Page:The Descent of Bolshevism.djvu/70

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THE DESCENT OF BOLSHEVISM

which are born of organized society. His submission is the Fall, the Original Sin. And the Kingdom of Grace is that of restoration by illumination, or through the disciplina arcani (secret disciplines) and the pastoral virtues. This is the New Birth.

All of which would seem quite innnocuous, no better and no worse in fact than parlor anarchy or socialism. But the Illuminati did not stop here. They would restore man to his pristine purity, free him from all subjugation, raise him to his original state of liberty and equality, redeem him, in a word, and all mankind through secret schools of wisdom. Here we get an intimation of the higher purpose, a peep into the higher mysteries, where even allegories are stripped of their seductive masks. But the teachings of the Assassins and the doctrines of the Ismailites are clothed, for the benefit of the Illuminati, in philosophic rags picked up at the doors of Spinoza and Plato. All things are inherent in Nature and God and the

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