favouring and suppression of other states”. Ramsay speaks of the “raising of one people above another”. In a general exposé, Wieland ascribes reason as the main element in the formation


of the superiority ofEuropean culture. However, the progress of culture and science was not followed by an improvement of governance, “the supreme of all arts, the royal art to put people by means of legislation and governmental administration inthe stateofhigher felicity”. The term “royal art” is heavily involved in the sphere of freemasonry. Known as “ars regia”, it is not only a synonym for alchemy. Within the masonic context, “royal art” is often used to describe the essence of masonic ideology as a synonym for “masonic science”.Wieland’s use of the term was not intended to defend any real “royal” rights or powers of monarchy. Subsequently, he ardently proposes that a civic society needs to liberate itself from the last vestiges of the “barbarian constitution”, where there are no clear limits between the rights of the “nation” and the rights of the “throne”. He then attacks arbitrariness in legislation and jurisdiction, and defends the right of personal property, honour, freedom and life of the citizens. A revolution will come, says Wieland, but not a revolution that sets fire to Europe. It will be a revolution of reason, one which has the power to instruct humans about their true interest, their rights and duties, and the purpose of their existence. This analysis clarifies that cosmopolitans consider all existing governments as mere


“scaffolds for the erection of the eternally existing temple of general felicity”. Here again, Wieland employs a terminology widely used within freemasonry, describing with architectural metaphors the purpose of the society. Subsequently, Wieland elaborates in a very long passage on the concept of freedom as an integral part of all human development, which is suppressed by despotism. The establishment of a constitution based on reason will be accelerated by “the utmost spread of basic truths, publicity of facts, observations, discoveries, investigations, suggestions of improvements, warnings of negative consequences”. Hence, cosmopolitans regard freedom of the press as the true “Palladium of humanity” and the last part of Wieland’s treatise is dedicated to explaining how true journalistic freedom should be organised in a well-civilized state. His ambition is encyclopaedic in essence, and elaborates upon what Ramsay already stated in his Oration: one of the main principles of the masonic fraternity was to enable that “all nations can borrow sound knowledge” from each other. There is a duty of mutual assistance regarding knowledge. Ramsay proposed a “universal dictionary of all liberal arts and all useful sciences” that united “the lights of all nations […] in a single work”. He would perhaps also have argued for the freedom of the press that could fulfil a similar roll, but, at the end of the 1730s, the press in Europe was still not as emancipated as it wouldbefifty yearslater.


Why an Order of Cosmopolitans? These two chapters constitute the content of Wieland’s Das Geheimniß des Kosmopolitenordens. A continuation announced at the end of the second part was never


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