ILLUMINATI, OR THE ENLIGHTENED. During the second half of the eighteenth century, among the numerous secret societies which were more or less connected with Freemasonry there was not one that attracted so much attention, received the support of so many distinguished men, and created so rich a literature, as this. It was founded in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt, professor of law, at Ingolstadt,a man of great originality and depth of thought, and remarkable for the earnestness of his character. The objects which he sought to effect by this association were the highest and noblest ever entertained by the human mind. He desired to assert the individuality of man as a fundamental principle—and hence was an apostle of civil and religious liberty— -to discover the means of advancing human nature to a state of higher per fection—to bind in one brotherhood men of all countries, ranks, and religions, and to surround the persons of princes with trustworthy counselors. Apostles, styled Areopagites, _ were sent into various parts of Europe to make converts, and in a short time the Order was flourishing in Germany, Hol land, and Milan. Protestants, rather than Catholics, were preferred as members. The degrees were eight in number: 1. Novice; 2. Minerva; 8. Illtuninatus Minor; 4. Illuminatus Major; 5. Knight; 6. Priest; 7. Regent; 8. King. Attracted by the liberality of its doctrines, and the grandeur of its objects, large numbers of illustrious Masons, and among them the celebrated author Knigge, became active members of it. In 1784 the society was dissolved by order of the
Bavarian government. No association of men was ever more calumniated and misrepresented than the Order of Illuminati. It is common to dismiss them with the remark that they were "a body of men united together for the purpose of destroying society and religion," whereas, they were men of the pro foundest religious convictions, and only desired such a reform in polities as would give man a greater degree of freedom, and afford him larger opportunities and facilities for the development of his faculties. It is humiliating to see that some Masonic writers have repeated the infamous calumnies of those high-priests of the lying fraternity, Robison and Baruel, in regard to them. If they were infidels and anarchists, then the whole American people are; - for they were only inspired with, and sought to propagate, the ideas which we hold in the highest reverence, and have embodied in our institutions. This name has been borne by other orders, as the religious society of the Alombrados, in Spain, founded in the sixteenth century; the Order of Guerineto, iu France, in the seventeenth; and many others before and since.