John Robison (physicist)
Encyclopedia
John Robison FRSE was a Scottish
physicist and mathematician. He was a professor
of philosophy
at the University of Edinburgh
.
A member of the Edinburgh Philosophical Society when it received its royal warrant, he was appointed as the first General Secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh
(1783-98). Robison invented the siren
and also worked with James Watt
on an early steam car
. Following the French Revolution
, Robison became disenchanted with elements of the Enlightenment
. He authored Proofs of a Conspiracy in 1797—a polemic accusing Freemasonry of being infiltrated by Weishaupt
's Order of the Illuminati
.
His son was the inventor Sir John Robison (1778-1843).
, Stirlingshire
(now East Dunbartonshire) and attended Glasgow Grammar School and the University of Glasgow
(MA 1756). After a brief stay in London in 1758 Robison joined the Royal Navy
as a midshipman
, and accompanied Thomas Wolfe on his expedition to Quebec and Portugal (1756-62). His mathematical
skills were employed in navigation
and surveying
. Returning to England
in 1762, he joined the Board of Longitude
— a team of scientists who tested John Harrison
’s marine chronometer
on a voyage to Jamaica
.
On his return he settled in Glasgow engaging in the practical science of James Watt
and Joseph Black
in opposition to the systematic continental European chemistry of Antoine Lavoisier
and its adherents such as Joseph Priestly. In 1766 he succeeded Black as Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow.
In 1769, he announced that balls with like electrical charges repel each other with a force that varies as the inverse-squared of the distance between them, anticipating Coulomb's law
of 1785.
In 1770 he travelled to Saint Petersburg
as the Secretary of Admiral Charles Knowles, where he taught mathematics
to the cadets at the Naval Academy
at Cronstadt, obtaining a double salary and the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Robison returned to Scotland in 1773 and took up the post of Professor of Natural Philosophy
at the University of Edinburgh
. He lectured on mechanics
, hydrostatics, astronomy
, optics
, electricity
and magnetism
. His conception of mechanical philosophy’ became influential in nineteenth-century British physics. His name appears in the 1776 "Minute Book of The Poker Club
", a crucible of the Scottish Enlightenment
. In 1783 he became General Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
and in 1797 his articles for the Encyclopaedia Britannica
gave a good account of the scientific, mathematical and technological knowledge of the day. He also prepared for publication, in 1799, the chemical lectures of his friend and mentor, Joseph Black
.
Robison worked with James Watt
on an early steam car
. This project came to nothing and has no direct connection to Watt's later improvement of the Newcomen steam engine
. He along with Joseph Black and others gave evidence about Watt's originality and their own lack of connection to his key idea of the Separate Condenser.
Robison did however invent the siren
, though it was Charles Cagniard de la Tour
who named it after producing an improved model.
, publishing Proofs of a Conspiracy ... in 1797, alleging clandestine intrigue by the Illuminati
and Freemasons
(the work's full title was Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the secret meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati and Reading Societies). Robison and French priest Abbé Barruel
independently developed similar views that the Illuminati had infiltrated Continental Freemasonry
, leading to the excesses of the French Revolution
. In 1798, the Reverend G. W. Snyder sent Robison's book to George Washington
for his thoughts on the subject in which he replied to him in his Letter to the Reverend G. W. Snyder (24 October 1798).
Modern conspiracy theorists like Nesta Webster
and William Guy Carr
believe that Robison's book described what the Illuminati may have started was the template for the subversion of otherwise benign organizations by radical groups through the 19th and 20th centuries. Spiritual Counterfeits Project
editor Tal Brooke has compared the views of Proofs of a Conspiracy with those found in Carroll Quigley
's Tragedy and Hope (Macmillan
, 1966). Brooke suggests that the New World Order
, which Robison believed Adam Weishaupt
(founder of the Illuminati) had in part accomplished through the infiltration of Freemasonry, will now be completed by those holding sway over the international banking system (e.g., by means of the Rothschilds' banks, the U.S. Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund
, and the World Bank
).
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
physicist and mathematician. He was a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
.
A member of the Edinburgh Philosophical Society when it received its royal warrant, he was appointed as the first General Secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
(1783-98). Robison invented the siren
Siren (noisemaker)
A siren is a loud noise making device. Most modern ones are civil defense or air raid sirens, tornado sirens, or the sirens on emergency service vehicles such as ambulances, police cars and fire trucks. There are two general types: pneumatic and electronic....
and also worked with James Watt
James Watt
James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
on an early steam car
Steam car
A steam car is a light car powered by a steam engine.Steam locomotives, steam engines capable of propelling themselves along either road or rails, developed around one hundred years earlier than internal combustion engine cars although their weight restricted them to agricultural and heavy haulage...
. Following the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, Robison became disenchanted with elements of the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
. He authored Proofs of a Conspiracy in 1797—a polemic accusing Freemasonry of being infiltrated by Weishaupt
Adam Weishaupt
Johann Adam Weishaupt was a German philosopher and founder of the Order of Illuminati, a secret society with origins in Bavaria.-Early life:...
's Order of the Illuminati
Illuminati
The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...
.
His son was the inventor Sir John Robison (1778-1843).
The physicist
The son of John Robison, a Glasgow merchant, he was born in Boghall, BaldernockBaldernock
Baldernock is a small parish in East Dunbartonshire , Scotland, ten miles to the north of Glasgow's city centre.-Geography:...
, Stirlingshire
Stirlingshire
Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling is a registration county of Scotland, based around Stirling, the former county town. It borders Perthshire to the north, Clackmannanshire and West Lothian to the east, Lanarkshire to the south, and Dunbartonshire to the south-west.Until 1975 it was a county...
(now East Dunbartonshire) and attended Glasgow Grammar School and the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
(MA 1756). After a brief stay in London in 1758 Robison joined the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
as a midshipman
Midshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...
, and accompanied Thomas Wolfe on his expedition to Quebec and Portugal (1756-62). His mathematical
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
skills were employed in navigation
Navigation
Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...
and surveying
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
. Returning to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1762, he joined the Board of Longitude
Board of Longitude
The Board of Longitude was the popular name for the Commissioners for the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea. It was a British Government body formed in 1714 to administer a scheme of prizes intended to encourage innovators to solve the problem of finding longitude at sea.-Origins:Navigators and...
— a team of scientists who tested John Harrison
John Harrison
John Harrison was a self-educated English clockmaker. He invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought device in solving the problem of establishing the East-West position or longitude of a ship at sea, thus revolutionising and extending the possibility of safe long distance sea travel in the Age...
’s marine chronometer
Marine chronometer
A marine chronometer is a clock that is precise and accurate enough to be used as a portable time standard; it can therefore be used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation...
on a voyage to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
.
On his return he settled in Glasgow engaging in the practical science of James Watt
James Watt
James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
and Joseph Black
Joseph Black
Joseph Black FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician and chemist, known for his discoveries of latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was professor of Medicine at University of Glasgow . James Watt, who was appointed as philosophical instrument maker at the same university...
in opposition to the systematic continental European chemistry of Antoine Lavoisier
Antoine Lavoisier
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier , the "father of modern chemistry", was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry and biology...
and its adherents such as Joseph Priestly. In 1766 he succeeded Black as Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow.
In 1769, he announced that balls with like electrical charges repel each other with a force that varies as the inverse-squared of the distance between them, anticipating Coulomb's law
Coulomb's law
Coulomb's law or Coulomb's inverse-square law, is a law of physics describing the electrostatic interaction between electrically charged particles. It was first published in 1785 by French physicist Charles Augustin de Coulomb and was essential to the development of the theory of electromagnetism...
of 1785.
In 1770 he travelled to Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
as the Secretary of Admiral Charles Knowles, where he taught mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
to the cadets at the Naval Academy
Naval Academy
-Institutions:* The United States Naval Academy* The Indian Naval Academy of India* The Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy of Bulgaria* The Imperial Japanese Naval Academy* The École Navale of France* The Britannia Royal Naval College of the United Kingdom...
at Cronstadt, obtaining a double salary and the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Robison returned to Scotland in 1773 and took up the post of Professor of Natural Philosophy
Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...
at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
. He lectured on mechanics
Mechanics
Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment....
, hydrostatics, astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, optics
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
, electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
and magnetism
Magnetism
Magnetism is a property of materials that respond at an atomic or subatomic level to an applied magnetic field. Ferromagnetism is the strongest and most familiar type of magnetism. It is responsible for the behavior of permanent magnets, which produce their own persistent magnetic fields, as well...
. His conception of mechanical philosophy’ became influential in nineteenth-century British physics. His name appears in the 1776 "Minute Book of The Poker Club
The Poker Club
The Poker Club was one of several clubs at the heart of the Scottish Enlightenment where many associated with that movement met and exchanged views in a convivial atmosphere. The Poker Club was created out of the ashes of The Select Society....
", a crucible of the Scottish Enlightenment
Scottish Enlightenment
The Scottish Enlightenment was the period in 18th century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By 1750, Scots were among the most literate citizens of Europe, with an estimated 75% level of literacy...
. In 1783 he became General Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
and in 1797 his articles for the Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica Third Edition
The Encyclopædia Britannica Third Edition is an 18-volume reference work, an edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's earliest period as a two-man operation founded by Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell, in Edinburgh, Scotland...
gave a good account of the scientific, mathematical and technological knowledge of the day. He also prepared for publication, in 1799, the chemical lectures of his friend and mentor, Joseph Black
Joseph Black
Joseph Black FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician and chemist, known for his discoveries of latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was professor of Medicine at University of Glasgow . James Watt, who was appointed as philosophical instrument maker at the same university...
.
Robison worked with James Watt
James Watt
James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
on an early steam car
Steam car
A steam car is a light car powered by a steam engine.Steam locomotives, steam engines capable of propelling themselves along either road or rails, developed around one hundred years earlier than internal combustion engine cars although their weight restricted them to agricultural and heavy haulage...
. This project came to nothing and has no direct connection to Watt's later improvement of the Newcomen steam engine
Newcomen steam engine
The atmospheric engine invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, today referred to as a Newcomen steam engine , was the first practical device to harness the power of steam to produce mechanical work. Newcomen engines were used throughout Britain and Europe, principally to pump water out of mines,...
. He along with Joseph Black and others gave evidence about Watt's originality and their own lack of connection to his key idea of the Separate Condenser.
Robison did however invent the siren
Siren (noisemaker)
A siren is a loud noise making device. Most modern ones are civil defense or air raid sirens, tornado sirens, or the sirens on emergency service vehicles such as ambulances, police cars and fire trucks. There are two general types: pneumatic and electronic....
, though it was Charles Cagniard de la Tour
Charles Cagniard de la Tour
Charles Cagniard de la Tour was a French engineer and physicist.-Biography:Charles Cagniard was born in Paris, and after attending the École Polytechnique became one of the ingénieurs géographiques. He was made a baron in 1818...
who named it after producing an improved model.
The conspiracy theorist
Towards the end of his life, he became an enthusiastic conspiracy theoristConspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
, publishing Proofs of a Conspiracy ... in 1797, alleging clandestine intrigue by the Illuminati
Illuminati
The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...
and Freemasons
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
(the work's full title was Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the secret meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati and Reading Societies). Robison and French priest Abbé Barruel
Augustin Barruel
Abbé Augustin Barruel was a French Jesuit priest. He is now mostly known for setting forth the conspiracy theory involving the Bavarian Illuminati and the Jacobins in his book Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism published in 1797...
independently developed similar views that the Illuminati had infiltrated Continental Freemasonry
Grand Orient de France
The Grand Orient de France is the largest of several Masonic organizations in France and the oldest in Continental Europe, founded in 1733.-Foundation:...
, leading to the excesses of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. In 1798, the Reverend G. W. Snyder sent Robison's book to George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
for his thoughts on the subject in which he replied to him in his Letter to the Reverend G. W. Snyder (24 October 1798).
Modern conspiracy theorists like Nesta Webster
Nesta Webster
Nesta Helen Webster , was a controversial historian, occultist, and author who revived conspiracy theories about the Illuminati. She argued that the secret society's members were occultists, plotting communist world domination, using the idea of a Jewish cabal, the Masons and Jesuits as a...
and William Guy Carr
William Guy Carr
William James Guy Carr was a Canadian naval officer and an author. Though his accounts of wartime naval experiences found a general audience, he is best remembered today as a conspiracy theorist, "the most influential source in creating the American Illuminati demonology", according to the...
believe that Robison's book described what the Illuminati may have started was the template for the subversion of otherwise benign organizations by radical groups through the 19th and 20th centuries. Spiritual Counterfeits Project
Spiritual Counterfeits Project
The Spiritual Counterfeits Project is a Christian evangelical parachurch organisation located in Berkeley, California. Since its inception in the early 1970s it has been involved in the fields of Christian apologetics and the Christian countercult movement. Its current president is Tal Brooke...
editor Tal Brooke has compared the views of Proofs of a Conspiracy with those found in Carroll Quigley
Carroll Quigley
Carroll Quigley was an American historian and theorist of the evolution of civilizations. He is noted for his teaching work as a professor at Georgetown University, for his academic publications, and for his research on secret societies.- Biography :Quigley was born in Boston, and attended...
's Tragedy and Hope (Macmillan
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
, 1966). Brooke suggests that the New World Order
New World Order
New World Order, New world order or The New World Order may refer to:*New world order , any period of history evidencing a dramatic change in world political thought and the balance of power...
, which Robison believed Adam Weishaupt
Adam Weishaupt
Johann Adam Weishaupt was a German philosopher and founder of the Order of Illuminati, a secret society with origins in Bavaria.-Early life:...
(founder of the Illuminati) had in part accomplished through the infiltration of Freemasonry, will now be completed by those holding sway over the international banking system (e.g., by means of the Rothschilds' banks, the U.S. Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
, and the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
).
Works
- Outlines of mechanical philosophy : containing the heads of a course of lectures, Edinburgh, William Creech, 1781.
- Outlines of a course of experimental philosophy, Edinburgh, William Creech, 1784.
- Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the Secret Meetings of Free-Masons, Illuminati and Reading Societies, etc., collected from good authorities, Edinburgh, 1797.
- Outlines of a course of lectures on mechanical philosophy, Edinburgh, J. Brown, 1803.
- Elements of mechanical philosophy : being the substance of a course of lectures on that science, vol 1, Edinburgh, Archibald Constable, 1804.
- The articles "steam" and "steam-engines" written for the Encyclopedia Britannica, edited by David Brewster with notes and additions by James Watt and a letter on some properties, Edinburgh and London, James Ballantyne & Co. 1818.
- A system of mechanical philosophy, Edinburgh, J. Murray, 1822.
Proofs of Conspiracy, reprints and related documents
- Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the Secret Meetings of Free-Masons, Illuminati and Reading Societies, etc., collected from good authorities, Edinburgh, 1797 ; 2nd ed. London, T. Cadell & W. Davies, 1797 with a Postsript ; 3rd ed. with Postscript, Philadelphia, T. Dobson & W. Cobbet, 1798 ; New York, 1798 ; Dublin 1798 ; Proofs of a Conspiracy, Western Islands, 1900 ; The Illuminati, taken from "Proofs of a world conspiracy", Elizabeth Knauss [1930] ; Proof's [sic!] of a conspiracy, Ram Reprints, 1964 ; Proofs of a conspiracy, Boston, Western Islands, "The Americanist classics", [1967] ; Proofs of a conspiracy, Islands Press, 1978 ; C P a Book Pub, 2002 ISBN 0944379699 ; Kessinger Publishing, 2003 ISBN 0766181243
- Ueber geheime Gesellschaften und deren Gefährlichkeit für Staat und Religion..., translated in German, Königslutter, 1800.
- [Anti-Jacobin], New Lights on Jacobinism, abstracted from Professor Robison’s History of Free Masonry, with an appendix containing an account of Voltaire’s behaviour on his death-bed, and a letter from J. H. Stone to Dr. Priestley, disclosing the principles of Jacobinism. By the author of Jacobinism displayed, Birmingham, E. Piercy, Birmingham, 1798.
- [Cornelius] (pseudonym), Extracts from Professor Robison’s "Proofs of a Conspiracy" & c., with brief reflections on the charges he has exhibited, the evidence he has produced and the merit of his performance, Boston, Manning & Loring, Boston, 1799.
- Seth Payson, Proofs of the real existence, and dangerous tendency, of Illuminism, containing an abstract of what Dr. Robinson and the Abbé Barruel have published on this subject ; with collateral proofs and general observations, Charlestown, 1802 ; Invisible College Press, LLC, 2003 ISBN 1931468141
- [A Master Mason], Free Masonry. Its pretensions exposed in faithful extracts of its standard authors, with a review of [Salem] Town’s Speculative Masonry : its liability to pervert the doctrines of revealed religion discovered, its dangerous tendency exhibited in extracts from the Abbé Barruel and Professor Robison, and further illustrated in its base service to the Illuminati, New York, 1828.
Sources
- Past anti-Masons : John Robison, on masonicinfo.com
- Biography, Papers of John Robison, Edinburgh University Library
- "The French Revolution and the Bavarian Illuminati", on Robison and Barruel, Freemasonry BC-Y
- Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Robison. Philosophical magazinePhilosophical MagazineThe Philosophical Magazine is one of the oldest scientific journals published in English. Initiated by Alexander Tilloch in 1798, in 1822 Richard Taylor became joint editor and it has been published continuously by Taylor & Francis ever since; it was the journal of choice for such luminaries as...
10 (1801), 348 - 353 - Biographical Memoirs of Dr. Robinson, of Edinburgh. Philosophical magazinePhilosophical MagazineThe Philosophical Magazine is one of the oldest scientific journals published in English. Initiated by Alexander Tilloch in 1798, in 1822 Richard Taylor became joint editor and it has been published continuously by Taylor & Francis ever since; it was the journal of choice for such luminaries as...
13(1802), 386 - 394