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

world-wise men with whom kind heaven has gifted the earth.

These men say and prove that nothing can be useful that is not upright, that the good and useful are firmly attached to what is just, and that the good, the useful, and the just are but one and the same thing. Therefore, if one of these qualities is missing, the other two cannot be found at all in the object one wishes to examine.

Let us apply this unchangeable principle to the undertakings of the Convention the Masonic meeting in Wilhelmsbad, or at least to the most important part of them. To extend the investigation to all of them, I would perhaps have to abuse my time and the indulgence of my readers too much.

But you, my brothers! You who leaf through this work in your hours of recreation, which the love of truth inspired in me: look there neither for that enchanting eloquence which carries one away more than it convinces (for I do not possess this pleasant talent), nor even for purity of style itself, nor even for a precision in expression that requires more time than my Fatherland likely France, which has called me to fulfill other duties, leaves me. I write in haste,