Preface

to work upon all these things for the good of the whole. Therefore, wherever states exist, people have united for a common purpose; and whatever weakens or divides this bond causes, more or less, a revolution in those things that are important to the citizen of the world Weltbürger (Citizen of the world): A key Enlightenment ideal describing a person whose intellectual and moral interests extend beyond their own nation to the whole of humanity..

If, therefore, besides public institutions, secret societies original: "geheime Verbindungen." In the late 18th century, this often referred to groups like the Freemasons, Rosicrucians, or the Illuminati. also exist among members of the state, it is worth the effort to know whether these divide and weaken that general bond or not.

If some people unite to carry out something or to possess something which they keep secret and withhold from the rest of the world, then that is a state within a state original Latin: "status in statu," a political term for a group that maintains its own laws and loyalties inside a sovereign country.. — I should like to see how anyone would want to refute this. Now, the thing sounds dangerous, but fundamentally it is not at all. States have arisen through the mutual understandings of individuals or through the power of one who is more determined and wiser. It would be strange if people were not free to alter these self-made institutions according to their needs, if the largest and strongest part of them agree among themselves on the matter. However, it is important for the whole that such institutions are brought about not by the most cunning, but by the wisest and best people; so that no unauthorized persons—