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

in their name and to present their opinion in their place. However, it could happen that one member might hold Vollmachten proxies or powers of attorney for twenty or thirty of his brothers. In that case, would it not be absurd to suggest that the vote of the person who held fifty proxies should count for no more than the vote of the person who held ten? (*) Perhaps not absurd at all! For if this one person, who knew how to obtain fifty mandates by trickery, were a stubborn, quarrelsome, and conceited man, and if many urgent and unforeseen matters occurred here where fifty heads decide better than one; then should this one person be allowed to outshout forty-nine? That would be grand! At least the following comparison of a specific inheritance does not fit here at all. R. v. S. The initials R. v. S. likely refer to a contemporary commentator or editor who is critiquing the author's arguments in the margins. Would it not be even more absurd if one wanted to grant someone who represented only his own vote a weight that should count as much as the opinions of a hundred members? (**) Depending on what kind of man he was. R. v. S. To make this absurdity felt more vividly, I will offer a Gleichniß parable or comparison.

A dying man bequeaths his fortune to all of his relatives. He leaves 50,000 Thaler a large silver coin used throughout Europe, and he has 100 relatives. That brings 500 Reichsthaler the standard accounting currency of the Holy Roman Empire to each person. All the heirs cannot appear in person to collect the inheritance.

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Ten relatives give their proxy to one of their kinsmen, five to another, fifteen to a third, and so on. Four or five, however, appear in their own names without any other mandate. In total, twenty people show up to proceed with the division of the estate. Will one give each of these twenty people a twentieth part of the 50,000 Reichsthaler? Would such a division not be a crying injustice? In that case, the one who appeared only in his own name would take 2,500 Reichsthaler, while the representative of twenty people would receive no more. He would only be able to bring home 125 Reichsthaler to each of his friends.

Can one compare the division of a sum of money with the venerable act where all members of a society wish to establish laws that shall bind every one among them? One can console oneself over the loss of money; it is a passing accident. But will one also console oneself over bad laws that bind us at every moment? Laws that must determine our actions while we lament their sad existence?

How then should one collect these divided votes? Nothing is simpler! I have twenty proxies. One writes down my name and enters it, just as in an account book, twenty times on the side of the votes...