Description of the Illuminati

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At the same time, reports were heard that they publicly declared themselves to be Freemasons original: "Freymaurer" in taverns over mugs of beer, and preached their doctrine.

It is quite possible that, here and there, the sudden discovery of a new and glorious world—hidden right in the middle of the old one—turned a young man's head, and his mouth overflowed with that which filled his heart and mind This is a paraphrasing of the biblical proverb "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matthew 12:34).; or, to speak the truth frankly: I myself remember having known about four or five such people roughly five or six years ago.

It is people like this—and the individual faults and shortcomings of these and other brothers (which they, as human beings, naturally possess to a greater or lesser degree)—upon which partisan hatred original: "Parteyhaß" — refers to the intense political and religious factionalism of the 1780s in Bavaria. and enmity constantly fixate. They magnify these flaws to a monstrous size and project them onto the entire group to justify their extremely unjust judgments and cruel actions—the dishonoring of the nation...