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(page 155 thru 167)
These are the leading features
of that system of deception
in which we see the enemies of religion
quitting the open field of argument,
in which they have so often been defeated,
and flying to the arts of sophistry, corruption, and concealment.
But it is not from a cursory glance
that we can acquire a just idea of the depths
of that wicked subtlety comprised in Illuminism.
Let us take a view of this destructive engine
in a more compact operation.
Imagine an illuminated Insinuator
attacking a youth of talent and principle,
in whom the moral sense of right and wrong is yet vigorous;
for it is for the seduction of such, more particularly,
that the artful process of Illumination is designed.
From this Insinuator he hears, as by accident, however,
that these are schools of wisdom, feats of science,
in which the wise and good are uniting
for the important end of secretly ruling mankind,
and thus delivering them from those calamities,
for which all other means are found to be ineffectual.
If, by such suggestions, he is led to express a desire
to become a member of this society,
the Insinuator promises his utmost assistance;
but he is told, that this is the reward
only of long approved merit.
To excite his curiosity,
it is intimated, that there exist doctrines
solely transmitted by secret traditions,
because they are above the comprehension of common minds;
and letters, filled with mysterious characters,
are, as it were incautiously, exposed to his view.
To increase his ardor to become a member,
the Insinuator expatiates frequently
on the supreme pleasure of secretly reigning;
and remarks, that it is easy for one man of parts
to lead thousands, if he but knew his own advantages.
That he may be led to consider the interests of the order as his own,
he is told of its readiness and power to protect him,
and secure his success in all the pursuits of life.
Questions of the most ensnaring nature
are proposed to discover his sentiments,
and books, secretly conveying the poison of infidelity,
are made use of to corrupt them.
If he discovers a weak part,
it is noted for a point of attack.
If he expresses a doubt respecting any
of the important principles of religion and morality,
he is sure of being applauded for his strength of mind
in rising above the prejudices of education,
which he is often told,
are the sources of all our errors.
He is placed in situations
where he hears the most artful sophistry
used to prove, that patriotism and private affections
are narrow minded prejudices;
that the bonds of marriage and parental authority
are encroachments on the natural rights of man;
that suicide is lawful;
that sensual pleasures correspond with the law of nature,
and that it is proper to employ, for a good purpose,
those means which wicked men use for evil purposes.
While every art is thus employed
to undermine the principles of morality and religion,
his fears are lulled by constant declamations
on the excellence of virtue,
and the highly honorable,
and most useful and benevolent intentions
of the superiors of the order.
It is one of the prime arts of Illuminism
to extol the name of virtue, in general,
and at the same time,
to sap its foundation in every particular.
The object is continually varying,
and the mind, led by new invented systems and explanations,
in a thousand different directions,
is, at length, totally bewildered,
and all clear distinction between truth and error is lost.
How can the unwary youth
escape these snares so artfully spread,
and sufficient, indeed,
"if it were possible, to deceive the very elect?"
And what could have been the design
of this subtle process of deception,
of all these studied phrases,
and nicely adjusted degrees?
Were they designed merely to discover
the ingenuity of the contriver?
Or, did he who contrived them, in fact,
contemplate some great revolution,
which rendered the introduction
of all this machinery necessary?
The latter is not denied by those
who most zealously advocate the innocence of Illuminism.
They were intended, they acknowledge,
to demolish the strong holds of superstition and despotism.
But when the mind is dispossessed
of all that these terms imply,
in the language of Illuminism, what remains?
What religious principle, moral sentiment, or social affection,
can exist in that heart
which has been the subject
of this truly diabolical renovation?
Were this question proposed to an Illuminee,
his answer doubtless would be,
What can exist?
The noblest of all affections,
the sum of all virtue,
Cosmopolitism.
Far from discarding virtue,
we only are her true worshippers,
who erect her temple,
not on the narrow foundation of private affection,
but on the broad basis of universal love.
As this term comprises every thing
of duty and moral obligation
to which the Illuminee makes any pretensions,
it becomes necessary,
in order to our forming a judgment of that system,
that this boasted virtue
should pass a more particular examination.
A Cosmopolite, then, is a citizen of the world,
or one who has banished from his breast
all partial private affections.
One who loves his country,
his family, his friends, and benefactors,
only as they are parts of the whole,
and can sacrifice them without remorse,
whenever he conceives
it will be promotive of the general good.
The adoption of this nominal, but fictitious virtue,
for such it is when opposed to private duties,
is an instance of art not exceeded
by any of the subtleties of Illuminism.
Its plausibility renders it
a convenient mask for men, destitute of real good,
who wish to be thought possessed
of the most exalted virtue.
It is a garment suited to all the forms
which these modern Proteuses can wish to assume.
It is a term replete with fallacy and deception,
and is made to mean nothing,
or any thing,
as the illuminated possessor pleases.
A principle of universal benevolence,
or good will to being in general,
doubtless enters into the composition;
and, indeed, forms the foundation of all right social affections.
He who loves his friend merely from this consideration,
that he is his friend,
has no love to him as a fellow creature,
and therefore, is destitute of right social affections. *
*
A late European writer on this subject observes, that
"Extended benevolence is the last and most perfect fruit of the private affections:"
but if the tree be destroyed the fruit certainly must fail.
And thus, according to this theory,
if all private relations,
and therewith private affections
are destroyed,
extended, or universal benevolence cannot exist,
unless there can be fruit without a tree,
or an effect without a cause.
(See Hall's Sermon on Infidelity, page 39.)
My disapprobation of this sentiment,
in which I have taken the liberty to dissent from this justly celebrated writer,
gives me an opportunity, which I gladly embrace,
to recommend this most excellent performance,
as meriting at all times, and at the present in particular,
the attention of mankind.
But how is this principle of universal benevolence to be expressed?
In the same manner as the soldier expresses
his attachment to the cause in which he is engaged,
and to the army of which he is a member;
by firmly maintaining his post,
and faithfully executing the orders of his commander.
To promote the general interests of mankind
is to discharge the duties of our respective stations;
extending occasional aid, as opportunity offers,
to our fellow creatures in distress.
On the contrary, he who neglects the duties of his private sphere,
serves the public as the soldier does his cause,
who forsakes his post,
and wanders through the ranks
creating disorder and confusion.
Such is the modern Cosmopolite.
Having effectually eradicated all those narrow minded prejudices
which lead other men to be grateful to their friends,
to provide for their families,
and to serve their country,
his talk of social duty is at an end,
unless he fancied that he is bound to labor for the general good,
by forming theories, projecting revolutions,
or removing the prejudices of mankind.
The things last mentioned, become his duty, on his system,
whenever he is pleased to fancy
that they will be promotive of the general good;
which justifies the assertion,
that Cosmopolitism signifies nothing, or any thing,
as the possessor pleases.
The Cosmopolite, scorning the narrow sphere of private duties
which Providence has appointed him,
ascends the throne of the Supreme Ruler,
and upon the great scale of universal being,
judges for himself, what part belongs to him on the theatre of life.
On this ground we find Weishaupt
justifying his attempt to procure an abortion.
He confidently pleads, that what he did in that affair,
was no more than what he ought to have done to secure his character,
and seems to claim no small degree of praise
for doing so much to preserve the order,
of which he was the founder,
and which would have suffered extremely by his loss of reputation.
The same principle, in his view, would justify his adepts,
in plundering masonic funds, ecclesiastical revenues,
and books and writings from libraries.
It was lawful, for the same reason,
to destroy the reputation of such as were opposed to his order,
and to make use of pious frauds to overcome men's prejudices
against the doctrines of Illuminism.
Such practices, which mankind have been accustomed to reprobate,
were deeds of virtue in Weishaupt's view,
when done to promote the interests of an institution
calculated for the advancement of human happiness.
France reasoned in the same manner.
Having established this principle,
that her revolution included whatever could exalt, refine,
or bless mankind, in the fulness of her Cosmopolitism,
she swore eternal enmity to kings;
sent forth her emissaries to promote in other nations,
insurrections against government;
proffered protection and assistance to all promoters of revolutions,
and even forced constitutions, framed in Paris,
on those who neither desired, or would have received them
but under the terrors of the bayonet.
These benevolent plans have, indeed,
been productive of the most cruel exactions,
robberies, assassinations, violations of treaties,
and indescribable scenes of misery;
but it is a narrow minded prejudice,
the French Philosopher will tell you,
to compare these partial evils with the blessings of a revolution.
This, gentle reader, is Cosmopolitism.
It is happy that these Cosmopolites
cannot communicate their principles to the brutal race,
lest they, leaving their proper charge to perish,
should bestow their care where it is not needed.
No; the great Author of nature, by indelible instinct,
has taught them the same lesson of wisdom
which he has addressed to our understandings,
"Let every one provide for his own house."
It is happier still that they have not been able
to transmit their universal benevolence to other worlds,
and to persuade the great luminary of our system
to wander from his orbit,
leaving us to frost and darkness,
to revolutionize other systems.
No; every creature, which has not rebelled
against the first great law of order,
promotes the general good,
by abiding in its prescribed sphere of action.
Wherever this law is transgressed
ruin and misery will be the consequence.
This is the evidence on which we are to form our judgment
of the nature and tendency of Illuminism;
and what do we see, but a destructive combination
against the most precious interests of mankind?
It appears, that the real nature and tendency of Illuminism
is to be found, by precisely reversing its ostensible aim,
and the pretended object of its advocates.
By universal citizenship and disinterested love,
the Illuminee intends the destruction
of all whom he cannot render the dupes of his designs.
Morality, with him, means the unbounded indulgence
of every corrupt bias of human nature,
only preserving such an exterior
as shall better enable him to impose on mankind.
The glorious emancipation from slavery,
to which he invites men,
consists in the blind subjection of all their actions
to the unknown superiors of the order.
His humanity is the extinction of every tie of nature,
of every social affection;
even marriage is, in the view of the Illuminee, an unsufferable monopoly,
and every check to a brutal indulgence of the sexual affections,
a species of tyranny.
His philosophy consists of theories contradicted by universal experience.
His religion is atheism dressed to the taste of the scrupulous conscience.
His useful and important discoveries,
are new means of assassination, abortion, and peculation.
His Creator is chance;
and his future glorious hope, everlasting sleep.
The original source of Illuminism,
and the principle which, in a greater or less degree,
influences all who are actuated by its genuine spirit,
doubtless, is an innate enmity to Christianity,
and a desire to be free from the checks
which its holy doctrines oppose
to the corruptions of the heart.
Motives different from this have, however,
united their operation in extending this combination,
especially in its hostility to social order,
and an energetic government.
Men who wish to possess property
for which they have not labored,
and men of property who want power,
these, and men who never enjoy themselves but in a storm,
and whose revolutionary minds
could not rest even in the calm of Paradise;
all of this description,
find their several ends promoted
by disturbing the peace of society,
removing the ancient land-marks,
over-turning useful establishments,
and breaking down the barriers
which have secured the rights and property of mankind.
For effecting these designs,
Illuminism furnishes a most artful and systematic process.
It supplies the want of power, by subtle insinuations.
It teaches to bind men with invisible bands;
to govern them by their prejudices and passions,
and to delude them by a false light,
perpetually varying the object of pursuit,
until the mind is lost in endless wanderings,
and deprived of every permanent principle of action.
Another observable trait in the character of these deceivers is,
their pretended attachment
to the cause they secretly endeavor to undermine.
Judging from their declarations,
they appear the firm friends of government and religion,
at the same time that they are plying every secret art
to effect their destruction.
These "pious frauds must indeed be explained away,"
but this is easily done among those
to whom they have communicated the spirit of the order.
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