“II. The Regents are to study the means of ruling and governing without betraying any such intention. 2 Under the mask of humility, but of a real and candid humility, grounded on the persuasion of their own weakness, and on the conviction that their whole strength rests on our union, they must exercise an absolute and boundless dominion, 3 and must direct every thing toward the attainment of the views of the Order.”
“Let them avoid a pedantic reserve, at once disgusting and ridiculous in the eyes of the sage. Let them give the example of a respectful submission to the Superiors. Should they be possessed of the advantages of birth, it will be an additional reason for showing their obedience to a Superior born in a lower station of life—Let their conduct vary according to the persons with whom they have to deal. Let the Regent be the confidant of one, the father of another, the scholar of a third; very seldom a severe and inexorable Superior, and even on such occasions let him show with how much unwillingness he exercises such severity. He will say, for example, that he sincerely wishes the Order had given so disagreeable a commission to some other person; and that he is weary of acting the part of schoolmaster with a man who should long since have known how to conduct himself.
“III. The grand object of our sacred legions spread throughout the universe being the triumph of virtue and of wisdom, every Regent must endeavour to establish a certain equality among men.—Let him take the part of those who are too much debased, and humble the proud. Let him never suffer the fool to lord it too much over the man of wit, the wicked over the good, the ignorant over the learned, nor the weak over the strong, though the latter should in reality be in the wrong. 4
p. 545
“IV. The means of acquiring an ascendancy over men are incalculable. Who could enumerate them all?. . . They must vary with the disposition of the dines. At one period it is a taste for the marvellous and extraordinary that is to be wrought upon. At another the lure of secret societies is to be held out. “For this reason it is very proper to make your inferiors believe, without telling them the real state of the case, that all other secret societies, particularly that of Freemasonry, are secretly directed by us. Or else, and itis really the fact in some states, that potent Monarchs are governed by our Order. When any thing remarkable or important comes to pass, hint that it originated with our Order.—Should any person by his merit acquire a great reputation, let it be generally understood that he is one of us.”
How smoothly flows this combination of artifice from the pen of the Illuminizing Legislator! But I hope that my reader will not expect to find a method in my translation, where the Legislator has disdained method. It is easy to perceive, that to heap artifice upon artifice is much more his object, than to give a studied connection to principles with which he supposes his adepts to be sufficiently impressed. Or may it not be said, that this disorder is the effect of studied art? But let us proceed and trace the steps of Weishaupt.
“With no other object than to give your orders the appearance of coming from a mysterious hand, you may, for example, put a letter under the plate of an adept when dining at an inn, though it might have been a much less trouble to forward it to him at his own lodgings—You may attend large and commercial towns during the time of fairs in different characters, as a Merchant, an Officer, an Abbé. Every where you will personate an extraordinary man having important business on your hands.—But all this must be done with a great deal of art and caution, lest you should have the appearance of an adventurer. It is to be well understood, that these characters are not to be assumed in towns where you are likely to be discovered either by the Police or the standers-by.—At other times, you may write your orders with a chemical preparation of ink, which disappears after a certain time.
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
