Since the publication of this volume I have seen a very remarkable work indeed, on the same subject, _Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire du Jacobinisme, par M. l'Abbé Barruel_. This author confirms all that I have said of the _Enlighteners_, whom he very aptly calls _Philosophists_; and of the abuses of Free Masonry in France. He shows, unquestionably, that a formal and systematic conspiracy against Religion was formed and zealously prosecuted by Voltaire, d'Alembert, and Diderot, assisted by Frederic II. King of Prussia; and I see that their principles and their manner of procedure have been the same with those of the German atheists and anarchists. Like them they hired an Army of Writers; they industriously pushed their writings into every house and every cottage. Those writings were equally calculated for inflaming the sensual appetites of men, and for perverting their judgments. They endeavoured to get the command of the Schools, particularly those for the lower classes; and they erected and managed a prodigious number of Circulating Libraries and Reading Societies. M. Barruel says, that this gang of public corruptors have held their meetings for many years in the _Hotel de Holbach_ at Paris, and that Voltaire was their honorary President. The most eminent members were _d'Alembert_, _Diderot_, _Condorcet_, _La Harpe_, _Turgot_, _Lamoignon_. They took the name of OECONOMISTS, and affected to be continually occupied with plans for improving Commerce, Manufactures, Agriculture, Finance, &c. and published from time to time respectable performances on those subjects.--But their darling project was to destroy Christianity and all Religion, and to bring about a total change of Government. They employed writers to compose corrupting and impious books--these were revised by the Society, and corrected till they suited their purpose. A number were printed in a handsome manner, to defray the expence; and then a much greater number were printed in the cheapest form possible, and given for nothing, or at very low prices, to hawkers and pedlars, with injunctions to distribute them secretly through the cities and villages. They even hired persons to read them to conventicles of those who had not learned to read.[29] (See vol. i. 343-355.)