ILL . j 



then indeed no longer existed, but who-e members 

 were supposed to have exercised no inconsiderable por- 

 tion of activity and influence, in producing the pecu- which were calc 

 !: ir temper, and directing the political events of the knowledge, and 

 time* ; and the work* of the Abbe Barruel and Profes- means of evadi 



hi which the secret views and active exer- 

 of the order were (ought to be developed, were 

 1 extraordinary interest and a\ . :.:. I: 



arknow- 



with 



iooafts now, however, to be pretty generally ackno 

 lodged, that these, and other authors, were induced to 

 ascribe to this iustkutfani an extent and an influence, 

 which in reality it never noau**(d ; and that, in parti- 

 cular, the secret marhmollotia and wicked pr^itirrs of 

 were excessively magnified by the heated 

 of the French pneat, and the honest 



I . .- _ i . L i ^^a^^M*^. T*|L. ir. ,, --f 



sscy us WIT UIIIMJJUWIBM cmmujmcTi. nc IIUWMT 01 



the order of the inuminati indeed is involved in much 



obscurity ; and this circumstance. which has led some, 

 perhaps ruturallv enough, to overrate iti influence. (oat>i< 

 umtumpr* mffn/La) affords to oar mind no mean evi- 

 dence of its insignificance. Time, however, haicontnbu- 



waWeasaocialion; and the to) low ing. hort statement con- 

 tains the general nwult of all the information we have 

 been able to obtain, relative to this onoe 'oil in* but 





the period of the i 



of the Ger- 



I L M 



surd and barbarous policy. Men of enlightened minds Iflnminiit, 

 could not fail to look with abhorrence upon regulations, llnnitrf. 

 which were calculated to check the natural progress of s "Y^ 

 and would readily endeavour to concert the 

 vailing the existing laws. These means, 

 however, could only be concerted in secret ; and to this 

 simple origin, we believe, the institution founded by 

 Wetshaupt may truly be ascribed, however widely the 

 conduct of its members may hare afterwards deviated 

 from the original object. There is undoubtedly Home- 

 thing dangerous in the very nature and constitution of 

 such a secret association, however pure the intentions 

 < >under may have been. Secrecy implies some- 

 thing illegal in the object ; and uch a society (>eing un- 

 der no regular controul, its view* ma) easily U'n.ine 

 enlarged, and its influence perverted to improper 

 purpose*. Some sealous enthusiast* among ti il- 

 iuminati, may have contemplated the pocsibility of 

 directing the exuting government*, by means ot the 

 powerful but pacific influence of a secret association ; 

 others, imbued with the atwurd theory ot the infinite 

 perfectibility of the human mind, may have < 1 



such an institution as calculated to promote their ro. 

 nd unattainable views; while a third clan, 

 consisting^ of men more cunning than enthu- 



full of ambition, bat destitute of principle, may 

 have looked upon a society so constituted, as best adapt- 

 ed to tha> concoction of their wicked design*. Yet the 



of tiki flfanwinari never seems to have acquired 

 ; nor dor* it appear to have 

 beyond the limits of Ger- 

 many. Throughout the whole of that large emj iin- it 

 produced no extraordinary or permanent effects , and 

 a few your* after the suppression of the order in 1787, 

 it waa nearly forgotten in the very country where it had 

 ooaatad on ephemeral existence It was chiefly on ac- 

 count of ha supposed influence in producing the catas- 

 trophe of the French Revolution, that the ashes of this 

 short-lived ssaociariun were raised up from thecliarnel- 

 of oblivion, and a degree of posthumous cele- 



. 



evidence. 



brity 



an .,-.,. r ',nr Bj ,.,!, 



- 



oa tb outer Mt>d. WMefc MM Uofi, MWVfT, entirely uriMipportw bj rvidrncr. 

 Ml [ill i ii e/the Knojiili aliMii, end IBM boon MdBdendy refuted by M Mounier and 





Bat whatew may have been the extent, influence, 



sent tojaduoo. upon which they con. and real object* of this society, there can I* no doubt 

 Himij of their dvil awd retigiona eat*, that it* conathution was iUegl, and the opinion* and 







over them- 

 of adieu levelled 



.1 SESdba 



*M*tc ihciBMlvt* from 

 DottTft, ! rxrrciftc 



- of their 



gain t the BCiomrts of 

 caudate of ignorance U the 

 . 



tflenrr. or to keep the sick 



untnr whose in 



* i ftifut, and spoke one 



othr Some scattered ray of the oiiiuiaiiilaag light 

 easily penetrate the intaTTOMag gloom, onoogll 

 e upon whom they fed the dark- 

 they were placed, and to excite in them 

 a more extensive prospect. In none of the 

 many was this interdiction of literature 

 ,'pressivcly rmriaiil than ia Bava- 

 ria, under the biguttof anWojiatiotiun of the elector 

 mi 





ly, it 

 the natural result'of such' 



practice* of it* inomlurs highly ilangerous to civil and 

 loggtoai goxiBmnt. The super oooiun of the order, 

 therefore, was juatitahls upon every principle of right 

 and expediency A great mass of publications ha* ap- 

 peared upon the subject of this article ; but the sub. 

 stance of the whole will he found in the works of the 

 Abbe Rarruel, Profeasor Robiaon, ami M. Mounier. (:) 

 II MIVM I R, a market town ot England, in the 

 county of .Somerset. It ha* a low but healthy situat >, 

 at the intersection of two great rax! :u!<>n 



to Taunton, and the other from HrUtot to Exeter, 

 of the houses, which are principally arrai^nl 

 along these roads for the length of a mile, are good 

 tone and brick bu.ldings ; but the greater run, I.IT are 

 built from old wall.*, and are covered with thatch. The 

 church, which it a fim .tiding, is I'M Iret 



long arid SO wide. A handsome quadrangular tower 

 rises in the centre, surroountol !.. 'do. In 



the north transept n *n ancient tomb, 



i* precisely in erected to the nut ' >'< \\.tilhcm and hii 



pullof such ab- wife, who founded Wadbarn College, Oxford. In the 



with rh 



