allowed to be given out, and of which the greatest part were printed, but were entrusted only to assured members.
No. I. is the first plan, printed on a single quarto page, and is addressed, To all the Friends of Reason, of Truth, and of Virtue. It is pretty well written, and states among other things, that "because a great number of persons are labouring, with united effort, to bring Reason under the yoke, and to prevent all instruction, it is therefore necessary that there be a combination which shall work in opposition to them so that mankind may not sink anew into irrecoverable barbarism, when Reason and Virtue shall have been completely subdued, overpowered by the restraints which are put on our opinions."——"For this noble purpose a company of twenty-two persons, public instructors, and men in private stations, have united themselves, according to a plan which they have had under consideration for more than a year and a half, and which, in their opinion, contains a method that is fair and irresistible by any human power, for promoting the enlightening and forming of mankind, and that will gradually remove all the obstacles which superstition supported by force has hitherto put in the way."