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A Glimpse of the Great Secret Society through citations, beginning in the year 1800A.D.
27th Jesuit Superior General Jean Baptiste Janssens escorts 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, through the halls of St. Peter's Basilica. July 2nd 1963.
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (1772 – 1801), German poet, author, mystic, and philosopher, 1800.
“To the good fortune of the old organization there now advanced a newly arisen order on which the dying spirit of the hierarchy seemed to have poured out its uttermost gifts, which equipped the old with new strength, and which applied itself with marvelous insight and perseverance, more astutely than had ever happened before, to the Papal kingdom and its mightier regeneration. No such society had ever been met with before in world history. Not even the ancient Roman senate had devised plans for world conquest with greater certainty of success. No one had with greater sagacity yet contemplated the execution of a greater idea. This society will ever be a model of all societies that feel organic desire for infinite expansion and everlasting duration – but also a proof forever that unguarded time alone undoes the cleverest enterprises and that the natural growth of the entire species incessantly suppresses the artificial growth of any subsection. All that is specialized unto itself has its own measure of ability; only the capacity of the race is infinite. All projects must fail which are not projects fully consonant with all the natural inclinations of the race. This society becomes still more noteworthy as mother of the so called secret societies, a growth still unripe but surely of genuine historical importance. The new Lutheranism – not Protestantism – surely could not have a more dangerous rival. All the magic of the Catholic faith became still more potent beneath its hand. The treasures of the sciences flowed back into its cells. What had been lost in Europe they sought to regain multifold in other continents, in the furthest Occident and Orient, and to acquire and vindicate the apostolic dignity and vocation. Nor did they lag in their efforts for popularity, and they well realized how much Luther had owed to his demagogic arts, his study of the common folk. Everywhere they instituted schools, penetrated confessionals, assumed professorial chairs, and engaged the presses, became poets and sages, ministers and martyrs, and in their tremendous expansion from America across Europe to China remained in the most extraordinary agreement as to deed and doctrine. From their schools they recruited with wise selection for their order. Against the Lutherans they preached with devastating zeal and sought to make the cruelest extermination of these heretics, as actual confederates of the devil, the most urgent obligation of Catholic Christendom. To them alone the Catholic states, and in particular the Papal See, owed their long survival of the Reformation, and who knows how old the world would still look if weak leaders, jealousy of princes and other clerical orders, court intrigues, and other odd circumstances had not checked their bold course and with them had not all but wiped out this last bulwark of the Catholic organization. It is sleeping now, this dread order, in wretched form on the outskirts of Europe. Perhaps from thence, like the nation that is sheltering it, it will some day spread abroad with new force over its old homeland, perhaps under a different name.”
John Poynder (1779–1849), English lawyer, theological writer and historian, best known for his “A History of the Jesuits: To which is Prefixed A Reply to Mr. Dallas's Defence of that Order”, 1816.
“The Jesuits, from the first, aspired to universal empire. They saw, indeed, the difficulty of their enterprise, and were aware how many had failed in the attempt: they observed, that when any particular Monarch had raised against him, and opposed his designs: they therefore contrived a more skilful method; which was, to leave the Sovereigns masters of their dominions, so long as they could domineer over those Sovereigns, and create their own Vice-Kings, Vice-Princes, Vice-Dukes, in short their Ministers; and thus become, in effect, the Sovereigns of the world, by securing to themselves, insensibly, a species of moral government which should not offend the eye, but produce the same result.
As they could not prevail over other Monarchs by force, in opposing them by sea and land, like other adventures; they availed themselves of Religion, as the most effectual instrument for restraining the minds and inclinations of mankind, and of governing them by a power apparently divine; which they employed in directing the consciences of Kings, with a view to their own ends and interests. In order to their success, however, it became necessary to proceed in the least alarming, and most attractive way; especially to conceal the artifices of their Institute; to give it an adaption to places and circumstances; to extend it to Members of other Orders, conditions, and even Religions, to Laymen as well as Ecclesiastics, to the married and single , to Bishops, Popes, Emperors, and Kings. It became essential that the Constitution of the Society should be monarchical and despotic; and that the whole exercise of authority, and the direction of the revenues, should be united in the hands of a single chief; that all the members should be blindly dependant, in every thing, upon his absolute will, for their destiny, for the disposal of their persons, their conduct, and their property; for their doctrine, and mode of thinking on all points, in order that all might be one in their Society, and that the spirit of the head might be universally that of every member of the body; that no authority, temporal or spiritual, neither Councils, Bishops, Popes, nor Kings, should effect any thing against the Society, and that it should be exempt from all their laws, and from all dependance upon them; that the Society should unite in itself, the privileges and prerogatives of all other Societies; and appropriate to itself such rights as should give it superiority over all other bodies; that it should be able to bind to itself all individuals, and all bodies, without ever being itself bound in respect of them; and that it should always sport with obligations and engagements, according to the interests of the Society, and as circumstances should require: that money being the sinew of government, it should amass in the hands of its Director, such possessions and wealth as were necessary to its extensive views; for which purpose the Institute should offer all proper facilities: finally, that, in order to attract the world within its own sphere, and to arrive at general influence, it should, on the one hand, soothe the great and the luxurious, by palatable doctrines, by a convenient morality, and by principles friendly to the indulgence of every passion; while, on the other, it should render itself terrible to every opponent, and even formidable to all who should refuse to join it; formed as it was upon maxims which enabled it to silence or destroy its opponents, and cause even crowned heads to tremble.
Volumes must be multiplied if we were to follow the Jesuits into all their Establishments, and to report their intrigues in order to introduce themselves into kingdoms and cities best suited to their design of managing all things at their will; for the purpose of establishing, extending, or perpetuating, the universal Monarchy, which they have projected from their origin. The events of the first century of the Society required a fuller detail, since, being more remote, they were less known: those of the second century, being matters of greater notoriety, and more within the reach of the general readers of History, will require somewhat less of expansion. It will be the object, however, of the present and following chapter to present such a summary of them as may suffice to shew that the more modern history of the Jesuits is of the same complexion as the preceding, and that the “consistency” for which credit is taken by the Jesuits in the close of the last Chapter, is only a consistency in evil.”
John Adams (1735-1826) American Lawyer, Diplomat, one of the Founding Fathers of the Constitutional Republic of the United States of America, 1st Vice President & 2nd President of the Republic of the United States of America. Letters to Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States of America, 1816.
"My History of the Jesuits is in four volumes in twelves, under the title of "Histoire Generate de la Naissance el des Progres de la Compagnie de Jesus, et l'Analyse de ses Constitutions et ses Privileges" printed at Amsterdam in 1761. The work is anonymous, because, as I suppose, the author was afraid, as all the monarchs of Europe were, at that time, of Jesuitical assassination. The author, however, supports his facts by authentic records and known authorities which the public may consult. This society has been a greater calamity to mankind than the French Revolution, or Napoleon's despotism or ideology. It has obstructed the progress of reformation and the improvement of the human mind in society much longer and more fatally."
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) the Grand Vindicator of the Jesuit Order, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Conqueror of Europe, 33° Illuminized Freemason, Rosicrucian, Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Knight of the Jesuit's Order of the Serapahim, Roman Grail Knight, & Trained, Educated, Implemented, Advised, & Controlled by the Jesuit Order, 1821.
“The Jesuits are a Military Organization, not a religious Order. Their chief is a General of an army, not the mere Fr. Abbot of a Monastery. And the aim of this Organization is: POWER. Power in its most despotic exercise. Absolute power, universal power, power to control the world by the volition of a single man. Jesuitism is the most absolute of despotisms: and at the same time the greatest and most enormous of abuses . . . The General of the Jesuits insists on being master, sovereign, over the sovereign. Wherever the Jesuits are admitted they will be masters, cost what it may. Their Society is by nature dictatorial, and therefore it is the irreconcilable enemy of all constituted authority. Every act, every crime, however atrocious, is a meritorious work, if committed for the interest of the Society of Jesus, or by the Order of the General."
Marquis de LaFayette (1757–1834) "The Hero of the Two Worlds", French Statesman, Freemason, "Boy" General of George Washington, speaking to the American People in Boston, 1824.
“It is my opinion that if the liberties of this country—the United States of America—are destroyed, it will be by the subtlety of the Roman Catholic Jesuit Priests, for they are the most crafty, dangerous enemies to civil and religious liberty. They have instigated most of the wars of Europe.”
Luigi Fortis S.J., Italian Jesuit, Polymath, Polyglot, Professor at the Jesuit College of the Nobles of Parma, Jesuit Provincial of the Italian Province (1815–1818), representative of Jesuit Superior General Tadeusz Brzozowski (1814–1819, as Czar Alexander I forbid the General to leave Russia on the grounds of him being a danger to Europe), and 20th Jesuit Superior General of the Society of Jesus (1820-1829) whose principle achievement was "establishing beyond question the historical continuity of the restored Society with the Society founded by Ignatius that had existed until 1773", Mastermind behind the Ecuadorian War of Independence, Texas–Indian war, Niš Rebellion, Ottoman–Persian War, Greek War of Independence, First Anglo-Burmese War, the Brazil War, Russo-Persian War, & the Liberal Wars, Responsible for the Loss of 5,000,000 Lives At-least, Speaking at a Secret Conference within the Jesuit Church Sant’Antonio Abate, in Cheiri, Italy, attended by the Highest Officials of the Jesuit Order Including: The Jesuit Superior General & Regional-Assistants, Multiple European Jesuit Provincials, Vice-Provincials, & Jesuit Institutional Presidents & Rectors; overheard & Written Down by the Pen of Ex-Jesuit Novice Jacopo Leone, S.J. author of “"The Jesuit Conspiracy; The Secret Plan of the Order”, 1825.
"You will excuse me, dear brethren, you will excuse me if I thus interrupted you. You are aware that we have no time to lose. Today, as already resolved, we will enter into a general view of the interests and the plan of action by which our society is at the present to be guided. Hitherto our discussions have related only to local affairs. We must now define the principles which are, henceforward, to regulate our conduct. The men with whom we have now to do, are totally dissimilar to those of past times. The plan must be calculated to meet present as well as future obstacles. And shall not we, with our united efforts, be able to do as much as -- nay, more than was done by one single man, in a few years, to the astonishment of the whole world?
Hold yourselves ready then, you who have sufficient understanding to throw light upon the important questions which we have to resolve. You have, before your eyes, the list of those points which form our chief object.
What is most important for us is, that our materials should augment, and that a book be ultimately made from them--I will not say a large book, but such a book, as may become, though small in volume, a vast fund, wherein shall be concentrated the experience of thousands, for the benefit of all those whom we shall initiate into our work. For you all know that since quiet is restored, and the genius of war is fettered, the mind of every nation is at the disposal of him who shall most adroitly take possession of it.
But let us not deceive ourselves. However good our old swords may be, yet seeing the struggle which awaits us, it is not enough to sharpen them; we must above all things modernize them.
We must first decide, then, what course to follow with the multitude who have been bewildered and fascinated by such fine-sounding words as 'right,' 'liberty,' 'human dignity' and so forth.
It is not by straightforward opposition, and by depreciating their idols, that we shall prevail. To prepare for men of all parties, whatever may be their banner, a gigantic surprise, that is our task. (Create a tutti i partiti, qualunque sia la lor bandiera, una gigantesca sorpresa, ecco la nostra opera.)
Let our first care, therefore, be to change, altogether, the nature of our tactics, and to give a new varnish to religion, by appearing to make large concessions. This is the only means to assure our influence over these moderns, half men, half children.
We will first, then, take a review of the arsenal of our forces. The present meeting shall be the pregnant mother of our future proceedings (seance mere), wherein we will concentrate all the ideas we have formed upon the epoch, so as to turn them to the aggrandizement of the church. Here are the minutes of the three preceding meetings, which you may all consult at your leisure. Broad margins have been left in order that you may note down your reflections, your rectifications, and even your objections, should such present themselves to your minds and above all, your new views on the difficulties we shall encounter, and on the best means of vanquishing them. In this manner we shall become more and more enlightened on the grand design of our order, and the course which will most promptly and most surely accomplish it.
Bear ever in mind that our great object, in the first place, is to study deeply and bring to perfection the art of rendering ourselves both necessary to the powers that be.
I should wish, that nothing should be lost of what we are about to say. I desire exceedingly that all our ideas may be committed to writing, so that others may have opportunity to criticize, develop, or improve them. Let us, therefore, deliver them clearly and deliberately, in order that our friend the secretary (I'amico nostro, il secretario) may lose nothing of what is said.
Where is the revolutionist who, as soon as he becomes engaged in any plot, is not obliged to risk his fortune and his life? As for us, we have nothing of the kind to fear. On the contrary, those who load us with favours, to whom we owe these spacious mansions where we hold meetings in perfect safety, not only confide to us their subordinates and their families, but put themselves into our hands. But let us not trust too much to the singular advantages of our admirable position. let us rather take extreme care to avoid the least false step, so as to arrive safely at the result of our efforts."
“I would not have any one despair of the great future success of our enterprise because our beginnings are small. What could be more inconsiderable in appearance than was our Company at its commencement? Yet but a few years had elapsed ere it proved to be full of vigor, and was already become rich and powerful. And, in later times, what throne but owned the mysterious ascendancy of our genius? From the review which has been taken of the matter, you must perceive that the Church, notwithstanding the immense aggregate and the value of its materials, is far from being in the condition of an edifice solidly raised upon its foundations and completely finished. It is still altogether in a rough and disorderly state. If, then, it has narrowly escaped an overthrow on the first shock, let us look to the causes of its weakness. It wanted a skillful and rigorous architect, who would have taken care to examine and prove each several stone; who would have rejected the bad ones outright; who would have sought out the hardest granite to strengthen the most exposed parts; and would have seen that the whole was united together by the strongest and most tenacious cement. The greatest amongst the Popes themselves have never possessed a clear and living light, they have only groped in the dark; and this explains to us wherefore a work, which is in itself gigantic, presents so little homogeneousness and harmony. If, when the Barbarian hordes overran our country and took possession of it; when the Roman Empire fell to pieces, and Christianity [Editors note: by this term he means The Ancient Mysteries] was driven to change its abstract form for one better adapted to fascinate imaginations and the senses of the new comers; if, at the moment when the Papacy arose out of the universal degradation, it had fallen into the hands of men of large and enterprising views, it would have been able in times so propitious to efface, secretly and by degrees, all records of the ancient state of things, and to blot out every trace of the transformation of the Episcopal Aristocracy into a Papal Monarchy. It might have effected this by retrenchments from and additions to the writings of Councils and of Fathers, employing on this task minds capable of accomplishing it; and then, what a glorious position for us! The great strife between Catholicism and Protestantism would never have arisen, or at least it would wholly have confined itself to the authenticity of the primitive writings. This work of retrenchment and addition ought to have been confided to a Roman school, well trained to the purpose, so as to imitate with dexterity the style peculiar to each writer. What was wanting in the ninth century was a Pope who should have eclipsed the glory of Charlemagne. Gregory VII with his gigantic, but too vague ideas; Innocent III with his marvelous Institutions, Confession, Inquisition, and Monks, came too late. Five centuries earlier, some genius equal to his, and ourselves to aid with the vast idea that now engrosses us, would have rendered the Romish Church the Sovereign arbiter of the whole world. Instead of this, the two centuries which preceded Hildebrand supplied Popes madder than Caligula, and more monstrous than Nero, so that it is impossible for us to give a color to their History which may be deemed—I will not say excusable, but even tolerable. Neither the fourteenth nor the fifteenth century offers a single example of talent and intelligence capable of foreseeing, and consequently of preventing by the abolition of the most flagrant abuses in the Church, the horrible outbreak of the sixteenth century. What, in fact, do we see in the two centuries which precede Protestantism? The Roman See occupied either by men of less than ordinary abilities, or by haughty voluptuaries. Such beings ruin a construction rather than help to build it up. They have no prudence to guide them; they exhibit to the people in their own persons a spectacle of turpitude, as if the people were brutes, absolutely incapable of reflection. Under such Popes, with a Clergy, Bishops, and Monastic Orders of the same stamp, was it to be hoped that the Church should wax great and strong so as to hold Nations and Monarchs compressed in its great embrace? Can we be surprised that it still remains in a state of abortion in spite of its immense resources? It is my desire that among ourselves everything be spoken out, and that the whole naked truth be uttered; for it is in the highest degree useful and necessary to us to know and to study it, as it is. Are we so blind as not to perceive clearly that whatever was done then was done entirely with greedy and interested views, and that the same observation applies also to the present times? Nothing has ever been contrived as subordinate to the execution of a vast plan. You are acquainted with the infamous abuses of nepotism, and its frightful consequences: what a degradation of the Papacy! That high and inestimable dignity was no longer coveted but as a means of glutting the mad ambition and insatiable avarice of a few families. Meanwhile, a vast catastrophe was impending, and the veil of the temple was about to be rent in twain. Alas! when those selfish dreamers suddenly awoke and everywhere lighted exterminating fires for heretics, it was too late. Men’s eyes were opened, they had learned to think, their indignation was aroused, the fire of it was in their hearts. The death of a great number of heretics only bestowed on a party already strong and filled with the most perverse ideas, the dangerous prestige of possessing its martyrs. Thus, by an excess of imprudence on our part, heresy took its stand as a power, to which novelty and persecution gave attraction and strength. How much time was thus lost; and what conflicts was the church compelled to sustain, no longer for the purpose of extending her sway, but simply to save herself from imminent and utter ruin. Leo X—that Sardanapalus enervated by Asiatic luxury—did nothing but blunder. Those who succeeded him followed but too closely in his footsteps. At length, the hurricane had almost dispersed the riven planks of the Bark, and no one could suggest any practical expedient for keeping them together. All grew pale at the demand for an Ecumenical Council, and it is certain that that of Trent would have been the grave of Rome but for the ability of our Company. We, resolute and unswerving, succeeded in baffling the multitude of heretics who were eager to attack the very foundations of Catholicism. With History in their band, they were prepared to question the Bible, the Fr.s, the Councils, to trace them from age to age, and explore the origin of each institution, dogma, and practice. What secrets would then have come to light! The symbol of the ancient faith [Editors Note: The Cross; Jesus was crucified on a tree.], the primitive mode of solving questions, the progress of the Papal power, the precise date of every innovation and change, the immense chaos of past ages, so well covered until then, would all have been exposed to the eye of day. Sifted after this fashion, nothing would have been preserved but what is expressly supported by some text of Scripture; the rest would have been remorselessly burnt as stubble. Nor could the pope have flattered himself with the hope of remaining an honored Patriarch; this very title of Patriarch, they would have told him, was but of recent invention. There was a general conspiracy against it, bent on reducing it to the measure of what it was when many Bishops of the east and even of the west despised it so openly, and when Cyprian, Ireneus, and Polycarp held it in so little esteem. How many Bishops, indeed, flocked to Trent with hostile intentions! How far might not their boldness have proceeded, had heresy been permitted to spread freely before them its pernicious erudition? But we intrepidly defended the breach, and the young hydra strove in vain to break into the place. Thus, after three centuries of indefatigable labor, after we had been as a cuirass on the breast of Rome, her enemies determined to tear us thence, and almost succeeded, convinced that as long as we remained, Rome was invulnerable. But if Rome, in her weakness, bent for a time like a palm-tree beneath the raging winds, she soon raised her head again; and now, let us trust, she has gained an accession of strength that will enable her for the future to defy storm and thunder. Kings call upon us—they feel the need of our narcotic cup for their people; but they shall drink of it themselves also [Editors Note: Revelation 17], and deeply! We will not, however, forget to wet its rim with honey. Two principles—amongst the many we possess—two principles of inexhaustible power and attractiveness ought to hold the first place in our consideration; and this we must continually call to mind. We must thus argue with men in power, and especially those at court:—Heresy having been the cause of all the complications which arose precisely when Church and State were on the point of entering into a happy alliance, the results of which could not but have been solid and most satisfactory, it is of the highest importance that we should at length realize what three centuries of anarchy have postponed. As soon, then, as positive conclusions shall have been laid down, the following should be the two leading principles of a new code, devised for the regulation and conservation of the vast interests of the two powers at length united:—
Whenever Heresy Shall Disturb The Sacred Tranquility Of The Church, Whatever May Be The Nature Of Its Assaults, Be They Slight Or Serious, The Duty Of The State Shall Be To Punish Them With The Utmost Rigor, As Political Crimes.
Reciprocally, Whenever Revolt Shall Disturb The Sacred Tranquility Of The State, Whatever May Be The Nature Of Its Attacks, Be They Slight Or Serious, The Duty Of The Church Shall Be To Stigmatize Them In The Face Of The Nations, And To Treat Them With The Same Rigor As Heresy Itself, Which Is To Be Crushed By Terrible And Solemn Chastisements.
After this, we have only to be logically consistent, and since it is a maxim of the schools that you cannot be less than, it will not be difficult to contrive that the Spiritual Power, the omnipotent divinity of the Holy See, shall entirely absorb the Temporal Power. Only let them give up to us the souls of the people, let Kings second us with their encouragement and their wealth, and our hierarchy, at present winding about like a river, shall soon spread wide as the sea, and cover hills and mountains. But it is mainly important that we should know how to extinguish, one by one, the multitude of phosphoric flames that glitter in every direction. We must have the art to accustom the mass of the people to look up to none but our men; and thus we shall train them for the day when, excited by some crying injustice, an increase of taxes, or some such cause of discontent, they shall furnish us with an opportunity to hurl forth a thundering manifesto from Rome, a signal of its rupture with all Governments, and consequently of a decisive and final struggle, in which we shall be bravely supported by the innumerable and ardent host which we or our successors shall have so well disciplined [Editors Note: World War I]. Would that we might be certain—but at least we can hope—that when that crisis comes, a considerable portion of the hierarchy will have undergone a radical and complete change; that the loftiest thrones of the sanctuary will be inaccessible to men incapable of understanding us; that Bishops and cardinals well know how to follow up their brave words with braver deeds; and finally, that, after so many sacrifices, we may have to glory in a man embodying, in his own person, the most enterprising Popes of past times, a man wearing one of those heads, in fashioning which Nature expands her compasses to their full stretch [Editors note: Pius XII]. The artisan, when plying his ordinary labor, is never discouraged by the hardness of the wood or the metal on which he works, because he has at hand such implements as will reduce these materials into whatever forms he pleases. Let us so take care to be well provided with implements. When the ebullition which we are secretly fomenting shall have reached a sufficient point, the cover shall be suddenly removed, and we will pour our liquid fire upon those political meddlers, who are ignorant and unreflecting enough to serve as tools in our hands, and our efforts will result in a revolution, worthy of the name, which shall combine in one universal conquest all the conquests that have yet been made. For this purpose, let our unceasing exertions be directed to the conversion of souls, and let us so preach that deathbeds may be the fruitful source of donations, riches, jewels, and all sorts of legacies. Means of action are indispensable to us, and these means must be as vast as our projects. Let nothing resist us; whilst, enveloped in mystery from head to foot, we ourselves remain impenetrable. Friends, we must conquer or die! The higher classes are always very inaccessible to the lower ones; let us nourish their mutual antipathy. Let us accustom the mob, which is, in fact, an implement of power, to look upon us as its warmest advocates; favoring its desires. let us feed the fire of its wrath, and open to its view a golden age; and let the Pope, Rome, Catholicism, or the Church, let each of these words become for the people the expression of all its rights, the point on which its eye is fixed, the object of its devotion, the moving spring of its thoughts and intentions. A day will come—but it will be too late—when it will be seen that expedients the most ridiculous have given birth to marvelous effects, and that those who believed themselves wise, were fools. Yes, brethren! We also are Kings! Our arsenal is perhaps as rich as theirs, and even, if I mistake not, more efficient! Our Chaplets, our medals, our miracles, our Saints, our Holy-days, in fine, all that immense battery which we have this day passed in review, will be worth as much, I imagine, as their powder, their soldiers, their cannon, and their moving forests of bayonets. All depends upon the skill with which we combine this infinity of means, discipline our troops, and by exciting their zeal and their courage, prepare them for the day which must bring to nothing, or crown with triumph, the long series of our labors. Let them make a jest of our processions round the profane Jericho, let them mock us and the sound of our trumpets, provided that at the seventh circuit, and assuredly it will be made, the walls of the city fall down, and those who inhabit it fall a prey to us. What we have to do, then, is to erect again upon its pedestal the prostrate papal colossus. We engineers, here assembled, have to concert a special plan for this purpose, to point out the machines to be used or to invent new ones, to form workmen and place in their hands levers and cables, and then, provided the whole be directed by superior intelligence, success will be infallible. Such is our task. But the day is closing, and I desire that we may not quit this place before some one, who may have considered the subject more deeply than myself, shall have said a few words on the possibly sinister issue of events, which, seeing the dangers around us, it is indispensable that we should coolly consider, while as yet our minds are undisturbed by any immediate apprehensions of such a result.”
“We will hereafter take this suggestion into our special consideration. Meanwhile, I thank you heartily for this conference; it has been much more instructive than the three former ones, the minutes of which you had better examine—I have them here for your better information; and I beg that each one of you will note down his observations upon them. But let me suggest that during a discussion on mere details it would be advisable not to allow too much predominance to the poetical elements of the question. These elements may be admitted when we have to consider our whole plan in the fullest light, whilst the analysis of each separate question or problem should present a character as deliberate and cool as that of the synthesis ought to be warm and enthusiastic. I admire these two different kinds of talent, but I have rarely seen them united in the same individual. I have almost always found that those who were eloquent in the one way were mute in the other, and vice versa. Let us strive to combine the calmness of reason with the fire of enthusiasm . . . Let us, therefore, become perfect in the art of loading the proud and the powerful with chains. Let us lay to heart this maxim as the rule of all our efforts—one sole authority—that of Rome; one sole Order—that of the Jesuits. And since our age does not boast a single mind capable of aspiring to Universal Empire, for Kings have enough to do to retain a hold upon their petty kingdoms which are slipping from their grasp, let it be ours to aim thus high, whilst empty heads are dreaming. There is no day without a limit. Let not any opportunity escape us of observing what are men’s tendencies; the better we know them the more useful they will be as instruments in our hands. Let us, at all events, so conduct ourselves that our future glory may compensate for our present abasement; for whether our name be destined to perish, or finally to prevail over kings and nations, let it, at least, be synonymous with the loftiest reach of greatness and daring which the world has ever seen or ever will see. Yes! when future generations read our story, and learn what we have been, let them be forced to assimilate us, not with mankind, but with those cosmogonic agencies which God only puts in motion when it is his pleasure to change the laws of the Universe.”
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