ferments, history, traditions of fabulous times, all are made use
of to carry his exaltation to the highest point, and before even he
has been told of a secret Association, to contribute to the fall of
a sovereign appears to his eyes the noblest and most meritorious
act....

At last, when he has been completely captivated, when several years
of testing guarantee to the society inviolable secrecy and absolute
devotion, it is made known to him that millions of individuals
distributed in all the States of Europe share his sentiments and
his hopes, that a secret link binds firmly all the scattered
members of this immense family, and that the reforms he desires so
ardently must sooner or later come about.

This propaganda is rendered the easier by the existing associations
of students who meet together for the study of literature, for
fencing, gaming, or even mere debauchery. The Illumines insinuate
themselves into all these circles and turn them into hot-beds for
the propagation of their principles.

Such, then, is the Association's continual mode of progression from
its origins until the present moment; it is by conveying from
childhood the germ of poison into the highest classes of society,
in feeding the minds of students on ideas diametrically opposed to
that order of things under which they have to live, in breaking the
ties that bind them to sovereigns, that Illuminism has recruited
the largest number of adepts, called by the state to which they
were born to be the mainstays of the Throne and of a system which
would ensure them honours and privileges.

Amongst the proselytes of this last class there are some no doubt
whom political events, the favour of the prince or other
circumstances, detach from the Association; but the number of these
deserters is necessarily very limited: and even then they dare not
speak openly against their old associates, whether because they are
in dread of private vengeances or whether because, knowing the real
power of the sect, they want to keep paths of reconciliation open
to themselves; often indeed they are so fettered by the pledges
they have personally given that they find it necessary not only to
consider the interests of the sect, but to serve it indirectly,
although their new circumstances deman