[484] Robison, _op. cit._, p. 7. Robison also made use of several of the works which the disturbances occasioned by the Bavarian Illuminati called forth on the continent. Conspicuous among these were the documents of the order published by the Bavarian government. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 133, 185, 186, 205, _etc._ He also made use of Hoffman’s violently hostile sheet, the _Wiener Zeitschrift_. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 358, 393. Robison’s knowledge of the German language was, however, far from perfect, as he himself freely admitted (_Cf. ibid._, pp. 14, 499), so that his handling of his sources must be viewed as neither capable nor complete. The meagerness of his resources is perhaps best illustrated in his treatment of the conspiracy which he assumed underlay the French Revolution. Such “proofs” as he made use of in this connection amounted to little more than the political manifestoes of certain secret lodges and clubs, fugitive revolutionary documents which chanced to blow across his path, current historical conjecture and gossip, _etc._ The whole was pieced together in the spirit of one who ventured to hope that his “scattered facts” might be of some service to his generation. (_Cf. ibid._, pp. 493–496.)
[485] Robison, _op. cit._, pp. 10, 11, 15.
[486] An illustration of the carelessness with which Robison handled his dates is found on pages 15 and 133 (_cf._ p. 103) of the _Proofs of a Conspiracy, etc._, in the matter of the date of the founding of the Order of the Illuminati. Far more serious in its reflection on the author’s lack of accuracy and insight is such looseness and general unsoundness of treatment as permitted him to represent the Jesuits as frequenters of English and French Masonic lodges, while at the same time indicting the latter as fully committed to a free-thinking propaganda which sought nothing less than the eradication of _religion_, not to speak of its institutions. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 22 _et seq._ Robison’s superficial explanation of the anticlericalism of Weishaupt might be cited as another illustration of the blundering method pursued in the book. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 101, 103 _et seq._ His weak and practically pointless digression in order to find opportunity to comment on the educational projects of Basedow will serve to illustrate the discursive quality in his work. _Cf. ibid._, 85 _et seq._