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

...because shameful acts are contrary to it. The opposite of the shameful is the good; therefore, when nature drives you to desire what is useful, it is effectively calling you to wish only for good things. Thus, the truly useful is also the truly good. Through a series of logical conclusions, the same oracles of the worldly sages philosophers will demonstrate to you that the good is always at the same time the useful, (o) and this is easy to grasp.

Why does nature drive us to desire what is useful and honorable? Because it leads us without ceasing to seek the path of happiness. But we do not listen to its voice; we do not follow it.

It is not enough that I have said that only the honorable is useful, and only the useful is honorable; I must also prove that nothing is useful and good except that which is just. (p) The laws of nature are unchangeable, and they are unchangeable only because they are based on justice. But what do we call an unchangeable law? Is it not a Richtschnur guiding rule or standard that orders and ob-

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(o) Cicero, On Duties original: "Lib. Off.", Book III, chapter 10.
(p) Cicero, On Duties original: "de Offic.", Book I, chapter 19. "For nothing can be honorable that is void of justice" original Latin: "Nihil enim honestum esse potest, quod justitia vacat.".

-ligates (q) all that lives and moves? And can such a rule indeed be founded on injustice? What is just is good; what is unjust is evil. But the useful and the honorable are also good; thus the useful and the upright are united with the just. Since good and evil are opposites, they can never be united; therefore, one can never claim that the unjust is good and useful. Consequently, the just is simultaneously useful and honorable. This is how Socrates the Greek philosopher known for his ethical inquiries judges. (*) This judgment is less clearly spoken than the concept wh-

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(q) The concept of law given to us by writers is not the concept of a law that merely binds men. See Samuel von Puffendorf, The Law of Nature and of Nations (Recht der Natur), Book 1, Chapter 6; Jean Barbeyrac’s notes on Puffendorf’s The Duties of Man and Citizen (devoirs de l'homme et du citoyen), Book I, Chapter 2; and Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws (Esprit des loix), Book I, Chapter 1, etc. Pindar says (using the expressions of Amyot, who translated Plutarch) that the law is the queen of all mortals and immortals. See Moral Works (Oeuvres morales), the chapter titled "That it is required for a prince to be learned."

(*) And with him every person who has common sense. Splendid French declamation! It is not possible to say fewer things with more words than has been done here. I regret that the readers, in order to learn the following truly interesting news, must work their way through these rambling sentences.

These initials refer to the German editor or translator, likely Friedrich Joseph Wilhelm Schröder, who frequently provides critical commentary on the original French text's style.