Secret Societies and Subversive Movements | Page 3

the documents Robison had consulted!--paid the
following tribute to his character and erudition:
His range in science was most extensive; he was familiar with the
whole circle of the accurate sciences.... Nothing can add to the esteem
which they [i.e. "those who were personally acquainted with him"] felt
for his talents and worth or to the respect in which they now hold his
memory.[5]
Nevertheless, the lies circulated against both Robison and Barruel were
not without effect. Thirteen years later we find another American, this
time a Freemason, confessing "with shame and grief and indignation"
that he had been carried away by "the flood of vituperation poured
upon Barruel and Robison during the past thirty years," that the title
pages of their works "were fearful to him," and that although "wishing
calmly and candidly to investigate the character of Freemasonry he
refused for months to open their books." Yet when in 1827 he read
them for the first time he was astonished to find that they showed "a
manifest tendency towards Freemasonry." Both Barruel and Robison,
he now realized, were "learned men, candid men, lovers of their
country, who had a reverence for truth and religion. They give the
reasons for their opinions, they quote their authorities, naming the
author and page, like honest people; they both had a wish to rescue
British Masonry from the condemnation and fellowship of continental
Masonry and appear to be sincerely actuated by the desire of doing
good by giving their labours to the public."[6]
That the author was right here in his description of Barruel's attitude to
Freemasonry is shown by Barruel's own words on the subject:
England above all is full of those upright men, excellent citizens, men
of every kind and in every condition of life, who count it an honour to
be masons, and who are distinguished from other men only by ties
which seem to strengthen those of benevolence and fraternal charity. It
is not the fear of offending a nation amongst which I have found a

refuge which prompts me to make this exception. Gratitude would
prevail with me over all such terrors and I should say in the midst of
London: "England is lost, she will not escape the French Revolution if
the masonic lodges resemble those I have to unveil. I would even say
more: government and all Christianity would long ago have been lost in
England if one could suppose its Freemasons to be initiated into the last
mysteries of the sect."[7]
In another passage Barruel observes that Masonry in England is "a
society composed of good citizens in general whose chief object is to
help each other by principles of equality which for them is nothing else
but universal fraternity."[8] And again: "Let us admire it [the wisdom
of England] for having known how to make a real source of benefit to
the State out of those same mysteries which elsewhere conceal a
profound conspiracy against the State and religion."[9]
The only criticism British Freemasons may make on this verdict is that
Barruel regards Masonry as a system which originally contained an
element of danger that has been eliminated in England whilst they
regard it as a system originally innocuous into which a dangerous
element was inserted on the Continent. Thus according to the former
conception Freemasonry might be compared to one of the brass
shell-cases brought back from the battle-fields of France and converted
into a flower-pot holder, whilst according to the latter it resembles an
innocent brass flower-pot holder which has been used as a receptacle
for explosives. The fact is that, as I shall endeavour to show in the
course of this book, Freemasonry being a composite system there is
some justification for both these theories. In either case it will be seen
that Continental Masonry alone stands condemned.
The plan of representing Robison and Barruel as the enemies of British
Masonry can therefore only be regarded as a method for discrediting
them in the eyes of British Freemasons, and consequently for bringing
the latter over to the side of their antagonists. Exactly the same method
of attack has been directed against those of us who during the last few
years have attempted to warn the world of the secret forces working to
destroy civilization; in my own case even the plan of accusing me of

having attacked British Masonry has been adopted without the shadow
of a foundation. From the beginning I have always differentiated
between British and Grand Orient Masonry, and have numbered high
British Masons amongst my friends.
But what is the main charge brought against us? Like Robison and
Barruel, we are accused of raising a false alarm, of creating a bogey, or
of being the victims of an obsession. Up to a point this is
comprehensible. Whilst on