reception consisted of three rooms. In the last there stood a raised richly-decorated red throne under a canopy for the Provincial; to the right stood a white column, about seven feet high, on which was placed a crown, resting on a red cushion; suspended from the column were a shepherd's crook of white wood and an artificial palm branch. On the left hand stood a table with a red cover, on which were placed the garments of the Regent, which consisted of a kind of cuirass made of white leather, with a red cross on it. Over this was worn a white cloak, with another red cross embroidered on it. The collar and cuffs were red. The Regents wore tall white hats with red feathers, and red laced half-boots on their feet. The cross on the cuirass of the Provincial was irradiated with golden rays. The room was hung with red, and well lighted up. The Provincial alone occupied it, seated on the throne; the other Regents were in the middle room. The first room was set aside for preparation; it was hung with black, and in its centre, on a platform, stood a complete human skeleton, at whose feet lay a crown and a sword. The candidate was led into this room; his hands were manacled, and he was left alone for a little while, during which time he could hear the conversation carried on in the middle room. Who has brought this slave hither?-He came and knocked. What does he seek?Freedom; he beseeches you to free him from his bonds. Why does he not apply to those who have bound him?— They will not set him free; his servitude benefits them. Who has made him a slave ?—Society, the State, false Religion. . . . Does he respect persons? Ask him who was the man whose skeleton he sees before him; was he a king, nobleman, or beggar?-He does not know; he only knows that he was a man like one of ourselves. He wants only to be a man. Then let him be introduced. The candidate was then brought into the middle, and finally into the last room, and after some more catechising, invested with the dress of the Regent. The sign was holding out both arms towards a brother; the grip taking hold of his elbows, as if to support or raise him up; the word was Redemtis.

356. The Greater Mysteries.—Such was the initiation into the Lesser Mysteries. The Greater Mysteries, with their two degrees of Magus and Rex, were never worked out by Philo, as Baron de Knigge called himself. But according to statements found in the writings of Weishaupt, the Magus degree was to be founded on the principles of Spinoza, showing all to be material, God and the world One, and all religions

human inventions. The second, or degree of Homo Rex, taught that every peasant, citizen, or father of a family is a sovereign, as in patriarchal life, to which all mankind must be brought back, and that consequently all state authority must be abolished. Weishaupt never intended these degrees to become known to any but the most trustworthy of his followers; but the discovery of his correspondence and secret papers revealed also this part of his scheme.

357. Nomenclature and Secret Writing of Order.-The most important person of the Order after Weishaupt was Baron de Knigge, who assumed the pseudonym of "Philo." All

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the leading members equally adopted such pseudonyms. Thus we have seen that Weishaupt took the name of Spartacus, who in Pompey's time headed the insurrection of slaves; Zwack, a lawyer, was known among the initiated as "Cato"; Nicolai, bookseller, as "Lucian"; Professor Westenrieder, as "Pythagoras"; Canon Hertel, as "Marius"; and The places whence the members wrote to one another were also designated by fictitious names: thus Bavaria was called Achaia; Munich was called Athens; Frankfurt-on-theMain became Thebes; Heidelberg, Utica; and so on. The brethren dated their letters according to the Persian era, called after the king who began to rule in Persia in 632

so on.

before Christ, Jezdegerd, and the year began with them on the 21st March. They corresponded, till initiated into the higher degrees, in cypher, which consisted in numbers corresponding to letters in the following order :—

When admitted to the higher degrees, they used either the one or the other hieroglyphic shown on page 309.

The word Order was never written in full, but always indicated by a circle with a dot in the centre, thus O.

The Order made considerable progress, including among its members priests, prelates, ministers, physicians, princes, and sovereign dukes. No doubt, few of them were initiated into the higher degrees. The Elector of Bavaria became alarmed at the political tenets betrayed by some recreant brothers of the Order, and at once suppressed it in all his territories.

358. Secret Papers and Correspondence. It was only after the suppression of the Order that the mode of initiation into the higher degrees, and the true doctrines taught therein, became known. A collection of original papers and correspondence was found, by illegally searching the house of Zwack, in 1786. In the following year a much larger collection was found at the house of Baron Bassus, a member. From these we learn that one of the chief means recommended by the leaders for the success of the Order was that of gaining over the women-not a bad plan, and not objec

tionable when the aim is a good one. There is no way of influencing men so powerfully as by means of the women, says the instructor. "These should, therefore, be our chief study. We should insinuate ourselves into their good opinion, give them hints of emancipation from the tyranny of public opinion, and of standing up for themselves; it will be an immense relief to their enslaved minds to be freed from any one bond of restraint, and it will fire them the more, and cause them to work for us with zeal," &c. Similar views are enunciated in a letter found among the correspondence:-"The proposal of Hercules (a member not identified) to establish a Minerval school for girls is excellent, but requires circumspection. We cannot improve the world without improving the women. But how shall we get hold of them? How will their mothers,

immersed in prejudices, consent that others shall influence their education? We must begin with grown girls. Hercules proposes the wife of Ptolemy Magus. I have no objection; and I have four stepdaughters, fine girls. The eldest in particular is excellent. She is twenty-four, has read much, and is above all prejudices. They have many acquaintances. . . . It may immediately be a very pretty society. . . . No man must be admitted. This will make them become more keen, and they will go much farther than if we were present. Leave them to the scope of their own fancies, and they will soon invent mysteries which will put us to the blush. . . . They will be our great apostles. Ptolemy's wife must direct them, and she will be instructed by Ptolemy, and my stepdaughters will consult with me.

But I am doubtful whether the association will be durable-women are fickle and impatient. Nothing will please them but hurrying from degree to degree . . . which will soon lose their novelty and influence. To rest seriously in one rank, and to be silent when they have found out that the whole is a cheat (!), is a work of which they are incapable.

Nay, there is a risk that they may take it into their heads to give things an opposite turn, and then, by the arts in which they are adepts by nature, they may turn our order upside down." And a circumstance, affecting the personal character of the founder, which was brought to light by the discovery of the secret correspondence, but was totally unconnected with the principles advocated by the Order, contributed as much as anything else to give the Order of the Illuminati a bad name. Another circumstance was taken advantage of by the enemies of the Order to crush it. In the handwriting of Zwack were found a description of a strong box, which, if forced open, should blow up and destroy its contents; a recipe for sympathetic ink; how to take off impressions of seals, so as to use them afterwards as seals; a collection of some hundreds of such impressions, with a list of their owners; a set of portraits of eighty-five ladies in Munich, with recommendations of some of them as members of a lodge of sisters illuminata; injunctions to all superiors to learn to write with both hands, and to use more than one cypher; and other matters.

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359. Refutation of Charges.-So says Robison in his "Proofs of a Conspiracy." But he does not say that this one Zwack, a counsellor, holding some law office"—he was a judge and electoral councillor-in a published letter disproved all the scandalous charges brought against the Illu

minati, showing that the idea of utilising the influence of women was taken from an essay on the Mopses, and that the list of recipes given above was copied by him for his own private amusement and instruction, he being a criminal lawyer and judge, from the works of the Jesuit Kircher and other orthodox authorities, and had not the slightest connection with the Illuminati. The "set of portraits of eighty-five ladies in Munich" was actually stolen by the police from the wardrobe of Von Zwack's wife!

360. Suppression. The society having been established in the small state of Bavaria, and so quickly suppressed, never made any lasting impression on the affairs of its own time, nor on those of the future. All the terrible effects attributed to its doctrines by Robison and other opponents of the Order existed more in the imagination of the writers than in reality. If, as Robison says, the founders only wanted liberty to indulge their ambition and passions, they might, and, according to the secret correspondence quoted, seem to, have done so without the cumbrous machinery of society whose members appeared so unmanageable. Weishaupt was deprived of his professor's chair, and banished from Bavaria, but with a pension of eight hundred florins, which he refused. He first went to Regensburg, and afterwards entered the service of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha. Zwack also was banished, and went into the service of the Prince of Salms, who soon after had so great a hand in the disturbances in Holland. Of the German society of the Illuminati, it may truly be said that it was before its time; all enlightened nations now adopt and advocate its aims. But it was not without its influence on the French Revolution, and it may have inspired Bahrdt with the idea of the German Union.

361. Illuminati in France.- As early as the year 1782, Philo and Spartacus had formed the plan of introducing Illuminism into France, especially as some adepts already existed in that country. Dietrich, the Mayor of Strasbourg, was one of them; Mirabeau was another, who had been initiated at Berlin, to which city he had been sent by Louis XVI. on a secret mission. On his return to France he initiated the Abbé Talleyrand de Perigord, and Bode, privy councillor, at Weimar, known in the sect as Amelius, and William, Baron de Busch, whose sectarian name was Bayard, who shortly after came to Paris, continued the work of initiation, choosing their adepts chiefly in the masonic lodges. The most zealous and trusted members were formed