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TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

lurements, by means of which they prevailed on many well-wishers of the general good, amongst whom several Princes were, to associate with them, and interested the ambitious and the enthusiast for their cause. The society soon counted a great number of members, and rapidly spread all over Germany. The first geniuses of our age, philosophers and statesmen, were cager to take an active share in the execution of their, apparently, philanthropic plans; and it cannot be denied that Bavaria, and some other Roman Catholic countries in Germany, where priestcraft depressed the energy of the human mind, and ignorance and superstition swayed with a powerful hand, experienced many happy effects of the united secret exertions of the numerous members of that Society. However, it underwent the same fate all secret confederations, that have a political tendency, and are unauthorised. and unprotected by the government, whose defects they pretend to ameliorate, areliable

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