Preface.

7

A 4

...victorious The sentence continues from the previous page: "...and to make [wisdom, love, virtue, and freedom] victorious.", or the like. But it can also happen that cunning villains secretly unite to seize the upper hand to oppress their brothers—how am I to know whether a society that has secret arrangements is of the one kind or the other? I would think the most natural way would be to judge them by the choice of their members, by their actions and speeches, by their writings, but mainly by the effects such a society has had on world events and on the prevailing spirit of the times.

Among all such well-known societies that have had a reputation for secrets, three in particular have distinguished themselves in recent times: the Freemasons, the Rosicrucians, and the Jesuits. It is therefore worth the effort to impartially examine what has been seen and experienced of these three orders until now, in order to know whether one might have something to fear or to hope from them for religion, morality, the political order, and the Enlightenment Enlightenment: The "Aufklärung," an intellectual movement emphasizing reason, individual rights, and progress over tradition and blind faith..

I am in a position to present some facts to the public original: "Publico." This term refers to the "reading public" or the community of educated citizens. without venturing a judgment myself. In the secret principles of the Society of Jesus The Jesuit Order, a Catholic religious order that was frequently the subject of conspiracy theories regarding its "secret" influence over European politics. I was, alas! raised myself, and I owe it to the world...