[476] Without citing his authority, Forestier makes the statement that von dem Busche’s interest in the reform of the debased order of the Philalèthes led him not only to accompany Bode but to offer to pay his expenses. Cf. Forestier, p. 666.
[477] The theories and séances of the empiric, Mesmer, were greatly agitating Paris at the time and attracting attention throughout Europe.
[478] Mounier, pp. 212 et seq. Cf. Forestier, pp. 664 et seq. While Bode was in Paris he kept in close correspondence with his German friend, Frau Hess, of Hirschberg. Engel, who made an examination of this correspondence in the Royal Library at Dresden, was unable to discover the slightest intimation that Bode’s mind, while he was in Paris, was occupied with anything more revolutionary than the turning of the Philalèthes away from their craze for alchemy, cabala, theosophy, and theurgy, or in Mesmer’s theories. Cf. Engel, pp. 409–415. When Bode returned to Germany it is undeniable that he carried with him an unfavorable opinion of French Masonry. Cf. Forestier, p. 668.
[479] In addition to the two elaborated upon in the remainder of this chapter, the following are most worthy of note: Staack, Der Triumph der Philosophie im 18. Jahrhundert, vols. i, ii, 1803 (already noted); Proyard, Louis XVI et ses vertus aux prises avec la perversité du siècle, Paris, 1808 (4 vols.); De Malet, Recherches politiques et historiques qui prouvent l’existence d’une secte révolutionnaire, son antique origine, ses moyens, ainsi que son but, et dévoilent entièrement l’unique cause de la Révolution Française, Paris, 1817; De Langres, Des Sociétés Secrètes en Allemagne et dans d’autres contrées, de la Secte des Illuminés, du Tribunal Secret, de l’assassinat de Kotzebue, 1819; Le Couteulx, Les Sectes et Sociétés politiques et religieuses, Paris, 1863; Deschamps, Les Sociétés Secrètes et la Société, vols. i, ii, iii, Avignon, 1874–1876. As late as 1906, in an article in the Edinburgh Review of July of that year, Una Birch traversed much of the ground covered thus far in this and the preceding chapter and, on the theory that an event as spontaneous (?) as the French Revolution must have originated in a definite coördination of ideas and doctrines, reaffirmed the general notion that the Masonic lodges of France, having been inoculated with the doctrines of the Illuminati, became the principal points of associative agitation for, and thus the direct cause of, the French Revolution. This essay may also be found in the volume of essays entitled, Secret Societies and the French Revolution (London and New York, 1911), by the same author.
[480] Later editions of this work, which in their number and geographical extent strongly suggest the degree of interest the subject had for the reading public, appeared as follows: second edition, London, 1797; third edition, London, 1798; fourth edition, London and New York, 1798; a French translation, London, 1798–99 (2 vols.); a German translation, Königslutter and Hamburg, 1800; a Dutch translation, Dordrecht (n. d.). See Wolfstieg, Bibliographie der Freimaurerischen Literatur, vol. i, pp. 192, 193.
[481] Robison was a mathematician, scientific writer, and lecturer in the field of natural philosophy, of considerable ability and distinction. The son of a Glasgow merchant, he was born in Scotland in 1739. He received the benefits of a thorough education, graduating from Glasgow University in 1756. The connections he enjoyed throughout his life were of the best. Subsequent to his graduation he became tutor to the son of Sir Charles Knowles, the English admiral, and later was appointed by the government to service in the testing out at sea of the newly completed chronometer of John Harrison, the horologist. Still later he went to Russia as private secretary to Sir Charles. While in Russia he was called to the chair of mathematics established in connection with the imperial sea-cadet corps of nobles. Abandoning this post, he returned to Scotland, and in 1773 became professor of natural philosophy in Edinburgh University, lecturing on such subjects as hydro-dynamics, astronomy, optics, electricity, and magnetism. His distinction in this general field seems clearly demonstrated by the fact that he was called upon to contribute to the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica articles on seamanship, the telescope, optics, waterworks, resistance to fluids, electricity, magnetism, music, etc., as well as by the fact that when the Royal Society of Edinburgh was organized under royal charter in 1783, Robison was elected general secretary of that distinguished organization, an office he continued to hold until within a few years of his death. The versatility of the man is further evidenced by the fact that he was deeply interested in music, attaining the mastery of several instruments, and in the writing of verse. His reputation was not confined to Great Britain. In 1790 the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. (Cf. General Catalogue of the College of New Jersey, 1746–1896, p. 177. The Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xlix, p. 58, incorrectly gives the date for the bestowal of this degree as 1798.) Later, his alma mater, Glasgow University, bestowed upon him a like honor.
In addition to his encyclopaedia articles and his book on the Illuminati, Robison edited and published the lectures of Dr. Black, the chemist, and the following scientific works, the product of his own intellectual activity: Outlines of a Course of Lectures on Mechanical Philosophy, Edinburgh, 1797, and Elements of Mechanical Philosophy, Edinburgh, 1804. The latter was intended to be the initial volume of a series, but its successors were not forthcoming. A posthumous work of four volumes entitled, A System of Mechanical Philosophy, with Notes by David Brewster, LL.D., was published at Edinburgh in 1822. The death of Robison occurred in 1805. (For the material incorporated in the foregoing the writer is chiefly indebted to the Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xlix, pp. 57, 58, and to casual references in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vols. i–v.)
[482] “Die Neuesten Religionsbegebenheiten mit unpartheyischen Anmerkungen mit Beihülfe mehrerer von H. M. G. Köster, Professor in Giessen, herausgegeben Jg. 1–20 Giessen, 1778–97 verfolgten gleichfalls den Zweck, von den wichtigsten Vorfällen aus der Religionsgeschichte der Gegenwart eine deutliche, gründliche und nützliche Beschreibung zu liefern, doch beschränkten sie sich dabei vornehmlich auf Deutschland und richteten sich in erster Linie an Laien und Nichttheologen” (Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie, 3rd ed., vol. xxiv, Leipzig, 1913, p. 673).
[483] Though a Mason, Robison was by no means an ardent supporter of Freemasonry. The English Masonic lodges with which he was acquainted impressed him as having no higher function than that of supplying “a pretext for passing an hour or two in a sort of decent conviviality, not altogether void of some rational occupation.” He found the lodges on the continent, however, “matters of serious concern and debate.” Cf. Proofs of a Conspiracy, etc., pp. 1 et seq. (The edition of Robison’s book here as elsewhere referred to is the third [London] edition of 1798.) Robison professed to have visited lodges at Liège, Valenciennes, Brussels, Aix-la-Chapelle, Berlin, Königsberg, and St. Petersburg. Everywhere he found an elaboration of ritual, joined with a spirit of grave interest in the affairs of Freemasonry, which filled him with astonishment and seemed to call for explanation. Cf. ibid., pp. 2 et seq.
[484] Robison, op. cit., p. 7. Robison also made use of several of the works which the disturbances occasioned by the Bavarian Illuminati called forth on the continent. Conspicuous among these were the documents of the order published by the Bavarian government. Cf. ibid., pp. 133, 185, 186, 205, etc. He also made use of Hoffman’s violently hostile sheet, the Wiener Zeitschrift. Cf. ibid., pp. 358, 393. Robison’s knowledge of the German language was, however, far from perfect, as he himself freely admitted (Cf. ibid., pp. 14, 499), so that his handling of his sources must be viewed as neither capable nor complete. The meagerness of his resources is perhaps best illustrated in his treatment of the conspiracy which he assumed underlay the French Revolution. Such “proofs” as he made use of in this connection amounted to little more than the political manifestoes of certain secret lodges and clubs, fugitive revolutionary documents which chanced to blow across his path, current historical conjecture and gossip, etc. The whole was pieced together in the spirit of one who ventured to hope that his “scattered facts” might be of some service to his generation. (Cf. ibid., pp. 493–496.)