Salvation does not lie where strong thrones are defended by swords, where the smoke of censers ascend to heaven or where thousands of strong men pace the rich fields of harvest. The revolution which is about to break will be sterile if it is not complete.
It was the full conviction of this, and of what could be done, if every man were placed in the office for which he was fitted by nature and a proper education, which first suggested to me the plan of Illumination.
We see with what keenness and zeal the frivolous business of Freemasons is conducted, by persons knit together by the secrecy of their union.
In another situation, and in an active station in life, I should have been keenly occupied, and the founding of an order would have never come into my head.
I did not bring Deism into Bavaria more than into Rome. I found it here, in great vigour, more abounding than in any of the neighboring Protestant States. I am proud to be known to the world as the founder of the Illuminati.
My general plan is good, though in the detail there may be faults.
Let this circumstance of our constitution therefore be directed to this noble purpose, and then all the objections urged against it by jealous tyranny and affrighted superstition will vanish.
The tenor of my life has been the opposite of everything that is vile, and no man can lay any such thing to my charge.
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