Hoffmann says, that the French _Propaganda_ had many emissaries in Vienna, and many friends whom he could point out. Mirabeau in particular had many connections in Vienna, and to the certain knowledge of Hoffmann, carried on a great correspondence in cyphers. The progress of Illumination had been very great in the Austrian States, and a statesman gave him an account of their proceedings, (_qui font redresser les cheveux_) which makes one's hair stand on end. "I no longer wonder," says he, "that the _Neueste Arbeitung des Spartacus und Philo_ was forbidden. O ye almighty _Illuminati_, what can you not accomplish by your serpent-like insinuation and cunning!" Your leaders say, "This book is dangerous, because it will teach wicked men the most refined methods of rebellion, and it must never get into the hands of the common people. They have said with the most impudent face to some Princes, who did not perceive the deeper-laid reason for suppressing the book. The leaders of the _Illuminati_ are, not without reason, in anxiety, lest the inferior classes of their own Society should make just reprisals for having been so basely tricked, by keeping them back and in profound ignorance of their real designs; and for working on them by the very goodness of their hearts, to their final ruin; and lest the Free Masons, whom they have also abused, should think of revenging themselves, when the matchless villainy of their deceivers has been so clearly exposed. It is in vain for them to talk of the danger of instructing the people in the methods of fomenting rebellion by this book. The aims are too apparent, and even in the neighbourhood of Regensburg, where the strength of the _Illuminati_ lay, every person said aloud, that the IIluminatism discovered by this book was High Treason, and the most unheard of attempt to annihilate every religion and every civil government." He goes on: "In 1790 I was as well acquainted with the spirit of the Illumination-system as at present, but only not so documented by their constitutional acts, as it is now by the _Neueste Arbeitung des Spartacus und Philo_. My Masonic connections were formerly extensive, and my publication entitled _Eighteen Paragraphs Concerning Free Masonry_, procured me more acquaintance with Free Masons of the greatest worth, and of _Illuminati_ equally upright, persons of respectability and knowledge, who had discovered and repented the trick and inveigling conduct of the Order. All of us jointly swore opposition to the _Illuminati_, and my friends considered me as a proper instrument for this purpose. To whet my zeal, they put papers into my hands which made me shudder, and raised my dislike to the highest pitch. I received from them lists of the members, and among them saw names which I lamented exceedingly. Thus stood matters in 1790, when the French Revolution began to take a serious turn. The intelligent saw in the open system of the Jacobins the complete hidden system of the Illuminati.