TO THE READER.

I was condemned to death; I was in the dungeons when I first brought out this work. The tribunal which has since returned my freedom could have yielded to political considerations and sent me to the scaffold, like so many other victims. . . .
I did not want to carry with me a secret that could be useful to my fellow citizens; I published it: but having then no other resource than my memory, I was not able to shed on the conduct of the Initiés Initiated all the light that was necessary.