[491] Robison, _op. cit._, pp. 43 _et seq._ [492] _Ibid._, p. 51. Robison’s account of this phase of the situation has little to commend it. Upon his own unsupported assertions many of the Revolutionary leaders, as, for example, Mirabeau, Sieyès, Despremenil, Bailly, Fauchet, Maury, Mounier, and Talleyrand, are brought into direct connection with one or another of the French Masonic systems. _Cf._ Robison, pp. 49 _et seq._ Similarly, it is maintained, it was among Masonic lodges that the ideas contained in such books as Robinet’s _La Nature, ou l’Homme moral et physique_, Condorcet’s _Le Progrès de l’Esprit humain_, Lequinio’s _Les préjugés vaincus par la raison_, and the book _Des Erreurs et de la Vérité_, were first disseminated. Indeed, some of these books are said to have sprung out of the very bosom of the lodges. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 43 _et seq._ [493] _Ibid._, pp. 67 _et seq._ Comparison with Forestier, pp. 141 _et seq._, will make clear the paucity of the data upon which Robison drew in attempting to write the earlier chapters of the history of German Freemasonry. [494] Robison, _op. cit._, p. 64. [495] Robison’s language is absurdly strong. “In half a year Free Masonry underwent a complete revolution all over Germany.” (_Ibid._, p. 70.) [496] The sheer puerility of the treatment is indicated by the following: “A Mr. Rosa, a French commissary, brought from Paris a complete wagon-load of Masonic ornaments, which were all distributed before it had reached Berlin, and he was obliged to order another, to furnish the Lodges of that city. It became for a while the most profitable business to many French officers and commissaries dispersed over Germany, having little else to do.” (Robison, _op. cit._, pp. 69 _et seq._) [497] _Ibid._, p. 73. [498] _Ibid._, pp. 65 _et seq._ [499] _Ibid._, pp. 78, 79. Robison read into this situation a deliberate effort on the part of the leaders of French Freemasonry to extend the hegemony of the latter. He surmised that political uses and benefits were thus aimed at. _Cf. ibid._ [500] Robison’s term for the representatives of the _Aufklärung_. _Cf._ Robison, p. 81. [501] _Ibid._, p. 80. This declension of faith and morals Robison, more wisely than he was aware, traced in part to the clash between the Roman Catholic and Protestant systems in Germany and the spirit of free inquiry which was thus promoted. See Robison, pp. 80 _et seqq._ [502] It is in this connection that Basedow is brought into relations with Robison’s devious exposition. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 85 _et seq._ [503] _Ibid._, pp. 82 _et seq._