Note 483 — Chapter III

Though a Mason, Robison was by no means an ardent supporter of Freemasonry. The English Masonic lodges with which he was acquainted impressed him as having no higher function than that of supplying “a pretext for passing an hour or two in a sort of decent conviviality, not altogether void of some rational occupation.” He found the lodges on the continent, however, “matters of serious concern and debate.” Cf. Proofs of a Conspiracy, etc., pp. 1 et seq. (The edition of Robison’s book here as elsewhere referred to is the third [London] edition of 1798.) Robison professed to have visited lodges at Liège, Valenciennes, Brussels, Aix-la-Chapelle, Berlin, Königsberg, and St. Petersburg. Everywhere he found an elaboration of ritual, joined with a spirit of grave interest in the affairs of Freemasonry, which filled him with astonishment and seemed to call for explanation. Cf. ibid., pp. 2 et seq.