d the contrary....

Berckheim then proceeds to show that those writers on Illuminism were
mistaken who declared that political assassinations were definitely
commanded by the Order:

There is more than exaggeration in this accusation; those who put
it forward, more zealous in striking an effect than in seeking the
truth, may have concluded, not without probability, that men who
surrounded themselves with profound mystery, who propagated a
doctrine absolutely subversive of any kind of monarchy, dreamt only
of the assassination of sovereigns; but experience has shown (and
all the documents derived from the least suspect sources confirm
this) that the _Illumines_ count a great deal more on the power of
opinion than on assassination; the regicide committed on Gustavus
III is perhaps the only crime of this kind that Illuminism has
dared to attempt, if indeed it is really proved that this crime was
its work; moreover, if assassination had been, as it is said, the
fundamental point in its doctrine, might we not suppose that other
regicides would have been attempted in Germany during the course of
the French Revolution, especially when the Republican armies
occupied the country?

The sect would be much less formidable if this were its doctrine,
on the one hand because it would inspire in most of the _Illumines_
a feeling of horror which would triumph even over the fear of
vengeance, on the other hand because plots and conspiracies always
leave some traces which guide the authorities to the footsteps of
the prime instigators; and besides, it is the nature of things that
out of twenty plots directed against sovereigns, nineteen come to
light before they have reached the point of maturity necessary to
their execution.

The _Illumines'_ line of march is more prudent, more skilful, and
consequently more dangerous; instead of revolting the imagination
by ideas of regicide, they affect the most generous sentiments:
declamations on the unhappy state of the people, on the selfishness
of courtiers, on measures of administration, on all acts of
authority that may offer a pretext to declamations as a contrast to
the seductive pictures of the felicity that awaits the nations
under the systems they wish to establish, such is their manner of
procedure, particularly in pri