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Transcriber's note:

Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.

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  PROOFS

  OF A

  CONSPIRACY

  AGAINST ALL THE

  _RELIGIONS AND GOVERNMENTS_

  OF

  EUROPE,

  CARRIED ON

  IN THE SECRET MEETINGS

  OF

  _FREE MASONS_, _ILLUMINATI,_

  AND

  _READING SOCIETIES_.

  COLLECTED FROM GOOD AUTHORITIES,

  By JOHN ROBISON, A. M.

  PROFESSOR OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, AND SECRETARY TO THE
  ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.

  _Nam tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet._

  The THIRD EDITION.

  To which is added a POSTSCRIPT.

  PHILADELPHIA:

  PRINTED FOR T. DOBSON, N^o. 41, SOUTH SECOND
  STREET, AND W. COBBET, N^o. 25, NORTH
  SECOND STREET.
  1798.




TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM WYNDHAM, SECRETARY AT WAR, &c. &c.
&c.


  _SIR_,

_It was with great satisfaction that I learned from a Friend that
you coincided with me in the opinion, that the information contained
in this Performance would make a useful impression on the minds of
my Countrymen._

_I have presumed to inscribe it with your Name, that I may publicly
express the pleasure which I felt, when I found that neither
a separation for thirty years, nor the pressure of the most
important business, had effaced your kind remembrance of a College
Acquaintance, or abated that obliging and polite attention with
which you favoured me in those early days of life._

_The friendship of the accomplished and the worthy is the highest
honour; and to him who is cut off, by want of health, from almost
every other enjoyment, it is an inestimable blessing. Accept,
therefore, I pray, of my grateful acknowledgments, and of my earnest
wishes for your Health, Prosperity, and increasing Honour._

_With sentiments of the greatest Esteem and Respect_,

  _I am, SIR,
  Your most obedient,
  and most humble Servant_,
  JOHN ROBISON.

  EDINBURGH,
  _September 5, 1797._


  _Quod si quis verâ vitam ratione gubernet,
  Divitiæ grandes homini sunt, vivere parcè
  Æquo animo: neque enim est unquam penuria parvi.
  At claros se homines voluêrunt atque potentes,
  Ut fundamento stabili fortuna maneret,
  Et placidam possent opulenti degere vitam:
  Nequicquam,--quoniam ad summum succedere honorem
  Certantes, iter infestum fecêre viaï,
  Et tamen è summo quasi fulmen dejicit ictos
  Invidia interdum contemptim in Tartara tetra._

  _Ergo, Regibus occisis, subversa jacebat
  Pristina majestas soliorum, et sceptra superba;
  Et capitis summi præclarum insigne, cruentum,
  Sub pedibus volgi magnum lugebat honorum:
  Nam cupidè conculcatur nimis ante metutum.
  Res itaque ad summam fæcem, turbasque redibat,
  Imperium sibi cum ac summatum quisque petebat._

  LUCRETIUS, V. 1116.




INTRODUCTION.


Being at a friend's house in the country during some part of the
summer 1795, I there saw a volume of a German periodical work,
called _Religions Begebenheiten_, _i. e._ Religious Occurrences: in
which there was an account of the various schisms in the Fraternity
of Free Masons, with frequent allusions to the origin and history of
that celebrated association. This account interested me