Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe: carried on in the secret meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and reading societies.Robison, John
History
Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe: carried on in the secret meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and reading societies.
Robison, John
Freemasonry -- Early works to 1800; Illuminati -- Early works to 1800
But surely it requires no angel from heaven to tell us that if
every man is virtuous, there will be no vice; and that there will
be peace on earth, and good-will between man and man, whatever be
the differences of rank and fortune; so that Liberty and Equality
seem not to be the necessary consequences of this just Morality, nor
necessary requisites for this national happiness. We may question,
therefore, whether the Illumination which makes this a necessary
condition is a clear and a pure light. It may be a false glare
showing the object only on one side, tinged with partial colours
thrown on it by neighbouring objects. We see so much wisdom in the
general plans of nature, that we are apt to think that there is the
same in what relates to the human mind, and that the God of nature
accomplishes his plans in this as well as in other instances. We are
even disposed to think that human nature would suffer by it. The
rational nature of man is not contented with meat and drink, and
raiment, and shelter, but is also pleased with exerting many powers
and faculties, and with gratifying many tastes, which could hardly
have existence in a society where all are equal. We say that there
can be no doubt but that the pleasure arising from the contemplation
of the works of art--the pleasure of intellectual cultivation,
the pleasure of mere ornament, are rational, distinguish man
from a brute, and are so general, that there is hardly a mind so
rude as not to feel them. Of all these, and of all the difficult
sciences, all most rational, and in themselves most innocent, and
most delightful to a cultivated mind, we should be deprived in a
society where all are equal. No individual could give employment to
the talents necessary for creating and improving these ornamental
comforts of life. We are absolutely certain that, even in the most
favourable situations on the face of the earth, the most untainted
virtue in every breast could not raise man to that degree of
cultivation that is possessed by citizens very low in any of the
states of Europe; and in the situation of most countries we are
acquainted with, the state of man would be much lower: for, at our
very setting out, we must grant that the liberty and equality here
spoken of must be complete; for there must not be such a thing as a
farmer and his cottager. This would be as unjust, as much the cause
of discontent, as the gentleman and the farmer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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