Page:The Descent of Bolshevism.djvu/68

 rank and riches throw in the way of man. "Our secret association," wrote Weishaupt, "works in a way that nothing can withstand it, and man shall soon be free and happy." It worked, in fact, in many ways; one of which was to unite and dominate through the Lodge Theodore in Munich the various secret societies of Europe. And more secret ways, on which the higher mysteries only can shed some light. For as far as the public utterances of Weishaupt go, they seem to embody nothing outside of a legitimate purpose to overturn the despotisms of kings and priests and to free the mind of man from political fallacies and religious superstitions. But when we penetrate behind the veil, we find the dark currents that connect the Illuminati with the Ismailites of Islam as well as with the Mazdakites of Persia.

All things, good and evil, come out, it seems, of the East. The Illuminati, like the Ismailites, dealt in allegories; and like the Mazdakites, they played with fire. In