A Defence of Frederick the

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intitled, Great against the Count de Mirabeaux" and afterwards, in the year 1790, a work in three volumes octavo, intitled,o SeJect Views of the Life, Character, and Reign of Frederick the Great, King of Prufia." Thefe works, befides many ftrong political obfervations and anecdotes of particular characters contained many fevere animadverfions on the irreligion which prevailed at Berlin, and drew down on the head of their author all the rancour of private animofity and party fpirit. Truth, however, was in general on his fide; and he ought to have treated the malevolent cenfures and illiberal attacks of his opponents with the cold and filent contempt, they deferved; but men of irritable nerves are apt to be deeply affected by trifles, and the virulence with which he was purfued on this occafion gave

vexation.

nim much

romob shutilo?. The fecond cause of his chagrin, jat this period, arofe from his ftrong attachment to the cause of religion, the interefts, of human nature, and the danger

to which he faw all focial order was in"minently expofed. It was the anxiety land mortification he experienced upon this occafion that gave the fatal blow to bhis declining health, and at length deprived him prematurely of his exiftence; for every thing that related to the happiness not merely of individuals, but of mankind in general, was extremely dear to him; and he might well exclaim,

!

puto.

princi

6 Homo fum, nihil humani à me alienum put Morality and politics, or thofe ples on which the happiness of private life and the fecurity of public order fo effentially depend, had ever been fubjects of his attention. The political productions of Montesquieu and Rousseau, especially those two celebrated works, The Spirit of Laws, and The Social Contract, he had deeply ftudied; and his writings in general, but more particularly his works on National Pride and Solitude, demonftrate his conftant anxi1ety for the public welfare. The celebrity of Rouleau, and the prevailing propenof Ja fity to follow his political tenets, caufed Thim to feo regret the many erroneous pofiman so to a

tions contained in The Social Contract, and induced him to refute thofe parts of it in which the author endeavours to fap the foundation of all religious principles. In compofing his Effay on Solitude, he was led to inquire into the rife, the progrefs, and the principles, of different religious fects, and to eftimate their probable influence and effects upon governments; and he became firmly perfuaded, to use the expreffion of Tifot, that they are "the cuckow's eggs, which

can never be permitted to be hatched "without endangering the public tran"quillity." A new and extraordinary fociety had fprung up under his own obfervation, which engaged his whole attention, and which well merited that of the civilized world, fince it is now clear that the great object of it was no lefs than to abolish all religion, to fubvert focial order, and to deftroy thereby the happiness of mankind. This confederacy, which was denominated "The Secret Society of the Illuminated," had become extremely formidable in Ger many; and Zimmerman, well acquaint

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ed with the pernicious tendency of its. principles, earnestly endeavoured to oppofe them, by interefting thofe whom it moft concerned to prevent their effects. The pretence of its members was the happiness of the people; and, fuppofing' this happiness to be incompatible with every fpecies of religion and civil eftablishment at prefent exifting, they cried with one voice, "Let us deftroy them all, and raze their very foundations." It included, in short, among its dark defigns, the whole of the doctrine which the Jacobins of Paris have fince fo fatally put in practice; and it has been proved, by the most irrefragable documents, that they not only maintained an intimate correfpondence together, long before the revolution, but that the deftruction of the Chriftian religion, and the fubyerfion of every throne, and of all governments, was, ever fince the year 1776, the fecret aim and fole object of these orders. They adopted, in

See Memoirs for the Plenipotentiaries affembled at Soiffons, in which is demonftrated how prejudicial the fociety of Jefuits is to church and flateare འའའའར་ཅན་

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fhort, that execrable obfervation known

and celebrated in France, and generally attributed to Diderot: Mankind will

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{", never be perfectly happy and free, until the last of kings shall be firangled with the bowels of the last of priests.” The fociety of the Illuminated was compofed of five distinct claffes of members, who were founded, prepared, and raised step by step, as they discovered themfelves worthy to be trufted with its mifchievous myfteries. This mode of introduction, fo confonant to the nature of the affembly, was firft fuggefted, in the year 1782, by Barón de Knigge ; and, by the infinuating manners and captivating language which the principal managers well knew how to ufe, the number of affiliated members increased from day to day. Many honeftimen had grieved in filence, on perceiving the evils which were likely to refult from the baleful doctrines propagated, with equal art and induftry, by this danger. qus combination but Zimmerman was the first who had the courage to unveil the dangerous principles of thefe new