drawn to the Illuminati by a pamphlet which has just fallen into his hands, namely the Essai sur la Secte des Illuminés, which, like many contemporaries, he attributes originally to Mirabeau. He then goes on to ask whether the sect still exists, and if so whether it is indeed "an association of frightful scoundrels who aim, as Mirabeau assures us, at the overthrow of all law and all morality, at replacing virtue by crime in every act of human life." Further, he asks whether both sects of Illuminés have now combined in one and what are their present projects. Conversations with other Freemasons further increase Berckheim's anxiety on the subject; one of the best informed observes to him: "I know a great deal, enough at any rate to be convinced that the Illuminés have vowed the overthrow of monarchic governments and of all authority on the same basis."
Berckheim thereupon sets out to make enquiries, with the result that he is able to state that the Illuminés have initiates all over Europe, that they have spared no efforts to introduce their principles into the lodges, and "to spread a doctrine subversive of all settled government ... under the pretext of the regeneration of social morality and the amelioration of the lot and condition of men by means of laws founded on principles and sentiments unknown hitherto and contained only in the heads of the leaders." "Illuminism," he declares, "is becoming a great and formidable power, and I fear, in my conscience, that kings and peoples will have