and yet it is to a giddy height they ascend. At the rate Preston, Webb, Cross, and a host, pretend they learn in the three first degrees, if Masons do not begin to unlearn by the time they reach the twelfth or fifteenth degree, they must get out of all known materials of acquisition. This fact will be very plain, when it is recollected, that in the single degree of fellow craft, if we may believe these renowned Free Masons, are taught the five noble orders of architecture, and the seven liberal arts and sciences, to perfection. In the second degree of pure Illuminism to which the novice is now admitted, he takes the name of Minerval; and this lodge assumes the character of a learned society or academy, as was recommended to the infidel philosophers by Voltaire, in his letter to D'Alembert. Letter 85. A. D. 1761. "Let the real philosophers unite in a brotherhood like the Free Masons. This secret academy will be far superior to that of Athens, and to all those of Paris." The days in which the academy met were called Holy, and the place of meeting a church. At the commencement of each sitting, the president is always to read some chosen passage from the Bible, or Seneca, or Epictetus, or Confucius; and to comment in his own way. "The care he takes to give all these works the same weight and authority, will be sufficient to make the pupils view the Bible in a similar light with the works of pagan philosophers." So, in Free Masonry, the effect of the prayers, the scripture passages, and the Bible itself, placed with the square and compasses, constituting "the three great lights of Masonry," and carried in solemn pomp with the Book of Constitutions, is not unlike that produced by the readings of the Minerval Academy, if the power of the laws of association in the human mind be not, this once, mysteriously suspended. "Now the Bible, square, and compass, "Shine as lights with brilliant ray; "Then the chisel and the mallet "Take excrescences away." Mas. Mir. 1826, p. 16. Also, the disposition which some good Masons discover to imitate Dermott, Hardie, and others, in calling the royal arch, "the holy royal arch," is too nearly resembling the Minerval church to be encouraged or countenanced. Should the Minerval retain what the chiefs call religionist opinions and inclinations, he is never permitted to advance higher, but receives a Sta Benè.* Those who improve under their tutors, have yet seven degrees to climb. We will not follow them in their mad ascent, nor yet leave unnoticed their frequent assertions, and ample proofs, that they make use of secret societies as the only and indispensable means of accomplishing their unhallowed ends." (B. 101.) 66 It is astonishing what clear views Weishaupt takes of the advantages offered to his schemes by mysterious associations; it requires only a small share of sense to perceive, that associations ministering largely to the wants of this fiend, can have no inherent difficulty in serving a multitude of spirits less disciplined to vice. "Here," says the Abbé Barruel, (p. 126.) "let magistrates, the chiefs of nations, every man who still retains any regard for the support of laws and empires, and of civil society, let them, I say, read, and meditate on these advantages. The lesson is of the utmost importance. Whoever you are; all honest citizens, whether Free Masons, Rosicrucians, Mopses, Hewers of Wood, Knights ;† all you who thirst after the mysteries of the lodges, cease to accuse me of conjuring up chimerical dangers. I am not the man who speaks; it is he who of all others has been the best acquainted with your associations, and has known what advantages could be drawn from them by able and patient conspirators.-Read, and tell us which is the most impressive on your mind, the pleasures you may find in your lodges, * Stop, my good fellow. + Names of secret fraternities in Europe. or the dangers of your country. Read, and if the name of citizen be still dear to you, reflect whether yours should remain inscribed on the registers of a secret society. You were ignorant of the dangers; the most monstrous of conspirators will lay them open to you, and he will call them ADVANTAGES. He literally says, "that though these mysterious associations should not attain our object, they prepare the way for us; they give a new interest to the cause; they present it under points of view hitherto unobserved; they stimulate the inventive powers, and the expectations of mankind; they render men more indifferent as to the interests of governments; they bring men of divers nations and religions within the same bond of union; they deprive the church and state of their ablest and most laborious members; they bring men together, who would never otherwise have known or met each other. By this method alone they undermine the foundation of states, though they had really no such project in view. They throw them together, and make them clash one against the other. They teach mankind the power and force of union; they point out to them the imperfection of their political constitutions, and that without exposing them to the suspicions of their enemies, such as magistrates and public governments. They mask our progress, and procure us the facility of incorporating in our plans, and of admitting into our order, after the proper trials, the most able men, whose patience, long abused, thirsts after the grand ultimatum. By this means they weaken the enemy; and though they should never triumph over him, they will, at least, diminish the numbers and the zeal of his partisans; they divide his troops to cover the attack. In proportion as these new associations, or secret societies, formed in different states, shall acquire strength and prudence at the expense of the former ones, (that is to say, of civil society,) the latter must weaken, and insensibly fall.” The lovers of Free Masonry will not reject the testimony of Weishaupt, as they might that of a clergyman or of a patriot. He was not a religionist whose attachment to the church made him hostile to the covert attacks of the adversary; he was not a lover of his country, that he should describe the influence and tendency of secret associations in the terror of his soul, for its civil rights and political liberties. This old fox, descanting upon them with the coolness of an impartial philosopher, says: "They undermine the foundation of states, though they had really no such project in view. They throw them together, and make them clash one against the other." Here I am reminded of a fact worthy of the reader's consideration. What more unstable than New-York politics? The nation know, and it is the reproach of the state, that on any question of great public interest, the decision of New-York cannot be calculated from her past expressions at the polls, within any definable limits; a difference of 20,000 votes sometimes occurring in a very short period. Again, Connecticut, on the eastern border of New-York, is not less celebrated for her steady habits. None can fail to have observed this, who notice the events of past times. Connecticut has a soil proverbial among the fraternity for the stinted growth of Free Masonry; and in NewYork, this society has pushed deeply its roots, enlarged its trunk, and spread abroad its branches, flourishing and towering like a plane tree in the rich vale of the Ohio. It is not only in mechanics that action and reaction are equal. The habits of Connecticut and New-York have not been inert under the action of Free Masonry, nor has Free Masonry failed to exert a powerful influence on the morals and politics of the chief state of the union. The contests of Clinton and Tompkins for the chair of the grand master were parallel in the fraternity to the political struggle of the same candidates for the office of governor of New-York. And the later strife between Clinton and Jackson for the influence of the office of some general grand commander, or general grand high priest of the union, had a direct reference to the presidential election. then next coming. Verbum sat sapienti. CHAPTER LIII. Weishaupt's Views of the Unknown Origin of Free Ma sonry. "Though some may pretend we've no secrets to know, "Such idle opinions their ignorance show; "While others with raptures, cry out they're revealed,' CHORUS. "We always are free, "And forever agree; 66 Supporting each other, "Brother helps brother, "No mortals on earth are so friendly as we.” Book of Cons. of Mass. A. D. 1792. p. 241. A FEW extracts from the correspondence of the chiefs, throwing light upon Free Masonry, will prove interesting to the reader. And let no man think in his heart, that there is base art in connecting this notice of Illuminism with an examination of Free Masonry. Fidelity to the truth, and an honest desire to lay the true value of Free Masonry before the public, compel me to show, in their own language, the use made of it by these champions of a new morality independent on religion. (R. p. 90.) "I declare," says Weishaupt," and I challenge all mankind to contradict my declaration, that no man can give any account of the order of Free Masonry, of its origin, of its history, of its object, nor any explanation of its mysteries and symbols, which does not leave the mind in total uncertainty on all these points. Every man is entitled, therefore, to give any explanation of the symbols, |