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
There can be no doubt as to the meaning of these last words--they
cannot relate to astrology--this was entirely out of date. The
"attempts to deceive men, in order to insure their happiness,"
can only be those by which we are made to think too highly of
ourselves. "Inhabitants of this pepper-corn, we think ourselves
the peculiar favourites of Heaven, nay the chief objects of care
to a Being, the Maker of all; and then we imagine that, after this
life, we are to be happy or miserable, according as we accede or
not to this subjugation to opinions which enslave us. But truth and
justice have broken these bonds."--But where is the force of the
argument which entitles this perfecter of the Newtonian philosophy
to exult so much? It all rests on this, That this earth is but as
a grain of mustard-seed. Man would be more worth attention had he
inhabited Jupiter or the Sun. Thus may a Frenchman look down on the
noble creatures who inhabit Orolong or Pelew. But whence arises
the absurdity of the intellectual inhabitants of this pepper-corn
being a proper object of attention? it is because our shallow
comprehensions cannot, at the same glance, see an extensive scene,
and perceive its most minute detail.
David, a King, and a soldier, had some notions of this kind. The
heavens, it is true, pointed out to him a Maker and Ruler, which
is more than they seem to have done to the Gallic philosopher;
but David was afraid that he would be forgotten in the crowd, and
cries out, "Lord what is man that thou art mindful of _him_?" But
David gets rid of his fears, not by becoming a philosopher, and
discovering all this to be absurd,--he would still be forgotten,--he
at once thinks of what he is--a noble creature--high in the scale
of nature. "But," says he, "I had forgotten myself. Thou hast made
man but a little lower than the angels--thou hast crowned him with
glory and honour--thou hast put all things under his feet." Here are
exalted sentiments, fit for the creature whose ken pierces through
the immensity of the visible universe, and who sees his relation to
the universe, being nearly allied to its Sovereign, and capable of
rising continually in his rank, by cultivating those talents which
distinguish and adorn it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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