Abhandlung über die allgemeine Zusammenkunft der Freymaurer, bei den Gesundbrunnen in Wilhelmsbad

haste, (a) without the slightest demand; I follow the urge of my heart, which can be moved by no consideration to deny its way of thinking. I fulfill the venerable obligation which the confidence of my brothers imposes upon me; I would be a villain if I remained silent, for I would deceive their expectation. (*) Look in this work for neither descriptions nor mockery! If you occasionally find free judgments therein (it was not my intention to mix them with bitterness), then consider that I speak from friends and brothers to brothers and friends, and remember that Rome’s greatest philosopher said that reproof was a tribute one owed to friendship. (b) Would not

(a) I had no knowledge of the proceedings of the Convention until September 13. I only received these papers on October 19, so I could not begin this work earlier than the 22nd. I finished it on November 5 and read it to the ✠ Prefecture of Austrasia the Masonic administrative region covering northeast France and parts of Germany on the 12th of the same month.

(*) Should the author not have already fulfilled his obligation completely enough after he had read the essay to the Prefecture of Austrasia? R. v. S.

(b) Common life and living, advice, conversations, encouragements, consolations, and sometimes even reproofs, flourish most in friendships. original Latin: "Vita autem, victusque communis, consilia, Sermones, cohortationes, consolationes, interdum etiam objurgationes, in amicitiis vigent maxime." Cicero, On Duties, Book I, Chapter 17.

(c) It was excellently written by Plato: we are not born for ourselves alone; our country claims a part of our birth, and our friends claim a part. original Latin: "Praeclare scriptum est a Platone; non nobis solum nati sumus, ortusque nostri partem patria vindicat, partem amici." Cicero, ibid, Book I, Chapter 7.

(d) For how many things do we do for the sake of our friends which we would never do for our own sake? original Latin: "Quam multa enim, quae nostra causa nunquam faceremus, facimus causa amicorum?" Cicero, On Friendship, Chapter 16. Then to attack someone more sharply, and to pursue more vehemently: things which are not honorable enough in our own affairs become most honorable in the affairs of friends. original Latin: "Tum acerbius in aliquem invehi, insectarique vehementius: quae in rebus nostris non satis honeste, in amicorum fiunt honestissime." ibid.

(e) And thus it pleases the Stoics that all things which are produced on earth are created for the use of men, but that men were generated for the sake of men, so that they themselves could benefit one another, etc. original Latin: "Atque ita placet Stoicis, quae in terris gignuntur, ad usum hominum omnia creari, homines autem hominum causa esse generatos, ut ipsi inter se, aliis alii prodesse possent &c." Cicero, ibid.