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will perpetually attend you.

We seek not the misery or death of any one, but we are swayed by an
immutable calculation. Death is to be abhorred, but the life of
the betrayer is productive of more evil than his death: his death,
therefore, we chuse, and our means are instantaneous and unerring.

I love you. The first impulse of my love is to dissuade you from seeking
to know more. Your mind will be full of ideas; your hands will be
perpetually busy to a purpose into which no human creature, beyond
the verge of your brotherhood, must pry. Believe me, who have made
the experiment, that compared with this task, the task of inviolable
secrecy, all others are easy. To be dumb will not suffice; never to know
any remission in your zeal or your watchfulness will not suffice. If the
sagacity of others detect your occupations, however strenuously you may
labour for concealment, your doom is ratified, as well as that of the
wretch whose evil destiny led him to pursue you.

Yet if your fidelity fail not, great will be your recompence. For all
your toils and self-devotion, ample will be the retribution. Hitherto
you have been wrapt in darkness and storm; then will you be exalted to
a pure and unruffled element. It is only for a time that temptation will
environ you, and your path will be toilsome. In a few years you will be
permitted to withdraw to a land of sages, and the remainder of your life
will glide away in the enjoyments of beneficence and wisdom.

Think deeply on what I have said. Investigate your own motives and
opinions, and prepare to submit them to the test of numerous hazards and
experiments.

Here my friend passed to a new topic. I was desirous of reverting to
this subject, and obtaining further information concerning it, but he
assiduously repelled all my attempts, and insisted on my bestowing deep
and impartial attention on what had already been disclosed. I was not
slow to comply with his directions. My mind refused to admit any other
theme of contemplation than this.

As yet I had no glimpse of the nature of this fraternity. I was
permitted to form conjectures, and previous incidents bestowed but one
form upon my thoughts. In reviewing the sentiments and deportment of
Ludloe, my belief continually acquired new strength. I even recollected
hints and ambiguous allusions in his discourse, which were easily
solved, on the supposition of the existence of a new model of society,
in some unsuspected corner of t