The Illumines And The French Revolution.

Illuminism , " which , though never very powerful , had enrolled among its members at one time such men as Mirabeati , Lavau , Cazotte , Robespierre , Lavoisier , ancl many more ; ancl there was a " mystic society , " which included in it men ancl women like the Marquise cle St . Croix . Cazotte especially tells us that he hacl been an " initie , " but that " Divine grace hacl withdrawn him from the snare . "

" You are not initiated , " says he ; " be thankful . Remember the words , ' their knowledge shall destroy them . ' If I am not without dangers , I wdiom the Divine Giver has withdrawn from the snare , judge of the risk of those who remain ; the knowledge of things occult is a stormy sea . " Curiously enough , in his sentence to be guillotined inhis seventy-ninth year , one of the facts mentioned wasthathe was an " initie . " But if not a Freemason , his dying words were truly Masonic in their loyalty and reverence . " I dieas

, I have lived , faithful to God ancl the king . " But as there is no evidence of his having been a Freemason , as far as we know , we apprehend that his "initiation" was one into "Illuminism . " Mr . cle Nerval gives a curious account of Cagliostro ' s Androgyne Egyptian Masonry , which seems to have communicated destructive principles in religion , morals , and politics with equal energyaudacityancl profanity ; and though Cagliostro preceded

, , Weishaupt , there is every reason to believe that in Paris especiall y " Illuminism " had taken to itself some of the worst features of that impiety and profligacy which undoubtedly marked all the assemblies of that greatest of impostors ancl charlatans , Cagliostro . Mr . de Nerval states , " inter alia , " that Robespierre ' s father was a member of a lodge at Arras , under the Ancient ancl Accepted Scottish Rite . 'Ibis may be so , but Robespierre ' s father hacl

nothing to do with the hateful principles and proceedings of his son ; and Robespierre certainly had nothing in common with Freemasonry , though a good deal with " Illuminism . " Some writers assert that it was Robespierre ' s uncle , who was of the lodge or chapter at Arras , and that Robespierre himself , though not a Freemason , was an Illumine . It is a curious fact that Robespierre the younger was brought in a Jesuit

up college , a truth not generall y known ; and we may as well , indeed with greater propriety , attribute the French Revolution to those distinctive and fatal principles than to the loyal , orderly , and peaceful maxims of Freemasonry . Like as with a good many other things , the influence of the " Illumines " on the French Revolution has probably been greatly exaggerated .

With Mirabeau ' s death they seemed to have passed away in Paris , ancl were soon forgotten in the more sensational , startling drama of the greater horrors of the French Revolution .

Cornubia: The Stranger's Tribute.

CORNUBIA : THE STRANGER'S TRIBUTE .

BY BRO . EMRA HOLMES . THE wild rose flingeth its head on high , And the foxglove strives , in its lordly way , To outshine flowers both far ancl nigh , The dark valerian , poppy gay , The golden iris in happy vales , Where aspen poplars' quivering leaves , Like old men palsied , shake in the gales , Ancl murmuring quiver in western breeze .