to have foreseen the happiness of posterity & to have prepared it by irreproacheable means, suffices for our felicity. secure of our success, sais he, we abstain from violent commotions. the means he proposes to effect this improvement of human nature are ‘to enlighten men, to correct their morals & inspire them with benevolence. he believes the Freemasons were originally possessed of the true principles & object of Christianity, and have still preserved some of them by tradition, but much disfigured. he says, no one ever laid a surer foundation for liberty than our grand master, Jesus of Nazareth.

and by teaching innocence of conduct, he expected to place men in their natural state of liberty & equality. his precepts are the love of god & love of our neighbor. that his intention was simply to reinstate natural religion, & by diffusing the light of his morality, to teach us to govern ourselves. Wishaupt believes that to promote this perfection of the human character was the object of Jesus Christ. this, you know is Godwin’s doctrine, and this is what Robinson, Barruel & Morse have called a conspiracy against all government. he thinks he may in time be rendered so perfect that he will be able to govern himself in every circumstance so as to injure none, to do all the good he can, to leave government no occasion to exercise their powers over him, & of course to render political government useless. he is among those (as you know the excellent Price and Priestly also are) who believe in the indefinite perfectibility of man. Wishaupt seems to be an enthusiastic Philanthropist. as you may not have had an opportunity of forming a judgment of this cry of ‘mad dog’ which has been raised against his doctrines, I will give you the idea I have formed from only an hour’s reading of Barruel’s quotations from him which you may be sure are not the most favourable. but he quotes largely from Wishaupt whom he considers as the founder of what he calls the order. Barruel’s own parts of the book are perfectly the ravings of a Bedlamite. I have lately by accident got a sight of a single volume, (the 3d.) of the Abbé Barruel’s ‘Antisocial conspiracy,’ which gives me the first idea I have ever had of what is meant by the Illuminatism, against which ‘illuminati Morse’ as he is now called, and his ecclesiastical & monarchical associates have been making such a hue & cry. I shall address it to the care of mr George Jefferson there. the best chance will be by some captain of a vessel going round to Richmond. it is now recieved, & shall be forwarded to Richmond by the first opportunity: but such opportunities are difficult to find gentlemen going in the stage not liking to take charge of a package which is to be attended to every time the stage is changed. Priestly, endorsed ‘with a book’ I struck these words through with my pen, because no book had then come.

Hue and cry richmond