Magic, or the Secret System

IX

...struggle and of the reward in the distance. This very all-encompassing and uplifting nature is one of the primary advantages through which this and similar systems become powerful tools for noble individuals.

Regarding the personal circumstances of the author—or rather, the authors—of the cited works and their society, I wish to say nothing *). They are not circumcised in the flesh Original: Beschnittene am Fleisch; a biblical allusion (Romans 2:28-29) meaning those who focus only on outward ritual. The author is refuting a contemporary slur or accusation that the group was a literalist sect., as I have read somewhere in the Kirchenbote The Church Messenger, a common title for 18th-century religious periodicals., but rather, in peaceful silence, effective and active, they live in a manner through which they can never become dangerous to the world; in exemplary virtue, they combine the Temple wisdom Original: Tempelweisheit; likely referring to the esoteric or "hidden" knowledge associated with the higher degrees of Freemasonry or the legacy of the Knights Templar. of A. B. with—

*) Yet I can assure this much from a reliable source: that there are now two secret societies in France, one of which names itself after St. M— Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin (1743–1803), the "Unknown Philosopher" whose mystical system, Martinism, focused on the internal "reintegration" of humanity. and the other after Ch— Likely refers to the Chevaliers Bienfaisants de la Cité Sainte (Beneficent Knights of the Holy City) or perhaps Jacques Cazotte.. Regarding the latter, one may think this way or that with good reason; concerning the former, however, to which our authors belong, the situation is all the better. Both, however, with regard to higher doctrines, constitute the dominant parties in France.