ect of these meetings, and it is nevertheless in these
confabulations [_conciliabules_] that the adepts communicate their
private views to each other, agree on methods, receive the
directions that the intermediaries bring them, and communicate
their own ideas to these same intermediaries, who then go on to
propagate them in other coteries. It will be understood that there
may be uniformity in the march of all these separated groups, and
that one day may suffice to communicate the same impulse to all the
quarters of a large town....

These are the methods by which the _Illumines_, without any
apparent organization, without settled leaders, agree together from
the banks of the Rhine to those of the Neva, from the Baltic to the
Dardanelles, and advance continually towards the same goal, without
leaving any trace that might compromise the interests of the
association or even bring suspicion on any of its members; the most
active police would fail before such a combination....

As the principal force of the _Illumines_ lies in the power of
opinions, they have set themselves out from the beginning to make
proselytes amongst the men who through their profession exercise a
direct influence on minds, such as _litterateurs_, savants, and
above all professors. The latter in their chairs, the former in
their writings, propagate the principles of the sect by disguising
the poison that they circulate under a thousand different forms.
These germs, often imperceptible to the eyes of the vulgar, are
afterwards developed by the adepts of the Societies they frequent,
and the most obscure wording is thus brought to the understanding
of the least discerning. It is above all in the Universities that
Illuminism has always found and always will find numerous recruits.
Those professors who belong to the Association set out from the
first to study the character of their pupils. If a student gives
evidence of a vigorous mind, an ardent imagination, the sectaries
at once get hold of him, they sound in his ears the words
Despotism--Tyranny--Rights of the People, etc., etc. Before he can
even attach any meaning to these words, as he advances in age,
reading chosen for him, conversations skilfully arranged, develop
the germs deposited in his youthful brain; soon his imagination