Memoirs, illustrating the history of Jacobinism (1799) V.IV

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f the Mercure. All this muft lead us to helie.ve, that Dr. Griffiths is difficult of conviclion when hepleafes to be fo ; ar.d that he can with;

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OBSERVATIONS, &C-

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when he is not in a humour to refute therh. Sd perfons will take the word of their teachers for granted, that it is unnecefTary for him to condefcend to give his reafhall fee whether he will deign to notice Sir Horace fons. Walpole, who fo long fince denounced the Confpiracy of the Sophifters of Rebellion. If Dr. Griffiths be determined to be blind, I cannot pretend to make him fee. adly, Dr. Griffiths alfo declares, that my pofittan "is wholly erroneous," when I fay, that Equality and Liberty form the Heue I was effential and perpetual Creed of the Freemafons. tempted to recognize a brother dupe, but he had his reafonS for appearing to be better informed than I was. He then fpeaks of a communication opened between the Grand Lodges of London and Berlin 1776; and Berlin, he fays, was at that ara the very ecus of convergence for every ray of modern Pbilofophy ; and then he afks, were thefe embaffies mere child* s play i or ivere there Timoleons concealed in the Latomies ( Lodges ) ? I candidly confefs, that had I known of theie communications with the very center of Sophiftry, fo far ffiould I have been from retracing my proofs of the Confpiracy of the Freemafons, that I mould have given them a ftronger turn. I can alfo affure him, that 1 would not have generalized to fuch an extent my exception in favor cf the Mafonry of the Grand Lodge

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of London, had I been informed that it could poffibly have contained members fo inimical to Kings as that Timoleon who afiaflinated his brother Timophane, for that fame caufe of hatred to Royalty in which the Elder Brutus became the executioner of his Children, and the Younger Brutus the murderer ofCcfar his benrfaclor. Let Englifh Mafons defend themfelvts againft. the imputations of Dr Griffiths ; but every reader will perceive, that the method he has adopted to prove that my poftion es, the'Jlçnejplit or broken, and the poAnd after this Dr. Griffiths and his lifted Jlone of Mafonry. co-operators will come and accufe us of unfairnefs, dexterity, and treacherous ingenuity, becaufe we unfold the abfurdity of Let our readers aflïgn thofe epithets his favorite Illuminifm to whom in their opinion they belong. 5thly. What can the Reviewer mean by that great zeal which he (hows for the characters of Weifhaupt and Jvnigge, thofe two prototypes of Illuminifm ? ïn order tojuftify them, he comes and talks to us of the theifm and of the opinions which they affected in their public writings, and acts the brother dupe, grounding his opinion on Weifhaupt's giving the writings of the Socinian Bajfedottt to his novices. What does all this prove to a man who is fpeaking of the fecret opinions of Koigge and Weifhaupt, and who lias demonftrated the whole doctrine of their confpiring myfteries; to a man who proves to you, by the very letters of Weifhaupt and Knigge, that after the perufal of the writings of the Socinian Baffedow, thefe two atheilts recommend and give to their adepts the writings of '

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looked upon the remainder of the note as per feclly ufelefs, and oviitted it ; for nvho could have dreamt that any perfon could have cavilled atfo clear a fntence ? I only tranferihe the note in this piace, that every reader mayjudge of Dr. Griffiths's candour.—*

Tranflator.

OBSERVATIONS,

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