Note 474 — Chapter III

This bizarre and preposterous explanation of the genesis of the French Revolution was a favorite with contemporary German and French writers of the special-pleader type. It was used, as we shall see later, by both Robison and Barruel in their discussions of the rôle played by the Illuminati in the great French political and social debacle. Its classic statement was made a few years later by Staack, in his Der Triumph der Philosophie im 18. Jahrhundert, vol. ii, pp. 348 et seq.