Eco: Foucalt's Pendulum by eco foucault (ebook smartphone .txt) 📕

a thriller, that takes place a bit later. In1921¡Xafter the appearance of the Protocols, which it took veryseriously¡Xthe Times of London learns that a Russian monarchistlandowner who fled to Turkey has bought from a former officer ofthe Russian secret police, now a refugee in Constantinople, anumber of old books, and among them is one without a cover. On itsspine it has only "Joli," and there is a preface dated 1864. Thisis the source of the Protocols. The Times does some research in theBritish Museum and discovers the original book, by Maurice Joly,Dialogue aux enfers entre Montesquieu et Machiavel, Bruxelles(though it says Geneve on the title page), 1864. Maurice Joly hasno connection with Cretineau-Joly, but the similarity of the namesmust mean something.

Joly's book is a liberalpamphlet against Napoleon III, in which Machiavelli, who representsthe dictator's cynicism, argues with Montesquieu. Joly is arrestedfor this revolutionary venture, he serves fifteen years in prison,and in 1878 he kills himself. The Jewish plot enunciated in theProtocols is taken almost literally from the words Joly puts inMachiavelli's mouth (the end justifies the means); afterMachiavelli, the words become Napoleon's. The Times, however, doesnot realize (but we do) that Joly had shamelessly copied Sue'sdocument, which predates it by at least seven years.

An anti-Semiteauthoress, devotee of the plot theory and the Unknown Superiors, acertain Nesta Webster, faced by this development, which reduces theProtocols to the level of cheap plagiarism, provides us with abrilliant idea, the sort of idea that only a true initiate orinitiate-hunter can have: Joly was an initiate, he knew the Plan ofthe Unknown Superiors, and attributed it to Napoleon III, whom hehated. But this does not mean that the Plan does not existindependently of Napoleon. Since the Plan outlined in the Protocolsis a perfect description of the customary behavior of the Jews,then the Jews must have invented the Plan. We had only to rereadMrs. Webster in the light of her own logic: Since the Plancoincided exactly with what the Templars wanted, it was the Plan ofthe Templars.

Besides, we had thelogic of facts on our side. We were particularly attracted by theepisode in the Prague cemetery. This was the story of a certainHermann Goedsche, an insignificant Prussian postal employee whopublished false documents to discredit the democrat Waldeck. Thedocuments accused him of planning to assassinate the king ofPrussia. Goedsche, after he was unmasked, became the editor of theorgan of the big conservative landowners. Die PreussischeKreuzzeitung. Then, under the name Sir John RetclifFe, he beganwriting sensational novels, including Biarritz, 1868. In it hedescribed an occultist scene in the Prague cemetery, very similarto the meeting of the Illuminati described by Dumas at thebeginning of Giuseppe Balsamo, where Cagliostro, chief of theUnknown Superiors, among them Swedenborg, arranges the Affair ofthe Diamond Necklace. In the Prague cemetery the representatives ofthe twelve tribes of Israel gather, to expound their plans for theconquest of the world.

In 1876 a Russianpamphlet reprints the scene from Biarritz, but as if it were fact,not fiction. And in 1881, in France, Le Contemporain does the samething, claiming that the news comes from an unimpeachable source:the English diplomat Sir John Readcliff. In 1896 one Bournandpublishes a book, Les Juifs, nos contemporains, and repeats thescene of the Prague cemetery; he says that the subversive speech ismade by the great rabbi John Readclif. A later version; however,reports that the real Readclif was taken to the fatal cemetery byFerdinand Las-salle.

The plans revealed aremore or less the same as described a few years earlier, in 1880, bythe Revue des Etudes Juives, which publishes two letters attributedto Jews of the fifteenth century. The Jews of Aries ask the help ofthe Jews of Constantinople, because in France they are beingpersecuted, and the latter reply: "Well-beloved brothers in Moses,if the king of France forces you to become Christian, do so,because you cannot do otherwise, but preserve the law of Moses inyour hearts. If they strip you of your possessions, raise your sonsto be merchants, so that eventually they can strip Christians oftheir possessions. If they threaten your lives, raise your sons tobe physicians and pharmacists, so that they can take the lives ofChristians. If they destroy your synagogues, raise your sons, to becanons and clerics, so that they can destroy the churches of theChristians. If they inflict other tribulations on you, raise yoursons to be lawyers and notaries and have them mingle in thebusiness of every state, so that putting the Christians under youryoke, you will rule the world and can then take yourrevenge."

It was, again, the Planof the Jesuits and, before that, of the Ordonation of the Templars.Few variations, few changes: the Protocols were self-generating; ablueprint that migrated from one conspiracy to another.

* * *

And when we racked ourbrains to find the missing link that connected this whole finestory to Nilus, we encountered Rach-kovsky, the head of the tsar'ssecret police, the terrible Okhrana.

96

A cover is alwaysnecessary. In concealment lies a great part of our strength. Hencewe must always hide ourselves under the name of anothersociety.

¡XDie neuesten Arbeitendes Spartacus und Philo in dem Illuminaten-Orden, 1794, p.165

At that same time,reading some pages of our Diabolicals, we found that the Comte deSaint-Germain, among his numerous disguises, had assumed theidentity Rackoczi, at least according to the ambassador ofFrederick II in Dresden. And the landgrave of Hesse, at whoseresidence Saint-Germain was supposed to have died, said that he wasof Transylvanian origin and his name was Rago/ki. We had also toconsider that Comenius dedicated his Pansophiae (a work surely bornin the odor of Rosicrucian-ism) to a landgrave (another landgrave)named Ragovsky. A final touch to the mosaic: browsing at abookstall in Piazza Castello, I found a German work on Masonry,anonymous, in which an unknown hand had added, on the flyleaf, anote to the effect that the text was the work of one Karl Aug.Ragotgky. Bearing in mind that Rakosky was the name of themysterious individual who had perhaps killed Colonel Ardenti, wenow could include in the Plan our Comte deSaint-Germain.

"Aren't we giving thatscoundrel too much power?" Diotal-levi asked, concerned.

"No, no," Belbo replied,"we need him. Like soy sauce in Chinese dishes. If it's not