversant
in writings of this kind, and have seen almost every English
performance of note. I cannot express the surprise and disgust
which I felt at the number and the gross indecency of the German
dissertations which have come in my way since I began this little
history,--and many of the titles which I observe in the Leipzig
catalogues are such as I think no British writer would make use of.
I am told that the licentiousness of the press has been equally
remarkable in France, even before the Revolution.--May this sense of
propriety and decency long continue to protect us, and support the
national character for real good breeding, as our attainments in
manly science have hitherto gained us the respect of the surrounding
nations!
I cannot help thinking that British sentiment, or British delicacy,
is changed; for Paine's book is treated by most of our Reviewers
with an affected liberality and candour, and is laid before the
public as quite new matter, and a fair field for discussion--and
it strikes me as if our critics were more careful to let no fault
of his opponents pass unnoticed than to expose the futility and
rudeness of this indelicate writer. In the reviews of political
writings we see few of those kind endeavours, which real love for
our constitutional government would induce a writer to employ in
order to lessen the fretful discontents of the people; and there
is frequently betrayed a satisfaction at finding administration in
straits, either through misconduct or misfortune. Real love for
our country and its government would (I think) induce a person
to mix with his criticisms some sentiments of sympathy with the
embarrassment of a minister loaded with the business of a great
nation, in a situation never before experienced by any minister.
The critic would recollect that the minister was a man, subject
to error, but not necessarily nor altogether base. But it seems
to be an assumed principle with some of our political writers and
reviewers that government must always be in fault, and that every
thing needs a reform. Such were the beginnings on the continent,
and we cannot doubt but that attempts are made to influence the
public mind in this country, in the very way that has been practised
abroad.--Nay,
X. The detestable doctrines of Illuminatism have been openly
preached among us. Has not Dr. Priestley said, (I think in one of
his letters on the Birmingham riots,) "That if the condition of
other nations be as much improved as that of France will be by the
change in her system of government, the great crisis, dreadful as it
may appear, will be a consummation devoutly to be wished for;--and
though calamitous to many, perhaps to many innocent persons, will be
eventually glorious and happy?"--Is not this equivalent to Spartacus
saying, "True--there will be a storm, a convulsion--but all will be
calm again?"--Does Dr. Priestley think that the British will part
more easily than their neighbours in France with their property
and honours, secured by ages of peaceable possession, protected
by law, and acquiesced in by all who wish and hope that their own
descendants may reap the fruits of their honest industry?--Will
they make a less manly struggle?--Are they less numerous?--Must
his friends, his patrons, whom he has thanked, and praised, and
flattered, yield up all peaceably, or fall in the general struggle?
This writer has already given the most promising specimens of his
own docility in the principles of Illuminatism, and has already
passed through several degrees of initiation. He has refined and
refined on Christianity, and boasts, like another Spartacus, that
he has, at last, hit on the true secret.--Has he not been preparing
the minds of his readers for Atheism by his theory of mind, and
by his commentary on the unmeaning jargon of Dr. Hartley? I call
it unmeaning jargon, that I may avoid giving it a more apposite
and disgraceful name. For, if intelligence and design be nothing
but a certain modification of the _vibratiunculæ_ or undulations
of any kind, what is supreme intelligence, but a more extensive,
and (perhaps they will call it) refined undulation, pervading or
mixing with all others? Indeed it is in this very manner that the
universal operation of intelligence is pretended to be explained.
As any new or partial undulation may be superinduced on any other
already existing, and this without the least disturbance or
confusion, so may the inferior intelligences in the universe be
only superinductions on the operations of this supreme intelligence
which pervades them all,--And thus an undulation (of what? surely
of something prior to and independent of this modification) is the
cause of all the beings in the universe, and of all the harmony
and beauty that we observe,--And this undulation is the object of
love, and gratitude, and confidence (that is, of other kinds of
undulations.)--Fortunately all this has no meaning.--But surely,
if any thing can tend to diminish the force of our religious
sentiments, and make all Dr. Priestley's discoveries in Christianity
insignificant, this will do it.
Were it possible for the departed soul of Newton to feel pain, he
would surely recollect with regret that unhappy hour, when provoked
by Dr. Hooke's charge of plagiarism, he first threw out his whim of
a vibrating ether, to shew what might be made of an hypothesis.--For
Sir Isaac Newton must be allowed to have paved the way for much of
the atomical philosophy of the moderns. Newton's æther is assumed
as a _fac totum_ by every precipitate sciolist, who, in despite of
logic, and in contradiction to all the principles of mechanics,
gives us theories of muscular motion, of animal sensation, and
even of intelligence and volition, by the undulations of ætherial
fluids. Not one of a hundred of these theorists can go through the
fundamental theorem of all this doctrine, the 47th prop. of the 2d
book of the Principia, and not one in a thousand know that Newton's
investigation is inconclusive.--Yet they talk of the effects and
modifications of those undulations as familiarly and confidently as
if they could demonstrate the propositions in Euclid's Elements.
Yet such is the reason that satisfies Dr. Priestly.--But I do not
suppose that he has yet attained his acme of Illumination. His
genius has been cramped by British prejudices.--These need not
sway his mind any longer. He is now in that "_rara temporis (et
loci) felicitate, ubi sentire quæ velis, et quæ sentias dicere
licet_,"--in the country which was honoured by giving the world
the first avowed edition of the _Age of Reason_, with the name of
the shop and publisher. I make no doubt but that his mind will now
take a higher flight,--and we may expect to see him fire "that
train by which he boasted that he would blow up the religious
establishment of his stupid and enslaved native country."--Peace
be with him.--But I grieve that he has left any of his friends and
abettors among us, who declaim, in the most violent and unqualified
terms, against all national Establishments of Religion, and in no
friendly terms of any establishments which maintain or allow any
privileged Orders. Discanting much on such topics increases the
dissatisfaction of the less fortunate part of mankind, who naturally
repine at advantages which do not arise from the personal merit of
the possessor, although they are the natural and necessary fruits
of merit in their ancestors, and of the justice and security of our
happy Constitution. No well informed and sensible man will deny
that the greatest injury was done to pure Religion when Constantine
declared Christianity to be the Religion of the Empire, and vested
the Church with all the riches and power of the Heathen Priesthood.
But it is false that this was the source of all or of the worst
corruptions of Christianity. The merest novice in Church History
knows that the errors of the Gnostics, of the Cerinthians, and
others, long preceded this event, and that thousands lost their
lives in those metaphysical disputes. But I cannot help thinking
that, in the present condition of Europe, religion would desert the
world, if the opinions of men were not directed, in some proper
degree, by National Establishments. Teachers among the Independents
will court popularity, as they have always courted it; by fostering
some favourite and discriminating opinion of their hearers. The old
subjects of debate have now lost their zest, and I should fear that
the teachers would find it a successful, as it is an easy road to
popularity, to lead their hearers through a series of refinements,
till they are landed, much to their satisfaction, in the Materialism
of Dr. Priestley, from which it is but a step to the Atheism of
Diderot and Condorcet.
Seeing that there are such grounds of apprehension, I think that
we have cause to be upon our guard, and that every man who has
enjoyed the sweets of British liberty should be very anxious indeed
to preserve it. We should discourage all secret assemblies, which
afford opportunities to the disaffected, and all conversations which
foster any notions of political perfection, and create hankerings
after unattainable happiness. These only increase the discontents of
the unfortunate, the idle, and the worthless.--Above all, we should
be careful to discourage and check immorality and licentiousness in
every shape. For this will of itself subvert every government, and
will subject us to the vile tyranny of a profligate mob.
XI. If there has ever been a season in which it was proper to call
upon the public instructors of the nation to exert themselves in
the cause of Religion and Virtue, it is surely the present. It
appears, from the tenor of the whole narration before the reader,
that Religion and Virtue are considered as the great obstacles
to the completion of this plan for overturning the governments
of Europe--and I hope that I have made it evident that those
conspirators have presupposed that there is deeply rooted in the
heart of man a sincere veneration for unsophisticated virtue, and
an affectionate propensity to Religion; that is, to consider this
beautiful world as the production of wisdom and power, residing in
a Being different from the world itself, and the natural object
of admiration and of love--I do not speak of the truth of this
principle at present, but only of its reality, as an impression on
the heart of man. These principles must therefore be worked on,--and
they are acknowledged to be strong, because much art is employed to
eradicate them, or to overwhelm them by other powerful agents.--We
also see that Religion and Virtue are considered by those corrupters
as closely united, and as mutually supporting each other. This
they admit as a fact, and labour to prove it to be a mistake.--And
lastly, they entertain no hopes of complete success till they have
exploded both.
This being the case, I hope that I shall be clear of all charge
of impropriety, when I address our national instructors, and
earnestly desire them to consider this cause as peculiarly
theirs. The world has been corrupted under pretence of moral
instruction.----Backwardness, therefore, on their part, may do
inconceivable harm, because it will most certainly be interpreted
as an acknowledgment of defeat, and they will be accused of
indifference and insincerity. I know that a modest man reluctantly
comes forward with any thing that has the appearance of thinking
himself wiser or better than his neighbours. But if all are so
bashful, where will it end? Must we allow a parcel of worthless
profligates, whom no man would trust with the management of the
most trifling concern, to pass with the ignorant and indolent for
teachers of true wisdom, and thus entice the whole world into a
trap? They have succeeded with our unfortunate neighbours on the
continent, and, in Germany, (to their shame be it spoken) they have
been assisted even by some faithless clergymen.
But I will hope better of my countrymen, and I think that our
clergy have encouragement even from the native character of
Britons. National comparisons are indeed ungraceful, and are rarely
candid--but I think they may be indulged in this instance. It is
of his own countrymen that Voltaire speaks, when he says, that
"they resemble a mixed breed of the monkey and the tiger," animals
that mix fun with mischief, and that sport with the torments of
their prey.--They have indeed given the most shocking proofs of
the justness of his portrait. It is with a considerable degree of
national pride, therefore, that I compare the behaviour of the
French with that of the British in a very similar situation, during
the civil wars and the usurpation of Cromwell. There have been
more numerous, and infinitely more atrocious, crimes committed
in France during any one half year since the beginning of the
Revolution, than during the whole of that tumultuous period. And
it should be remembered, that in Britain, at that period, to all
other grounds of discontent was added no small share of religious
fanaticism, a passion (may I call it) which seldom fails to rouse
every angry thought of the heart.--Much may be hoped for from an
earnest and judicious address to that rich fund of manly kindness
that is conspicuous in the British character,--a fund to which
I am persuaded we owe the excellence of our constitutional
government--No where else in Europe are the claims of the different
ranks in society so generally and so candidly admitted. All feel
their force, and all allow them to others. Hence it happens that
they are enjoyed in so much peace----hence it happens that the
gentry live among the yeomen and farmers with so easy and familiar a
superiority:
_----Extrema per illos
Justitia excedens terris vestigia fecit._