Preface.

...ly The fragment "liche" likely completes a word like "ehrliche" (honest) or "gewöhnliche" (ordinary) from the previous page. obey a rogue, or a thousand clever people parrot a fool, simply because this small group does not know itself, or believes itself too weak to contradict. A secret society can therefore have the purpose of gathering this small group of better and wiser people in order to eradicate certain abuses and prejudices that have become dominant.

The wiser and better individuals may have fathomed something, or may have plans for the well-being of the whole, which they consider useless or harmful to share with the great mass original: "grossen Haufen." This phrase was commonly used in the 18th century to describe the uneducated populace, often implying they were not yet ready for Enlightenment "light.". However, it can also happen that a society considers itself wiser and better without actually being so. The case may arise that the wicked band together to secretly overpower the good, satisfying their passions at the expense of the weak—who, with this thought in mind, would not become attentive to every secret institution?

It can happen that men who have the welfare of the world at heart, and who sigh over the fact that so many public institutions have degenerated through the schemes of villains, unite in silence to oppose despotism Despotism: a system where a single entity rules with absolute power, often viewed by Enlightenment thinkers as the opposite of reason and freedom., stupidity, unbelief—in a word, corruption!—and to [restore] wisdom, love, virtue, and freedom once again...