"Grant to me, O Lord, to me whom Thou halt endowed, in sending me on
earth, with free will, the grace that in this year which we are now
beginning I may never relax this constant attention, and not shamefully
give up the examination of my conscience which I have hitherto made.
Give me strength to increase the attention which I turn upon my own life,
and to diminish that which I turn upon the life of others; strengthen my
will that it may become powerful to command the desires of the body and
the waverings of the soul; give me a pious conscience entirely devoted to
Thy celestial kingdom, that I may always belong to Thee, or after
failing, may be able to return to Thee."

Sand was right in praying to God for the year 1817, and his fears were a
presentiment: the skies of Germany, lightened by Leipzig and Waterloo,
were once more darkened; to the colossal and universal despotism of
Napoleon succeeded the individual oppression of those little princes who
made up the Germanic Diet, and all that the nations had gained by
overthrowing the giant was to be governed by dwarfs. This was the time
when secret societies were organised throughout Germany; let us say a few
words about them, for the history that we are writing is not only that of
individuals, but also that of nations, and every time that occasion
presents itself we will give our little picture a wide horizon.

The secret societies of Germany, of which, without knowing them, we have
all heard, seem, when we follow them up, like rivers, to originate in
some sort of affiliation to those famous clubs of the 'illumines' and the
freemasons which made so much stir in France at the close of the
eighteenth century. At the time of the revolution of '89 these different
philosophical, political, and religious sects enthusiastically accepted
the republican doctrines, and the successes of our first generals have