{"collection":"Secret Rosicrucian Order","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/sro/pc/pc01.htm","path":"sro/pc/pc01.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/sro/pc/pc01.htm","text":"Proofs of a Conspiracy, by John Robison, [1798]\n \n \nClick to enlarge\nDedication and Epigram\nI have preserved the original typography in the dedication and epigram, but the typography has been modernized in the rest of the text.--JBH\nTO THE RIGHT HONORABLE\nWILLIAM WYNDHAM\nSECRETARY AT WAR. &c. as &e. SIR,\nIt was with great \u0192atisfaction that I learned from a Friend that you coincided with me in the opinion, that the information contained in this performance would make a u\u0192eful impre\u0192\u0192ion on the minds of my Countrymen.\nI have pre\u0192umed to in\u0192cribe it with your Name, that I may publicly espre\u0192s the plea\u0192ure which I felt, when I found that neither a \u0192eparation for thirty years, nor the pre\u0192\u0192ure of the mo\u0192t important bu\u0192ine\u0192s, had effaced your kind remembrance of a College Acquaintance, or abated that obliging and polite attention with which you favored au in tho\u0192e early days of life.\nThe friend\u0192hip of the accompli\u0192hed and the worthy is the highe\u0192t honor; and to him who is cut off, by want of health, from almo\u0192t every other enjoyment, it is an ine\u0192timable ble\u0192\u0192ing. Accept, therefore, I pray, of my grateful acknowledgements, and of my earne\u0192t wi\u0192hes for your Health, Pro\u0192perity, and increa\u0192ing Honor.\nWith \u0192entiments of the greate\u0192t E\u0192teem and Re\u0192pect,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I am,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0SIR,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Your mo\u0192t obedient,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and mo\u0192t humble Servant,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0JOHN ROBISON.\nEDINBURGH\n September 5, 1797.\n\u00a0\u00a0QUOD \u0192i quis ver\u00e2 vitam ratione gubernet,\n Diviti\u00e6 grandes homini \u0192unt, vivere parc\u00e8\n \u00c6quo anima: neque enim e\u0192t unquam penuria parvi,\n At claros \u0192e homines volu\u00earunt atque potentes,\n Ut fundamento: \u0192tabili fortuna maneres,\n Et placidam po\u0192\u0192ent opulenti degere vitam:\n Nequicquam.--quoniam ad \u0192ummum \u0192uccedere honorem\n Certantes, iter infe\u0192tum fec\u00eare via\u00ef,\n Et tamen a \u0192ummo qua\u0192i fulmen dejicit ictos\n Invidia interdum contemptim in Tartara tetra.\nErgo, Regibus occi\u0192is, \u0192ubver\u0192a jacebat\n Pri\u0192tina maje\u0192tas \u0192oliorum, et \u0192ceptra \u0192uperba;\n Et capitis \u0192ummi pr\u00e6clarum in\u0192igne, cruentum,\n Sub pedibus volgi magnum lugebat honorem:\n Nam cupid\u00e8 conculcatur nimis ante metutum.\n Res itaqe ad \u0192ummam f\u00e6cem, turba\u0192que redibat,\n Imperium \u0192ibi cum ac \u0192ummatum qui\u0192que petebat.\nLUCRETIUS, V. 1153.\nNote: The following Latin and English texts of the above passage were not in the original book, they are supplied for reference.--JBH\n...quod siquis vera vitam ratione gubernet,\n divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parce\n aequo animo; neque enim est umquam penuria parvi.\n at claros homines voluerunt se atque potentes,\n ut fundamento stabili fortuna maneret\n et placidam possent opulenti degere vitam,\n ne quiquam, quoniam ad summum succedere honorem\n certantes iter infestum fecere viai,\n et tamen e summo, quasi fulmen, deicit ictos\n invidia inter dum contemptim in Tartara taetra;...\nErgo regibus occisis subversa iacebat\n pristina maiestas soliorum et sceptra superba,\n et capitis summi praeclarum insigne cruentum\n sub pedibus vulgi magnum lugebat honorem;\n nam cupide conculcatur nimis ante metutum.\n res itaque ad summam faecem turbasque redibat,\n imperium sibi cum ac summatum quisque petebat.\nBut men wished glory for themselves and power\n Even that their fortunes on foundations firm\n Might rest forever, and that they themselves,\n The opulent, might pass a quiet life-\n In vain, in vain; since, in the strife to climb\n On to the heights of honour, men do make\n Their pathway terrible; and even when once\n They reach them, envy like the thunderbolt\n At times will smite, O hurling headlong down\n To murkiest Tartarus, in scorn;\nAnd therefore kings were slain,\n And pristine majesty of golden thrones\n And haughty sceptres lay o\u2019erturned in dust;\n And crowns, so splendid on the sovereign heads,\n Soon bloody under the proletarian feet,\n Groaned for their glories gone-for erst o\u2019er-much\n Dreaded, thereafter with more greedy zest\n Trampled beneath the rabble heel. Thus things\n Down to the vilest lees of brawling mobs\n Succumbed, whilst each man sought unto himself\n Dominion and supremacy.\n(Lucretius, De Rerum Naturum, Book 5, William Ellery Leonard translation)","title":"Proofs of a Conspiracy, by John Robison: Dedications","type":"page"}