{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_21258/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_21258","id":"gutenberg_21258","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21258","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Satanism"],"text":"Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Tamise Totterdell, Brian\nJanes and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttp://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\nDEVIL-WORSHIP IN FRANCE\n\n\n\n\n    _Demy 8vo, about 450 pages, cloth_\n\n    THE DOCTRINE AND RITUAL OF\n    TRANSCENDENT MAGIC\n\n    BY\n\n    ELIPHAS LEVI\n\n    A COMPLETE TRANSLATION OF \"DOGME ET RITUEL DE LA HAUTE\n    MAGIE\"\n\n    BY\n\n    ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE\n\n    _With all the original engravings and a portrait of the Author._\n\n    GEORGE REDWAY\n    9 HART STREET, BLOOMSBURY\n    LONDON\n\n\n\n\nDEVIL-WORSHIP IN FRANCE\n\nOR\n\nTHE QUESTION OF LUCIFER\n\n_A RECORD OF THINGS SEEN AND HEARD IN THE\nSECRET SOCIETIES ACCORDING TO THE\nEVIDENCE OF INITIATES_\n\nBY\n\nARTHUR EDWARD WAITE\n\n\"The first in this plot was Lucifer.\"--THOMAS VAUGHAN\n\nLONDON\nGEORGE REDWAY\n1896\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThe term Modern Satanism is not intended to signify the development of\nsome new aspect of old doctrine concerning demonology, or some new\nargument for the personification of the evil principle in universal\nnature. It is intended to signify the alleged revival, or, at least, the\nreappearance to some extent in public, of a _cultus diabolicus_, or\nformal religion of the devil, the existence of which, in the middle\nages, is registered by the known facts of the Black Sabbath, a\ndepartment, however, of historical research, to which full justice yet\nremains to be done. By the hypothesis, such a religion may assume one of\ntwo forms; it may be a worship of the evil principle as such, namely, a\nconscious attempt on the part of human minds to identify themselves with\nthat principle, or it may be the worship of a power which is regarded as\nevil by other religions, from which view the worshippers in question\ndissent. The necessity for this distinction I shall make apparent in the\nfirst chapter of this book. A religion of the darkness, subsisting under\neach of these distinctive forms, is said to be in practice at the\npresent moment, and to be characterised, as it was in the past, by the\nstrong evidence of miracles,--in other words, by transcendental\nphenomena of a very extraordinary kind, connecting in a direct manner\nwith what is generically termed Black Magic. Now, Black Magic in the\npast may have been imposture reinforced by delusion, and to state that\nit is recurring at the present day does not commit anyone to an opinion\nupon its veridical origin. To say, also, that the existence of modern\ndiabolism has passed from the region of rumour into that of exhaustive\nand detailed statement, is to record a matter of fact, and I must add\nthat the evidence in hand, whatever its ultimate value, can be regarded\nlightly by those only who are unacquainted with its extent and\ncharacter. This evidence is, broadly, of three kinds:--(a) The testimony\nof independent men of letters, who would seem to have come in contact\ntherewith; (b) the testimony volunteered by former initiates of such\nsecret associations as are dedicated to a _cultus diabolicus_; (c) the\ntestimony of certain writers, claiming special sources of information,\nand defending some affected interests of the Roman Catholic Church.\n\nMy purpose in this book is to distinguish, so far as may be possible,\nwhat is true from what is false in the evidence, and I have undertaken\nthe task, firstly, because modern mystics are accused, _en masse_, of\nbeing concerned in this cultus; secondly, because the existence of\nmodern Satanism has given opportunity to a conspiracy of falsehood which\nis wide in its ramifications, and serious on account of its source;\nthirdly, because the question itself has awakened considerable interest\nboth within and without transcendental circles, and it is desirable to\nreplace hazy and exaggerated notions by a clear and formal statement.\n\nI have connected the new diabolism with France in my title, because the\nevidence in each of its kinds has been filed by French writers, and we\nhave no other source of information. So far as that evidence is sound,\nwe have to thank France for producing it; but, on the other hand, should\nit prove that a whole city of invention has been constructed, \"with all\nits spires and gateways,\" upon a meagre basis of fact, it is just that\nFrench imagination should have full credit for the decorative art which\nhas adorned this Question of Lucifer.\n\nThe plan of my work had been sketched, and a number of chapters written,\nwhen I found myself to some extent preceded by a writer well known to\noccultists under the pseudonym of Papus, who has quite recently\npublished a small brochure, entitled _Le Diable et L'Occultisme_, which\nis a brief defence of transcendentalists against the accusations in\nconnection with Satanism. I gladly yield to M. Papus the priority in\ntime, which was possible to a well-informed gentleman, at the centre of\nthe conspiracy. His little work, however, does not claim to be either a\nreview or a criticism, and does not therefore, in any sense, cover the\nground which I have travelled. It is an exposition and exoneration of\nhis own school of mystic thought, which is that of the Martinists, and I\nhave mentioned it in this connection in its proper place.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n                                                 PAGE\n\nPREFACE                                             v\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nSATANISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY                  1\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE MASK OF MASONRY                                22\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE FIRST WITNESSES OF LUCIFER                     42\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nEX ORE LEONIS                                      53\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE DISCOVERY OF M. RICOUX                         74\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nART SACERDOTAL                                     82\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTHE DEVIL AND THE DOCTOR                           97\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nDEALINGS WITH DIANA                               162\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nHOW LUCIFER IS UNMASKED                           182\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE VENDETTA OF SIGNOR MARGIOTTA                  201\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nFEMALE FREEMASONRY                                225\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE PASSING OF DOCTOR BATAILLE                    233\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nDIANA UNVEILED                                    255\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nTHE RADIX OF MODERN DIABOLISM                     290\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nCONCLUSION                                        299\n\n\n\n\nDEVIL-WORSHIP IN FRANCE\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nSATANISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY\n\n\nIf a short time ago that ultimate and universal source of reference, the\nperson of average intelligence, had been asked concerning Modern\nDiabolism, or the Question of Lucifer,--What it is? Who are its\ndisciples? Where is it practised? And why?--he would have replied,\npossibly with some asperity:--\"The question of Lucifer! There is no\nquestion of Lucifer. Modern Diabolism! There is no modern Diabolism.\"\nAnd all the advanced people and all the strong minds would have extolled\nthe average intelligence, whereupon the matter would have been closed\nhermetically, without disquieting and unwelcome investigations like the\npresent.\n\nThe Great Teacher of Christianity beheld Lucifer fall from heaven like\nlightning, and, in a different sense, the modern world has witnessed a\nsimilar spectacle. Assuredly the demon of Milton has been cast down from\nthe sky of theology, and, except in a few centres of extreme doctrinal\nconcentration, there is no place found for him. The apostles of material\nphilosophy have in a manner searched the universe, and have\nproduced--well, the material philosophy, and therein is no question of\nLucifer. At the opposite pole of thought there is, let us say, the\nspiritualist, in possession of many instruments superior, at least by\nthe hypothesis, to the search-lights of science, through which he\nreceives the messages of the spheres and establishes a partial\nacquaintance with an order which is not of this world; but in that order\nalso there appears to be no question of Lucifer, though vexed questions\nthere are without number concerning \"unprogressed spirits,\" to say\nnothing of the elementary. Between these poles there is the flux and\nreflux of multitudinous opinions; but, except at the centres mentioned,\nthere is still no question of Lucifer; it has been shelved or dropped.\n\nThe revival of mystical philosophy, and, moreover, of transcendental\nexperiment, which is prosecuted in secret to a far greater extent than\nthe public can possibly be aware, has, however, set many old oracles\nchattering, and they are more voluble at the present moment than the\ngreat Dodonian grove. As might be expected, they whisper occasionally of\ndeeds done in the darkness which look weird when exposed to the day. The\nterms Satanism, Luciferianism, Diabolism, and their equivalents, have\nbeen buzzed frequently, though with some indistinctness, of late, and in\naccents that indicate the existence of a living terror--people do not\nquite know of what kind--rather than an exploded superstition. To be\nplain, the Question of Lucifer has reappeared, and in a manner which\nmust be eminently disconcerting to the average intelligence and the\nadvanced and strong in mind. It has reappeared not as a speculative\ninquiry into the possibility of a personal embodiment of evil operating\nmysteriously, but after a wholly spiritual manner, for the propagation\nof the second death; we are asked to acknowledge that there is a visible\nand tangible manifestation of the descending hierarchy taking place at\nthe close of a century which has denied that there is any prince of\ndarkness.\n\nNow there are some subjects which impress one at first sight as\nunserious, but we come to regard them differently when we find that they\nare being taken seriously. We have been accustomed, with some show of\nreason, to connect the idea of devil-worship with barbarous rites\nobtaining among savage nations, to regard it, in fact, as a suitable\ncomplement of the fetish. It seems hypothetically quite impossible that\nthere can be any person, much less any society or class of persons, who,\nat this day, and in London, Paris, or New York, adore the evil\nprinciple. Hence, to say that there is Black Magic actively in function\nat the present moment; that there is a living cultus of Lucifer; that\nBlack Masses are celebrated, and involve revolting profanations of the\nCatholic Eucharist; that the devil appears personally; that he possesses\nhis church, his ritual, his sacraments; that men, women, and children\ndedicate themselves to his service, or are so devoted by their sponsors;\nthat there are people, assumed to be sane, who would die in the peace of\nLucifer; that there are those also who regard his region of eternal\nfire--a variety unknown to the late Mr Charles Marvin--as the true abode\nof beatitude--to say all this will not enhance the credibility or\nestablish the intelligence of the speaker.\n\nBut this improbable development of Satanism is just what is being\nearnestly asserted, and the affirmations made are being taken in some\nquarters _au grand serieux_. They are not a growth of to-day or\nprecisely of yesterday; they have been more or less heard for some\nyears, but their prominence at the moment is due to increasing\ninsistence, pretension to scrupulous exactitude, abundant detail, and\ndemonstrative evidence. Reports, furthermore, have quite recently come\nto hand from two exceedingly circumstantial and exhaustive witnesses,\nand these have created distinctly a fresh departure. Books have\nmultiplied, periodicals have been founded, the Church is taking action,\neven a legal process has been instituted. The centre of this literature\nis at Paris, but the report of it has crossed the Channel, and has\npassed into the English press. As it is affirmed, therefore, that a\ncultus of Lucifer exists, and that the men and women who are engaged in\nit are neither ignorant nor especially mad, nor yet belonging to the\nlowest strata of society, it is worth while to investigate the matter,\nand some profit is possible, whatever the issue.\n\nIf the devil be actually among us, then for the sake of much which has\nseemed crass in orthodox religion, thus completely exonerated; for the\nsake of the fantastic in fiction and the lurid in legend, thus\nunexpectedly actualised; and, further, as it may be, for the sake of our\nown souls, we shall do well to know of it. If Abaddon, Apollyon, and the\nLord of Flies are to be understood literally; above all, if they are\nliable to confront us _in propria persona_ between Free Mason's Hall and\nDuke Street, or between Duke Street and Avenue Road, then the sooner we\ncan arrange our reconciliation with the one Church which has\nconsistently and invariably taught the one full-grown, virile doctrine\nof devils, and has the _bona-fide_ recipes for knowing, avoiding, and at\nneed of exorcising them, why the better will it be, more especially if\nwe have had previously any leanings towards the conception of an\nuniversal order not pivoting on perdition.\n\nIf, on the other hand, what is said be of the category of Ananias, as\ndistinguished from what alchemists call the Code of Truth, it will be\nwell also to know that some portions of the old orthodoxies still wait\nfor their deliverance from the bonds of scepticism, that the actual is\nto be discriminated from the fantastic by the old test, namely, its\ncomparative stupidity, and that we may still create our universe about\nany pivot that may please us.\n\nI am writing ostensibly for transcendentalists, of whom I am one; it is\nas a student of transcendentalism that I have been led to examine this\nmodern mystery, equipped as it is with such portentous phenomena.\nDiabolism is, of course, a transcendental question, and black magic is\nconnected with white by the same antinomy that connects light and\ndarkness. Moreover, we mystics are all to some extent accused by the\naccusations which are preferred in the matter of modern diabolism, and\nthis is another reason for investigating and making known the result. At\nthe same time, the general question has many aspects of interest for\nthat large class which would demur to be termed transcendental, but\nconfesses to being curious.\n\nThe earliest rumour which I have been able to recall in England\nconcerning existing occult practices to which a questionable purpose\nmight be attributed, appeared in a well-known psychological journal some\nfew years since, and was derived from a continental source, being an\naccount of a certain society then existing in Paris, which was devoted\nto magical practices and in possession of a secret ritual for the\nevocation of planetary angels; it was an association of well-placed\npersons, denying any connection with spiritualism, and pretending to an\nacquaintance with more effectual thaumaturgic processes than those\nwhich obtain at seances. The account passed unchallenged, for in the\nabsence of more explicit information, it seemed scarcely worth while to\ndraw attention to the true character of the claim. The secret ritual in\nquestion could not have been unknown to specialists in magical\nliterature, and was certainly to myself among these; as a fact, it was\none of those numerous clavicles of the goetic art which used to\ncirculate surreptitiously in manuscript some two centuries ago. There is\nno doubt that the planetary spirits with which the document was\nconcerned were devils in the intention of its author, and must have been\nevoked as such, supposing that the process was practised. The French\nassociation was not therefore in possession of a secret source of\nknowledge, but as impositions of this kind are to be _a priori_ expected\nin such cases by transcendentalists of any experience, I for one\nrefrained from entering any protest at the time.\n\nMuch about the same period it became evident that a marked change had\npassed over certain aspects of thought in \"the most enlightened city of\nthe world,\" and that among the _jeunesse doree_, in particular, there\nwas a strong revulsion against paramount material philosophy; an epoch\nof transcendental and mystic feeling was, in fact, beginning. Old\nassociations, having transcendental objects, were in course of revival,\nor were coming into renewed prominence. Martinists, Gnostics,\nKabbalists, and a score of orders or fraternities of which we vaguely\nhear about the period of the French Revolution, began to manifest great\nactivity; periodicals of a mystical tendency--not spiritualistic, not\nneo-theosophical, but Hermetic, Kabbalistic, and theurgic--were\nestablished, and met with success; books which had grievously weighted\nthe shelves of their publishers for something like a quarter of a\ncentury were suddenly in demand, and students of distinction on this\nside of the channel were attracted towards the new centre. The interest\nwas intelligible to professed mystics; the doctrine of transcendentalism\nhas never had but one adversary, which is the density of the\nintellectual subject, and wherever the subject clarifies, there is\nidealism in philosophy and mysticism in religion. Moreover, on the part\nof mystics, especially here in England, the way of that revival had been\nprepared carefully, and there could be no astonishment that it came, and\nnone, too, that it was accompanied, as it is accompanied almost\ninvariably, by much that does not belong to it in the way of\ntranscendental phenomena. When, therefore, the rumours of Black Magic,\ndiabolism, and the abuse of occult forces began to circulate, there was\nlittle difficulty in attributing some foundation to the report.\n\nA distinguished man of letters, M. Huysman, who has passed out of\nZolaism in the direction of transcendental religion, is, in a certain\nsense, the discoverer of modern Satanism. Under the thinnest disguise of\nfiction, he gives in his romance of _La Bas_, an incredible and\nuntranslatable picture of sorcery, sacrilege, black magic, and nameless\nabominations, secretly practised in Paris. Possessing a brilliant\nreputation, commanding a wide audience, and with a psychological\ninterest attaching to his own personality, which more than literary\nexcellence infuses a contagious element into private views and\nimpressions, he has given currency to the Question of Lucifer, has\npromoted it from obscurity into prominence, and has made it the vogue of\nthe moment. It is true that, by his vocation of novelist, he is\nsuspected of inventing his facts, and Dr \"Papus,\" president of the\ninfluential Martinist group in French occultism, states quite plainly\nthat the doors of the mystic fraternities have been closed in his face,\nso that he can know nothing, and his opinions are consequently\nindifferent. I have weighed these points carefully, but unless the\nmystic fraternities are connected with diabolism, which Papus would most\nrightly deny, the exclusion does not remove the opportunity of\nfirst-hand knowledge concerning the practice of Satanism, and,\n\"brilliant imagination\" apart, M. Huysman has proved quite recently that\nhe is in mortal earnest by his preface to a historical treatise on\n\"Satanism and Magic,\" the work of a literary disciple, Jules Bois. In a\ncriticism, which for general soberness and lucidity does not leave much\nto be desired, he there affirms that a number of persons, not specially\ndistinguished from the rest of the world by the mark of the beast in\ntheir foreheads, are \"devoted in secret to the operations of Black\nMagic, communicate or seek to communicate with Spirits of Darkness, for\nthe attainment of ambition, the accomplishment of revenge, the\nsatisfaction of their passions, or some other form of ill-doing.\" He\naffirms also that there are facts which cannot be concealed and from\nwhich only one deduction can be made, namely, that the existence of\nSatanism is undeniable.\n\nTo understand the first of these facts I must explain that the attempt\nto form a partnership with the lost angels of orthodox theology, which\nattempt constitutes Black Magic, has, in Europe at least, been\ninvariably connected with sacrilege. By the hypothesis of demonology,\nSatan is the enemy of Christ, and to please Satan the sorcerer must\noutrage Christ, especially in his sacraments. The facts are as\nfollow:--(a) continuous, systematic, and wholesale robberies of\nconsecrated hosts from Catholic Churches, and this not as a consequence\nof importing the vessels of the sanctuary, which are often of trifling\nvalue and often left behind. The intention of the robbery is therefore\nto possess the hosts, and their future profanation is the only possible\nobject. Now, before it can be worth while to profane the Eucharist, one\nmust believe in the Real Presence, and this is acknowledged by only two\nclasses, the many who love Christ and some few who hate Him. But He is\nnot profaned, at least not intentionally, by His lovers; hence the\nsacrilege is committed by His enemies in chief, namely, practisers of\nBlack Magic. It is difficult, I think, to escape from that position; and\nI should add that sacramental outrages of this astonishing kind, however\ndeeply they may be deplored by the Church, are concealed rather than\nparaded, and as it is difficult to get at the facts, it may be inferred\nthat they are not exaggerated, at least by the Church; (b) The\noccasional perpetration of certain outrageous crimes, including murder\nand other abominations, in which an element of Black Magic has been\nelicited by legal tribunals. But these are too isolated in place and\ntoo infrequent in time to be evidence for Satanic associations or\nindications of a prevalent practice. They may therefore be released from\nthe custody of the present inquiry to come up for judgment when called\non; (c) The existence of a society of Palladists, or professors of\ncertain doctrines termed Palladism, as demonstrated, _inter alia_, by\nthe publication of a periodical review in its interests.\n\nM. Huysman's facts, therefore, resolve into acts of sacrilege,\nindicating associations existing for the purpose of sacrilege, which\npurpose must, however, be regarded as a means and not an end, and the\nend in question is to enter into communication with devils.\nIndependently of M. Huysman, I believe there is no doubt about the\nsacrilege. It is a matter of notoriety that in 1894 two ciboria,\ncontaining one hundred consecrated hosts, were carried off by an old\nwoman from the cathedral of Notre Dame under circumstances which\nindicate that the vessels were not the objects of the larceny. Similar\ndepredations are said to have increased in an extraordinary manner\nduring recent years, and have occurred in all parts of France. No less\nthan thirteen churches belonging to the one diocese of Orleans were\ndespoiled in the space of twelve months, and in the diocese of Lyons the\narchbishop recommended his clergy to transform the tabernacles into\nstrong boxes. The departments of Aude, Isere, Tarn, Gard, Nievre,\nLoiret, Yonne, Haute-Garonne, Somme, Le Nord, and the Dauphiny have been\nin turn the scene of outrage. Nor are the abominations in question\nconfined to France: Rome, Liguria, Salerno have also suffered, while so\nfar off as the Island of Mauritius a peculiarly revolting instance\noccurred in 1895.\n\nI am not able to say that the personal researches of the French novelist\nhave proceeded beyond the statistics of sacrilege, which, however, he\nhas collected carefully, and these in themselves constitute a strong\npresumption. M. Huysman is exhaustive in fiction and reticent in\nessay-writing, yet he gives us to understand explicitly that the\ninfamous Canon Docre of _La Bas_ is actually living in Belgium, that he\nis the leader of a \"demoniac clan,\" and, like the Count de St Germain,\nis in frequent terror of the possibilities of the life to come. An\ninterviewer has represented M. Huysman as stating that his information\nwas derived from a person who was himself a Satanist, but the\nrevelations disturbed the sect, and the communication ceased, though the\nauthor had originally been welcomed \"as one of their own.\" But it is\nclear to my own mind that for his descriptions of the orgies which take\nplace at the assemblies of modern black magicians, M. Huysman is mainly\nindebted to documents which have been placed in his hands by existing\ndisciples of the illumine Eugene Vintras, and the \"Dr Johannes\" of _La\nBas_. Vintras was the founder of a singular thaumaturgic sect,\nincorporating the aspirations of the Saviours of Louis XVII.; he\nobtained some notoriety about the year 1860, and an account of his\nclaims and miracles will be found in Eliphas Levi's _Histoire de la\nMagie_, in the same writer's _Clef des Grands Mysteres_, and in Jules\nBois' _Petites Religions de Paris_. He left a number of manuscripts\nbehind him, recounting his life-long combats with the priests of black\nmagic--a series of fervid narratives which savour strongly of\nhallucination, but highly picturesque, and in some quarters accepted\nquite seriously.\n\nIn like manner, concerning the existence of Satanic associations, and\nespecially the Palladium, M. Huysman admittedly derives his knowledge\nfrom published sources. We may take it, therefore, that he speaks from\nan accidental and extrinsic acquaintance, and he is therefore\ninsufficient in himself to create a question of Satanism; he indicates\nrather than establishes that there is a question, and to learn its scope\nand nature we must have recourse to the witnesses who claim to have seen\nfor themselves. These are of two kinds, namely, the spy and the\nseceder--the witness who claims to have investigated the subject at\nfirst hand with a view to its exposure, and those who have come forward\nto say that they once were worshippers of Lucifer, worshippers of Satan,\noperators of Black Magic, or were at least connected with associations\nwhich exist for these purposes, who have now, however, suspended\ncommunication, and are stating what they know. In the first class we\nfind only Doctor Bataille; in the second, Diana Vaughan, Jean Kostka,\nDomenico Margiotta, and Leo Taxil.\n\nFinally, we have, as stated in the preface, some testimony from writers\nrepresenting the interests of the Latin Church, in a special manner, and\nspeaking with the authority of that Church. The most important of these\nis the late Archbishop Meurin. At the same time, M. Huysman apart--who\noccupies much the same quasi-religious position as that which attached a\nfleeting interest to the personality of Mr W. H. Mallock--all writers\nand all witnesses are, or assume to be, at the present time, convinced\nand zealous Roman Catholics.\n\nI have already stated that the purpose of Black Magic is simply and\nobviously to communicate with devils, and if we interrogate our sources\nof knowledge as to the object of such communication, it must be admitted\nthat the response is vague. Perhaps the object will best be defined as\nthe reinforcement of human ability by diabolical power and intelligence\nfor the operation of evil along the lines of individual desire and\nambition. For the fulfilment of what is good man aspires towards God,\nand to fulfil evil he attempts to conspire with Satan.\n\nIt must, however, be observed that modern devil-worship, as exposed by\nits French experts, has two aspects, corresponding to the distinction\nalready laid down in my preface. There is (a) devil-worship pure and\nsimple, being an attempt to communicate with evil spirits, admitting\nthat they are evil; (b) the cultus of Lucifer, star of the morning, as\ndistinguished from Satan, on the hypothesis that he is a good spirit. It\nwill be seen very readily that the essence of diabolism is wanting in\nthe second division, namely, the Satanic intention, so that it belongs\nreally to another category, though the classification may be accepted\nfor the moment to prevent dispute at the beginning of a somewhat complex\ninquiry. The first division is, in any case, Satanism proper, and its\nadepts are termed Satanists; those of the second division are, on the\nother hand, Luciferians, Palladists, &c. The two orders are further\ndistinguished as unorganised and as organised diabolism. The cultus of\nSatan is supposed to be mainly practised by isolated persons or small\nand obscure groups; that of Lucifer is centralised in at least one great\nand widespread institution--in other words, the first is rare and\nsporadic, the second a prevalent practice. We accordingly hear little of\nthe one, while the testimonies which have been collected are concerned\nexclusively with the other. It is possible, in fact, to dismiss Satanism\nof the primary division in a few words, because materials are wanting\nfor its history. It is founded on orthodox Christianity; it acknowledges\nthat the devil is a lost angel, but it affirms that the God of the\nChristians has deceived His believers, has betrayed the cause of\nhumanity, has exacted the suppression of the nature with which He\nHimself has endowed it; they have therefore abandoned a cruel and\ntyrannical Master, and have gone over in despair to His enemy.\n\nSatanism of the second division, its principles and its origin, will be\ndescribed in the second chapter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE MASK OF MASONRY\n\n\nThe identification of the cultus of Lucifer with devil-worship pure and\nsimple is not, as we have seen, at first sight an entirely just\nproceeding, but at the same time it is inevitable. As already observed,\nthe source of all our knowledge concerning Modern Diabolism exists\nwithin the pale of the Catholic Church; the entire literature is written\nfrom the standpoint of that church, and has been created solely in its\ninterests. Some of that literature has been put forth with the special\nmarks of high ecclesiastical approbation, and to some this guarantee is\nwanting, but the same spirit informs the whole. To insist on this point\nis important for many reasons which will become apparent at the close of\nour enquiry, and for one which concerns us now. It is impossible for\nthe Catholic Church to do otherwise than brand the cultus of Lucifer as\nidentical with that of Satan, because, according to her unswerving\ninstruction, the name Lucifer is an equivalent of Satan, and, moreover,\nthe Luciferian cultus is so admittedly anti-Christian that no form of\nChristianity could do otherwise than regard it as a worship of darkness\nand evil. While, therefore, the adoration of a good principle under this\ndiscredited name may in one of its aspects be merely an error of\njudgment, and not the worship of a devil, apart from other facts which\ndestroy this consideration, we must all agree that from the standpoint\nof Christian and Latin orthodoxy the Luciferian is a diabolist, though\nnot in the sense of the Satanist.\n\nThe doctrine of Lucifer has been tersely described by Huysman as a kind\nof reversed Christianity--a Catholicism _a rebours_. It is, in fact, the\nrevival of an old heresy founded on what we have most of us been\naccustomed to regard as a philosophical blunder; in a word, it is a\nManichaean system having a special anti-Christian application, for while\naffirming the existence of two equal first principles, Adonai and\nLucifer, it regards the latter as the god of light and goodness, while\nthe Christian Adonai is the prince of darkness and the veritable Satan.\nIt is inferred from the condition of the world at the present time that\nthe mastery of the moment resides with the evil principle, and that the\nbeneficent Deity is at a disadvantage. Adonai reigns surely, as the\nChristian believes, but he is the author of human misery, and Jesus is\nthe Christ of Adonai, but he is the messenger of misfortune, suffering,\nand false renunciation, leading ultimately to destruction when the _Deus\nmaledictus_ shall cease to triumph. The worshippers of Lucifer have\ntaken sides in the cause of humanity, and in their own cause, with the\nbaffled principle of goodness; they co-operate with him in order to\ninsure his triumph, and he communicates with them to encourage and\nstrengthen them; they work to prepare his kingdom, and he promises to\nraise up a Saviour among them, who is Antichrist, their leader and king\nto come.\n\nSuch is the doctrine of Lucifer according to the testimony of witnesses\nwho have come out from his cultus; it is not an instruction which _a\npriori_ would seem likely to commend itself to a numerically powerful\nfollowing, but the society which is concerned with its propagation is\naffirmed to have spread over the whole world, and to be represented in\nall its chief cities. It is that which we have already found mentioned\nby M. Huysman as possessing a demonstrated existence and being a proof\npositive of modern Satanism, namely, the Palladian Order. Having broadly\nascertained its principles, our next course is to discover its alleged\nhistory, and here it is necessary to admit that it is a matter of some\ndifficulty to place the position in such an aspect that it will be a\ntolerable subject for inquiry among readers in England. The mystery of\nmodern Diabolism and the Cultus of Lucifer is a part of the mystery of\nMasonry as interpreted by an Anti-Masonic movement now at work in\nFrance. The black magic, of which we hear so much, involves a new aspect\nof the old Catholic Crusade against the Fraternity of the Square and\nCompass, and by the question of Lucifer is signified an alleged\ndiscovery that Masons diabolise.\n\nNow, we are all well acquainted with the historical fact that the Latin\nChurch has long been hostile to Masonry, that popes have condemned the\norder, and have excommunicated its initiates. Having regard to the\nposition of the brotherhood here in England, most of us have been\ncontent to infer in this respect that the ripe old age of the Church is\npassing into a second childhood; some, however, have concluded that\nthere may be more in Continental Freemasonry than meets the English eye,\nand here the Church herself comes forward to assure them that the\nfraternity abroad is a hotbed of political propaganda, and is\nresponsible for the most disastrous revolutions which have perplexed the\nmodern world; that it is actually, as the exploded Robison described it,\na conspiracy against crowned heads; and that it is at the present time\nthe most potent, most secret enemy which checkmates and hinders herself.\n\nIt is now further affirmed that behind the Masonry of to-day--here in\nEngland posing as a benefit society, and political or not upon the\nContinent, but everywhere disclaiming any connection with a religious\npropaganda--there is affirmed to be another Masonry, of which the\nordinary Mason knows nothing, secretly directing the order, and devoted\nto the cultus of Lucifer. This organisation, which has sprung up within\nrecent years, is largely, though not exclusively, recruited from\nMasonry; it works through the powerful Masonic apparatus, and, according\nto the evidence which has been put in, it has obtained a substantial and\nmasterful control over the entire Fraternity. It has focussed the raw\nmaterial of Masonic hostility towards the Catholic Church; as it is\nanti-Christian in religion, so is it revolutionary in politics; and once\nmore, it is called the Palladian Order.\n\nThis exceedingly grave and important accusation, together with its side\nissues, has perhaps all the more claim on our consideration because,\napart from actual diabolism, which is in itself so paralysing as almost\nto arrest discussion, it conflicts with all that we know or believe\nconcerning the Masonic constitution. Let me briefly collect the points.\n(a) Masonry possesses a secret directing centre--which has been\nstrenuously denied by the Fraternity. (b) It has a religious mission and\na doctrinal propaganda--which has also been invariably denied. (c) It is\nconcerned with political objects--which, for the most part, is denied.\n(d) It has a transcendental teaching--which is generally denied, and (e)\nis concerned largely with transcendental practices and phenomena--which\nwould be denied absolutely, had the question been seriously raised till\nthis day. (f) It initiates women--which, except in a very secondary,\noccasional, and insignificant manner, is _in toto_ and at all times\ndenied. The last point is brought within the scope of our inquiry\nbecause the Palladium is an androgyne order.\n\nNow, it will be fairly well known to many who are not within the ranks\nof the fraternity that the Grand Lodges of every country are supposed to\nbe autonomous, and that there has been no previous impeachment of this\nfact; that, ostensibly at least, there is no central institution to\nwhich they are answerable in Masonry. Individual lodges derive from a\nsingle Grand Lodge and are responsible thereto, but Grand Lodges\nthemselves are supreme and irresponsible. It will be known also that the\nMasonic system in England differs from that of France, that the French\nrite has always occupied a somewhat heterodox position, and that since\nthe Grand Orient expunged the Grand Architect of the Universe, so to\nspeak, from its symbolism, official communication has been suspended by\nthe Grand Lodge of England. It will be known further that outside\nrecognised Masonic systems many rites have arisen which are only Masonic\nto the extent that their point of departure is from the Master-grade. As\na special instance may be cited the Supreme Oriental Rite of Memphis and\nMisraim. In England the Lodge meetings of these rites are never suffered\nto take place in the great central institution of Freemasons Hall; in\nFrance, the Grand Orient has consistently forbidden its members to\nparticipate in the Memphis system. To hold Masonry responsible for\nirregularities or abuses which from time to time may obtain in these\nfantastic developments from the parent institution, would be about as\njust and reasonable as to impeach the Latin Church on the score of\ncorruptions now existing in the heresies which have separated from her.\n\nHaving established these points in view of the result of our inquiry,\nlet us now trace the manner in which a supreme authority, frequently\ntermed by the accusers Universal Masonry, is alleged to have grown up.\nUpon this subject not only the most complete information but the only\nformal narratives are provided by the later witnesses, so that the\nfollowing account, while in no sense translation, is based exclusively\nupon the works of Domenico Margiotta and Dr Bataille.\n\nOn the 20th of May, 1737, there was constituted in France the Order of\nthe Palladium, or Sovereign Council of Wisdom, which, after the manner\nof the androgyne lodges then springing into existence, initiated women\nunder the title of Companions of Penelope. The ritual of this order was\npublished by the Masonic archaeologist Ragon, so that there can be no\ndoubt of its existence. At the same time, so far as I am aware, there\nare few materials forthcoming for its history. In some way which\nremains wholly untraceable this order is inferred to have been connected\nby more than its name with the legendary Palladium of the Knights\nTemplars, well known under the title of Baphomet. In any case it failed\nto spread, and it is uncertain whether the New and Reformed Palladium,\nalso an androgyne order, with which we shall presently be concerned, is\na metamorphosis or reconstruction of the original institution, but a\nconnection of some kind is affirmed. For a period exceeding sixty years\nwe hear little of the legendary Palladium; but in 1801 the Israelite\nIsaac Long is said to have carried the original Baphomet and the skull\nof the Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay from Paris to Charleston in\nthe United States, and was afterwards concerned in the reconstruction of\nthe Scotch Rite of Perfection and of Herodom under the name of the\nAncient and Accepted Scotch Rite, which subsequently became widely\ndiffused, and it is stated that the lodge of the thirty-third degree of\nthe Supreme Council of Charleston has been the parent of all others, and\nis therefore, in this rite, the first supreme council of the entire\nglobe.\n\nEight years later, on the 29th of December 1809, a man of great\nimportance to the history of Freemasonry was born in the city of Boston.\nAlbert Pike came of parents in a humble position, who, however,\nstruggled with their difficulties and sent him to Harvard College, where\nhe duly graduated, taking his degree as M.A. in the year 1829. He began\nhis career as a schoolmaster, but subsequently led a romantic and\nwandering life, his love of untrodden ground leading him to explore the\nRocky Mountains, then very imperfectly known. In 1833 he settled in\nArkansas, and, drifting into journalism, founded the _Arkansas\nAdvocate_, wherein his contributions, both prose and verse, but the\nlatter especially, obtained him a reputation in literature. The\nadmission of Arkansas into the confederation of the United States was in\npart his work, and from this period he began to figure in politics,\nbecoming also the recorder of the Supreme Court in that state. One year\nafter the civil war, in which he took active part, Pike removed to\nMemphis in Tennessee, where he again followed law and literature,\nestablishing the _Memphis Appeal_, which he sold in 1868, and migrated\nto Washington. His subsequent history is exclusively concerned with\nunwearying Masonic labours.\n\nNow, it was at Little Rock in Arkansas that Albert Pike was first\ninitiated, and ten years later, that is, in 1859, he was elected\nSovereign Commander Grand Master of the Supreme Council of Charleston.\nHaving extraordinary powers of organisation, he became a person of wide\ninfluence in the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite, and a high authority\nalso on the ritual, antiquities, history, and literature of Masonry.\nUnder his guidance, the Scotch Rite extended and became dominant. Hence,\nwhen the Italian patriot Mazzini is said to have projected the\ncentralization of high grade Masonry, he could find no person in the\nwhole fraternity more suited by his position and influence to\ncollaborate with him. Out of this secret partnership there was begotten\non September 20, 1870--that is to say, on the very day when the Italian\ntroops entered the Eternal City--a Supreme Rite and Central Organisation\nof Universal High Grade Masonry, the act of creation being signed by the\nAmerican Grand Master and the Italian liberator, the two founders also\nsharing the power between them. A Supreme Dogmatic Directory was created\nat Charleston, with Pike at its head, under the title of Sovereign\nPontiff of Universal Freemasonry. Mazzini took over the Supreme\nExecutive, having Rome as its centre, under the title of Sovereign Chief\nof Political Action.\n\nIf we now recur to the statements that the genuine Templar Baphomet and\nthe skull of Jacques de Molay had been deposited at Charleston for the\nspace of seventy years, and that Albert Pike was Grand Master of the\nSupreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite in that city, we\nshall understand why it was that the new institution was termed the New\nReformed Palladian Rite, or the Reformed Palladium. Subsequently, five\nCentral Grand Directories were established--at Washington for North\nAmerica, Monte Video for South America, Naples for Europe, Calcutta for\nthe Eastern World, and Port Louis in Mauritius for Africa. A Sovereign\nUniversal Administrative Directory was fixed at Berlin subsequently to\nthe death of Mazzini. As a result of this astute organisation, Albert\nPike is said to have held all Masonry in the hollow of his hand, by\nmeans of a twofold apparatus--the Palladium and the Scotch Rite. During\nall his remaining days, and he lived to a great age, he laboured\nindefatigably in both causes, and the world at the present moment is\nfilled with the organisation that he administered.\n\nFour persons are cited as having been coadjutors in his own country--his\nold friend Gallatin Mackey, in honourable memory among Masons; a\nScotchman named Longfellow, whom some French writers have ludicrously\nconfused with the poet; one Holbrook, about whom there are few\nparticulars; and, finally, Phileas Walder, a native of Switzerland,\noriginally a Lutheran Minister, afterwards said to have been a Mormon,\nbut, in any case, at the period in question, a well-known spiritualist,\nan earnest student of occultism, as were also Holbrook and Longfellow,\nand, what is more to the purpose, a personal friend and disciple of the\ngreat French magus Eliphas Levi. Albert Pike was himself an occultist,\nwhether upon his independent initiative, or through the influence of\nthese friends I am unable to say. Miss Diana Vaughan, who is one of the\nseceding witnesses, affirms that it was an early and absorbing passion.\nHowever this may be, the New Reformed Palladium was kept most rigidly\nseparate from all other Masonry, the Scotch Rite included; that is to\nsay, no initiate of even the highest grade had, as such, the right or\nopportunity of entrance into the occult order, which, at the same time,\nwas chiefly recruited, as already stated, from the higher ordinary\ngrades, but the recipients of the new light became silent from the\nmoment that it was imparted. Now, it was exclusively in the Palladian\norder that Albert Pike and his confidants propagated transcendental\nreligion, as it is said to have been understood by them. In other words,\nwhile the Scotch Rite continued to speculate, the Palladium betook\nitself to magic and succeeded so well that there was a perpetuity of\ncommunication between Charleston and the unseen world. It does not\nappear from the evidence either when or why Albert Pike and his\ncollaborators transferred their allegiance from the God of the sages to\nLucifer. The Catholic Church regards all magic as diabolism, and makes\nor tolerates no mystic distinction between the black and white\ndepartments of transcendental practice, but the specific character of\nthe Palladian cultus is so clearly defined in the depositions that it\ncannot pass as a presentation of magical doctrine distorted by\nprejudice. It is almost stripped of correspondence with any existing\nschool of occult teaching, and it is either the true statement of a\nsystem founded by Pike, or the deliberate invention of malice. The\nthaumaturgic phenomena tabulated in connection therewith are of an\nextremely advanced kind, including the real and bodily presence of\nLucifer at frequent and regular intervals.\n\nWhen Mazzini died he indicated to Albert Pike a possible successor in\nAdriano Lemmi, who became in due course the chief of the Executive\nDepartment, and when in the fulness of years the pontiff of Luciferian\nFreemasonry himself passed on to the higher life of fire, which is the\nPalladian notion of beatitude, and in the peace and joy of Lucifer, the\nsovereign pontificate itself, after resting for a short period upon\nincompetent shoulders in the person of Albert George Mackey, was\ntransferred to the Italian; the seat of the Dogmatic Directory was\nremoved to Rome; a split in the camp ensued, inspired by a lady\ninitiate, since famous under the name of Diana Vaughan, and to this we\nowe most of the revelations. Furthermore, with the death of Albert Pike\nthe cultus of Lucifer is said to have undergone a significant\ntransfiguration. For him the conception of Satan was a blasphemous\nfiction, devised by Adonaite priestcraft to obscure the veridic lustre\nwhich inheres in the angel of the morning-star; but this view\nrepresented, as it is said, rather the private opinion of the Masonic\npontiff, impressed by his strong personality on the lodges he\ncontrolled, and propagated by the instruction of his rituals. The more\ndiscerning among his disciples regarded it as the besetting weakness of\ntheir grand old man, and surreptitiously during his life-time the cultus\nof Satan pure and simple, that is, of devil-worship, the adoration of\nthe evil principle as evil, was practised at numerous Palladian centres.\nAfter his death, it is said to have unmasked altogether, and Adriano\nLemmi himself is depicted as an avowed Satanist.\n\nNow, I believe it will fairly interpret the feeling of all readers to\nadmit that when the authority of a great church has been brought into\noperation to crush a great institution by charges which most seriously\ndiscredit it--which represent it as diametrically and in all respects\nopposite in its internal nature to its ostensible appearance--we must by\nno means make light of the impeachment; we must remember the high\nposition and the many opportunities of knowledge which are possessed by\nsuch an accuser; we must extend to that accuser at least the common\njustice of an impartial and full hearing; _a priori_ considerations of\nprobability and inferences from our previous knowledge, much less from\nopinions obtained at second-hand, must not be permitted to prejudge a\ncase of so great importance; we must be prepared, if necessary, to admit\nthat we have been egregiously deceived; and if the existence of\nPalladian Masonry can be proved an undoubted fact, we must assuredly do\nfull honour to the demonstration, and must acknowledge with gratitude\nthat the Church has performed a service to humanity by unveiling the\ntrue character of an institution which is imposing on a vast number of\nwell-intentioned persons within its own ranks, who are admittedly\nunaware of the evil to which they are lending countenance and support.\nOn the other hand, the same spirit of liberality and justice will\nrequire that the demonstration in question shall be complete; in support\nof such terrible accusations, only the first quality of evidence can\nobviously be admitted.\n\nIn the chapters which follow immediately, I shall produce in succession\nthe evidence of every witness who has anything to tell us about\nPalladism, including those whose experience is of a personal kind and\nthose whose knowledge is derived. Where possible, the testimony of each\nwitness will be weighed as we proceed; what is unconvincing or\nirrelevant will be dismissed, while that which is important will be\ncarried over to the final summary. In two cases only will it be found\nnecessary to reserve examination for special and separate treatment.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE FIRST WITNESSES OF LUCIFER\n\n\nThat the witnesses of Lucifer are in all cases attached to the Latin\nChurch, whether as priests or laymen, is no matter for astonishment when\nit is once realised that outside this Church there is no hostility to\nMasonry. For example, Robison's \"Proofs of a Conspiracy\" is almost the\nonly work possessing, deservedly or not, any aspect of importance, which\nhas ever been penned by a Protestant or independent writer in direct\nhostility to the Fraternity. Moreover, Catholic hostility varies in a\nvanishing direction with distance from the ecclesiastical centre. Thus,\nin England, it exists chiefly in a latent condition, finding little or\nno expression unless pressure is exercised from the centre, while in\nAmerica the enforced promulgation of the _Humanum Genus_ encyclical has\nbeen one of the serious blunders of the present pontificate as regards\nthat country. The bibliography of Catholic Anti-Masonic literature is\nnow, however, very large, nor is it confined to one land, or to a\nspecial epoch; it has an antiquity of nearly 150 years, and represents\nmost of the European continent. That of France, which is nearest to our\nown doors, is naturally most familiar to us; it is also one of the most\nproductive, and may be assumed to represent the whole. We are concerned\nwith it in this place only during the period which is subsequent to the\nalleged foundation of the New and Reformed Palladium. During this period\nit falls obviously into two groups, that which preceded any knowledge of\nthe institution in question and that which is posterior to the first\npromulgation of such knowledge. In the first we find mainly the old\naccusations which have long ceased to exert any conspicuous influence,\nnamely, Atheism, Materialism, and revolutionary plotting. Without\ndisappearing entirely, these have been largely replaced in the second\ngroup by charges of magic and diabolism, concerning which the\ndenunciations have been loud and fierce. One supplementary impeachment\nmay be said in a certain sense to connect both, because it is common to\nboth; it is that of unbridled licence fostered by the asserted existence\nof adoptive lodges. We shall find during the first period that Masonry\nwas freely described as a diabolical and Satanic institution, and it is\nnecessary to insist on this point because it is liable to confuse the\nissues. Before the year 1891 the diabolism identified with Masonry was\nalmost exclusively intellectual. That is to say, its alleged atheism,\nfrom the standpoint of the Catholic Church, was a diabolical opinion in\nmatters of religion; its alleged materialism was a diabolical philosophy\nin matters of science; its alleged revolutionary plottings, being\nespecially directed against the Catholic Church, constituted diabolical\npolitics. Such descriptions will seem arbitrary enough to most persons\nwho do not look forth upon the world from the windows of the Vatican,\nbut they are undeniably consistent at Rome.\n\nOf actual diabolism prior to the date I have named, there is, I believe,\nonly the solitary accusation made by Mgr. de Segur, and having\nreference to a long anterior period. He states that in the year 1848\nthere was a Masonic lodge at Rome, where the mass of the devil was\ncelebrated in the presence of men and women. A ciborium was placed on an\naltar between six black candles; each person, after spitting and\ntrampling on a crucifix, deposited in this ciborium a consecrated host\nwhich had been purchased or received in church. The sacred elements were\nstabbed by the whole assembly, the candles were extinguished at the\ntermination of the mass, and an orgie followed, similar, says Mgr. de\nSegur, to those of \"Pagan mysteries and Manichaean re-unions.\" Such\nabominations were, however, admittedly rare, and the story just recited\nrests on nothing that can be called evidence.\n\nDuring the years intervening between 1870 and 1891 we may search the\nliterature of French Anti-Masonry in vain for any hint of the Palladium.\nIn 1884 the collaboration of Louis D'Estampes and Claudio Jannet\nproduced a work entitled \"Freemasonry and the Revolution,\" which\naffirms that the immense majority of Masons, including those who have\nreceived the highest grades, do not enjoy the confidence of the true\nsecrets, but the establishment of atheism in religion and socialism in\npolitics as designs of the Fraternity are the only secrets intended.\n\nThe New and Reformed Palladium connects with the Order of the Temple by\nits supposed possession of the original Baphomet idol, but in 1882 this\nwas entirely unknown to Mgr. Fava, who denies all the reputed connection\nbetween Templars and Masons, and traces the latter to Faustus Socinus as\nfounder, following Abbe Lefranc in his \"Veil raised for the Curious.\" A\nmystic and diabolic aspect of the Fraternity is so remote from his mind\nthat in his \"Secret of Freemasonry\" the Bishop of Grenoble affirms that\nits sole project is to replace Christianity by rationalism.\n\nThe third and concluding volume of Pere Deschamps' great compilation on\n\"Society and the Secret Societies,\" supports, on the contrary, the\nhypothesis rejected by Fava. It recites much old knowledge concerning\nadoptive lodges, the Illumines, the Orders of Philalethes, of Martinez\nPasquales, and of Saint-Martin, on which subjects few writers indeed can\nsay anything that is new; but while specially devoted to the political\nactivity of the Fraternity all over Europe, Deschamps tells us nothing\nof the conspiracy which produced the New Palladium, though the alleged\ncollaboration of Mazzini gave it a strong political complexion; of Pike\nnothing; of Diabolism still nothing. I may add that his work claims to\nbe verified at all points.\n\nIn the year 1886 another ecclesiastic, Dom. Benoit, published two\nformidable volumes on \"Freemasonry and the Secret Societies,\" forming\npart of a vaster work, entitled \"The City of anti-Christ in the\nNineteenth Century.\" Like D'Estampes and Jannet, he distinguishes\nbetween a small number of initiates and a vast crowd of dupes who swell\nthe ranks of the Fraternity. \"Many Masons ascend the ladder of the\ngrades without receiving the revelation of the mysteries.\" The highest\nfunctions of most lodges are said to be given to the dupes, while the\nruling chiefs are concealed behind humble titles. It is further\nrepresented that in certain countries there are secret rites above the\nordinary rites, and these are imparted only to the true initiates, which\nsounds like a vague and formless hint concerning a directing centre; but\nso far from supposing that such an institution may exist in Masonry, the\nauthor affirms that unity is impossible therein:--\"Image of hell and\nhell anticipated, Masonry is the realm of hatred, and consequently of\ndivision. The leaders mutually despise and detest one another, and\nuniversally endeavour to deceive and supplant each other. A common\nhatred of the Church and her regular institutions alone unites them, and\nscarcely have they scored a victory than they fall out and destroy each\nother.\" The first seeds of the Manichaean accusation are found in the\nsecond volume, but the term is not used in the sense of Albert Pike's\nLuciferian transcendentalism, but merely as an equivalent of\nProtestantism coloured by the idea of its connection with the Socinian\nheresy. In conformity with this view, Dom Benoit attaches himself to\nthe Templar hypothesis, saying that the Albigenses and the Knights of\nthe Temple are the immediate ancestors of Masonry. But the point which\nis of most interest in connection with our inquiry is where Dom Benoit\nasserts that Satan is the god of Freemasonry, citing an obscure grade in\nwhich the ritual is connected with serpent-worship, and another in which\nthe recipient is adjured \"in the sacred name of Lucifer,\" to \"uproot\nobscurantism.\" It is, however, only a loose and general accusation, for\nhe says also that the Masonic deity is \"the creature,\" that is,\nhumanity, the mind of man, human reason; it is also \"the infamous\nVenus,\" or the flesh; finally, \"all divinities of Rome, Greece, Persia,\nIndia, and every pagan people, are the gods of Masonry.\" This is merely\nindiscriminate defamation which is without force or application, and the\nwriter evidently knows nothing of a defined cultus of Lucifer existing\nin the Lodges of the Fraternity. So also when he elsewhere states that\nsexual excesses are sometimes accompanied in Masonry by Eucharistic\nprofanations, he has only Mgr. de Segur's out-of-date narrative to\nsupport him, and when he hints at magical practices, it is only in a\ngeneral way, and apparently referring to acts of individual Masons. In\none more significant passage he records, as a matter of report, that\napparitions of the demon have occurred \"recently\" in Masonic assemblies,\n\"where he is said even to have presided under a human form.\" While there\nis no mention of Palladism and none of Pike in his treatise, we may\nregard Dom Benoit as a herald of the coming accusation, speaking vaguely\nof things half heard.\n\nSome time previous to 1888, Paul Rosen, a Sovereign Grand\nInspector-General of the 33rd and last degree of the French rite, had\ncome to the conclusion that the mysteries of Freemasonry are abominable,\nand in that year he published a work, entitled \"Satan and Co.,\"\nsuggesting that in this case a witness to the desired point had at last\ncome forward, and, as a matter of fact, the writer does take us a few\npaces beyond the point reached by Benoit. So far as I am aware, he is\nthe first French anti-Mason who mentions Albert Pike, with one\nexception, to be considered separately in the next chapter. He describes\nhim as the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Mother Council of\nevery Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite, and he\ntells the story of the foundation of that Rite, but he knows nothing of\nIsaac Long, the Palladium, or the skull. He cites also certain works\nwhich Pike wrote for the exclusive use of initiates, apparently of the\nhigher grades of these rites, namely, \"The Sephar H'Debarim,\" \"Ethics\nand Dogmas of Freemasonry,\" and \"Legenda Magistralia.\" But so far from\naccrediting the order with a supernatural aspect, he affirms that its\nwar-cry is annihilation and anathema thereto. The end of Freemasonry is,\nin fact, social anarchy, the overthrowal of monarchical government, and\nthe destruction of the Catholic religion. The Satanism imputed to\nFreemasonry by Paul Rosen is therefore of an arbitrary and fantastic\norder, having no real connection with this inquiry. Two years later the\nsame author published a smaller volume, \"The Social Enemy,\" which\ncontains no material of importance to our purpose, but is preceded by a\nPontifical Brief, conveying the benediction of Leo XIII. to the writer\nof \"Satan and Co.\"\n\nWe pass now to the year of revelation 1891.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nEX ORE LEONIS\n\n\nFor over ten years past Leo Taxil, that is to say, M. Gabriel\nJogand-Pages, has been the great accuser of Masonry, and he possesses an\nindistinct reputation in England as a man whose hostility is formidable,\nhaving strong points in his brief. During the entire period of his\nimpeachment, which is represented by many volumes, he has uniformly\nsought to identify the Fraternity with the general purposes of Lucifer,\nbut until the year 1891, it was merely along the broad and general lines\nmentioned in the last chapter. Now, in presence of such attributions as,\nfor example, the Satanic character of tolerance in matters of religion,\nI, for one, would unconditionally lay down my pen, as there is no common\nground upon which a discussion could take place.\n\nFrom the vague imputation Leo Taxil passed, however, to an exceedingly\ndefinite charge--and it is beyond all dispute that by his work entitled\n\"Are there Women in Freemasonry?\"--he has created the Question of\nLucifer in its connection with the Palladian Order. He is the original\nsource of information as to the existence of that association; no one\nhad heard of it previously, and it is therefore of the first importance\nthat we should know something of the discoverer himself, and everything\nas to the particulars of his discovery, including the date thereof.\n\nPreviously to the year 1891 Leo Taxil knew nothing of the Reformed\nPalladium. He is the one Anti-Masonic writer named in the last chapter\nas preceding Paul Rosen with information about Albert Pike. This was in\nthe year 1885, and in a work entitled, \"The Brethren of the Three\nPoints,\" which began the \"complete revelations concerning Freemasonry\"\nundertaken by this witness. Like Paul Rosen, he represents Pike merely\nas a high dignitary of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite, but he does\nso under the incorrect title of Sovereign Commander Grand Master of the\nSupreme Council of the United States. He states further that the Grand\nOrient of France, as also the Supreme Council of the Scotch Rite of\nFrance, \"send their correspondence\" to the Grand Master of Washington. I\nconceive that no importance, as indeed no definite meaning, can be\nattached to this statement beyond the general and not very significant\nfact that there was some kind of communication between the three\ncentres. In the year 1888 Pike was so little in harmonious relation with\nthe French Grand Orient that by the depositions of later witnesses he\nplaced it under the ban of his formal excommunication in virtue of his\nsovereign pontificate. For the rest, the \"Brethren of the Three Points\"\ncontains no information concerning the New and Reformed Palladium, and\nthis is proof positive that it was unknown at the time to the writer,\nfor it would have been valuable in view of his purpose. The same\nobservation applies to a second work published shortly after, \"The\nCultus of the Grand Architect.\" Had Leo Taxil been acquainted with a\nworship of Lucifer subsisting in Palladian Masonry he could not have\nfailed to make use of it in a volume so entitled. The work in question\nis concerned, however, with the solemnities which obtain in Masonic\ntemples, with the names and addresses of all French lodges, so that it\nis a directory as much as a revelation, with the political organisation\nof the Carbonari, with the Judge-Philosophers, and with certain official\ndocuments of Masonry.\n\nBut it may occur to those of my readers who are acquainted at first hand\nwith the revelations of Leo Taxil that his knowledge was held over in\nview of his plan of publication, and that the Palladium would be\ndisclosed in due course when he came to treat of androgyne or adoptive\nMasonry. Let us pass, therefore, to his next work, entitled, \"Sister\nMasons, or Ladies' Freemasonry,\" which appeared in 1888, and in which we\ncertainly meet with diabolism and also with Palladism, but not in\nconnection with Albert Pike or the Charleston Central Directory. The\nreference in the first case is to practices which are alleged to obtain\nin the Egyptian Rite of Adoption, called the Rite of Cagliostro, and in\nthe second to the Order of the Palladium as it was originally instituted\nin the year 1730. At the same time the information given is of serious\nimportance, because it enables us to gauge the writer's method and\ncredibility in the one case, and his knowledge at the period in the\nother. Once more, in the year 1886, Leo Taxil did not know of the\nPalladium as a reformed or revived institution; had he known he could\nnot have failed to tell us.\n\nI have not been able to trace all the sources of his information\nconcerning the older Palladian Rite, but it comes chiefly from Ragon; he\ndivides it into two systems:--(a) The Order of the Seven Sages, which\nwas for men only, and appears as a banal invention with a ritual mainly\nderived from the \"Travels of Anacharsis\"; (b) The Order of the\nPalladium, composed of two masculine grades and one feminine grade,\nrespectively, Adelphos and Companion of Ulysses for men, and Companion\nof Penelope for women. It pretends to have been founded by Fenelon, but\nat the same time claims an antiquity previous to the birth of the great\nArchbishop of Cambrai. Leo Taxil accuses it of gallantry, but the\nflirtations described in the ritual impress an impartial reader as a\nspecies of childish theatricals, a criticism practically exhausting the\nentire motive of the order, which, as I have already stated, lapsed into\nobscurity, and, so far as can be traced, into desuetude, though our\nwitness uniformly refers to it in the present tense, and as if it were\nin active operation. However this may be, the description and summary of\nthe ritual given by Leo Taxil place it outside the possibility of a\nconnection with Templar Masonry, and also with the Baphomet Palladium in\nspite of what is alleged to the contrary. Accepting the worst\nconstruction which is placed on its intention, it could have offered no\npoint of contact with the alleged project of Albert Pike. So far,\ntherefore, the information contained in _Les Soeurs Maconnes_ conflicts\nwith the history of the New and Reformed Palladium as given in my second\nchapter.\n\nIt has been said, however, that Leo Taxil charges another Masonic order\nof the androgyne type with satanic practices. He divides the Egyptian\nRite of Adoption into three grades; in that of apprentice, the discourse\nrepresents Adonai as the Genius of Pride, and the serpent-tempter of\nGenesis as the eternal principle of goodness; in that of Companion, the\nsymbolism of the ritual enforces the necessity of rehabilitating the\ncharacter of the mystic serpent; in that of Egyptian Mistress, there is\na pretended evocation of planetary spirits by means of a clairvoyante,\nand Leo Taxil affirms on his own authority that the Supreme Being\nreferred to in the discourse at initiation is Satan. \"According to the\ndoctrine of the sect, the divinity is formed of two opposite principles,\nthe genius of Being, who is Lucifer, and the genius of Destruction, who\nis Adonai.\" This is so obviously the doctrine of the Luciferian\nPalladians that it is difficult to understand why the institution of\nCharleston is not connected, as to purpose, if not as to origin, with\nthe Egyptian Adoptive Rite of Misraimite Masonry.\n\nAt this point, however, it becomes my duty to state that there are some\nvery curious facts in connection with the \"Catechism of the Officiating\nMistress,\" which is the source of information for the alleged Manichaean\ncharacter of the third degree. The more considerable and essential\nportion of that document, so far from being referable to the supposed\nfounder of the Rite, namely, Count Cagliostro, is a series of mutilated\npassages taken from Eliphas Levi's _Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie_,\nand pieced clumsily together. That is to say, Leo Taxil, while claiming\nto make public for the first time an instruction forming an essential\npart of a rite belonging to the last century, presents to us in that\ninstruction the original philosophical reflections of a writer in the\nyear 1856, and, moreover, he distorts palpably the fundamental principle\nof that writer, who, so far from establishing dualism and antagonism in\nGod, exhibits most clearly the essential oneness in connection with a\nthreefold manifestation of the divine principle. I conceive that there\nis only one construction to be placed upon this fact, and although it is\nsevere upon the documents it cannot be said that it is unjust. When,\ntherefore, Leo Taxil terminates his study of the Egyptian Rite by\n\"divulging some essentially diabolical practices of the Misraim Lodges,\"\nnamely, evocations of the elementary spirits, we shall not be surprised\nto find that the ritual of the proceedings is taken bodily from the same\nauthor who has been previously taxed for contributions. The reader need\nonly compare _Les Soeurs Maconnes_, pp. 323 to 330, with the\n\"Conjuration of the Four\" in the fourth chapter of the _Rituel de la\nHaute Magie_. It will be objected that this conjuration is derived by\nLevi himself from a source which he does not name, and as a fact part of\nit is found in the _Comte de Gabalis_. Quite so, but my point is, that\nit has come to the Taxil documents through Eliphas Levi. The proof is\nthat part of the exorcisms are given in Latin and part in French, by the\nauthor of the _Rituel_, for arbitrary and unassignable reasons, and that\n_Les Soeurs Maconnes_ reproduces them in the same way. It is evident,\ntherefore, that we must receive Leo Taxil's \"divulgations\" with severe\ncaution. I may add that the proceedings of the Holy Inquisition in the\ntrial of Count Cagliostro were published at Rome by order of the\nApostolic Chamber, and they include some particulars concerning the\nEgyptian Rite, of which Cagliostro was the author. These particulars in\npart correspond with the documents of the \"Sister-Masons,\" but offer\nalso significant variations even along the lines of correspondence.\n\nHaving established, in any case, that Leo Taxil knew nothing of the\nReformed Palladium in the year 1886, we may pass over his next work,\nwhich reproduces a considerable though selected proportion of some of\nhis previous volumes, because precisely the same observation applies to\n\"The Mysteries of Freemasonry,\" and we may come at once to the year\n1891. Some time subsequently to the third of August, our witness\npublished a volume entitled \"Are there Women in Freemasonry?\" which, so\nfar as one can see, bears the marks of hurried production. It is, in\nfact, \"The Sister Masons\" almost _in extenso_--that work being still in\ncirculation--with the addition of important fresh material. The bulk of\nthe new matter is concerned with the rituals of the New and Reformed\nPalladium, consisting of five degrees, conformable, as regards the first\nthree, with the somewhat banal but innocent grades of the Modern Rite of\nAdoption, and passing, as regards the two final, into pure Luciferian\ndoctrine. How did Leo Taxil become possessed of these rituals? He\ninforms us quite frankly that by means of arguments _sonnants et\ntrebuchants_, that is to say, by a bribe, he persuaded an officer of a\ncertain Palladian Grand Council located at Paris to forget his pledges\nfor the time required in transcribing them. That was not a very\ncreditable proceeding, but in exposing Freemasonry ordinary ethical\nconsiderations seem to be ruled out of court, and it is idle to examine\nmethods when we are in need of documents. By these documents, and by the\neditorial matter which introduces and follows them, Leo Taxil, as\nalready observed, created the Question of Lucifer. Premising that a dual\nobject governed the institution of androgyne lodges, namely, the\nopportunity for forbidden enjoyments, and the creation of powerful\nunsuspected auxiliaries for political purposes, he states that the\nlatter part of this programme was specially surrendered to the old\nPalladian Masonry. Now it is clear that the rituals of the order which\nhe published in 1886 bear no such construction as he here, and for the\nfirst time, imputes; they connect with part one of the programme, and he\nwas content at the time with their impeachment on the ground of sexual\ndisorder. Why has he changed the impeachment? No assignable reason\nappears from his subsequent remarks, but he goes on to allege that,\nunder the auspices of Albert Pike and his group, the original order\ndeveloped the New and Reformed Palladian Rite, in which the political\npurpose was itself subordinated to \"Satanism pure and simple.\"\nOriginating in the United States, it has invaded Europe, where it\npropagates with truly unheard of rapidity, so that in Paris alone there\nare three active lodges--that of the Lotus, founded in 1881, and\nsituated in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, which has in turn created the\nlodges of St James, 1884, and of St Julian, 1889. The Lotus itself was\npreceded \"by the organisation of some Areopagites of the Kadosch Grade\nof the French Rite and of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite,\" who\npractised theurgy under the direction of Ragon and Eliphas Levi, both of\nwhom are represented as given over, body and soul, to all the practices\nof lawless diabolism, the latter being apparently the leader, after\nwhose death the association met only infrequently, until it was revived\nby Phileas Walder, the friend, as we have already seen, of Albert Pike.\nIt was he who imported the New and Reformed Palladium from America into\nFrance, and, assembling the disciples of Levi, founded the Mother-Lodge\nof the Lotus.\n\nThe ritual obtained by Leo Taxil was printed in Latin and English, with\nan interleaved French version in manuscript. As presented by its\ndiscoverer, there is no doubt that it is an execrable production,\ninvolving the practice in open lodge of obscenity, diabolism, and\nsacrilege. Passing over the first three grades, and beginning \"at the\npoint of bifurcation,\" we find it stated in the ritual of the fourth\ndegree of Elect that the New and Reformed Palladium has been instituted\n\"to impart a new force to the traditions of high-grade Masonry,\" that\nthe Palladium which gives its name to the order was presented to the\nfathers of the order by Eblis himself, that it is now at Charleston, and\nthat Charleston is the first supreme Council of the globe. Thus it will\nbe seen that the Palladian ritual confuses the Palladium Order with the\nAncient and Accepted Scotch Rite. For the rest, the legend of the fourth\ndegree is the first part of what is termed a blasphemous life of Jesus,\nrepresenting Baal-Zeboub as his ancestor, Joseph as his father,\naccording to physical generation, and Mirzam as his mother, who is\nhighly honoured as the parent of many other children. Adonai is the\nprinciple of evil, and Eblis, otherwise Lucifer, the good God. But the\nritual of the fourth grade is innocent in its character when compared\nwith the abominations of the fifth degree of Templar-Mistress. The\ncentral point of the ceremonial is the resurrection of Lazarus, which is\nsymbolically accomplished by the postulant suffering what is termed the\nordeal of the Pastos, that is to say, by means of public fornication.\nThe purpose of this ordeal is to show that the sacred act of physical\ngeneration is the key to the mystery of being. The life of Jesus begun\nin the previous grade is completed in the present, and it will be\nsufficient for my purpose to indicate that it represents the Saviour of\nChristianity, who originally \"began well,\" passing over from the service\nof the good god Lucifer, and making a pact with the evil Adonai, in sign\nof which he ceased indiscriminate commerce with the women who followed\nhim and pledged himself to live in chastity, for which he was abandoned\nby Baal-Zeboub, and is cursed by Palladists. \"The duty of a\nTemplar-Mistress is to execrate Jesus, anathematise Adonai, and adore\nLucifer.\" The rite concludes by the recipient spitting on a consecrated\nhost and the whole assembly piercing it in turn with stilettos.\n\nSo far the sole testimony to the actual operation, as indeed to the\nexistence, of these infamous ceremonies, is Leo Taxil, and it is once\nmore my duty to state that the documents are in no sense above the\nsuspicion of having been fraudulently produced by some one. It seems\nscarcely credible, but the instruction of the Elect Grade incorporates\nMasonic references _literatim_ from the scandalous memoirs of Cassanova.\nThat is a fact which sets open a wide door to scepticism. Again, the\ninstruction of the fifth degree contains more plagiarisms from Levi, and\nin a section entitled \"Evocations,\" Leo Taxil again reproduces the\n\"Conjuration of the Four\" which he has previously fathered on the Rite\nof Memphis and Misraim, and now states to be in use among Palladists.\nOnce more, he prints a long list of the spirits of light which\nPalladians recommend for evocation, and this list is a haphazard\ngleaning among the eighty-four genii of the twelve hours given in Levi's\ninterpretation of the \"Nuctemeron according to Apollonius.\" But these\nlatter points are not arguments which necessarily reflect upon Leo\nTaxil, for, seeing that the New and Reformed Palladium was constituted\nin 1870, it is obvious that the author of the rituals may have drawn\nfrom the French magus, and Leo Taxil does connect the Palladium, as\nothers have connected it, with Alphonse Louis Constant, partly through\nPhileas Walder his disciple, and partly by representing Constant as the\nleader of an occult association of Knights Kadosch. But when he\nrepresents Constant as himself a Mason we have to remember that Eliphas\nLevi explicitly denied his initiation in his _Histoire de la Magie_.\n\nI should add that Leo Taxil in one of the illustrations represents a\nlodge of the Templar-Mistress Rite, wherein the altar is over-shadowed\nby a Baphomet which is a reduction in facsimile of the frontispiece to\nLevi's _Rituel_, and all reasonable limits seem to be transgressed when\nhe quotes from Albert Pike's \"Collection of Secret Instructions,\" an\nextended passage which swarms with thefts from the same source, everyone\nof which I can identify when required, showing them page by page in the\noriginals. Leo Taxil tells us that the \"Collection\" was communicated to\nhim, but by whom he does not say. We are evidently dealing with an\nexceedingly complex question, and many points must be made clear before\nwe can definitely accept evidenced which is so mixed and uncertain in\ncharacter.\n\nIf we ask the author of these disclosures what opportunities he has had\nto become personally acquainted with Masonry, we shall find that they\nare exceedingly few, for he was expelled from the order after receiving\nonly the first degree. I do not say that this expulsion reflects in any\nsense discreditably upon him as a man of honour, but it closed his\nMasonic career almost as soon as it had begun, so that his title to\nspeak rests only on his literary researches and other forms of derived\nknowledge, good enough, no doubt, in their way, but not so exhaustive as\ncould be wished in view of the position he has assumed. It was shortly\nafter this episode that Leo Taxil returned to the Catholic Church and\nattached himself to the interests of the clerical party. Previously to\nthis his literary history must be for him a painful memory. He was a\nwriter of anti-clerical romances and the editor of an anti-clerical\nnewspaper--legitimate occupations in one sense, but in this instance too\nfrequently connected with literary methods of a gravely discreditable\nkind. A catalogue of the defunct _Libraire Anti-Clericale_ is added to\none of the romances, and advertises, among other productions from the\nsame pen, the following contributions made by Leo Taxil to the\nliterature of sacrilege and scandal:--1st, a Life of Jesus, being an\ninstructive and satirical parody of the Gospels, with 500 comic designs;\n2nd, The Comic Bible (_Bible Amusante_); 3rd, The Debaucheries of a\nConfessor, a romance founded on the affair of the Jesuit Girarde and\nCatherine Cadiere; 4th, a Female Pope, being the adventures and crimes\nof Pope Joan, written in collaboration with F. Laffont; 5th, The Pope's\nMistress, a \"grand historical romance,\" written in collaboration with\nKarl Milo; 6th, Pius the Ninth before history, his life political and\npontifical, his debaucheries, follies, and crimes, 3 vols.; 7th, The\nPoisoner Leo Thirteenth, an account of thefts and poisoning committed\nwith the complicity of the present pontiff; 8th, Contemporary\nProstitution, a collection of revolting statistics upon, _inter alia_,\nthe methods, habits, and physical peculiarities of persons who practice\npaederasty.\n\nIt will be seen that since his conversion our author has changed his\nobjects without altering his methods. As in the past he unveiled the\nsupposed ill-doings of popes and priests, as he exposed the corrupt\npractices of the Parisian police in the matter of crying social evils,\nso now he divulges the infamies of Masonic gatherings in the present. He\nclaimed then to be actuated by a high motive and he claims it now. We\nmust not deny the motive, but we certainly abhor the proceeding. In some\nvery curious memoirs which have obtained wide circulation Leo Taxil\nacknowledges that he was gravely mistaken then, and he may be mistaken\nnow. It must also be respectfully stated in conclusion that few persons\nwho have contributed to lubricity in literature have ever failed to\nspeak otherwise than from an exalted standpoint. When a short time ago\nM. Huysman went in search of a type to which he could refer Luciferian\n\"blasphemies\" and outrages, he could find nothing more suitable to his\npurpose than Leo Taxil's \"Bouffe Jesus.\" We do not refuse to accept him\nas a witness against Masonry because of these facts, but we must ask\nhim as an honourable gentleman not to insist that we should do so on\ntrust, and at the present moment the only opportunities which he has\ngiven us to check his statements do not wholly encourage us to accept\nthem. It will be seen therefore that the knowledge of Palladian Masonry\nwas first brought to light under circumstances of a debatable kind.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE DISCOVERY OF M. RICOUX\n\n\nBy the year 1891 Masonic revelations in Paris had become too numerous\nfor one more or less to fix the volatile quality of public interest\nunless a new horror were attached to it. Passwords and signs and\ncatechisms, all the purposes and the better half of the\nsecrets--everyone outside the Fraternity who concerned themselves with\nMasonry and cared for theoretical initiation knew these, or was\nsatisfied by the belief that he did. The literature of Anti-Masonry\nbecame a drug in the market, failing some novelty in revelation. The\nlast work of Leo Taxil was eminently a contribution towards this missing\nquantity. He was already in a certain sense the discoverer of \"Female\nFreemasonry,\" that is to say, he was the only equipped person who\nseriously maintained that the exploded androgyne system was worked in\nmodern France, and when he added the development of the Palladium as the\nclimax to the mystery of iniquity, it is small wonder that his book\nachieved notoriety to the extent of five thousand copies. He was\nassailed as a venal pamphleteer and his past achievements in literature\nwere freely disinterred for his own benefit and for public instruction,\nbut he was more than compensated by the approbation of Mgr. Fava, bishop\nof Grenoble, with whose opinions upon Satanism in Masonry we have\npreviously made acquaintance. The Church indeed had all round agreed to\noverlook Leo Taxil's early enormities; she forgot that she had attempted\nto prosecute him and to fine him a round sum of 60,000 francs; the\nsupreme pontiff forgave him the accusation of poisoning, and transmitted\nhis apostolical benediction; he was complimented by the cardinal-vicar\nof Rome; and he is in the proud position of a man who has received\nfelicitations and high approval from eighteen ecclesiastical\ndignitaries, whether cardinals, archbishops, or bishops. With his back\nagainst the _turris fortitudinis_, he faced his accusers stoutly and\nreturned them blow for blow. Nor did he lack his lay defenders, one of\nwhom, by the mode which he adopted, became himself, somewhat\nunexpectedly, a witness of Lucifer.\n\nTo those who disbelieve in the existence of Female Freemasonry, Leo\nTaxil had offered two pieces of wise advice: Go to the Bibliotheque\nNationale, search the files of the Masonic organ _La Chaine d'Union_,\nand you will find proof positive of your mistake. Next proceed to the\nMaison T----, there is no need to reproduce the address, but it is given\nby Leo Taxil in full, and obtain their current price-list of lodge\nfurniture, insignia, and other accessories, and you will find\nparticulars of aprons for sisters, diplomas for sisters, garters for\nsisters, jewels for sisters. Except upon the signs of initiation, the\ncatalogue is not surrendered, but in view of the literature of\nrevelation the signs are no longer secret, &c.\n\nAll this is clearly outside the subject of Satanism, but it leads up,\nnotwithstanding, to the discovery of M. Ricoux. As to this gentleman\nhimself there are no particulars forthcoming; he has promised an account\nof his adventures during four years as an emigrant in Chili; and he has\npromised a patriotic epic in twelve cantos, but so far as my information\ngoes they remain in the womb of time. But he has a claim on our\nconsideration because it occurred to him that he would put in practice\nthe advice of Leo Taxil, which he did accordingly in the autumn of 1891,\nand demonstrated to his own satisfaction that \"Are there Women in\nFreemasonry?\" is a book of true disclosure, and a question that must be\nanswered in the affirmative. He performed thereupon a very creditable\naction; he wrote a pamphlet entitled \"The Existence of Lodges for Women:\nResearches on this subject,\" &c., in which he stated the result of his\ninvestigation, collected the controversy on the subject which had been\nscattered through the press of the period, and defended Leo Taxil with\nthe warmth of an _alter Ego_. But he had not limited his researches to\nthe directions indicated in his author. Encouraged by the success which\nhad attended his initial efforts, he determined upon an independent\nexperiment in bribery, and after the same manner that Leo Taxil procured\nthe \"Ritual of the New and Reformed Palladium,\" so he succeeded in\nobtaining the \"Collection of Secret Instructions to Supreme Councils,\nGrand Lodges, and Grand Orients,\" printed at Charleston in the year\n1891. \"This collection,\" he tells us, \"is certainly a document of the\nfirst order; for it emanates from General Albert Pike, that is to say,\nfrom the 'Pope of the Freemasons.'\" On this document he bases the\nfollowing statements:--(a) Universal Freemasonry possesses a Supreme\nDirectory as the apex of its international organisation, and it is\nlocated at Berlin. (b) Four subsidiary Central Directories exist at\nNaples, Calcutta, Washington, and Monte Video. (c) Furthermore, a Chief\nof Political Action resides at Rome, commissioned to watch over the\nVatican and to precipitate events against the Papacy. (d) A Grand\nDepositary of Sacred Traditions, under the title of Sovereign Pontiff of\nUniversal Freemasonry, is located at Charleston, and at the time of the\ndiscovery was Albert Pike.\n\nSome of these statements, it will be observed, require rectification, in\nthe light of fuller disclosures made by Palladian initiates, from whom\nthe material of my second chapter has been chiefly derived, but it will\nbe seen that it is substantially correct. M. Ricoux further states that\n\"Albert Pike reformed the ancient Palladian Rite, and imparted thereto\nthe Luciferian character in all its brutality. Palladism, for him, is a\nselection; he surrenders to the ordinary lodges the adepts who confine\nthemselves to materialism, or invoke the Grand Architect without daring\nto apply to him his true name, and under the title of Knights Templars\nand Mistress Templars, he groups the fanatics who do not shrink from the\ndirect patronage of Lucifer.\"\n\nThe most serious mistake which has been made in the use of the material\nis an unconscious attempt to read into the \"encyclicals\" of Albert Pike\na proportion of Leo Taxil's material, for which the long citations given\nby M. Ricoux do not afford a warrant. What he really appears to have\nobtained is the instructions of Pike as Supreme Commander Grand Master\nof the Supreme Council of the Mother-Lodge of the Ancient and Accepted\nScotch Rite of Charleston to the Twenty-three Supreme Confederated\nCouncils of the Globe. And the Scotch Rite is, by the hypothesis, apart\nfrom the Palladium. In other respects, the information comes to much the\nsame thing. The long document which the pamphlet prints _in extenso_\nexhibits Albert Pike preaching Palladism in the full foulness of its\ndoctrine and practice--the \"resolution of the problem of the flesh\" by\nindiscriminate satisfaction of the passions; the multiplication of\nandrogyne lodges for this purpose; the dual nature of the Divine\nPrinciple; and the cultus of Lucifer as the good God. The most curious\nfeature of the performance is that here again it is from end to end a\ntravesty of Eliphas Levi, slice after slice from his chief writings,\ncombined with interlineal additions, which give them a sense\ndiametrically opposed to that of the great magus. Now, it is impossible\nthat two persons, working independently for the production of bogus\ndocuments, should both borrow from the same source; hence Leo Taxil and\nM. Ricoux, if they have been guilty of imposition, must certainly have\ncollaborated. It is unreasonable, however, to advance such an accusation\nin the absence of any evidence, and if we accept the contribution of M.\nRicoux as made in perfect good faith, we must acknowledge that it\nexonerates Leo Taxil from the possible suspicion of himself adapting\nLevi; and then the existence of a theurgic society, based on Manichaean\nprinciples, instituted by Albert Pike, and possessing a magical ritual\ntaken in part from Levi, wears a more serious aspect than when it rested\non the unsupported assurance of one witness. The discovery of M. Ricoux\nis obviously of the first importance, and it is certainly to be\nregretted that he has not substantiated it by depositing the \"Collection\nof Instructions\" in the National Library, supposing it to be in his\npossession, or by photographing instead of transcribing, supposing he\nwas pledged to its return.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nART SACERDOTAL\n\n\nSome few months after the first testimonies to Palladism appeared, under\nthe signatures of the witnesses whom we have already examined, a fresh\ncontribution was made to the literature of Diabolism in its connection\nwith Masonry, by a work entitled \"Freemasonry, the Synagogue of Satan.\"\nThe exalted ecclesiastical position of the author, Mgr. Leon Meurin,\nS.J., Archbishop of Port Louis in Mauritius, gave new impetus and an\naspect of increased importance to accusations preferred at the\nbeginning, as we have seen, by comparatively obscure or directly\nsuspected writers. The performance, moreover, was apparently so learned,\nin some respects so unlooked for, and withal so methodical, that it\nbecame subsequently a source of universal reference in anti-Masonic\nliterature. To this day M. Huysman remains dazzled, and to those in\nsearch of reliable information on the subject, he says:--\"If you would\nbe saved from the excesses of unseated reason, and from narratives of\nDunciad dulness, try Mgr. Meurin; read the Archbishop on Palladism.\"\nWithin certain limits the advice is well-grounded; the art sacerdotal in\nits application to Anti-Masonry may leave much to be desired, but as a\nspecimen of the superior criticism obtaining upon this subject in higher\ncircles, it offers a strong contrast to the general tone and touch among\nthe rank and file of the accusers. We are, in fact, warranted upon every\nconsideration, in expecting a valuable contribution to our knowledge;\nbut, I may say at once, that this expectation is unfortunately not\nrealised. With a keen philosophical anticipation one turns the pages of\n\"Freemasonry, the Synagogue of Satan,\" admires their beautiful\ntypography, lingers with delight over the elaborate appendix of\nallegorical engravings, and experiences a brief sense of intellectual\ninferiority in the presence of such formidable sections, and so\nportentous a table of contents. It should be impossible to speak of the\nArchbishop without a mental genuflexion, but it remains true that our\nexpectation is not realised. It will become us, at the same time, to\nspeak as tenderly as possible of a pious and learned prelate who has now\npassed where Masons cease from Satanising and the thirty-three degrees\nare at rest. But it must be said plainly that the contents of his very\nlarge volume offer little to our purpose.\n\nBy the nature of his episcopal charge Mgr. Meurin had special facilities\nfor ascertaining how men diabolise; the island of Mauritius has enjoyed\nmany privileges of Infernus. There we lose sight of the Rosicrucians on\nthe road to India; there the Comte de Chazal initiated Dr Bacstrom, and\nall this, of course, is diabolical from the standpoint of Anti-Masonry.\nMoreover, it must not be forgotten that Mgr. Meurin, in a series of\nwonderful conferences, has exhibited the superstitions of Mauritius,\nand, accepting the test of M. Huysman, the existence of Black Magic in\nthis French colony is proved to hilt and handle by wholesale\nEucharistic depredations, the sacrifice of cats at midnight upon the\naltars of rifled churches, and the discovery of the blood of the victims\nin the chalices used for the elements. The Church does not stir in the\nmatter; it deplores and prays, which seems, in some respects, an\nineffectual method of protecting the _latens Deitas_. If the Eucharist\nbe liable to profanation, why reserve the Eucharist? Surely the\nnegligence which makes such profanations possible is the offer of\nopportunity to Deicide, and great carelessness is cousin to condonation.\nHowever this may be, Mgr. Meurin seems to have been quite the authority\nto whom one would naturally refer for specific information upon\ndevil-worship as it obtains within his own diocese, even if apart from\nMasonry. But he is too erudite to concern himself with individual facts,\nand he so far transcends diocesan limitations as to forget Mauritius\ncompletely. Another witness, who perhaps never visited Port Louis,\naffirms that the Central Directory of the Palladium for Africa is\nestablished in that place, but the prelate of Port Louis, from whom the\ninformation would have been precious, seems acquainted with nothing of\nthe kind. The weapon of the mitred warrior is, at the same time, a\nsufficiently portentous thesis, as follows:--that Freemasonry is\nconnected with Satanism by the fact that it has the Jews for its true\nauthors, and the Jewish Kabbalah for the key of its mysteries; that the\nKabbalah is magical, idolatrous, and essentially diabolical; that\nFreemasonry, considered as a religion, is therefore a judaized\ndevil-worship, and considered as a political institution, it is an\nengine designed for the attainment of universal empire, which has been\nthe dream of the Jews for centuries.\n\nMy readers will be inclined to consider that such a hypothesis, though\nit may square with the Satanism of Adriano Lemmi, who, as we shall see,\nis accused of circumcision, can hardly be brought into harmony with the\nuniversal Masonry of Albert Pike, as the latter was neither Jew nor\nJudaiser. But common hatred of the Catholic Church is, in the opinion of\nMgr. Meurin, a sufficient bond to identify the interests of both\nparties. Let us start, therefore, with the archbishop's own hypothesis,\nwhich he compresses into a single sentence: \"To encircle the brow of the\nJew with the royal diadem, and to place the kingdom of the world at his\nfeet--such is the true end of Freemasonry.\" And again: \"The Jewish\nKabbalah is the philosophical basis and Key of Freemasonry.\" Once more:\n\"The end of Freemasonry is universal dominion, and Freemasonry is a\nJewish institution.\"\n\nAccepting these statements as points that admit of being argued with\ndeference to the rules of right reason, let us establish in turn two\npositions which do not admit of being argued because they are evident in\nthemselves: (a) Where the significance of symbols is uncertain, it is\neasy to interpret falsely; (b) When a subject is obscure and difficult,\nno person is qualified to speak positively if his knowledge be obtained\nat second-hand. Now, have we good reason to suppose that Mgr. Meurin is\npossessed of first-hand knowledge, and is consequently in a position to\ninterpret truly upon the difficult subject he has undertaken, namely,\nthe esoteric doctrines of the Kabbalah? If not, we are entitled to\ndismiss him without further examination. As a fact, in this preliminary\nand essential matter the archbishop can stand no test. The antiquity of\nthe Kabbalah is necessary to work his hypothesis, and he assumes it as\nif unaware that its antiquity had ever been impugned. There may be much\nto be said upon both sides of this hotly-debated question, but there is\nnothing to be said for a writer who seems ignorant that there is a\nquestion. And hence my readers will in no way be astonished to learn\nthat his information is obtained at second-hand, or that his one\nauthority is Franck. This fact is the key to his entire work, and the\nsole credit that is due to him is the skilful appearance of erudition\nwhich he has given to a shallow performance, and the natural mental\nelegance which has prevented him from being noisy and violent.\n\nOur inquiry into modern devil-worship does not warrant us in discussing\nthe position of writers who choose to assume that the Kabbalah,\nGnosticism, and other systems are _a priori_ diabolical, because\nassumptions of this kind are unreasonable. There are writers at this\nmoment in France who argue that the English word God is the equivalent\nof Lucifer, but one does not dispute with these. For the satisfaction of\nmy readers, it may, however, be as well to state that the voluminous\ntreatise of Mgr. Meurin has come into existence because he has\ndiscovered, as one might say, accidentally, that the number 33, which is\nthat of the degrees in French Freemasonry, is the number of the\ndivinities in the Vedas, thus creating a presumption that the mysteries\nof Freemasonry connect with those of antiquity. Of course they connect\nwith antiquity, for the simple reason that there is a solidarity between\nall symbolisms, and, moreover, it is perfectly clear that Masonry has\neither inherited from the past by a perpetuated tradition, or has\nborrowed therefrom. Mgr. Meurin had therefore as little reason to be\nastonished at the correctness of his presumption when he came to work it\nout as he had to be delighted with the inference which prevails\nthroughout his inquiry, namely, that the mysteries of pagan antiquity\nwere delusions of the devil, and that modern mysteries which connect\nwith those are also diabolical delusions. Indeed he is so continually\nmaking discoveries which are fresh to himself, and to no one acquainted\nwith the subject, that one would be pleasantly diverted by his\nsimplicity if it were not for the bad faith which underlies his\nassumptions. For example, every one who knows anything of Goetic\nliterature is aware that the rituals of black magic incorporate\nheterogeneous elements from Kabbalistic sources, but to Mgr. Meurin this\nfact comes with the force of a surprise.\n\nHis Masonic erudition is about as great and as little as his proficiency\nin Kabbalah; he quotes Carlyle as \"an authority,\" applies the term\northodox to French Freemasonry exclusively, whereas the developments of\nthe Fraternity in France have always had a heterodox complexion, while\nhis tripartite classification of the 33 degrees of that rite and of the\nAncient Accepted Scotch Rite is made in an arbitrary manner to suit a\npreconceived theory, and entirely effaces the importance inherent in\nthe first three grades, which are themselves the sum of Masonry.\nMoreover, the classification in question is presented as a most secret\ninstruction imparted in some fastness of Masonry outside the 33 degrees,\nbut no authority is named.\n\nSuch being the qualifications and such the methods of the archbishop, I\ndo not propose to accompany him through the long course of his\ninterpretations, but will supply instead, for the economy of labour on\nthe part of those who may wish to follow in his footsteps, a skeleton\nplan of procedure by which they will be able to prove learnedly anything\nthey please in Freemasonry.\n\nIt is well known that the Fraternity makes use of mystic numbers and\nother symbols. Take, therefore, any mystic number, or combination of\nnumbers, as _e.g._, 3 x 3 = 9. You will probably be unacquainted with\nthe meaning which attaches to the figure of the product, but it will\noccur to you that the 9 of spades is regarded as the disappointment in\ncartomancy. Begin, therefore, by confidently expecting something bad.\nReflect upon the fact that cards have been occasionally denominated the\nDevil's Books. Conclude thence that Freemasonry is the Devil's\nInstitution. Do not be misled by the objection that there is no\ntraceable connection between cards and Masonry; anticipate an occult\nconnection or secret _liaison_. The term last used has probably occurred\nto you by the will of God; do not forget that it describes a\nquestionable sexual relationship. Be sure, therefore, that Freemasonry\nis a veil of the worst species of moral licence. You have now reached an\nimportant stage in the unmasking of Masonry, and you can sum it as\nfollows:--Freemasonry is the cultus of the Phallus. If you know anything\nof ecclesiastical Latin, the words _noctium phantasmata_ may perhaps\noccur to you, and the whole field of demonology in connection with the\nFraternity will open before you. But if you would confine yourself to\nthe region of lubricity, recollect that our first parents went naked\ntill the serpent tempted them, and then they wore aprons. Hence the\napron, which is a Masonic emblem, has from time immemorial been the\ncovering of shame. Should it occur to you--vide _Genesis_--that God made\nthe aprons, dismiss it as a temptation of the devil, who would, if\npossible, prevent you from unveiling him. By this time it will be well\nto recur to the number 9; your chain of reasoning has established that\nit possesses a horrible significance. Now take the number and follow it\nthrough the history of religions by means of some theological\nready-reckoner, such as a cheap dictionary by Migne. You will be sure to\nfind something to your purpose--_i.e._, something sufficiently bad.\nPlace that significance against the use of that number in Masonry.\nRepeat this process, picking up anything serviceable by the way, and\ncontinue so doing till your volume has attained its required dimensions.\nYou will never want for materials, and this is how Masonry is unveiled.\n\nThere is no exaggeration in this sketch; Mgr. Meurin is indeed by far\nmore fatuous. On the 26th of May 1876 the Supreme Council of Sovereign\nGrand Inspectors General of the 33rd Degree of the Ancient and Accepted\nScotch Rite are said to have issued a circular, dated from 33 Golden\nSquare, London. Will my readers believe their own eyes or my sincerity\nwhen I say that the most illustrious of the French Anti-Masonic\ninterpreters, member of the Society of Jesus, and Archbishop of Port\nLouis, solemnly enjoins us to \"remark the No. 33 and the square of gold,\nwhich signify the supreme place in the world assigned to the liberty of\ngold\"? By thus commenting on a significant number attaching to a real\naddress, situated, as everyone knows, in the most central district of\nthis city, Archbishop Meurin believes that he is not descending from\npleasant comedy into screaming farce of interpretation, but that he is\nacting seriously and judiciously, has a right to look wise, and to\nbelieve that he has hit hard!\n\nNo person who is acquainted with the Kabbalah, even in its historical\naspects, much less the ripe scholar, M. A. Franck, from whom the\nmaterials are derived, will tolerate for a moment the theory that this\nmystical literature of the Jewish nation is capable of a diabolical\ninterpretation. In particular it lends itself to the crude Manichaean\nsystem attributed to Albert Pike about as much and as little as it does\nto atheistic materialism. The reading of Mgr. Meurin may be compared\nwith that of Mirandola, who discovered, not dualism, but the Christian\nmystery of the Trinity contained indubitably therein, who regarded it\nwith more reason as the bridge by which the Jew might ultimately pass\nover to Christ, who infected a pontiff with his enthusiasm, and it will\nbe seen that the Catholic Archbishop looks ridiculous in the lustre of\nhis derived erudition. To insist further on this point is, however,\nscarcely to our purpose. The Kabbalah does not possess that integral\nconnection with Masonry which is argued by Mgr. Meurin, and if it did,\ndoes not bear the interpretation which he assigns it, while his\nanti-Semitic thesis is demolished with the other hypothesis. But these\nthings are largely outside the question which concerns us most directly.\nOver and above these points, does the witness whom we are examining\ncontribute anything to our knowledge on the subject of the New and\nReformed Palladium, otherwise Universal Masonry? The reply is perfectly\nclear. His one source of knowledge is Adolphe Ricoux; by some oversight\nhe has not even the advantage of the rituals published by Leo Taxil. He\nmay, therefore, be dismissed out of hand. The Satanism which he exhibits\nin Masonry is an imputed Satanism, and as to any actual Devil-Worship he\nreproduces as true the clever story of _Aut Diabolus aut Nihil_, which\nappeared originally in \"Blackwood's Magazine,\" and has since been\nreprinted by its author, who states, what most people know already, that\nit is entirely fictitious.\n\nIn parting with the writer of \"Freemasonry, the Synagogue of Satan,\" as\nwith a witness whose evidence has broken down, it must be repeated that\nhe has, by his exalted position, elegance of method, and show of\nlearning, been a chief pillar of the Satanic hypothesis.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTHE DEVIL AND THE DOCTOR\n\n\nSec. 1. _Le Diable au XIX^e Siecle_\n\nAlthough the New and Reformed Palladium is said to have been founded so\nfar back as the year 1870, it will be seen that at the close of the year\n1891 very little had become public concerning it. It is difficult to\nconceive that an institution diffused so widely should have remained so\nprofound a secret, when the many enemies of the Fraternity, who in their\nway are sleepless, would have seized eagerly upon the slightest hint of\na directing centre of Masonry. Moreover, an association which initiates\nladies is perhaps the last which one would expect to be unknown, for\nwhile the essential matter of a secret is undeniably safe with women, it\nis on condition that they are known to possess it. When the first hint\nwas provided in 1891, Leo Taxil certainly lost no time, and Mgr. Meurin\nmust have written his large treatise almost at fever speed. On the 20th\nof November in the same year, another witness came forward in the person\nof Dr Bataille, who speedily made it apparent that he was in a position\nto reveal everything about Universal Masonry and diabolism in connection\ntherewith, because, unlike those who had preceded him, he possessed\nfirst-hand knowledge. If he had not himself beheld Lucifer in all his\nlurid glory, he had at least seen his messengers; he was an initiate of\nmost secret societies which remotely or approximately are supposed to\nconnect with Masonry; he had visited Charleston; he had examined the\ngenuine Baphomet and the skull of Jacques de Molay; he was personally\nacquainted with Albert Pike, Phileas Walder, and Gallatin Mackey; he\nwas, moreover, an initiate of the Palladium. He was evidently the\nmissing witness who could unveil the whole mystery, and it would be\ndifficult to escape from his conclusions. Finally, he was not a person\nwho had come out of Masonry by a suspicious and sudden conversion;\nbelieving it to be evil, he had entered it with the intention of\nexposing it, had spent ten years in his researches, and now stepped\nforward with his results. The office of a spy is not usually clean or\nwholesome, but occasionally such services are valuable, and in some\ncases there may be certain ends which justify the use of means which\nwould in other cases be questionable, so that until we can prove the\ncontrary, it will be reasonable to accept the solemn declaration of this\nwitness that he acted with a good intention, and that what he did was in\nthe interests of the church and the world.\n\nBut, unfortunately, Dr Bataille has seen fit to publish his testimony in\nprecisely that form which was most calculated to challenge the motive;\nit is a perfervid narrative issued in penny numbers with absurd\nillustrations of a highly sensational type; in a word, _Le Diable au\nXIX^e Siecle_, which is the title given to his memoirs by the present\nwitness, connects in manner and appearance with that class of literature\nwhich is known as the \"penny dreadful.\" Some years ago the slums of\nLondon and Paris were inundated with romances published in this fashion\nand continued so long as they maintained a remunerative circulation; in\nmany cases, they ended abruptly, in others they extended, like _Le\nDiable au XIX^e Siecle_ to hundreds of issues; they possess special\ncharacteristics which are known to experts in the by-ways of periodical\nliterature, and all these are to be found in the narrative of Dr\nBataille. No one in England would dream of publishing in this form a\nwork which was to be taken seriously, nor am I acquainted with any\nprecedent for it abroad. It is therefore a discreditable and unfortunate\nchoice, but seeing that a section of the clerical press in France has\nagreed to pass over this point, and to accept Dr Bataille as a credible\nwitness, and seeing also that he has been followed by other writers who\nmust be taken into account and stand or fall with him, we must not\nregard his method as an excuse for refusing to hear him. Apart from him\nand his adherents there is indeed no first-hand evidence for Palladian\nMasonry. The present chapter will therefore contain a summary of what\nwas seen and heard by Dr Bataille in the course of his researches.\n\n\nSec. 2. _Why Signor Carbuccia was Damned._\n\nIn the year 1880, Dr Hacks, who makes, I believe, no attempt to conceal\nhimself under the vesture of Dr Bataille, was a ship's surgeon on board\nthe steam-boat _Anadyr_, belonging to the _Compagnie des Messageries\nMaritimes_, and then returning from China with passengers and\nmerchandise. On a certain day in the June of the year mentioned, he was\nto the fore at his post of duty--that is to say, he was extended idly\nover the extreme length of a comfortable deck-chair, and the _hotel\nflottant_ was anchored at Point-de-Galle, a port at the southern\nextremity of Ceylon, and one of the reputed regions of the terrestrial\nparadise. While the doctor, like a good Catholic, put a polish on the\ntropical moment by a little gloss of speculation over the mystery of\nEden, some passengers presently came on board for the homeward voyage,\nand among them was Gaetano Carbuccia, an Italian, who was originally a\nsilk-merchant, but owing to Japanese competition, had been forced to\nchange his _metier_, and was now a dealer in curiosities. His numerous\ncommercial voyages had made them well acquainted with each other, but on\nthe present occasion Carbuccia presented an appearance which alarmed his\nfriend; a _gaillard grand et solide_ had been metamorphosed suddenly\ninto an emaciated and feeble old man. There was a mystery somewhere, and\nthe ship's doctor was destined to diagnose its character. After wearing\nfor a certain period the aspect of a man who has something to tell, and\ncannot summons courage to tell it--a position which is common in\nnovels--the Italian at length unbosomed himself, beginning dramatically\nenough by a burst of tears, and the terrific information that he was\ndamned. But the Carbuccia of old was a riotous, joyful, foul-tongued,\npleasure-loving atheist, a typical commercial traveller, with a strain\nof Alsatia and the mountain-brigand. How came this red-tied scoffer so\nfar on the road of religion as to be damned? Some foolish fancy had made\nthe ribald Gaetano turn a Mason. When one of his boon companions had\nsuggested the evil course, he had refused blankly, apparently because he\nwas asked, rather than because it was evil; but he had scarcely regained\nhis home in Naples than he became irreparably initiated. The ceremony\nwas accomplished in a street of that city by a certain Giambattista\nPessina, who was a Most Illustrious Sovereign Grand Commander, Past\nGrand Master, and Grand Hierophant of the Antique and Oriental Rite of\nMemphis and Misraim, who, for some reason which escapes analysis,\nrecognised Carbuccia as a person who deserved to be acquainted with the\nwhole physiology and anatomy of Masonry. It would cost 200 francs to\nenter the 33rd grade of the sublime mystery. Carbuccia closed with this\noffer, and was initiated there and then across the table, becoming a\nGrand Commander of the Temple, and was affiliated, for a further\nsubscription of 15 francs annually, to the Areopagite of Naples,\nreceiving the passwords regularly.\n\nImpelled by an enthusiasm for which he himself was unable to account, he\nnow lent a ready ear to all dispensers of degrees; Memphis initiates of\nManchester allured him into Kabbalistic rites; he fell among occult\nMasons like the Samaritan among thieves; he became a Sublime Hermetic\nPhilosopher; overwhelmed with solicitations, he fraternised with the\nBrethren of the New Reformed Palladium, and optimated with the Society\nof Re-Theurgists, from whom he ultimately received the veritable\ninitiation of the Magi. Everywhere lodges opened to him, everywhere\nmysteries unveiled; everywhere in the higher grades he found spiritism,\nmagic, evocation; his atheism became impossible, and his conscience\ntroubled.\n\nUltimately his business led him to revisit Calcutta, where his last\nunheard-of experience had overwhelmed his whole being, just eight days\npreviously to his encounter with Doctor Bataille. He had found the\nPalladists of that city in a flutter of feverish excitement because they\nhad succeeded in obtaining from China the skulls of three martyred\nmissionaries. These treasures were indispensable to the successful\noperation of a new magical rite composed by the Supreme Pontiff of\nUniversal Freemasonry and Vicegerent of Lucifer, General Albert Pike. A\nseance was about to be held; Brother George Shekleton of immortal\nmemory, the hero who had obtained the skulls, was present with those\ntrophies; and the petrified quondam atheist took part, not because he\nwished to remain, but because he did not dare to go. The proceedings\nbegan, the skulls were placed on the tables; Adonai and his Christ were\ncursed impressively, Lucifer as solemnly blessed and invoked at the\naltar of Baphomet. Nothing could be possibly more successful--result,\nshocks of earthquake, threatened immediate demolishment of the whole\nplace, confident expectation of being entombed alive, terrific burst of\nthunder, a brilliant light, an impressive silence of some seconds, and\nthen the sudden manifestation of a being in human form seated in the\nchair of the Grand Master. It was an instantaneous apparition of\nabsolute bodily substance, which carried its own warrant of complete\n_bona fides_. Everyone fell on their knees; everyone was invited to\nrise; everyone rose accordingly; and Carbuccia found that he had to do\nwith a male personage not exceeding eight and thirty years, naked as a\ndrawn sword, with a faint flush of Infernus suffusing his skin, a\nspecies of light inherent which illuminated the darkness of the\nsalon--in a word, a beardless Apollo, tall, distinguished, infinitely\nmelancholy, and yet with a nervous smile playing at the corners of his\nmouth, the apparition of _Aut Diabolus aut Nihil_ divested of evening\ndress. This Unashamed Nakedness, who was accepted as the manifestation\nof Lucifer, discoursed pleasantly to his children, electing to use\nexcellent English, and foretold his ultimate victory over his eternal\nenemy; he assured them of continued protection, alluded in passing to\nthe innumerable hosts which surrounded him in his eternal domain, and\nincited his hearers to work without ceasing for the emancipation of\nhumanity from superstition.\n\nThe discourse ended, he quitted the dais, approached the Grand Master,\nand eye to eye fixed him in deep silence. After a pause he passed on,\nwithout committing himself to any definite observation; yet there seems\nto have been a meaning in the ceremony, for he successively repeated it\nin the case of every dignitary congregated at the eastern side, and\nfinally of the ordinary members. When it came to the turn of Carbuccia,\nhe would have given ten years of his life to have been at the Galleys\nrather than Calcutta, but he contrived to pull through, without,\nhowever, creating a favourable impression, for _adversarius noster\ndiabolus_ passed on with contracted brow, and when the disconcerting\ninquiry was over, returned to the centre of the circle, gave a final\nglance around, approached Shekleton, and civilly requested him to shake\nhands. The importer of missionary skulls complied with a horrible yell;\nthere was an electric shock, sudden darkness, and general\n_coup-de-theatre_. When the torches were rekindled, the apparition had\nvanished, Shekleton was discovered to be dead, and the initiates\ncrowding round him, sang: \"Glory immortal to Shekleton! He has been\nchosen by our omnipotent God.\" It was too much for the galliard\nmerchant, and he swooned.\n\nNow, this is why Signor Carbuccia concluded that he was damned, which\nappears to have been precipitate. He has contrived, by the good offices\nof his lay confessor, to square matters with the hierarchy of Adonai,\nwho belongs to the Latin persuasion; he has changed his name, adopted a\nthird profession, and is so safe in retreat that his friends are as\nunlikely to find him as are the enemies who thirst for his blood.\n\nDoctor Bataille, faithful to his role of good Catholic, perceived at\nonce that the Merchant's Story of these new Arabian Nights was\ncharacterised by extreme frankness, was devoid of a sinister motive, and\nwas not the narrative of a maniac. A physician, he adds sententiously,\nis not to be deceived. He determined thereupon that he himself would\ndescend into the abyss, taking with him a mental reservation in all he\nsaid and did as a kind of discharge in full. The Church and humanity\nrequired it. Behold him then presently at Naples, making acquaintance\nwith Signor Pessina, and outdoing Carbuccia by expending 500 francs in\nthe purchase of the 90th Misraim grade, thus becoming a Sovereign Grand\nMaster for life! \"I will be the exploiter and not the accomplice of\nmodern Satanism,\" said the pious Doctor Bataille.\n\n\nSec. 3. _A Priestess of Lucifer._\n\nFortified with the purchase of his Memphis sovereignty, and the\npossession of various signs and passwords communicated by Carbuccia,\nwhich, by some interposition of Providence, must be assumed to have\nremained unchanged in the intervening period, Dr Bataille entered on his\nadventurous mission, bedewed with many tears, and sanctified by many\nblessings of an old spiritual adviser, who, needless to say, was at\nfirst hostile to the enterprise, and was afterwards as inevitably\ndisarmed by the eloquence and enthusiasm of his disciple. Having regard\nto the fact that Masonry and Diabolism abound everywhere, according to\nthe hypothesis, it obviously mattered little at what point he began the\nprosecution of his design; all roads lead to Rome, and the statement is\nequally true of the Rome of Masonry and the Vatican of Lucifer. As a\nfact, he started where Carbuccia may be said to have left off, namely,\nat Point-de-Galle in Southern Ceylon. There he determined to acquaint\nhimself with Cingalese Kabbalism, a department of transcendental\nphilosophy, about as likely to be met with in that reputed region of the\nTerrestrial Paradise as a cultus from the great south sea in the back\nparts of Notting Hill. Signor Pessina, however, had provided him with\nthe address of a society which operated something that the doctor agrees\nto term Kabbalah, after the same manner that he misnames most subjects.\nBut he was not destined to Kabbalize.\n\nRepairing to the principal hotel, he there witnessed, through one of\nthose fortuitous occurrences which are sometimes the mask of fate, a\nsufficiently indifferent performance by native jugglers, the chief of\nwhom was exceedingly lean and so dirty as to suggest that he was remote\nfrom godliness. During the course of the conjuring this personage held\nthe doctor by a certain meaning glance of his glittering eye, and when\nall was over the latter had a private information that Sata desired to\nspeak with him. The naive mind of the doctor regarded the name as\nsignificant in view of his mission; Sata was assuredly a Satanist. He\nconsented incontinently, and was greeted by the juggler with certain\nmysterious signs which showed that he was a Luciferian of the sect of\nCarbuccia, though, by what device of the devil he divined the doctor's\nadeptship, the devil and not the doctor could alone explain at the\nmoment.\n\nA miscellaneous language is apparently spoken by the Cingalese\njugglers--Tamil, including a little bad French, not less convenient than\nneedful in the present case. It was made clear by some brief\nexplanations that the medical services of Dr Bataille were solicited at\nthe death-bed of a personage named Mahmah, for which purpose the two\nentered a hired conveyance, while the rank and file of the jugglers\nfollowed at a brisk trot. In this manner they traversed a frightful\ndesert, plunged into a forest of brushwood, finally forded a stream, and\nafter two hours arrived at an open clearing, in the centre of which was\na hut. An ape occupied the threshold, a vampire bat hung from a\nconvenient beam, a cobra was curled underneath, and a black cat welcomed\nthem with arched back. The ape spoke Tamil freely and then marched off,\nreflecting upon which circumstance, the doctor thought that it was quite\nthe strangest thing in the world.\n\nThe hut was the covering of a species of well, down which, with some\nquakings for the safety of limbs and body, our adventurer was persuaded\nto follow his guides, and they reached, at the end of a long flight of\nsteps, an immense mortuary chamber. There, on a bed of cocoa-nut fibre,\nhe found his patient, from whose mummified and hideous appearance he at\nonce concluded that she was entirely given over to Satan and had long\nbeen a lost soul. As spiritually, so also physically, she was past all\nhuman aid; indeed she seemed dead already, and he gave his medical\nopinion to that effect. The countenance of this opinion was apparently\nthe warrant required for the proceedings which immediately followed, and\nit is difficult to understand why fakirs in league with Satan--for such\nwe are told they were--and possessed, no doubt, both of ordinary native\nand occult methods of diagnosis, could not have discovered this for\nthemselves, more especially as the lady, who seems to have been a\npythoness by profession, and commerced with a familiar spirit, had\nalready reached the ripe age of 152 years.\n\nTo shorten a long and peculiarly noisome story, the astounded doctor\nultimately beheld the dying woman revive suddenly, and crawl to the end\nof the chamber, where there was an elaborate altar surmounted by a\nfigure of Baphomet; the fakirs crowded round her; the ape, the bat, the\nsnake, the cat, all appeared on the scene; a brilliant illumination was\nproduced by means of eleven lamps suspended from the ceiling; the woman\ndrew herself into an erect position; the fakirs piled resinous branches\nround her; amidst invocations, mysterious chants, and yells, she\npermitted herself to be burned to death, her body slowly blackening, her\nface turning scarlet in the flames, her eyes starting from her head,\nand so she passed into ashes.\n\nWhy was the doctor privileged to be present at these proceedings?\nBecause an agent of the fakirs had previously investigated his\nportmanteau on the hotel premises, and had discovered his Memphis\ninsignia, which they returned to him in the mortuary chamber. As to the\nBaphomet, it is very fully described, and is identified with similar\nimages of Masonic lodges in America, India, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, and\nMonte Video. The doctor says that it is the god of the occultists. The\nvenerable Sata quoted Latin as intelligently as the ape spoke Tamil; he\noverwhelmed his benefactor with acknowledgments, and instead of a fee\npresented him with a winged lingam, by means of which he would be\nreceived among all worshippers of Lucifer in India, China,--in fact, as\nSata said, _partout, partout_.\n\nSo did Dr Bataille make his first acquaintance with practical occultism,\nand these things being done, he returned to his hotel and departed\nthankfully to bed.\n\n\nSec. 4. _A House of Rottenness._\n\nWho would possess a lingam which was an _Open Sesame_ to devildom and\nnot make use thereof? By effecting an exchange with another ship's\ndoctor, the exploiter of Lucifer found himself presently at Pondicherry,\nwith three months of comparative freedom before him to explore the\nmysteries of the oriental peninsula. Need I say that he had scarcely\nlanded at the French seaboard town when he at once made acquaintance\nwith the very person who of all others was most suitable to his scheme?\nThis was Ramassamiponnotamly-pale-dobachi--quite a short name, he\nassures us, for the natives of this part. All Pondicherry more or less\nabounded in lingams and Lucifer, but as he carried his right hand\nclenched, the doctor at once suspected the half-naked Ramassam to be\nmore than commonly devoted to the persuasion of perdition; nor was he\nmistaken, for the latter promptly inquired: \"What is your age?\" \"Eleven\nyears,\" said the doctor. \"Whence do you come?\" \"From the eternal flame.\"\n\"Whither do you go?\" \"To the flame eternal.\" And to their mutual\nsatisfaction they agreed the sacred name of Baal-Zeboub, the doctor\nproducing his winged lingam, at which the other fell down in the open\nstreets and adored him. The exhibition of the patent of a Sovereign\nGrand Master _ad Vitam_ of the Rite of Memphis inspired further respect;\nit was evidently a document with which Ramassam had long been familiar;\nand he began to talk glibly of tyling. Like the horrors of Udolpho, the\nexplanation was of course very simple: Mr John Campbell, an American,\nhad instituted a lodge of the York Rite at Pondicherry which, in the\nmost natural manner, admitted the Luciferian Fakirs as visitors, the\nLuciferian Fakirs admitted the members of the York Rite to their\nconventions, and they all bedevilled one another.\n\nIt would be idle to suppose that F... Campbell was not at Pondicherry on\nbusiness when the doctor chanced to arrive, and in the course of the\nafternoon the latter was taken by Ramassam to a house of ordinary\nappearance, into which they were admitted by another Indian, who, of\ncourse, like the guide, spoke good French. Through the greenery of a\ngarden, the gloom of a well, and the entanglement of certain stairways,\nthey entered a great dismantled temple devoted to the service of Brahma,\nunder the unimpressive diminutive of Lucif. The infernal sanctuary had a\nstatue of Baphomet, identical with that in Ceylon, and the\nill-ventilated place reeked with horrible putrescence. Its noisome\ncondition was mainly owing to the presence of various fakirs, who,\nthough still alive, were in advanced stages of putrefaction. Most people\nare supposed to go easily and pleasantly to the devil, but these elected\nto do so by way of a charnel-house asceticism, and an elaborate system\nof self-torture. Some were suspended from the ceiling by a rope tied to\ntheir arms, some embedded in plaster, some stiffened in a circle, some\npermanently distorted into the shape of the letter S; some were head\ndownwards, some in a cruciform position. It was really quite monstrous,\nsays the doctor, but a native grand master explained, that they had\npostured for years in this manner, and one of them for a quarter of a\ncentury.\n\nFr... John Campbell proceeded to harangue the assembly in ourdou-zaban,\nbut the doctor comprehended completely, and reports the substance of his\nspeech, which was violently anti-Catholic in its nature, and especially\ndirected against missionaries. This finished, they proceeded to the\nevocation of Baal-Zeboub, at first by the Conjuration of the Four, but\nno fiend appeared. The operation was repeated ineffectually a second\ntime, and John Campbell determined upon the Grand Rite, which began by\neach person spinning on his own axis, and in this manner\ncircumambulating the temple in procession. Whenever they passed an\nembedded fakir, they obtained an incantation from his lips, but still\nBaal-Zeboub failed. Thereupon the native Grand Master suggested that the\nevocation should be performed by the holiest of all the fakirs, who was\nproduced from a cupboard more fetid than the temple itself, and proved\nto be in the following condition:--(a) Face eaten by rats; (b) one\nbleeding eye hanging down by his mouth; (c) legs covered with gangrene,\nulcers, and rottenness; (d) expression peaceful and happy.\n\nEntreated to call on Baal-Zeboub, each time he opened his mouth his eye\nfell into it; however, he continued the invocation, but no Baal-Zeboub\nmanifested. A tripod of burning coals was next obtained, and a woman,\nsummoned for this purpose, plunged her arm into the flames, inhaling\nwith great delight the odour of her roasting flesh. Result, _nil_. Then\na white goat was produced, placed upon the altar of Baphomet, set\nalight, hideously tortured, cut open, and its entrails torn out by the\nnative Grand Master, who spread them on the steps, uttering abominable\nblasphemies against Adonai. This having also failed, great stones were\nraised from the floor, a nameless stench ascended, and a large\nconsignment of living fakirs, eaten to the bone by worms and falling to\npieces in every direction, were dragged out from among a number of\nskeletons, while serpents, giant spiders, and toads swarmed from all\nparts. The Grand Master seized one of the fakirs and cut his throat upon\nthe altar, chanting the satanic liturgy amidst imprecations, curses, a\nchaos of voices, and the last agonies of the goat. The blood spirted\nforth upon the assistants, and the Grand Master sprinkled the Baphomet.\nA final howl of invocation resulted in complete failure, whereupon it\nwas decided that Baal-Zeboub had business elsewhere. The doctor departed\nfrom the ceremony, fraternising with Campbell, and kept his bed for\neight-and-forty hours.\n\n\nSec. 5. _The seven Temples and a Sabbath in Sheol._\n\nIt was in the month of October 1880 that, in the course of his\nenterprise, Doctor Bataille reached Calcutta. Freemasonry, he informs\nus, invariably affects the horrible, and as he invests Calcutta with the\nsombre hues of living death and universal putrefaction, it naturally\nfollows that the Indian city is one of the four great directing centres\nof Universal Freemasonry. Everywhere the pious Doctor discovered the\nhand of Lucifer; everywhere he beheld the consequences of superstition\nand Satanism; cataclysms, floods, tornados, typhoons, plagues, cholera,\nrepresenting the normal state of health and habit, and the consequences\nof universal persuasion in favour of the fiend. A corpse, he testifies,\nis met with at every step, the smoke of burning widows ascends to\nheaven, and the plain of Dappah, in immediate contiguity to the city, is\na vast charnel-house where innumerable multitudes of dead bodies are\nflung naked to the vultures. The English Mason will at once recognise\nthat of all places in the world Calcutta is most suited to be a Mecca of\nthe Fraternity and the capital of English India. The Kadosch of the\nScotch Rite, the Sublime Chosen Master of the Royal Arch, the Commander\nof the White and Black Eagle of the rite of Herodom, the perfectly\ninitiated Grand Inspector of the Scotch Philosophical Rite, the Elect\nBrother of the Johannite Rite of Zinnendorf, and the Brother of the Red\nCross of Swedenborg, a thousand other dignitaries of a thousand\nilluminations, gather in the Grand Masonic Temple, and, as the Doctor\ngravely tells us, are employed in cursing Catholicity. By a special\nconjunction of the planets, the Doctor, on reaching head-quarters, had\nimmediate intelligence that the great Phileas Walder had himself\nrecently arrived on a secret mission from Charleston. There also he made\nacquaintance with another luminary of devildom, by name Hobbs, who\npresided at the important proceedings which resulted in the damnation of\nCarbuccia. Brother Hobbs, possessed of much experience in Lucifer, gave\nmany assurances concerning the incessant apparitions of The Master of\nEvil to all worthy persons. Now the Doctor, by virtue of his Misraim\npatent, was as much a priest for ever according to the Melchisedeck of\nMasonry, as if he had been born without father or mother, but at the\nmoment he had not received the perfect initiation of the Palladium;\ntechnically, therefore, he had no right to participate in the Supreme\nMysteries. However, it is needless to say that he had arrived in the\nnick of time to be present at a ceremony which takes place only once in\nten years, provided that he was willing to undergo the trifle of a\npreliminary ordeal.\n\nOn the same evening a select company of initiates proceeded in hired\ncarriages through the desolation of Dappah, under the convoy of\ninitiated coachmen, for the operation of a great satanic solemnity. At\nan easy distance from the city is the Sheol of the native Indians, and\nhard by the latter place there is a mountain 500 feet high and 2000\nlong, on the summit of which seven temples are erected, communicating\none with another by subterranean passages in the rock. The total absence\nof pagodas make it evident that these temples are devoted to the worship\nof Satan; they form a gigantic triangle superposed on the vast plateau,\nat the base of which the party descended from their conveyances, and\nwere met by a native with an accommodating knowledge of French. Upon\nexchanging the Sign of Lucifer he conducted them to a hole in the rock,\nwhich gave upon a narrow passage guarded by a line of Sikhs with drawn\nswords, prepared to massacre anybody, and leading to the vestibule of\nthe first temple, which was filled with a miscellaneous concourse of\nAdepts, from officers and tea-merchants even to tanners and dentists. In\nthe first temple, which was provided with the inevitable statue of\nBaphomet, but was withal bare and meagrely illuminated, the doctor was\ndestined to pass through his promised ordeal, for which he was stripped\nto the skin, placed in the centre of the assembly, and at a given signal\none thousand odd venomous cobra de capellos were produced from holes in\nthe wall and encouraged to fold him in their embraces, while the music\nof flute-playing fakirs alone intervened to prevent his instant death.\nHe passed through this trying encounter with a valour which amazed\nhimself, persisted in prolonging the ceremony, and otherwise proved\nhimself a man of such extraordinary metal that he earned universal\nrespect and received the most flattering testimonials even from Phileas\nWalder. That the serpents were undoubtedly venomous was afterwards\nproved upon the person of one of the natives present, who, delivered to\ntheir fury, fell, covered with apparently mortal bites, but was\nsubsequently treated by native remedies and carried before the altar of\nBaphomet to be cured by the special intervention of the good God\nLucifer. This ceremony was accomplished by the intervention of a lovely\nIndian Vestal, by the prayers of the Grand Master, a silk-mercer by\ncommercial persuasion, and by the mock baptism of a serpent, after which\nthe sufferer rose to his feet and the inconvenient venom spurted of\nitself out of his wounds. From the Sanctuary of the Serpents the company\nthen proceeded, with becoming recollection, into the second temple or\nSanctuary of the Phoenix.\n\nThe second temple was brilliantly illuminated and ablaze with millions\nof precious stones wrested by the wicked English from innumerable\nconquered Rajahs; it had garlands of diamonds, festoons of rubies, vast\nimages of solid silver, and a gigantic Phoenix in red gold more solid\nthan the silver. There was an altar beneath the Phoenix, and a male and\nfemale ape were composed at the altar steps, while the Grand Master\nproceeded to the celebration of a black mass, which was followed by an\namazing marriage of the two engaging animals, and the sacrifice of a\nlamb brought alive into the temple, bleating piteously, with nails\ndriven through its feet. This was intended to symbolize an illuminated\nreprobation of celibacy and an approval of the married state, or its\nless expensive substitutes.\n\nThe third temple was consecrated to the Mother of fallen women, who, in\nmemory of the adventure of the apple, has a place in the calendar of\nLucifer; the proceedings consisted of a dialogue between the Grand\nMaster and the Vestal which the becoming modesty of the doctor prevents\nhim from describing even in the Latin tongue.\n\nThe fourth temple was a Rosicrucian Sanctuary, having an open sepulchre,\nfrom which blue flames continually emanated; there was a platform in the\nmidst of the temple designed for the accommodation of more Indian\nVestals, one of whom it was proposed should evaporate into thin air,\nafter which a Fakir would be transformed before the whole company into a\nliving mummy and be interred for a space of three years. These were\namong the events of the evening, and were accomplished with great\nsuccess without much disturbing the mental equilibrium of the doctor,\nthough he confessed to a certain impression when the Fakir introduced\nhis performance by suspension in mid-air.\n\nThe fifth temple was consecrated to the Pelican and was used by an\nEnglish officer to deliver a short discourse on Masonic charity, which\nthe doctor regarded as vulnerable from a moral point of view and\nsuggestive of easy virtue.\n\nThe sixth temple was that of the Future and was devoted to divinations,\nthe oracles being given by a Vestal in a hypnotic condition, seated over\na burning brazier. The doctor was accommodated with a test, but another\ninquirer who had the temerity to be curious as to what was being done in\nthe Vatican received a severe rebuff; in vain did the spirit of the\nClairvoyante strive to penetrate the \"draughty and malarious\" palace of\nthe Roman Pontiff, and Phileas Walder, mortified and maddened, began to\ncurse and to swear like the first Pope. The experiment disillusionized\nthe assembly and they thoughtfully repaired to the seventh temple,\nwhich, being sacred to Fire, was equipped with a vast central furnace\nsurmounted by a chimney and containing a gigantic figure of Baphomet;\nin spite of the intolerable heat pervading the entire chamber this idol\ncontrived to preserve its outlines and to glow without pulverising. A\nceremony of an impressive nature occurred in this apartment; a wild cat,\nwhich strayed in through an open window, was regarded as the appearance\nof a soul in transmigration, and, in spite of its piteous protests, was\npassed through the fire to Baal.\n\nAnd now the crowning function, the Magnum Opus of the mystery, must take\nplace in the Sheol of Dappah; a long procession filed from the mountain\ntemples to the charnel-house of the open plain; the night was dark, the\nmoon had vanished in dismay, black clouds scudded across the heavens, a\nfeverish rain fell slowly at intervals, and the ground was dimly lighted\nby the phosphorescence of the general putrefaction. The Adepts went\nstumbling over dead bodies, disturbing Rats and Vultures, and proceeded\nto the formation of the magic chain, which consisted in high-grade\nMasons, provided with silk hats, sitting down in a vast circle, every\nAdept embracing his particular corpse. The ceremony included the\nrecitation of certain passages borrowed from popular grimoires, the\nobject in view being the wholesale liberation of Spirits wandering in\nthe immediate neighbourhood of their bodies. This closed the proceedings\nand the doctor confesses that the distractions of the evening occasioned\nhim a disturbed sleep accompanied by nightmares.\n\n\nSec. 6. _A Palladian Initiation._\n\nBefore leaving Calcutta our adventurer purchased from Phileas Walder,\nfor the sum of two hundred francs, the serviceable dignity of a\nPalladian Hierarch, \"fortified with which he would be enabled to\npenetrate everywhere.\" Regarding all English possessions as peculiarly\nproductive in the Dead Sea fruit of diabolism, Singapore was the next\nscene of his curious researches. The English as a nation are criminal,\nbut Singapore is the yeast-house of British wickedness, where vice\nferments continually; there man masonifies naturally and most Masons\npalladise. The doctor states plainly that one thing only has preserved\nthe place from the doom of the cities of the plain, and that is the\npresence of certain good Christians, otherwise Catholics, in what he\nterms the accursed city. For himself he tarried only to witness the\ninitiation of a Mistress-Templar according to the Palladian rite, which\ntook place in a Presbyterian Chapel, the Presbyterian persuasion, as he\ntells us, being one of the broad roads leading to avowed Satanism. The\npassword was appropriately the name of the first murderer, and the\ndoctor was greeted to his great astonishment by an old acquaintance, an\nEnglish pastor, whom he had frequently seen upon his own magnificent\nsteam-boat, who also rejoiced in the nick-name of the Reverend Alcohol,\nbeing, like the majority of Englishmen, almost invariably drunk. The\nceremony of initiation, which is described at great length in the\nnarrative, is a variation from that of Leo Taxil; the doctor, in mercy\nto his readers, suppressing a part of the performance. Speaking\ngenerally, it was concerned, as we have previously seen, with an\nanti-Christian version of Gospel history and some commonplace outrages\nof the Eucharistic elements, during which proceedings our witness\nperspired freely. So, as he tells us, did one more Protestant pass over\nto the worship of Lucifer.\n\nThe operations of the ritual were followed by a \"divine solemnity,\"\nwhich had something of the character of an ordinary spiritual seance,\nsupposing it to have been held in a mad-house. I need only say that when\nthe lights were turned up at the end, every article of furniture,\nincluding a large organ, was discovered hanging from the ceiling. As a\nfinal phenomenon, the Master of the Ceremonies detached his shadow from\nhis substance, arranged it against the wall in the shape of a demon, and\nit responded to various questions by signs. There was a burst of loud\napplause, the proceedings terminated, and the Masonic Temple became once\nmore a Presbyterian Chapel.\n\n\nSec. 7. _The San-Ho-Hei._\n\nThe doctor informs us that China is the gate of Hell, and that all its\ninhabitants are born damned; child-like and bland in appearance, the\nChinaman is invariably by disposition a Satanist, having tastes wholly\ndiabolical. As to the religion of Buddha, it is simply Satanism _a\noutrance_. Chinese occultism is centralised in the San-Ho-Hei, an\nassociation \"parallel to high grade Masonry,\" having its head-quarters\nat Pekin, and welcoming all Freemasons who are affiliated to the\nPalladium. It does not, however, admit women, and has only one degree.\nIts chief occupation is to murder Catholic missionaries. When a\nPalladian Mason seeks admission for the first time to one of its\nassemblies, he betakes himself to the nearest opium den, carrying on his\nperson the documents which prove his initiation; he places his umbrella\nhead downwards on his left side, and stupefies himself with the divine\ndrug. He is then quite sure that he will be transported in a comatose\ncondition to the occult reunion. When the doctor reached Shanghai, he\nexperienced some hesitation before he attempted an adventure so\nuncertain in its issue. He remembered, however, that he was possessed of\na miraculous medal of St. Benedict, which he regarded as his trump\ncard, a species of passport or return ticket, available at any date and\nby any line of Devildom. He determined to get drunk accordingly; but\neven as he entered Masonry with a becoming reservation of conscience, so\nhe entered the drug-shop with a reservation as to the degree of his\ndrunkenness, in spite of which he fell, however, into a deep sleep, and\nawoke in the assembly of The Secret Avengers, one of whom, to facilitate\nproceedings, had a good knowledge of English, and a perfect familiarity\nwith all Charleston passwords. The Baphomet, of course, presided, but it\nappears that the Chinese have certain conscientious scruples on the\nsubject of Goats, and hence a Dragon's head was substituted for that of\nthe ordinary image. The doctor was not the only European present at the\nproceedings of the celestial assembly; but while he was the sole\nrepresentative of his own nation, it goes without saying that there was\na fair sprinkling of the abominable British.\n\nSo complete is the unanimity which obtains between the initiates of\nChina and Charleston that the bulk of the proceedings takes place in\nthe English language; but for this disposition of Providence, the doctor\nwould have been at a serious disadvantage. The first object of the\ncompany was to encompass the destruction of missionaries, and for this\npurpose a coffin was presently brought in, containing the skeleton of a\ndeceased brother, who had so far diverged from duty that he had entered\nin league with the Jesuits, and had dared to act as a spy upon the\naugust proceedings of the Sublime Society of Avengers. The first act may\nbe regarded as somewhat bizarre in character; it consisted in evoking an\nevil spirit to animate the skeleton, and to answer certain questions.\nThis was accomplished with absolute success. The bones of the departed\nbrother had, however, been so consecrated by his Jesuitical proclivities\nthat, even when animated by a devil, they discovered extreme reluctance\nin disclosing the number and quality of certain Franciscan zealots who\nhad just started from Paris to convert the Empire. Ultimately, however,\nit was admitted that they were now on the high seas, which information\ngiven, the bony oracle could no longer contain its rage, but pursued an\nEnglish Mason of the 33rd degree from end to end of the assembly, and\nsucceeded in inflicting some furious bites and blows. The second act\ncommenced by uncovering a species of exaggerated baptismal font, filled\nto the brim with water, and representing the great ocean over which the\nmissionaries were passing. The assembly crowded round it, and by means\nof magic rods and other devices, succeeded in evoking a minute figure of\na steam-ship containing the adventurers. Their magic also raised up a\nperfect tempest of wind in the closed apartment, but by no device could\nthey effect the slightest disturbance upon the placid bosom of the\nwater. The ceremony had, in fact, to be abandoned as a failure in its\ndesired intention. Too well did the Spirit Yesu protect His\nmissionaries. The assembly accordingly repaired into a second apartment.\nThere the officiating dignitaries assumed the vestments of Catholic\npriests. They produced a wax figure, designed to represent a missionary,\namused themselves with a mock trial, inflicted imaginary tortures, and\nreturned the dummy to a cupboard, after which they proceeded to the\ncrucifixion of a living pig. The third act was an agonising experience\nfor the doctor, being nothing less than the sacrifice of one of the\nbrethren, the selection being determined by lot. The doctor, in his\nquality of visitor, was, it is true, spared the chance of being himself\nthe victim, but he nearly became executioner. One of the Chinese adepts\nhaving been chosen, to his intense satisfaction, and approved by some\nmechanical movements on the part of the dragon-headed Baphomet,\npermitted his limbs to be removed, and then earnestly invoked the\nassistance of the \"Charleston brother\" for the purpose of severing his\nhead. It was an honour invariably accorded to the visitor of the highest\ngrade. The doctor, who could not bring himself to the point, was saved\nat the last moment by the miraculous levitation of Phileas Walder from\nan immense distance, this occult personage having become transcendently\ncognisant of what was going forward in China, and being anxious to\ninterrogate the severed head as to the possible recovery of his\ndaughter, who was then seriously ill. In virtue of his superior dignity,\nhe claimed the privilege of the execution, and the doctor modestly\nretired.\n\nSuch were the adventures of our witness in the assembly of Holy\nAvengers. He enumerates at great length the evidence against\nhallucination as a result of his excess in opium, but I suggest to\nobserving readers that there is a more obvious line of criticism.\n\n\nSec. 8. _The Great City of Lucifer._\n\nIt was in March of the year 1881 that Doctor Bataille proceeded for the\nfirst time to Charleston, to make acquaintance at head-quarters with the\nuniversal Masonry of Lucifer and its Pontiff Albert Pike. Charleston is\nthe Venice of America, the Rome of Satan, and the great City of Lucifer.\nAlways enormously prolix, and adoring the details which swell the flimsy\nissues of cheap periodical narratives, our witness describes at great\nlength the city and its Masonic temple, with the temple which is within\nthe temple and is consecrated to the good God. My second chapter has\nalready provided the reader with sufficient information upon the persons\nalleged to be concerned in the foundation of Universal Freemasonry and\nin the elaboration of its cultus. Nor need I dwell at any length upon\nthe personal communication which passed between Doctor Bataille, Albert\nPike, Gallatin Mackey, Sophia Walder, Chambers, Webber, and the rest of\nthe Charleston luminaries. Miss Walder explained to him the great hope\nof the Order concerning the speedy advent of anti-Christ, the abolition\nof the papacy, and the destruction of the Christian religion. She also\nrelated many of her private experiences with the infernal monarchy,\nbeing acquainted with the exact number of demons in the descending\nhierarchy, and with all their classes and legions. She confidently\nexpected to be the great grandmother of anti-Christ, and in the meantime\npossessed the transcendental faculty of becoming fluidic at will. Mr\nGallatin Mackey exhibited his _Arcula Mystica_, one of seven similar\ninstruments existing at Charleston, Rome, Berlin, Washington, Monte\nVideo, Naples, and Calcutta. To all appearance it resembled a\nliqueur-stand, but it was really a diabolical telephone worked like the\nUrimm and Thummimm, and enabling those who possessed it to communicate\nwith each other, whatever the intervening distance. The Doctor, in his\nquality of initiate, was, of course, taken over the entire premises; he\nexamined the head of the great templar Molay, deciding by his\nanthropological knowledge that the relic was not genuine, and that it\nwas not the skull of a European. As to the templar Baphomet, situated in\nthe Sanctum Regnum, and before which Lucifer is supposed to appear, it\nis sufficient to say that Doctor Bataille, who invariably treads\ncautiously where it is easy for other steps to follow him, has no\npersonal testimony to furnish upon the subject of the apparition, and\nthe relations of other persons do not concern us at the moment.\n\n\nSec. 9. _Transcendental Toxicology._\n\nThe memorials of Charleston are not entirely favourable to the true\nstrength of our witness; it was requisite to \"lie low\" in America, but\nthe Doctor bristles in Gibraltar; he is once more upon British soil.\nDoes not the Englishman, consciously or otherwise, put a curse on\neverything he touches? Doctor Bataille affirms it; indeed this quality\nof malediction has been specially dispensed to the nation of heretics by\nGod himself; so says Doctor Bataille. Since the British braggart began\nto embattle Gibraltar, having thieved it from Catholic Spain, a wind of\ndesolation breathes over the whole country. An inscrutable providence,\nof which our witness is the mouthpiece, has elected to set apart this\nrock in order that the devil and the English, who, he says, are a pair,\nmay continue their work of protestantising and filling the world with\nmalefice. To sum the whole matter, the Britisher is an odious usurper\n\"who has always got one eye open.\" Now, having regard to the fact that\nout of every tribe and tongue and people and nation a proportion to be\nnumbered by millions is given over to devil-worship and Masonry, and\nthat consequently there is an enormous demand for Baphomets and other\nidols, for innumerable instruments of black Magic, and for poisons to\nexterminate enemies, it is obviously needful that there should be a\nsecret central department for the working of woods and metals and for\nTranscendental Toxicology. To Charleston the dogmatic directory, to\nGibraltar the universal factory. But so colossal an output focussed at a\nsingle point could scarcely proceed unknown to Government at a given\nplace, and any nation save England might object to this class of\nexports. The cause of Masonry and the devil being, however, dear to the\nEnglish heart, it would, of course, pass unchallenged at Gibraltar, and\nat this point an anglo-phobe with a remnant of reason would have\nremained satisfied. Not so our French physician, who affirms that the\nexports in question do not merely escape inquisition at the hands of\ncivil authority but are in fact a government industry.\n\n    \"Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay;\n     In the dimmest north-east distance dawned Gibraltar, grand and gray--\n     Here and here did England help me, how can I help England, say?\"\n\nThese are the words of Browning, and his question has well been\nanswered by the institution of the secret workshops and the secret\nlaboratory; as in most other cases England has helped herself, unless,\nindeed, it should occur to the doctor that the poet was a Satanist, like\nPike, who himself was a poet, and had a chief finger in the pie.\n\nNow the great historic rock is tunnelled by innumerable caverns, which,\nour deponent witnesses, have never been explored by the tourist, and in\nthe most impracticable portions of the great subterranean maze,\nwhosoever has the audacity to penetrate will discover for himself the\nexistence of the industrial department of diabolism, but he must not\nexpect to come back unless he be a Sovereign Grand Master _ad vitam_,\nand an initiate of Lucifer. The doctor has explored these caverns, has\nseen the factory in full working order, has exhaustively described the\nway in, has returned from the gulf like Dante, and has given away the\nwhole mystery. Possessed of his key to the labyrinth the wayfaring man\nshall not err therein, and it will, no doubt, be a new curiosity for the\nmore daring among Cook's tourists. The workshops are supplied with\nmechanics by a simple expedient; hopeless specimens of English\nmalefactors, condemned to penal servitude for the term of their natural\nlife, are relegated to this region, a kind of grim humour characterising\nthe selection. The most hideous convicts are chosen, and those most\ncorresponding in outward appearance to the favourite devils of the\nhierarchy, under whose names they pass in the workshops, where they\ncommonly communicate with each other in the language of Volapuk. The\nreason given is that this language has been adopted by the Spoeleic\nRite, which I confess that I had not heard of previously, but I venture\nto think that the doctor has concealed the true reason, and that Volapuk\nhas been thus chosen because it is a diabolical invention; a universal\nlanguage prevailed previously to the confusion of Babel, and the new\nlanguage is an irreligious attempt to produce _ordo ab chao_ by a return\nto unity of speech.\n\nThe Toxicological Department is worked by a higher class of criminals,\nas for example, absconding trustees, who are there comfortably settled\nin life, enjoying many modern conveniences. It produces poisons which\nusually cause death by cerebral hemorrhage; but each has its special\nantidote, possessed of which the initiated poisoner can eat and drink\nwith his victim; on this subject the doctor pursues, however, a policy\nof masterly reticence. But such, in brief, is the deep mystery of\nGibraltar, such is the Toxicological department of universal\nFreemasonry.\n\n\nSec. 10. _The Doctor and Diana._\n\nIt would be impossible to follow the doctor through the entire course of\nhis memoirs, not that they are wholly biographical, exclusively\nconcerned with modern diabolism, or with the great conspiracy of Masons\nagainst God, Man, and the universe; one of his subsidiary and yet most\nimportant objects is to fill space, in which respect he has almost\neclipsed the great classics of the penny dreadful in England. I must\npass with a mere reference over his dealings in spiritualism; it is\nneedless to say that in this branch of transcendental investigation he\nwitnessed more astounding phenomena than falls commonly to the lot of\neven veteran students. His star prevailed everywhere, and the world\nunseen deployed its strongest forces. At Monte Video, for example,\nfalling casually into a circle of spiritualists, he was seated,\nsurrounded by a family of these unconscious and amateur diabolists,\nbefore an open window at night time; across the broad mouth of the river\na great shaft of soft light from the lamp of the lighthouse opposite\nshone in mid-air, over the bosom of the water, and as it fell upon their\nfaces he discerned, floating within the beam itself, the solid figure of\na man. It was not the first time that the apparition, under similar\ncircumstances, had been seen by the rest of the household, but for him\nit bore a message of deeper mystery than for these uninitiated\nspiritualists; although in man's clothes, his observant eye recognised\nthe face of the spirit; terrible and suggestive truth, it was the face\nof the vestal Virgin, who, far off in Calcutta, had fluidified in the\nthird temple, and he uttered a great cry! He has now decided to void\nthe virginity of the vestal, and to assume that she was in reality a\ndemon, and not a being of earth. At the same time, my readers must\nthoroughly understand that the doctor, when he meddles in spiritualism,\nis a man who is governed in his narratives by an intelligent faculty of\ncriticism which borders on the purely sceptic; he delights in the\ndisplay of instances where an element of trickery may be detected; no\none better than himself can distinguish between bogus and bogey, and he\ntakes pleasure in directing special attention to his extraordinary good\njudgment and sound common-sense in each and all these matters. Hence no\none will be surprised to hear that at the house of a lady in London, an\nordinary table, after a preliminary performance in tilting, transformed\nsuddenly into a full-grown crocodile, and played touchingly on the\npiano, after which it again changed into a table, but the gin, the\nwhisky, the pale ale, and the other intoxicants which are indispensable\nat seances in England, had been entirely consumed by the transcendental\nreptile to fortify him on his return journey to the mud-banks of the\nNile. Nor has the spontaneous apparition been wanting to complete the\nexperiences of Dr Bataille. He was seated in his cabin at midnight\npondering over the theories formulated in natural history by Cuvier and\nDarwin, who diabolised the entire creation, when he was touched lightly\non the shoulder, and discovered standing over him, in his picturesque\nOriental costume, like another Mohini, the Arabian poisoner-in-chief of\nthe Gibraltar Toxicological Department, who, after some honourable\nassurances that the Bible was not true, departed transcendentally as he\ncame. This personage subsequently proved to be the demon Hermes. Even\nwhen he merely masonified, the doctor had unheard-of experiences in\nmagic. For example, at Golden Square, in the west central district of\nthis wicked city, an address which we have heard of before, at the\nconclusion of an ordinary Lodge meeting, there was an evocation of the\ndemon Zaren, who appeared under the form of a monstrous three-headed\ndragon completely cased in steel, and, endeavouring to devour his\nevoker, was restrained by the magical pentagram, ultimately vanishing\nwith the peculiar odour of Infernus.\n\nIn connection with various marvels the doctor has much to tell us\nconcerning two sisters in Lucifer who have long been at daggers drawn,\nand considering their supernatural attributes, it is incomprehensible in\na high degree that they have not destroyed one another like the Magician\nand the Princess of a more credible narrative of wonders in the \"Arabian\nNights.\" Diana Vaughan, much heard and little seen, has since become\nfamous by her conversion to the Catholic faith. Honoured with her\nacquaintance for a considerable period, the doctor invariably testifies\nthe utmost respect for this wealthy, beautiful, and high-placed\nPalladian lady, so long protected by a demon, of the superior hierarchy,\nand enjoying what he somewhat obscurely terms an obsessional\nguardianship. On the 28th of February, 1884, at a theurgic seance of\nTemplar Mistresses and Elect Magi of Louisville, the ceiling of the\ntemple was riven suddenly, and Asmodeus, genius of Fire, descended to\nslow music, having in one hand a sword, and in the other the long tail\nof a lion. He informed the company that there had just been a great\nbattle between the leaders of Lucifer and Adonai, and that it had been\nhis personal felicity to lop the Lion's tail of St Mark; he directed the\nmembers of the eleven plus seven triangle to preserve the trophy\ncarefully, and, that it might not be a lifeless relic, he had\nthoughtfully informed it with one of his minor devils until such time as\nhe himself should intervene to mark his omnipotent favour towards a\ncertain predestined virgin. The vestal in question was Diana of the\nCharlestonians, elect sister in Asmodeus, who at that time was not\naffiliated to Palladism. When the doctor subsequently drew her on the\nsubject of this history, she replied, after the manner of the walrus,\n\"Do you admire the view?\" For himself, the good doctor dislikes the\nnarrative, not because it does violence to possibility, but because it\ndid violence to St Mark; there is evidently an incomplete dignity about\na tailless evangelist. As to the tail itself, he has no personal doubt\nthat it was the property of an ordinary lion, and that it has since\nbecome possessed of a devil.\n\nAt the risk of offending Miss Vaughan, the doctor expatiates on her\ncase, and learnedly demonstrates that her possession is of so\nuninterrupted a kind that it has become a second nature, and belongs to\nthe 5th degree; however this may be, he establishes at great length one\nimportant point in her favour, which has occasioned all French Catholics\nto earnestly desire her conversion. I have stated already that the grade\nof Templar-Mistress is concerned partly with profanations of the\nEucharist. For example, the aspirant to this initiation is required to\ndrive a stiletto into the consecrated Host with a becoming expression of\nfury. When Miss Vaughan visited Paris in the year 1885, where Miss\nWalder had sometime previously established herself, she was invited to\nenter this grade, and accepted the offer. A seance for initiation was\nheld accordingly, but Miss Vaughan would have none of profanation, and\nrefused blankly to stultify her liberal intelligence by the stabbing of\na wheaten wafer. She did not believe in the Real Presence, and she did\nnot wish to be childish. A great sensation followed; her initiation was\npostponed; appeal was made to Charleston; and the formality was\ndispensed with in her case by the intervention, as it was supposed at\nthe moment, of Albert Pike's authority, even as her Father's\nintervention had excused her beforehand from another ordeal which could\nnot be suffered with propriety. This episode implanted in the breast of\nSophia Walder an extreme form of Palladian hatred for the Diana of\nPhilalethes. Now, Sophia was in high favour with all the hosts of\nperdition, yet her rancorous relations with her sister Adept did not\nmake Diana less a _persona grata_ to the peculiar intelligence which\ngoverns the descending hierarchy. In the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky the\nPalladian Magi and the Mistress Templars decided one day to have a\nlittle experiment with the Undines, so they shouldered their magical\ninstruments; but the eager elementaries, habiting the dark abysses, did\nnot wait to be evoked; the water bubbled in the Lake, the roof was\nconstellated with stars, and who should appear but Asmodeus, on the bank\nopposite, in all his infernal glory! With open arms he loudly called on\nDiana, and that lady, suddenly transfigured, walked calmly over the\nwater, and kissed the feet of her demon, who incontinently vanished.\nInspired by a sense of deficiency, the doctor says that the visit to the\nMammoth Cave terminated without any further incident. He was not an\nocular witness of what he relates in this instance, but he received it\nfrom the lips of Diana, and the lips of Diana, in the opinion of all\nhonourable men, would be preferable to the eyes of the doctor.\n\nBut the doctor had the testimony of his eyes upon another occasion; it\nis known that Miss Vaughan's celebrity began with her hostility to the\nItalian Grand Master, Adriano Lemmi. When the seat of the Sovereign\nPontificate, as deponents testify, was removed from Charleston, the\ngreat city of Lucifer, even unto the Eternal City, and many adepts\ndemissioned, there was a doubt in the rebel camp as to the continued\nprotection of Lucifer. If Diabolus had gone over to Lemmi, they were\nindeed bereft. Miss Vaughan, however, remained calm and sanguine:--\"I am\ncertain of the celestial protection of the Genii of Light,\" said Diana,\nand, producing her talisman, she bent her right knee to the ground,\nturned a complete somersault without falling, flung her tambourine into\nthe air, which descended gently and remained suspended a yard from the\nground, while she herself, passing into a condition of ecstasy, also\nrose into the air in a recumbent posture. She remained in this state for\nthe space of fifteen minutes, the silence being only broken by the\ndistant rumbling of thunder. Many of the spectators could not believe\ntheir eyes. At length very gently her body assumed a vertical position,\nhead downwards, but as a concession to polite feeling the remaining laws\nof gravity were suspended, like herself, and her skirts were not\ncorrespondingly inverted. Slowly the ecstatic lady continued to\ncirculate, the assembly stood at gaze \"like Joshua's moon in Ajalon,\"\nand presently she was in the vertical position of a swimmer, the\nphenomenon concluding by her restoration to _terra firma_. This wonder\nwas accomplished by the magic power of a diabolical Rose which the lady\ncarried in her bodice.\n\nOn yet another occasion the doctor witnessed the prodigy of the\nbilocation of Diana by the assistance of a simple magical process, when\nto his most certain knowledge she was hundreds of leagues away; but the\nrecitations of Doctor Bataille have reduced bilocation to a banality,\nand a mere reference will suffice.\n\nA monograph of Miss Vaughan's miracles would, however, be incomplete if\nit failed to exhibit her in her capacity as a breaker of spells;\nwhatsoever has been bound by devildom can be loosed by Diana. At the\nheight of the commotion occasioned by her persistent refusal to\nparticipate in sham sacrilege, there was one member of the Paris\nTriangle who manifested peculiar acrimony in demanding the expulsion of\na delinquent who had dared to impeach the ritual. As a punishment for\nhis own presumption, and in the presence of the assembled adepts, his\nhead was suddenly reversed by an unseen power, and for the space of one\nand twenty days he was obliged to review the situation face backwards.\nThis severe judgment dismayed all present; Miss Walder had recourse to\nan evocation and discovered that it had been inflicted by Asmodeus, the\nprotector of her rival, who furthermore would not scruple to visit with\nviolent disaster any person who discovered an evil design against so\nelect a sister as Diana. If the present culprit desired to be set free\nfrom his grotesque position, he must humbly have recourse to her. Miss\nVaughan was in America at the moment, but she generously came to his\nrescue as soon as steam could carry her, and restored him his lost front\nview by a jocose imposition of hands. I should add that on the very day\nwhen this misadventure took place at Paris, Miss Vaughan was defending\nher standpoint in person before the Triangle of Louisville; opinion was\ndivided about her, and the result appeared uncertain, when the demoniac\ntail of St Mark, evacuating the minor devil, who had hired it on a\nrepairing lease, accepted Asmodeus as a tenant, and violently\ncircumambulating the apartment belaboured all those whose voices had\nbeen raised against his Vestal. Finally the tassel of the tail turned\ninto the head of the demon and vowed his devotion to Diana so long as\nshe remained unmarried; did she dare, however, to desert him for an\nearthly consort, he was commander of fourteen legions, and he would\nstrangle the man of clay.\n\nIt would be unkind to Miss Sophia Walder if I let it be supposed for a\nmoment that the palm of prestige is borne away by her rival. I have\nalready noted that this lady occasionally fluidifies to the satisfaction\nof a select audience, but, like the materialising medium, she finds it a\ndepleting performance which usually confines her to her room, and her\nprice, therefore, is five thousand francs. She is first Sovereign in\nBitru, and is defined by the doctor to be in a state of latent\npossession, having a semi-diabolical nature and the gift of\nsubstitution. It was possibly at Milan that he witnessed the most\npersuasive test of her occult powers. She took him confidentially apart\nand explained to him that she had been in a condition of \"penetration\"\nfor about three hours. \"At dinner the food of which I partake becomes\nvolatile in my mouth; wine evaporates invisibly the moment it makes\ncontact with my lips; I eat and drink in appearance, but my teeth\nmasticate the air.\" Now this was due, not to the voracity of Bitru, but\nto the keen appetite of Baal-Zeboub; the magnetic lady did not, however,\nexplain this point after the common method of speech; she fixed her\nblazing orbs upon the doctor, and he saw flames everywhere; a moment\nmore and her feet were free from earth; she stretched out her left hand,\nand on the open palm he beheld the successive apparitions in characters\nof flame of the ten letters which constitute the great name. With a\ntouch of internal collapse he commended himself to the Virgin Mary, the\necstatic paroxysm passed, and they wandered down another lane, for they\nwere in the midst of leafy umbrage. Presently a tree gracefully arranged\na portion of its branches in the form of a fan, and bowed with profound\nreverence. Still more fantastic, a paralysed branch produced a living\nhuman hand, which in the accompanying engraving is ornamented with an\nimmaculate cuff, and that hand presented a bouquet to Sophia. By reason\nof these matters the doctor became pensive.\n\nA Palladian seance followed. The litany of Lucifer was chanted, and the\nprodigy of \"substitution\" was effected. The ceremony took place in a\ngrotto with a stalactite roof; Miss Walder produced from a basket the\nserpent which was an inseparable companion of all her travels; it\nimmediately genuflected in front of her, swarmed the wall, and assumed a\npendant position attached to one of the stalactites. It was a reptile of\nno ordinary kind, for it began to develop an interminable length of\ncoils till it had spread itself circlewise over the entire ceiling, and\nits head was joined to its tail. The doctor says that he was now\nprepared for anything. The serpent gave forth seven horrible hisses, and\nin the dim light, for the torches which illuminated the place were\nsuccessively giving out of themselves, each person became conscious of\nan unseen entity blowing with burning breath in their faces. When at\nlength there was complete darkness, Sophia herself became radiant, and\nbrilliantly illuminated the grotto with an intense white light; five\nenormous hands could then be seen floating in space, also intensely\nluminous, but emitting a green lustre; each hand went wandering in\nsearch of its prey, ultimately seizing a brother, whom it drew\nirresistibly forward in the direction of Sophia. Moved by a mysterious\ninfluence, two of them grasped her arms, two clutched her by the\nshoulders, one placed his hand on her head. The serpent again hissed\nseven significant times, and in place of the solid Sophia the third\nAlexander of Macedon was substituted in phantom guise. When he faded\nSophia reappeared and continued going and coming with a phantom between\neach of her appearances, so that she was in turn replaced by Luther,\nCleopatra, Robespierre, and others, concluding with the Italian patriot\nGaribaldi, who eclipsed all the others, for his bust was converted into\na bronze urn from which red flames burst forth. The flames took a human\nform, and gave back Sophia to the assembly.\n\nSuch is the gift of substitution, which follows penetration, and such is\nthe substance of the memoirs of M. Bataille, ship's doctor, who, in the\nyear 1880, undertook to exploit Freemasonry and has come forth unsinged\nfrom Diabolism. There is one maxim of the Psalmist which the experience\nof most transcendentalists has taught them to lay to heart, and to\nrepeat without the qualifications of David when certain aspects of\nsupernatural narrative are introduced--_Omnis homo mendax!_ But lest I\nshould appear to be discourteous, I should like to add a brief dictum\nfrom the Magus Eliphas Levi. \"The wise man cannot lie,\" because nature\naccommodates herself to his statement. In a polite investigation like\nthe present, there is, therefore, no question whether Doctor Bataille is\ndefined by the term _mendax_, which is forbidden to literary elegance;\nit is simply a question whether he is a wise man, or whether nature\nblundered and did not conform to his statement.\n\nThe credibility, in whole or in part, of Dr Bataille's narrative will\ninvolve some extended criticism, and I purpose to postpone it till the\nremaining witnesses have been examined. We shall then be in a position\nto appreciate how far later revelations support his statements. Setting\naside the miraculous element, which is tolerably separate from what\nmost concerns our inquiry, namely, the existence of Palladian Masonry\nattached to the cultus of Lucifer, it may be stated that the most sober\npart of Dr Bataille's memoirs is the account of his visit to Charleston;\nhere the miraculous element is entirely absent. He confirms by alleged\npersonal investigations the existence of the New and Reformed Palladium;\nhe is the first witness who distinguishes clearly between the Luciferian\nOrder and the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite of\nCharleston. That distinction is made, however, at one expense; it\nassumes that the Supreme Council preserved the Baphomet idol as well as\nthe reputed skull of Molay for nearly seventy years, and then\nsurrendered it to another order with which it had no official\nacquaintance. Under what circumstances and why did it do that? The\nAncient and Accepted Scotch Rite is connected by its legend with the\nTemplars, and for the Charleston Supreme Council to part with the\ntrophies of the tradition seems no less unlikely than for a regiment to\nsurrender its colours.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nDEALINGS WITH DIANA\n\n\nThe philosophy of Horatius is supposed to represent incompletely the\ncontent of heaven and earth, but neither earth nor heaven, as at present\nconstituted, would be capable of enclosing the entire content of Dr\nBataille's memoirs. Miss Diana Vaughan, with whose history we are next\nconcerned, comes before us under a different aspect. I have failed to\nascertain under what circumstances she first became known in France. _Le\nDiable au XIX^e Siecle_ may have constituted her earliest introduction;\nshe was certainly unknown to Leo Taxil when he published the Palladian\nrituals, or she would not have escaped mention in the account he there\ngives of Miss Sophia Walder. However this may be, we have made her\nacquaintance in the course of the previous chapter, but I am constrained\nto state that she has, up to the present, shown herself exceedingly\ncircumspect in substantiating the evidence of her precursor.\n\nThe whole world is aware, and I need not again repeat, that Miss Diana\nVaughan was converted to the Catholic Church some time after Dr Bataille\ncompleted his astounding narrative. A Palladist of perfect initiation,\ncomprehending the mysteries of the number 77, and doing reverence to the\nhigher mystery of 666, Grand Mistress of the Temple, Grand Inspectress\nof the Palladium, and according to him who, in a sense, has prepared her\nway and made straight her paths, a sorceress and thaumaturge before\nwhose daily performances the Black Sabbath turns white, Miss Vaughan\nquarrelled, as we have seen, with a sister initiate, Sophia Walder, and\nconceived for the Italian Grand Master, Adriano Lemmi, the charity of\nthe evil angels, which is hatred. When the Supreme Dogmatic Directory of\nUniversal Freemasonry was removed from Charleston to Rome and the\npontificate passed over to Lemmi, as the revelations allege, Miss\nVaughan closed her connection with the Triangles, carrying her colours\nto a vessel equipped by herself, and founded a new society under the\ntitle of the Free and Regenerated Palladium, incorporating the\nAnti-Lemmist groups, and soon after began a public propaganda by the\nissue of a monthly review, devoted to the elucidation of the doctrines\nof the Lucifer cultus and to the exposure of the Italian Grand Master.\nTo hoist the black flag of diabolism, as Miss Vaughan would now term it,\nthus in the open day, naturally elicited a strong protestation from the\nPalladist Federation, so that she was in embroilment not only with Lemmi\nbut also with the source of the initiation which she still appeared to\nprize. At the same time she exhibited no indications of going over to\nthe cause of the Adonaites. Becoming known to the Anti-Masonic centres\nof the Roman Catholic Church only through her hostility to Lemmi, she\nwas always a _persona grata_ whose conversion was ardently desired, but\non several public occasions she advised them that their cause and hers\nwere in radical opposition, and that, in fact, she would have none of\nthem, being outside any need of their support, sympathy, or interest.\nShe would cleave to the good God Lucifer, and she aspired to be the\nbride of Asmodeus. At length the long-suffering editor of the _Revue\nMensuelle_, weary of his refractory protege, would also have none of\nher, though he surrendered her with evident regret to be dealt with by\nthe prayers of the faithful. One month after, M. Leo Taxil, through the\nmedium of the same organ, announced the conversion of Miss Vaughan, and\nin less than another month, namely, in July, 1895, she began the\npublication of her \"Memoirs of an ex-Palladist,\" which are still in\nprogress, so that, limitations of space apart, my account of this lady\nwill be unavoidably incomplete.\n\nHer memoirs are, unfortunately, not a literary performance; and their\nmethod, if such it can be called, is not chronological. Beginning with\nan account of her first introduction to Lucifer, _vis-a-vis_ in the\n_Sanctum Regnum_ of Charleston, on April 8th 1889, they leap, in the\nsecond chapter, over all the years intervening to a minute analysis of\nthe sentiments which led to her conversion, and of the raptures which\nfollowed it, above all on the occasion of her first communion. It is not\ntill the third chapter that we get an account of her Luciferian\neducation, or, more correctly, an introduction thereto, for the better\npart of five monthly numbers has not brought us nearer to her\npersonality than the history of an ancestor in the seventeenth century.\nAs the publisher is still soliciting annual subscriptions to the\nenterprise, and offering a variety of advantages after methods not\nunknown in England among the by-ways of periodical literature, the\ncompletion of the work is probably a distant satisfaction for those who\ntake interest therein.\n\nNow, having regard to the narrative of Dr Bataille, and having regard to\nthe statements set forth in my second chapter, it is obvious that Miss\nVaughan is a witness of the first importance as to whether there is a\nMasonry behind Masonry, which, more or less, manages, or attempts to\nmanage, the entire society, unknown to the rank and file of its\ninitiates, however high in grade; as to whether its seat is at\nCharleston, with Albert Pike for its founder, and as to whether its\ndoctrine is anti-Christian, and its cultus that of Lucifer, supported by\nmagical wonders, concerned with sacrilegious observances, and either a\ndisguised Satanism, or drifting in that direction. As already hinted,\nthe mythical and miraculous element,--in a word, that portion of Doctor\nBataille's narrative which does violence to sense and reason,--Miss\nVaughan has not at present imperilled her position by substantiating,\nbut as to the points I have enumerated, she has most distinctly come\nforth out of Palladism to tell us that these things are so, and to\nreinforce what was previously stated by unveiling her private life.\n\nIt is therefore my duty and desire to do her full justice, and with this\npurpose in view, I propose to recite briefly the chief heads of her\nmemoir, so far as it has been published up to date. I must, however,\npremise at the beginning that she does not come before us with one trace\nof the uncertainty of accent which might have been expected to\ncharacterise the newly-acquired language, not merely of Christian\nfaith, but of its Roman dialect. We find her speaking at once, and to\nthe manner born. Could anything, by possibility, be narrower than\ncertain perished sections of evangelical religion in England, it would\nbe certain sections of ultramontane religion in France; but Miss Vaughan\nhas acquired all the terminology of the latter, all the intellectual\nbitterness, all the fatuities, as one might say, in the space of five\nminutes. When she has wearied of her memoirs at the moment, or has\nreached, after the manner of the novelist, some crucial point in her\nnarrative, she breaks off abruptly, brackets _a suivre_, and proceeds to\nan account of the latest wonder-working image, or a diatribe against\nspirit manifestations in the typical manner of the French clerical\npress. To be brief, Miss Vaughan has adopted, body and soul, precisely\nthose abuses which Catholics of intelligence earnestly desire to see\nexpunged from their great religion. She has probably never heard of the\nForged Decretals, but she would defend their authenticity if she had;\nshe has probably never heard of the corrupted, or any version of the\nEpistles of St Ignatius, but she would accept the corruptions bodily\nupon the smallest hint that they savoured better with the hierarchy, and\nshe would do all this apparently in good faith on the authority of a\npurblind party within the Church, which exists to keep open its wounds.\nNow, I submit that a _volte face_ is possible, especially in religious\nopinions, but that a pronounced habit of religious thought cannot be\nacquired in a day, so that, in the history of Miss Vaughan's conversion,\nthere is more than can be discerned on the surface. The precise nature\nof the element which eludes must be left to the judgment of my readers,\nbut, personally, I reserve my own, out of fairness to an unfinished\ndeposition.\n\nThere is a generic difference between Doctor Bataille and Miss Vaughan.\nHe is an ordinary human being, and if we may trust the many pictures\nwhich represent him in his narrative, exceedingly unpretending at that.\nWe have also some portraits of Miss Vaughan, who is aggressive and good\nto look at; but this is not the generic distinction. Doctor Bataille,\npoor man, is the scion of an ordinary ancestry within the narrow limits\nof flesh and blood. Miss Vaughan, on the contrary--I hope my readers\nwill bear with me--has been taught from her childhood to believe that\nshe was of the blood royal of the descending hierarchy, and I cannot\ngather from her vague mode of expression whether she has altogether\nrejected the legend of her descent, which is otherwise sufficiently\nstartling.\n\nThe position of authority and influence occupied by Miss Vaughan in what\nshe terms high Masonry is to be explained, as she modestly informs us,\nnot by her personal qualities, but by a traditional secret concerning\nher family, which is known only to the Elect Magi. Miss Vaughan and her\npaternal uncle are the last descendants of the alchemist Thomas Vaughan,\nwhom she terms a Rosicrucian, and identifies with Eirenaeus Philalethes,\nauthor of \"The Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King.\" On the\n25th of March 1645, she tells us, on the authority of her family\nhistory, Thomas Vaughan, having previously obtained from Cromwell the\nprivilege of beheading the \"noble martyr\" Laud, Archbishop of\nCanterbury--the title to nobility, in her opinion, seems to rest in the\nprobability of his secret connection with Rome--steeped a linen cloth in\nhis blood, burnt the said cloth in sacrifice to Satan, who appeared in\nresponse to an evocation, and with whom he concluded a pact, receiving\nthe philosophical stone, and a guaranteed period of life extending over\nthirty-three years from that date, after which he was to be transported\nwithout dying into the eternal kingdom of Lucifer, to live with a\nglorified body in the pure flames of the heaven of fire.\n\nAfter this compact, he wrote the \"Open Entrance,\" the original MS. of\nwhich, together with its autograph Luciferian interpretation on the\nbroad margins, is a precious heirloom in the family. Some two years\nlater, in the course of his travels, he reached New England, where he\ndwelt for a month among the Lenni-Lennaps, and there in an open desert,\non a clear night of summer, while the moon was shining in splendour, he\nwas wandering in solitary meditation when the luminary in question,\nwhich was in the crescent phase, came down out of heaven, and proved to\nbe an arched bed, very luminous and wonderful, containing a vision of\nsleeping female beauty. This was the nuptial couch of Thomas Vaughan and\nits occupant was Venus-Astarte, surrounded by a host of flower-bearing\nchild-spirits, who conveniently provided a tent, and provided also\ndelicious meals during a period of eleven days. Several curious\nparticulars differentiated these Hermetic nuptials, undreamed of by\nChristian Rosencreutz, from those which govern more ordinary proceedings\nbelow the latitude of the Lenni-Lennaps. In the first place, goddess\nsuccubus, Astarte provided the ring, which was of red gold enriched with\na diamond, and placed it on the finger of her lover; in the second\nplace, transcendental gestation, celestial or otherwise, fulfils the\nmystery of generation with exceeding despatch, for Astarte was delivered\nof an infant on the eleventh day independently of medical assistance,\nwhereupon she demanded the return of the nuptial ring, and vanished with\ntent and sprites astride of the crescent couch. The fruit of their union\nwas left in the arms of Thomas, who was directed to trample on all\nsentiments of paternal affection, and to deliver the child into the\ncharge of a tribe of fire-worshipping Indians. He does not appear to\nhave sued for the restitution of conjugal rights, and cheerfully\nsurrendered the human hybrid to a family of Lenni-Lennaps, together with\nhis medallion portrait drawn by an artist from devildom, so that the\ndaughter might recognise her father after the method which obtains among\nnovelists. Thomas Vaughan placed the broad ocean between himself and the\nscene of his marriage, and he never re-visited his daughter, who, in\nspite of her miraculous origin, does not appear to have distinguished\nherself in any way, at least up to the point at present reached by the\nhistory.\n\nMiss Vaughan says that all the Elect Magi do not accept this legend of\nthe blood royal, and she admits her own doubts subsequent to her\nconversion. As an article of intellectual faith I should prefer the\nbirth-story of Gargantua, but it satisfied Miss Vaughan till the age of\nthirty years, and her father and grandfather before her, even supposing\nthat it was _fabriquee par mon bisaieul James, de Boston_, as hazarded\nby elect Magi whom a remnant of reason hinders.\n\nThe \"Memoirs of an Ex-Palladist\" have not at present proceeded further\nthan the translation of Thomas Vaughan into the paradise of Lucifer, but\nfrom the \"Free and Regenerated Palladium\" and from other sources the\nchief incidents of Miss Vaughan's early life may be collected and\nsummarised briefly. We learn that she is the daughter of an American\nProtestant of Kentucky and of a French lady, also of that persuasion.\nShe was born in Paris, and a part of her education seems to have been\nreceived in that city; her mother died in Kentucky when Diana was in her\nfourteenth year, and I infer that subsequently to this event she must\nhave lived with her father, who had considerable property in the\nimmediate vicinity of Louisville. When the Sovereign Rite of Palladism\nwas created by Albert Pike, Vaughan became affiliated therewith, and was\none of the founders of the Louisville triangle 11 + 7; he presided at\nthe initiation of his daughter as apprentice, according to the Rite of\nAdoption, in 1883. She was raised to the grade of Companion, and\nsubsequently to that of Mistress, and at the age of 20 years, says Dr\nBataille, she crossed the threshold of the Triangles, as the Palladian\nlodges are termed.\n\nThree issues were published of \"The Free and Regenerated Palladium,\" but\nsince the conversion of Miss Vaughan, they have been withdrawn from\ncirculation, except among ecclesiastics of the Roman Church, and up to\nthe present I have failed to obtain copies. For the autobiographical\nportions of this organ, I am indebted to the notices which have appeared\nin the _Revue Mensuelle_. They contain an account of two apparitions on\nthe part of the demon Asmodeus, accompanied by phenomena of levitation\nand fortified by arguments against the theory of hallucination. These\nearly experiences are, however, of minor importance, nor need I again\nrefer to the sensational incidents which accompanied her initiation as\nTemplar-Mistress at the Paris Triangle of Saint-Jacques; but it appears\nfrom her memoirs that the intervention of Albert Pike was not in virtue\nof the supremacy of his personal authority, and that the ordeal of\nsacrilege was spared her by the clemency of Lucifer himself, who is\nsupposed to appear in person at the Sanctum Regnum of Charleston and to\ninstruct his chiefs, _Deo volente_ or otherwise, every Friday, the\nsupreme dogmatic director, who had made his home in Washington, having\nthe gift of \"instantaneous transportation,\" whensoever he thought fit to\nbe present in the \"divine\" board-room.\n\nOn the 5th of April 1889, the \"good God\" assembled his Ancients and\nEmerites for a friendly conversation upon the \"case\" of Diana Vaughan,\nand ended by requesting an introduction in three days' time. After the\nbest manner of the grimoires, Miss Vaughan began her preparations by a\ntriduum, taking one meal daily of black bread, fritters of high-spiced\nblood, a salad of milky herbs, and the drink of rare old Rabelais. The\npreparations in detail are scarcely worth recording as they merely vary\nthe directions in the popular chap-books of magic which abound in\nfoolish France. At the appointed time she passed through the iron doors\nof the Sanctum Regnum. \"Fear not!\" said Albert Pike, and she advanced\n_remplie d'une ardente allegresse_, was greeted by the eleven prime\nchiefs, who presently retired, possibly for prayer or refreshments,\npossibly for operations in wire-pulling. Diana Vaughan remained alone,\nin the presence of the Palladium, namely, our poor old friend Baphomet,\nwhom his admirers persist in representing with a goat's head, whereas he\nis the archetype of the ass.\n\nThe Sanctum Regnum is described as triangular in shape; there was no\ntorch, no lamp, no fire; the floor and the ceiling were therefore not\nunnaturally dark, but an inexplicable veil of strange phosphorescent\nlight was diffused over the three walls, the source of which proved on\nexamination to be innumerable particles of greenish flames each no\nlarger than a pin's head. Seated in front of the Baphomet, Miss Vaughan\napostrophised Lucifer sympathetically on the subject of the unpleasing\nform in which he was represented by his worshippers, and as she did so\nthe little flames intensified, while floor and ceiling caught fire after\nthe same ghostly incandescent fashion; a great dry heat filled the vast\napartment, and, still spreading, the flames covered her chair, her\ngarments, her entire person. At this point the inevitable thunder began\nto roll; three and one and two great thunders, after which came five\nbreathings upon her face, and after those breathings five radiant\nspirits appeared, the first act closing impressively with a final salvo\nof artillery.\n\nThe unhappy Baphomet, dismayed by these extreme proceedings, vanished\nentirely, and, no expense being spared through the whole of the costly\ntableaux, Lucifer manifested on a throne of diamonds, but whether the\ngems were furnished from the treasury of Avernus or from the pockets of\nbamboozled Freemasons through the wide world, _les renseignements_ do\nnot state. Need I say that Miss Vaughan's first impulse was to fall in\nworship at his feet? But the sordid apparition, instead of accepting the\nhomage with the grace which is native to empire, had recourse to the\nmethod of the novelist, and stayed her intention by a gesture. Even at\nthis late date, and with the millstone of her conversion placed in the\nopposite scale, Miss Vaughan's description of her quondam deity would\ntempt sentimental young women to forgive all his devildom to a being so\n\"superb\" in \"masculine beauty.\" I will refrain from spoiling the picture\nby much of her own minuteness, or by the exclamatory parentheses of her\nfury against the magnificent gentleman who deceived her. I should like\nalso to omit all reference to the conversation which ensued between\nthem, but for the sake of true art I am constrained to state that\nLucifer descended to commonplace. M. Renan tells us that since he left\nSaint Sulpice he did nothing but degenerate, and the inference is\nobvious, that he ought to have gone back to Saint Sulpice, despite the\nliterary splendours of the _Vie de Jesus_. Since he last broke a lance\nwith Michael, the devil has debilitated mentally, and the substance of\nhis _causerie_ with Diana reminds one of Robert Montgomery and even\nworse exemplars. In the unexplored regions of penny periodical romance I\nhave met with many better specimens of supernatural dialogue. As to the\nsum of his observations, it goes without saying that Diana was chosen\nout of thousands, and this is what justifies my opinion that his\nproceedings on this occasion were more fatuous than any of his\nundertakings since he tried conclusions with divinity.\n\nVery silently during the course of this interview the eleven prime\nchiefs had returned like conspirators as they were, of course in the\nnick of time, to hear that Miss Vaughan was appointed as the\ngrand-priestess of Lucifer, at which moment there was a fresh burst of\ncircumambient flame and the young lady was transported by her divinity\nto take part in a grand spectacular drama, divided into two acts.--I.\nAppearance of Asmodeus with fourteen legions. Exchange of endearing\nexpressions between this personage and Diana. Manifestation of the\nsignature of Baal-Zeboub, generalissimo of the armies of Lucifer,\nwritten in fire upon the void. Spiritualisation of the sweetheart of\nAsmodeus. Diana hungers for the fray. Great pitched battle between the\ngenii of Lucifer and the genii of Adonai, termed Maleakhs, without the\ngates of Eden. The Terrestrial Paradise carried by storm after severe\nfighting. Grand panorama of Paradise. Explanatory dialogue between Diana\nand her future husband. Appearance of a snow white gigantic eagle on\nwhich Diana is to be transported to Oolis, \"a solar world unknown to the\nprofane, wherein Lucifer reigns and is adored.\" II. Miss Vaughan having\nbeen transported on another occasion to this mystic planet in the arms\nof Lucifer himself, the episodes of the second act are held over. She\nwas, however, ultimately returned, safe and sound, to the Sanctum Regnum\nat Charleston, on the back of the white eagle.\n\nSuch is Miss Vaughan's statement, and once more she proceeds to give\nreasons why she could not have been hypnotised or hallucinated. As in\nthe case of Doctor Bataille I propose to postpone criticism until other\nwitnesses have filed their depositions. At the moment it is sufficient\nto recognise that, apart from the supernatural element which admits of a\nsimple explanation, if Miss Vaughan be a credible witness, then the\ncentral fact of the New and Reformed Palladium must be admitted with all\nit involves.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nHOW LUCIFER IS UNMASKED.\n\n\nM. le Docteur Bataille is a mighty hunter before the face of the Lord in\nthe land of Masonry, and through the whole country of Hiram; great also\nis Diana of the Palladians. After their monumental revelations and\nconfessions, those of all other seceders and penitents who have come out\nof the mystery of iniquity, \"are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as\nwater unto wine.\" My readers in the two previous chapters have drunk raw\nspirit, and must now qualify it after the Scotch fashion. The aqueous\nintellectuality and quiet stream of unpretending deposition peculiar to\nM. Jean Kostka, will be well adapted to modify undue exaltations and\nrestore order to a universe which has been intoxicated by sorcerers. He\nwill show us how Lucifer is unmasked in an undemonstrative and\ngentlemanly fashion by a late Gnostic and initiate of the 33rd degree.\nHe writes, as he frankly tells us, in a spirit of reparation and\ngratitude, having commerced freely with devils during a long series of\nunholy years. \"Blessed be the omnipotent Lord, and blessed the loving\nkindness which drew me out of the abyss.... To glorify these I unmask\nthe fallen angel.\" The delicacy of the motive and its setting of\nchivalrous sentiment will be appreciated even by the victim, and the\ntenderness of the treatment will prompt Lucifer to pardon his reviler,\nwho has been already pardoned by M. Papus for betraying the order of the\nMartinists. And to do justice towards an amiable writer, who has\nscarcely the requisite qualities for seriously damaging or advancing any\ncause, it may be kind to add that he has considerably exaggerated his\nown case. After a careful examination of his statement, which is\nexceedingly naive, I am tempted to conclude that he has never been near\nan abyss; he is innocent of either height or depth, and so far from\nhaving ever plunged into the infernal void, he has scarcely so much as\npaddled in a purgatorial puddle. His guilty transcendental experiences\nare in reality the most infantile afternoon occultism, and his\ndrawing-room diablerie might be appropriately symbolised by the paper\nspeaking-tube of our old friend John King; there is nothing in it when\nthe voice is not speaking, and there is nothing in it when it is.\n\nSince his conversion, M. Jean Kostka has exhibited much harmless\ndevotion towards Joan of Arc, an enthusiasm which originated among\noccultists, and he has pious memories of St Stanislaus Kostka, for which\ndispositions I trust that all my readers will have the complaisance to\ncommend him. He writes, furthermore, \"in the decline of maturity, on the\nthreshold of age, in the late autumn of life,\" which is his dropsical\nmethod of saying that he is past sixty, and he veils a \"futile name\"\nunder the patronymic of his favourite saint. Jean Kostka is not Jean\nKostka, but it is without intent to deceive that he evades any possible\nresponsibility in connection with his concealed identity; it is a kind\nof pious self-effacement, I hope everyone will believe what he says,\nand give him all credit for having \"turned towards the outraged Church.\"\nIn matters of evidence, pseudonymous statements are, however,\nobjectionable, and I therefore identify our witness as Jules Doinel, who\nwas chiefly concerned in the restoration of the Gnosis and the\nestablishment of a \"Gnostic church\" in Paris about the year 1890, and is\nmoreover not unknown as a Masonic orator, and in the world of\nbelles-lettres. M. Papus, with the generosity of a mystic, can only\nspeak well of the pious enthusiast who has betrayed his cause and\nscandalised the school he represents; he explains that Jules Doinel is a\nmarvellous poet deficient in the scientific culture which might have\nenabled him to explain in a peaceable fashion the phenomena squandered\nupon him by the world invisible, so that there were only two courses\nopen for him--renunciation of the transcendental path, or madness. \"Let\nus bless heaven that the patriarch of the Gnosis has selected the\nformer.\" It is possibly showing gratitude for small mercies, because our\nfriend has saved his reason, but is blood-guilty in the matter of\ncommon sense. Meanwhile, the widowed Gnosis illuminates its Ichabod in\nthe cryptic _quartiers_ of Paris, Lyons, and so forth.\n\nEvery one may agree with M. Papus that Jean Kostka is a very pretty\nwriter in a quiet and shallow way, but, with possibly one exception, he\nmust have withheld the flower of his phenomena in the order of the\nspirit, for his book is full of sentimental and vapid experiences of the\nschool-miss order, while over the light and spongy soil he has now set\nthe ponderous paving-stones of his new explanation, and toils forward on\nthe road of unreason.\n\nThis apart, Jean Kostka, was evidently for many years familiar with the\ncentres and workings of all the cross lights of esoteric thought which\nmeet and interlace in the night of French common thought. He has dwelt\namong Gnostics, Martinists, Modern Albigenses, and Spiritualists; he\nappears to have been identified with all, and though he does not accuse\nhimself of the capital offence of conscious Satanism, he has been quite\nwell acquainted with Satanism, and, next best to seeing the devil one's\nself, he has known many who have. In those days, he tells us, that\nLucifer could be visited _chez lui_ in an earthly tabernacle, situated\nin an unfrequented street, from whence the _lointain bruissement du\nParis nocturne_ might be heard by the pensive traveller if he were not\ntoo intent on diabolising. Now, he has found out that Lucifer was _chez\nlui_ everywhere. _Je vise Satan et ses dogmes._ All his psychic\nfaculties have concentrated into a transcendental apparatus for scenting\ndevildom, and he mournfully comes forward to tell us, with a variation\nof Fludd's utterance; _Diabolus, in quam, diabolus ubique repertus est,\net omnia diabolus et diabolus._ \"Let it suffice to say that the\ndemonologists have invented nothing and have exaggerated nothing.\" To\nthe spiritualists Lucifer is John King and Allan Kardec; to the\nGnostics, he is the Gnosis, Simon Magus, Helen Ennoia, and anything that\ncomes handy from the Nile valley in the fourth century; to the\nMartinists, he is the _philosophe inconnu_; to the Albigenses, if there\nare Parisian Albigenses, he is whatever Albigenses invoke, if they\ninvoke anything; to Madame X., he is Mary Stuart; to his own adepts,\nwithin sound of the _lointain bruissement_, he is a _jeune homme blond\naux yeux bleus_, whom I understand to have worn a dalmatic, and to have\nbeen curiously indebted to the author of _Aut Diabolus aut Nihil_; for\nthe Theosophists, he is that \"illustrious demoniac,\" Madame\nBlawatsky--his innate delicacy leads him to the permutation of the\nTyphon V.; and then Freemasonry--it goes without saying that the little\nhorn of Lucifer has displaced all other horns in all the grades and\nlodges, that the fraternity is his throne and his footstool, and the\ncity of the great king.\n\nIf we button-hole Jean Kostka, and ask him to tell us confidentially and\nupon honour what it is that has changed his views, making him discover\nthe leer of Baal-Zeboub where he once saw the smile of the spiritual\nEos, he turns Trappist at once, and goes into retreat with M. Huysman;\nthere is not a syllable of information in all his _beau volume_ as to\nany intellectual process through which he passed on the way, and I\nsuspect that his conversion partook of the nature of a \"penetration,\" to\nspeak his own language, and was not an intellectual operation, but a\nsudden _volte face_. Jean Kostka has changed his _pinces-nez_, and that\nis the whole secret:--\n\n    \"The reason why I cannot tell,\n     But now I hold it comes from hell.\"\n\nHere is the proof positive; he has nothing in the shape of an\naccusation; he gets his Lucifer-interpretation out of everything with\nwhich he has cut off correspondence by a very simple and civil process\nof instillation. \"I sense it\"; _je vise Lucifer._ Thus, the Order of the\nKnights of Perfect Silence invite their initiates to become architects\nof the Holy City. Jean Kostka, in possession of the latest tip, says,\n\"read Hell.\" The Martinists are concerned with the creation of Adam\nKadmon, the ideal humanity. Jean Kostka tells you that they are\nconcerned with nothing of the sort, and that Satan is the only person\nwho can really put us up to the secret, which is curious because he\nimmediately advises us himself that the exercise of the three cardinal\nvirtues to the profit of Lucifer is the sum of the whole mystery and the\nreal _sous-entendu_ of Martinism. The Masonic grades from Apprentice,\nCompanion, Master, through Knight Rose-Cross to Knight Kadosch, and so\nforward, are exploited after the same manner by the baldest of\nprocesses, that of inverting everything. For example, the sacred word of\nthe 33rd degree in the French Rite, namely, Sovereign Grand Inspector\nGeneral, is _Deus meumque Jus_. That signifies, says Jean Kostka, that\n\"Lucifer is the sole God and that the material, like the spiritual,\nworld of right belongs to him.\" If you inquire the process of extraction\nby which he gets that result, he answers: \"I must admit that I have had\nonly a general intuition, but I assure you that it is immense,\" and he\nwill immediately cite you a password, invite you to take every letter\nindividually, and fit to it just that word which, by another intuition,\nhe perceives belongs to it, when you will see for yourself. Thus, the\nKadosch term _Nekam_, which signifies vengeance, having been duly\nanatomised, will come out as follows:--N (ex) E (xterminatio) K (risti)\nA (dversarii) M (agni), to wit: \"Death, Extermination of Christ, the\nGreat Enemy.\" Wicked and wily Jean Kostka to outrage the decencies of\northography and against all reason write the name of the Liberator with\na K, thereby concealing the true meaning, which revealed for the first\ntime is as follows:--N (equaquam) E (ritis) K (ostka) A (rtium)\nM (agister), which being interpreted still further, signifies that\nthere was never such a clumsy device!\n\nNow, it goes without saying that a writer with these methods is not to\nbe taken seriously, but it is worth while to appreciate the quality of\nintelligence which is received with acclamation by the Catholic Church\nin France as soon as it comes over from the enemy. \"Lucifer Unmasked\"\nappeared originally in the pages of the newspaper _La Verite_. It was\nimmediately reproduced in Spanish by the _Union Catolica_; the clerical\npress boomed full-mouthed salvos in its honour, and his Eminence\nCardinal Parocchi has blessed book or author, or both, and believes that\nit will make a great impression, \"undoubtedly contributing to enlighten\nminds and lead them back to God.\"\n\nJean Kostka, as already indicated, is a spiritual sentimentalist; he\nhas passed by a rapid transition common to such natures from the Gnostic\ntranscendental initiate to the pious Catholic devotee, and he will make\nan excellent Lourdes pilgrim. As there will be no need to recur to him\nagain, it will be permissible to justify my criticism by some account of\nhis personal experiences. M. Papus speaks of him as the founder and\npatriarch of the Gnostic Church. Of this same patriarch and primate Jean\nKostka also speaks as of another person, recites the facts of his\nconversion, and hopes he will do better work for the Church of God than\nhe has done for Lucifer. Which is Dr Jekyll and which Mr Hyde in this\nduadic personality is not of serious consequence, as they have both got\ninto a better way of thinking and acting. Now, since his demission from\nthese high functions, Jean Kostka has found that the chief piece of\nGnostic devilry is in denying that the lost angels are eternally damned.\nOn this point he has attained what is rare in him, a touch of personal\nanimosity. To supply the antipodes of heaven, let us say, with a lethal\nchamber, as a meaner order than that of theological charity does here,\nin the interests of homeless and snappy dogs, would, in his present\nstate of grace, seem a very wicked proposition. Well, in 1890 Jean\nKostka was invited, as I understand, by the chief of the Gnostic Church,\nthat is, by himself, to a chapel in the palace of a lady who figures\nfrequently in his pages under the name of Madame X.; the author takes\ngreat credit for concealing her real titles, but he has failed to\nconceal her identity, and there can be no harm in saying that the\nreference is to Lady Caithness. He was present upon serious business, in\nfact, nothing short of assisting at a seance. A medium had been secured,\nthe proceedings began, rappings became audible, an intelligence desired\nto communicate, and, finally, there was a message, with a name given. It\nwas Luciabel, \"whom you know as Lucifer.\" To this day Jean Kostka does\nnot seem conscious of any element of idiocy in the variation of the\nold-fashioned name. In the revelation which followed, the intelligence,\nwho seemed amiably disposed despite his sinister connections, informed\nthe circle that, like Jesus, he was engendered eternally from God, that\nhe was exiled from the pleroma, and that he was the Sophia-Achamoth of\nValentine, the Helena-Ennoia of Simon Magus, the thought of God which\nhad become anathema, and that he was now in search of love and\nconsolation, both of which might take shape in a Gnostic church, and\nwould be highly acceptable. There is, so to speak, a commercial element\nin the overtures which dries up the feeling of pity, or one might be\nexceedingly sorry for this lost chord of eternal thought, hoping\ncharitably that we should still somehow hear it in heaven.\n\nSince his conversion the unpretentious marvel of this seance has been a\ndire trouble to Jean Kostka, partly on account of its eschatology, but\nstill more because the sitters were conscious at its close of a breath\npassing over their faces, while he himself felt the presence of lips\nagainst his own. Poor Jean Kostka! They were all abased on their knees,\nwhich happens occasionally, even at seances, to pious people in Paris,\nand he concludes that he was kissed by Helena-Ennoia, _alias_ Lucifer,\n_alias_ Luciabel, who is also described on the charge-sheet of orthodox\ntheology by other and more objectionable titles. The shameful memory\ncauses him to exclaim fervently:--\"May he who purged the lips of Isaiah\nwith a burning coal deign to purify mine by the sacred kiss of penitence\nand pardon: _in osculo sancto_.\" There is a touch of sublimity in that,\nand the _basia_ of Baal-Zeboub may well enough be more demoralising than\nthose of Secundus. At the time, however, he founded the Gnostic Church.\n\nWe become acquainted with ghosts after various manners, according to\nour psychic condition. There is the spontaneous and accidental ghost who\nis seldom caught in the act; there is the able-bodied materialised ghost\nwhom we catch in the act occasionally, and preserve our mental balance\nby clinging to his watch-chain and seals; they may be distinguished as\nthe timeless ghost and the ghost who occasionally does time. Over and\nabove these two generic specimens there is the ghost that throws, who is\nseparable from the ghost that _hurls_, as our French friends put it. To\nhurl is to utter objectionable and unreasonable yells, preferably in the\ndead of night and in lonely places. This ghost is much sought after by\nspecialists. It would be tedious to name all the varieties, but I can\nguarantee the unequipped that all known specimens have been carefully\nlabelled, except possibly the odorous ghost, the ghost, that is to say,\nwho manifests exclusively to the olfactory organ. This is an exceedingly\nwithdrawn inappreciable kind, but it is familiar to Jean Kostka, who is\na connoisseur in the smell supernatural, and has a trained psychic nose.\nHe can distinguish between the spiritual perfume which characterises,\nlet us say, St Stanislaus and the _odorem suavitatis_ of Lucifer. He is\nalso an authority on conditions, and gives a ravishing description of\nthe voluptuous enervation diffused over all his limbs when he had a\nprivate memorandum from Isis by means of raps during the reception of a\nmaster in a blue lodge. On this occasion he tells us that he was\ninspired to pronounce one of his most wicked and dangerous Masonic\ndiscourses. Dear M. Kostka! Dynamite would lose its destroying power in\nhis harmless hands.\n\nAt another function--but this was in a red lodge--he was overwhelmed by\nthe presence of Lucifer, who elected and commissioned him to fight in\nhis cause. It was a moment of unwonted intelligence--these are his own\nwords--and he agreed, so incompetence chose its minister, and Frater\nDiabolus again showed himself a short-sighted rogue, because has not his\nemissary converted and passed over to the makers of pilgrimages? M.\nKostka also at this time was so wicked as to be guilty of a pact, but he\nreserved two points, \"the person of Christ and His mother.\" The\nreservation of these sacraments is not specialised as to its kind, but,\n_mon Dieu_, how distraught was Lucifer to be so palpably tricked by a\n_trente-troisieme_! Both these matters were, however, personal to the\nseer, and the lodges, whether red or blue, seem to have been quite\nunconscious that they had been entertaining divinity and demon unawares.\nM. Kostka has, in fact, been distinguished from the common herd of\nMasons by many favours of Lucifer, and he has naturally been ungrateful,\nfor which I admire M. Kostka.\n\nIn succeeding chapters he details at considerable length a variety of\nhallucinations which he experienced on the subject of Helena-Ennoia, and\nhe has also had visions of Jansen, of a false Francis Xavier, a false\nChrist, &c., but his most important experience was that which he terms\nPenetration, commonly experienced in autumn seasons and during the mists\nand mildness of October nights. On these occasions he was conscious of a\ncurious extension of personality by which he seemed to enter into all\nNature, and all Nature took voice and interpreted herself intelligibly\nto him. After music came verbal communications, and then the apparition\nof forms, chiefly of classical mythology. Most people would have termed\nthis poetic rapture passing into lucidity, but our friend avers that it\nis the Enemy.\n\nSuch have been the experiences and adventures of Jean Kostka in the\npsychic world, and they are of precisely the same calibre as his\ncritical method. I may say, in conclusion, that, if spared, he will do\nbetter in his next book, for he promises another, which is to exhibit in\na convincing manner how Lucifer has been vanquished by Joan of Arc. In\nthe meantime we may part from him with due recognition of his absolute\ngood faith and extreme amiability; we may congratulate him on his\nconversion, and still more upon the very pleasant reading he provides;\nhe does not appear to have unmasked Lucifer, but he has let us into the\nsecret of the best that can be done in that way.\n\nLastly, the point to be marked in connection with the memoirs and\nrevelations of Jean Kostka is this, that neither in Paris nor elsewhere,\nneither in Masonry nor in other secret associations, concerning which he\nhas had every opportunity to judge, has he come personally into contact\nwith a cultus of Satan or Lucifer; that he chooses to term certain\nmystical opinions and practices diabolical, because they are condemned\nby the Latin Church, is a matter which is perfectly indifferent and\nexhibits only the forlorn position of a case which resorts to the\nexpedient. But it is highly significant that a man who has mixed among\nmystics of all grades for probably thirty years, who is affiliated to\ninnumerable orders, and in his present mood would be glad to expose\neverything, has nothing to tell us of the Palladium, though he dwelt at\nits gates, and the circles he frequented were at a stone's cast from the\nalleged Mother-Lodge Lotus of Paris.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE VENDETTA OF SIGNOR MARGIOTTA\n\n\nTo Signor Domenico Margiotta we owe the most explicit account of the\ngreat compact between Mazzini and Albert Pike which produced the New and\nReformed Palladium. With this institution he does not attempt to connect\nthe anterior order founded in 1730; for him the possession of the\nTemplar Baphomet explains the name which it received, and the passage of\nthat idol from its original custodians he leaves in the same uncertainty\nas Dr Bataille. This difficulty apart, in Signor Margiotta the question\nof Lucifer has received a most important witness; he is the most recent,\nthe most illustrious, and Masonically the most decorated of all. If I\nadd that he is in one respect to be included among the most virulent, I\ndo not necessarily detract from his value. So far as one can possibly\nbe aware, he is a man of unimpeachable integrity, who gives us every\nopportunity to identify him, heraldically by his arms and emblazonments,\nhistorically by an account of his family, personally by extracts from\nthe _Dizionario Biografico_, Masonically by a full enumeration of all\nhis dignities, including photographs of his most brilliant diplomas and\nprinted correspondence from Grand Masters and other exalted potentates\nof the great Fraternity. It would be difficult, however, in the last\nrespect, to discover many more exalted than himself, for before his\ndemission he was Secretary of the Lodge Savonarola of Florence;\nVenerable of the Lodge Giordano Bruno of Palmi; Sovereign Grand\nInspector General, 33rd degree, of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite;\nSovereign Prince of the Order (33rd ..., 90th ..., 95th ...,) of the\nRite of Memphis and Misraim; Acting Member of the Sovereign Sanctuary of\nthe Oriental Order of Memphis and Misraim of Naples; Inspector of the\nMisraim Lodges of the Calabrias and of Sicily; Honorary Member of the\nNational Grand Orient of Haiti; Acting Member of the Supreme Federal\nCouncil of Naples; Inspector-General of all the Masonic Lodges of the\nthree Calabrias; Grand Master, _ad vitam_, of the Oriental Masonic Order\nof Misraim or Egypt (90th degree) of Paris; Commander of the Order of\nKnights-Defenders of Universal Masonry; Honorary Member, _ad vitam_, of\nthe Supreme General Council of the Italian Federation of Palermo;\nPermanent Inspector and Sovereign Delegate of the Grand Central\nDirectory of Naples for Europe (Universal High-grade Masonry), and,\naccording to his latest portrait, Member of the New Reformed Palladium.\nThat such a luminary could withdraw from the firmament of the Fraternity\nand not take after him the third part of the stars of heaven, above all\nthat the Italian Grand Master could have the effrontery to affirm that\nhe had never heard of him and had only discovered who he was after some\ninvestigation, are matters for astonishment to the simple.\n\nProfessor Margiotta returned to the church of his childhood in the\nautumn of 1894, and the news of his conversion is said to have so\noverwhelmed the head-quarters of Italian Freemasonry at Rome that the\nannual rejoicings upon the 20th of September, when Rome became the\nCapital of United Italy and when Universal Freemasonry was instituted in\n1870, were incontinently suspended. My readers will not attach a high\ndegree of accuracy to this statement, for there does not appear in\nreality to have been any convulsion of the Order; there was indeed more\nrejoicing in Jerusalem than lamentation in the tents of Kedron. Signor\nMargiotta was the recipient of flattering congratulations from eminent\nprelates; the bishop of Grenoble salutes him as \"my dear friend\"; the\npatriarch of Jerusalem invites him to take courage, for he is doing high\nservice to humanity, labouring under the scourge of the Masonic plague;\nthe bishop of Montauban expresses his lively sentiment and entire\ndevotion; the archbishop of Aix regards the revelations as of great\nimportance to the Church; the bishop of Limoges praises and blesses the\nbooks of M. Margiotta; the bishop of Mende does likewise, his\nenthusiasm taking shape in superlatives; the Cardinal-Archbishop of\nBordeaux applauds the intention and the effort; the bishops of\nTarentaise, of Oran, of Pamiers, of Annecy, take up the chant in turn,\nand his Holiness the Pope himself sends his Apostolic Benediction over\nthe seal of Peter.\n\nWhy did Signor Margiotta abandon Palladism and Masonry? It was not\nbecause these institutions were devoted to the cultus of Lucifer, for I\ndo not gather that he was scandalised by that fact at the time when it\nappears to have become known to him. It was not because sacrilege and\npublic indecency characterised the rituals of initiation in the case of\nthe Palladian Order, for he does not zealously press this charge. It was\nnot, so far as can be traced, because he trembled for the safety of his\nsoul; he does not provide us with a sickly and suspicious narrative of\nthe sentiments which led to his conversion or the interior raptures\nwhich followed it; he does not mention that he was the recipient of a\nspecial grace or a sudden illustration; he ceased to believe in Lucifer\nas the good God because that being had permitted his favoured\nFreemasonry to pass under the \"supreme direction of a despised personage\nwho is the last of rogues.\" In other words, Signor Domenico Margiotta\nhas a strong loathing for Signor Adriano Lemmi; he has long and\nearnestly desired that Freemasonry should \"vomit him\" from her breast,\nbut as this has not come to pass, Signor Margiotta decided to vomit\nhimself. Now, when a man embraces religion, he is supposed to forgive\nhis enemies, to do good to them that hate him, to avoid the propagation\nof scandals, and when he cannot speak well to say nothing; but this is\nnot the special quality of grace which attaches to the second\n_trente-troisieme_, who has come out of Freemasonry to expose and revile\nthe order.\n\nThe two narratives which comprise the exposure in question are\nrespectively entitled, \"Adriano Lemmi: Supreme Chief of Freemasonry,\"\nand \"Palladism, the Cultus of Satan-Lucifer.\" Both these books contain a\nviolent impeachment of the Italian Grand Master, which, if it concerned\nus, would not convince us. Its main points go to show that in the days\nof his boyhood, Lemmi was guilty of an embezzlement at Marseilles, for\nwhich he is said to have suffered at the hands of justice; that he led\nthe life of a Guzman d'Alfarache, in itself sufficiently romantic to\ncondone an offence which should have been effaced with its penalty,\nsupposing the allegation to be true; that he subsequently found himself\nat Constantinople, where he was thrown among Jews, and is there charged\nby his accuser with the commission of a still more terrible crime; he,\nin fact, became a proselyte of the gate, and suffered the rite of\ncircumcision. Later on he is depicted as a political conspirator, an\nagent and friend of Mazzini, Kossuth, and the patriots of the\nRevolution, in connection with whom he is made responsible for\ninnumerable villainies which connect him with the apostleship of\ndynamite. We may pass lightly over these matters, nor need we delay to\ninquire after what manner Adriano Lemmi may have amassed the wealth\nwhich he possesses, nor what questions on the subject of a monopoly in\ntobacco may have been raised or dropped in the Italian Parliament. All\nthese points, including Signor Lemmi himself, are as little known as\nthey are of little moment in England, and they are wholly outside our\nsubject, except in so far as they exhibit the methods of his accuser,\nwhich, indeed, are so objectionable in their nature as to go far towards\nexonerating their object. Signor Margiotta, at any rate, puts himself so\nclearly in the wrong, and is altogether so virulent, as to place the\ninference of personal animosity almost in the region of certitude; one\nis therefore tempted to accept the explanation offered by the victim,\nthat the Marseilles scandal turns upon a mistaken identity, and his\nexplicit denial that he ever underwent the rite of Jewish initiation.\nFurthermore, I believe that I shall represent the opinion of tolerant\nEnglishmen when I say that to insult and abuse a man for adopting\nanother faith, however opposed to our own, and even ridiculous in\nitself, is an odious method in controversy, and for myself I see little\nto choose between a proselyte of the gate, a renegade Mason, and a\ndemitted Roman Catholic.\n\nThe true secret of the Margiotta-cum-Lemmi embroilment does not, I\nthink, transpire in the narratives with which we are concerned; I mean\nto say that there is an eluding element which must, however, be assumed,\nif we are to account reasonably for the display of such extreme rancour.\nAn honourable man may object to the jurisdiction of a person whom he\nregards as a convicted thief, but he does not usually pursue him with\nthe violence of personal hatred. Now, in 1888 Signor Margiotta became a\ncandidate for the Italian Parliament, and he attributes his failure to\nthe hostility of Lemmi, who, prompted by Gallophobe tendencies, brought\nhis influence to bear against a person who was friendly to the French\nnation. I submit that this assists us to understand the animus of the\nconverted Mason and the lengths to which it has taken him. In all other\nrespects Signor Margiotta displays the most perfect frankness, and does\nhis best upon every occasion to substantiate his statements by\nformidable documentary evidence. I repeat therefore, that, much as we\nmay regret his acrimony, he remains a most important witness to the\nexistence of Universal Masonry, the existence of the Reformed Palladium,\nthe transfer of the Masonic Supremacy at the death of Albert Pike to the\nItalian Grand Master, and the split in the camp which followed. He\nclaims also that he is personally acquainted with Miss Diana Vaughan; he\nextols her innumerable virtues in pages of eloquent writing; he even\ngoes so far as to photograph the envelope of a registered letter which\nhe posted at Palmi, in Calabria, addressed to that lady in London. He\nindirectly substantiates the narrative of Carbuccia by a long account of\nhis personal dealings with Giambattista Pessina, descending into the\nmost curious particulars; he publishes the secret alphabet of the\nPalladium, specimens of litanies addressed to the good god Lucifer, and\nhymns of equivocal tendency attributed to Albert Pike. Finally, he fully\nadmits the Satanic character of perfect Masonic initiation, and\ncontributes a long chapter to swell our recent knowledge upon the\nsubject of \"Apparitions of Satan.\"\n\nAs regards Universal Masonry, when announcing his demission and\nconversion to an officer of the Lodge, Giordano Bruno, at Palmi, Signor\nMargiotta reveals to him that he and his brethren are ruled, without\nknowing it, by a supreme rite, and that he, Margiotta himself, Venerable\nof the Lodge referred to, being a true elect and perfect initiate,\nconstituted the link of connection between the ordinary Masonry of Palmi\nand this central and unsuspected power. On the same occasion he\naddressed a long communication to Miss Vaughan, in which he claims that\nhe has ever acted as an honest Mason, faithful to the orthodoxy thereof,\nand having the cause of Charleston at heart. Now, the circumstances\nwhich occasioned these statements, and the good faith which seems to\ncharacterise them, are presumptive testimony to their truth; in the\nabsence of any evidence, and merely on _a priori_ considerations, it\nwould be intolerable to suggest that their author, while advertising his\nchanged views upon a solemn subject, was guilty of wilful deception.\n\nThe centralisation of Universal Masonry in an order known as the New\nand Reformed Palladium, with Albert Pike at its head, is supported by\nthe citation of a document dated the 12th of September 1874, and being\nan authority from Charleston for the constitution of a secret federation\nof Jewish Freemasons, with a centre at Hamburg, under the title of\nSovereign Patriarchal Council. It is not the only document emanating\nfrom the \"Dogmatic Directory\" which is printed by Signor Margiotta, but\nthe others are not entirely new, having some of them previously appeared\nin the memoirs of Dr Bataille. The Luciferian opinions of Albert Pike\nare exhibited plainly in a letter addressed by him to Signor Rapisardi,\nfamous in all Italy for his poem of \"Lucifer,\" which Signor Margiotta\naffirms to have been written at the suggestion of the American Grand\nMaster.\n\nBut possibly the strongest evidence is less of a documentary kind; the\nminute account of the warfare waged by Signor Margiotta and other\nItalian Masons, in which they were helped by Miss Vaughan, to prevent\nthe accession of Lemmi to the sovereign pontificate upon the death of\nAlbert Pike and the transfer of the centre to Rome, seems to bear upon\nits surface every reasonable sign that it cannot be an invented\nnarrative. Indeed, the first impulse upon reading the testimony of this\nwitness leaps irresistibly to conclude that the denial of the main\nallegations is no longer possible. A searching analysis does, however,\nreveal sufficient grounds to warrant a different judgment. In the first\nplace, whereas Signor Margiotta proclaims the supreme power of the\nReformed Palladium, the documents which he cites in his support are, for\nthe most part, documents of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite, about\nthe immense jurisdiction of which there is no question. In the second\nplace, the authority of Albert Pike, as it is seen in most of the\ndocuments, is in virtue, not of the Palladium, but of his position as\nSupreme Chief of the Supreme Mother-Council of the Ancient and Accepted\nScotch Rite. What Signor Margiotta terms Universal Freemasonry is not\nthe Palladium at all, but simply the Scotch Rite; one of his own\ndiplomas, reproduced at page 120 of \"Adriano Lemmi,\" is proof positive\nof this; and in view of the universal diffusion of this rite, no one\nwould deny it the name. In the third place, the documents of Signor\nMargiotta as regards the Palladium are not to be trusted, because in one\ninstance a gross imposition has been practised provably upon him, and he\nmay have been deceived in others. Hence, although he may be a member of\na society termed the New and Reformed Palladium, it may not possess the\njurisdiction or the history to which it pretends. In the fourth place I\ndeny that the Grand Central Directories of which I have given\nparticulars, derived from Signor Margiotta, in my second chapter, are in\nany sense Palladian directories. That of Naples for Europe is said to\nhave twenty-seven triangular provinces, one of which is Manchester, and\nMr John Yarker is said to be Provincial Grand Master. Now, I have Mr\nYarker's own written testimony that he never heard of the Palladium\nuntil the report of it came over from France. Mr Yarker is a member of\nthe 33rd degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite, and he is also\nthe Grand Master of the only legitimate body of the Supreme Oriental\nRite of Memphis and Misraim in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Moreover,\nin most Masonic countries of the world he is either Honorary Grand\nMaster, or Honorary Member in the 95 deg. of Memphis, 90 deg. of Misraim, and\n33 deg. Scottish Rite, the last honorary membership including bodies under\nthe Pike _regime_ as well as its opponents. He is perfectly well\nacquainted with the claim of the Charleston Supreme Council to supreme\npower in Masonry, and that it is a usurpation founded on a forgery. In a\nletter which he had occasion to address some time since to a Catholic\npriest on this very subject, he remarks:--\"The late Albert Pike of\nCharleston, as an able Mason, was undoubtedly a Masonic Pope, who kept\nin leading strings all the Supreme Grand Councils of the world,\nincluding the Supreme Grand Councils of England, Ireland, and Scotland,\nthe first of which includes the Prince of Wales, Lord Lathom, and other\npeers, who were in alliance with him, and in actual submission. Its\nintroduction into America arose from a temporary schism in France in\n1762, when Lacorne, a disreputable panderer to the Prince of Clermont,\nissued a patent to a Jew named Stephen Morin. Some time after 1802, a\npretended Constitution was forged and attributed to Frederick the Great\nof Prussia. This constitution gives power to members of the 33rd degree\nto _elect themselves_ to rule all Masonry, and this custom is\nfollowed.... The good feeling of Masonry has been perpetually destroyed\nin every country where the Ancient and Accepted Rite exists, and it must\nbe so in the very nature of its claims and its laws.\" Mr Yarker has no\nconnection with a supreme dogmatic directorate in any other form than\nthis disputed but perfectly well-known assumption of the Charleston\nSupreme Council. The term \"Supreme Dogmatic Directorate\" was not used by\nPike, and the confidence enjoyed by the American was never extended to\nLemmi, though he may have desired it. Instead, therefore, of all Masonry\nbeing ruled by a central authority unknown to the majority of Masons, we\nhave simply a bogus claim which has no effect outside the Scottish\nRite, and of which all Masons may know if they will be at the pains to\nascertain. When Signor Margiotta informed the officer of the Giordano\nBruno Lodge that he secretly represented a central and unknown\nauthority, it is in this sense that we must understand him--that is to\nsay, he represented the interests of the Charleston Supreme Council.\nHence the revelations concerning \"Universal Masonry\" are an exaggeration\nfounded upon a fact, and the Palladian Order, of which Signor Margiotta\ntells us that he is a member, is at any rate not what it pretends. It\nhas doubtless imposed on him by means of forged documents, as also upon\nLeo Taxil, and M. Adolphe Ricoux. The writings which it fathers upon\nAlbert Pike, and quoted by Signor Margiotta, as in other cases, are\nstolen from Eliphas Levi, the so-called alphabet of the Palladium\nincluded. The documentary _piece de resistance_ upon which our author\nrelies as evidence for the existence of an international Masonic\norganisation is a certain _voute de Protestation_, on the part of a\nso-called Mother-Lodge Lotus of England, secret Temple of Oxford\nStreet, against the transfer of the Dogmatic Directory from Charleston\nto Rome, the \"Standing Committee of Protestation\" being Alexander\nGraveson, Provincial Delegate of Philadelphia, U.S.A., V. F. Palacios,\nProvincial Delegate of Mexico, and Diana Vaughan, Provincial Delegate of\nNew York and Brooklyn. Signor Domenico Margiotta has been grossly\ndeceived over this document. What he prints as the English original in\nguarantee of good faith, side by side with a French translation, is a\nclumsy and ridiculous specimen of \"English as she is wrote,\" and the\nFrench is really the original. I append some choice specimens:--\"To the\nMost Illustrious, Most Puissant, Most _Lightened_ Brothers ...\ncomposing, by right of _Ancient and Members for life_, the Most Serene\nGrand College of _Emerited Masons_.\" Here the underlined passages are a\nFrenchman's method of interpreting into English _Tres Eclaires Freres, a\ntitre d'Anciens et de membres a vie_, and _Macons Emerites_. Again: \"The\nprotesters numbered six-and-twenty, including twenty-five _sovereing_\ndelegates present at the deed, and one sovereign delegate, who could\nnot _stand by_ (_ne peut etre present_), but the substitute of _which_\nwisely and prudently abstained from the vote _at the first turn_ (_au\npremier scrutin_) and threw a blank ticket at the second, _expound_\n(verb governed by _protesters_) the _acts and situation thence\ndisastrously resulting_ for our holy cause.\"\n\nOnce more: \"The present protesting vault _aims at the two ballots_\n(_vise les deux scrutins_), and _requests to be proceeded_ urgently to\ntheir annulment.\" Again: \"_The Charleston's Brothers_ ... have not acted\nin such a manner as to forfeit _the whole Masonry's esteem_.... The\ndirection ... has _not discontinued to prove foresight_.... It was\n_injust_ to transfer,\" &c., and so on for sixteen printed pages which\ncertainly deserve to rank among the curiosities of literature. This is\nthe precious document which appears over the signatures of Alexander\nGraveson and Diana Vaughan, after which I submit to my readers that\nSignor Domenico Margiotta may be dismissed with all his file of papers,\nnot as himself deceiving, but as singularly liable to deception, of\nwhich he has otherwise given us several signal instances. For example he\nbelieves himself to have enjoyed the high privilege of beholding the\nPrince of Darkness upon two separate occasions. The first was in 1885 at\nCastelnuovo-Garfagnana in a beautiful old walled garden, belonging to a\nhigh-grade Mason named Orestes Cecchi, a fast friend of Margiotta. The\ntime was the forenoon, and the two Masons were smoking under the shade\nof green trees surrounded by floral delights. Margiotta was a\nspiritualist and a follower of Allan Kardec; Cecchi had a turn for the\nVedas and the occultism of the Eastern world; they were chatting upon\nthe possibility of transmigration; the one doubted, the other affirmed;\nCecchi, to convince his companion, informed him that he possessed a\nfamiliar who invariably appeared to him under the form of a goat, but he\nhad a look in his eye which proved positively that he was the Grand\nArchitect of the Universe! That there might be no doubt about the matter\nCecchi called his familiar, who appeared suddenly, and joyfully caressed\nhis master, at whose command he subsequently licked the hand of the\noverwhelmed Signor Margiotta, and it became red and painful. Cecchi\nplayfully chided the apparition for not assuming human form, and hinted\nat the propriety of doing so, but the animal knowingly nodded and\nincontinently scurried away. Now, I put it to my readers, that Cecchi\nwas exploiting his friend, that a domesticated animal appeared at the\nsummons of his owner in a wooded garden, and that Signor Margiotta is\nfooling when he pretends to believe that it was the devil.\n\nThe second experience was at Naples under the roof of Pessina, about\nhalf-past ten in the evening, after a Lodge meeting of the Misraim rite.\nThen and there, as a matter of cordial good fellowship, the\naccommodating Imperial Grand Master evoked a devil to give evidence of\nhis actuality to Margiotta, who, in spite of the episode of the goat,\nstill posed as a doubting Thomas. It was managed by means of a\nwhisky-bottle, out of which, after certain invocations and magical\nceremonies, a vapour rose mysteriously, and resolved itself into a\nhuman figure, wearing a golden crown, with a brilliant star in the\nmiddle. According to the picture which accompanies this delicious\nnarrative, the apparition had the wings of a bat and a tail of the\nbovine class. It was Beffabuc, the familiar of the magician, who begged\nhim to enlighten the sceptic, but the latter, according to the\napparition, was protected by a higher power and would never be persuaded\nto believe in him. Signor Margiotta gives the names of all who were\npresent at the evocation--twelve members of the 33rd degree, to say\nnothing of Misraim dignities. I submit, however, that the episode of the\nbottle would split the rock of Peter, that the absence of Signor Pessina\nfor twenty minutes previous to the performance, eked out with a little\nventriloquism, and some Pepper accessories would explain much, and that\nthere is also another hypothesis which I will leave to the discernment\nof my readers, and to which I lean personally.\n\nOur witness, in any case, would not be a _persona grata_ to the Society\nfor Psychical Research. As he is violent in his enmities, so is he\ngullible in marvels. His impeachment of Adriano Lemmi must be ruled\ncompletely out of court; his thaumaturgic experiences are paltry\ntrickeries; his account of Albert Pike is largely borrowed matter; the\nmagical practices which he attributes to Pessina are derived from the\nLittle Albert and other well known grimoires; the most that follows from\nhis narrative is that certain Italian Masons, probably atheists at\nheart, pose as partisans of Satan simply to accentuate their derisions\nof all religious ideas, much after the manner of Voltaire in some of his\ncynical correspondence. It is a continental form of pleasantry, and an\nartistic experiment in blasphemy which is taken seriously by the unwise.\n\nI need hardly add that the story of _Aut Diabolus aut Nihil_, which is\naccepted literally by Doctor Bataille, is also the subject of\nreverential belief on the part of Signor Margiotta, and as an\nillustration of his classifying talent, he terms Adriano Lemmi a Mormon\nbecause, having obtained a divorce, he, in the course of time,\ncontracted another marriage. Furthermore, the very strong testimony\nwhich Signor Margiotta gives to Dr Bataille, directly by eulogium and\nindirectly by citation, as also the intimate relations which he\nmaintained with Diana Vaughan, make his value as a witness of Lucifer\ndependent, to a large extent, upon the credibility of these persons,\nwith consequences which will shortly appear. Lastly, his own personal\ncredibility seems seriously at stake when he talks of \"triangular\nprovinces.\" He, and those connected with him, can alone explain what\nthat means; they have never existed in Masonry. Mr Yarker, who, he says,\nis Grand Master of such a province, has never heard the expression. Mr\nR. S. Brown, Grand Secretary of the Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of\nScotland, also denies all knowledge of the one which, according to\nSignor Margiotta, is located at Edinburgh.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nFEMALE FREEMASONRY\n\n\nLast on the list of our recent witnesses who have had a hand in creating\nthe Question of Lucifer--not actually last in the order of time but the\nleast in importance to our purpose--is M. A. C. de la Rive, author of\n\"Child and Woman in Universal Freemasonry.\" He very fairly fulfils the\npresumption which is warranted by his name; he does not pretend to have\ncome forth from the turbid torrent of Satanism and Masonry which is\ncarrying multitudes into the abyss and effacing temples and thrones in\nits furious course. He has been content, like a sensible person, to\nstand on bank or brink and watch the rage and flow. He does not tell us\nanywhere in his narrative that he is himself a Mason; he has no personal\nacquaintance with Satan; he has not been guilty of magic, nor has he\nassisted at a Black Mass. He belongs to a wholly different order of\nwitnesses, and he has produced what is in its way a genuine book, which\ndoes not pretend to be more than a careful compilation from rare but\npublished sources, while we can all of us defer to the erudition of a\nFrenchman who has actually spent on collecting his materials the almost\nunheard-of space of twelve months. The result is correctly described as\n\"grand in octavo, 746 pages,\" and is really an inflated piece of Masonic\nchronology, exceedingly ill-balanced, but, at the same time, undeniably\nuseful. Beginning with the year 1730 it is brought down to 1894, and it\nis designed to demonstrate the existence at the present day of \"adoptive\nlodges\" wherein French gallantry once provided an inexpensive substitute\nfor Masonry in which ladies had the privilege of participating. One of\nthe most learned and illustrious of French Masonic writers, Jean-Marie\nRagon, describes such androgyne or female lodges as \"amiable\ninstitutions\" invented by an unknown person some time previously to the\nyear 1730, under the name of \"mysterious amusements,\" which appears to\ndescribe them exactly, and one cannot be otherwise than astonished at\nthe extraordinary gravity of nervous and well-intentioned persons who\nascribe them such tremendous importance. Whereas they are the fringe of\nFreemasonry, writers like M. de la Rive persist in regarding them as its\nheart and centre, while it is also in such institutions that he and\nothers of his calibre expect to discover Satanism. A celibate religion\never suspects the serpent in the neighbourhood of the woman. He\ndiscovers Satanism accordingly by reading it into handy passages and\nbracketing interpretations of his own when the text cannot otherwise be\nworked. Thus he gets oracles everywhere, and to compel Satan he finds\nthe parenthesis quite as useful as the circle of black magic; it is a\njuggler's method, but among French anti-Masons it passes with high\ncredit. The question of Female Freemasonry, apart from the Palladian\nOrder, is quite outside our subject; its existence in Spain is a matter\nof public knowledge, and I have Mr Yarker's authority for stating that\nin certain countries, one of which is South America, the Rite of\nMemphis and Misraim and the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite have both\ninitiated women, the latter up to and including the 33rd degree. No\nadoptive lodges exist or would be tolerated in England within the\njurisdiction of the Grand Lodge, and if it can be shown that the\nPalladian order initiates English women into Masonic secrets, that is\nperformed surreptitiously and in defiance of our Masonic constitutions.\nAs to the schismatic Grand Orient of France, whatever may be done in\nsecret or devised in public upon this point, is of no importance here,\nbut I should add that little credit, and deservedly, is attached in\nEngland to any of the so-called revelations which from time to time come\nover from Paris.\n\nAs regards M. de la Rive, apart from this subject, we are unable to\nextract from his pages anything that is fresh or informing on the\nsubject of our inquiry. Despite the sensational picture which emblazons\nthe title-page, where a full-length Baphomet is directing a _decolletee_\nTemplar-Mistress through the pillars Jakin and Bohaz, there is not a\nsingle page in the whole vast compilation which shows any connection\nbetween Satanism and Masonry until towards the close, when an adroit tax\nis levied on the still vaster storehouse of Doctor Bataille. The author\ntells us clearly enough how adoptive Masonry arose, what rites were\ninstituted, what rituals published, what is contained in these, and it\nis all solid and instructive. His facts, as already indicated, are\nborrowed facts, but they come from a variety of sources, and original\nresearch was scarcely to be expected from a writer against whom the\navenues of knowledge are sealed by his lack of initiation. He concludes,\nhowever, that Adoptive Masonry is Satanic by intention, and that even\nthe orphanages of the Fraternity are part of a profound and infamous\ndesign to ruin the children of humanity and to perfect proselytes for\nperdition.\n\nThe appearance of \"Child and Woman in Universal Freemasonry\" was hailed\nwith acclamation in the columns of the _Revue Mensuelle_; it reviewed it\nby dreary instalments, and when reviewing was no longer possible, had\nrecourse to tremendous citations; as a last effort, it supplied an\nexhaustive index to the whole work--a charitable and necessary action,\nfor the twelve months' toil of the author had expired without the\naccomplishment of this serviceable means of reference. And still, as\noccasion offers, it gives it bold advertisement.\n\nThe quaint methods of previous witnesses are amplified by M. de la Rive.\nLike Dr Bataille, he tells us that the Order of Oddfellows, though quite\ndistinct from Palladism, is \"essentially Luciferian,\" but he does not\nsay why or how--instance of demonstrative method. He regards the Jews\nwith holy hatred as chief ministers of Anti Christ, and characterises\nthem as that nation of which Judas was \"one of the most celebrated\npersonages\"--specimen recipe for the production of cheap odium in large\nquantities; but what about Jesus the Christ, whom men called King of the\nJews? Fie, M. de la Rive! He informs us that Miss Alice Booth, daughter\nof General Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, is one of the\nforemost Palladists of England--instance of absurd slander which refutes\nitself.\n\nM. de la Rive must therefore on all counts of his evidence be ruled out\nof court as a witness. No one denies the existence of Adoptive Lodges in\na few countries and under special circumstances, and no sensible person\nattributes them any importance. Freemasonry as an institution is not\nsuited to women any more than is cricket as a sport, but they have\noccasionally wished to play at it as they have wished to play at\ncricket; the opportunity has been offered them, but, except as the vogue\nof a moment, it has come to nothing. It is, moreover, of no importance\nto our inquiry if it can be proved that the true head of the Grand Lodge\nin England is the Princess of Wales and not her royal husband; while\nconcerning the existence of Devil-Worship M. de la Rive has nothing new\nto tell us, and nothing at first-hand. I therefore ask leave to dismiss\nhim, hoping that he will devote another laborious year to the reissue of\nMasonic rituals, authentic or not, at the extremely moderate price which\nhe asks for his first volume; originals are scarce and costly, and\ninvention is a pleasant faculty. The interpretation which he chooses to\nput on them is an interpretation of no consequence, and can never have\nmisled any one who is in any sense worth misleading.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE PASSING OF DOCTOR BATAILLE\n\n\nThe most obvious line of criticism in connection with the memoirs\nentitled _Le Diable au XIX^e Siecle_ would be the preposterous and\nimpossible nature of its supernatural narratives. To attribute a\nhistorical veracity to the adventures of Baron Munchausen might scarcely\nappear more unserious than to accept this _recit d'un temoin_ as\nevidence for transcendental phenomena. I need scarcely say that I regard\nthis reasoning as so altogether sound and applicable that it is almost\nunnecessary to develop it. The personal adventures of Doctor Bataille as\nregards their supernatural element are so transparently fabulous that it\nwould be intolerable to regard them from any other point of view. That\nan ape should speak Tamil is beyond the bounds of possibility; it is\nimpossible also that a female fakir or pythoness, aged 152 years,\nshould allow herself to be consumed in a leisurely manner by fire; it is\nimpossible that any ascetics could have maintained life in their\norganisms under the loathsome conditions prevailing within the alleged\ntemple at Pondicherry; it is impossible that any person could have\nsurvived the ordeal which Dr Bataille pretends to have suffered at\nCalcutta,--to have relished and even prolonged; it is impossible that\ntables and organs should be found suspended from a ceiling at the close\nof a spiritual seance; it is impossible that the serpent of Sophia\nWalder should have been elongated in the manner described. When I say\nthat these things are impossible I am speaking with due regard to the\nclaims of transcendental phenomena, and it is from the transcendental\nstandpoint that I judge them. Genuine transcendental phenomena may\nextend the accepted limits of probability, but when alleged\ntranscendental phenomena do violence to all probability, that is the\nunfailing test of hallucination or untruth on the part of those who\ndepose to them. These things could not have occurred as they are\nnarrated, and Dr Bataille is exploiting the ignorance of that class of\nreaders to whom his mode of publication appealed. As products of\nimagination his marvels are crude and illiterate; in other words, they\nbelong to precisely that type which is characteristic of romances\npublished in penny numbers, and when he pledges his rectitude regarding\nthem he does not enlist our confidence but indicates the slight value\nwhich he sets on his stake.\n\nAt the same time, two reasons debar me from laying further stress upon\nthis line of argument. In the first place we must remember that his\nunlettered readers have been taught by their religious instructors to\nbelieve in the unlimited power of the devil, and they have probably\nfound in the outrageous nature of the narratives a real incentive to\naccept them. In the second place my own position as a transcendentalist\nconnects me less or more with the acknowledgment of transcendental\nphenomena, and to distinguish the limits of possibility in these matters\nwould involve a technical discussion for which there is no opportunity\nhere. It is understood, however, that in the interests of\ntranscendental science I reject the miraculous element in Dr Bataille's\nmemoirs.\n\nAnother line of criticism also open and leading to convincing results\nwould dwell upon the glaring improbability of the entire story outside\nthat miraculous element. There is no colourable pretence of likelihood,\nfor example, in the connection instituted between fakirs and Freemasons,\nor between secret societies in China and a sect of Luciferians in\nCharleston. But the partisans of Dr Bataille are prepared to believe\nanything of Masonry, and to dismiss likelihood as they would dismiss\nimpossibility. Some arguments are unassailable on account of their\nstupidity, and of such shelter I intend to deprive my witness. I shall\ntherefore merely register my recognition that this criticism does obtain\ncompletely. For much the same reason I shall only refer in passing to\nanother matter which in itself is sufficient to remove these memoirs\nfrom the region of actuality; they bristle with the kind of coincidences\nwhich are the common convenience of bad novelists to create or escape\nsituations, and are rejected even by legitimate fiction, because they\nare untrue to life. At the present time the device of coincidence is\nleft to its true monopolists, the Society for Psychical Research and the\nmanufacturers of the penny dreadful. Unreasonable demands are, however,\nmade upon it by Dr Bataille; never in an awkward predicament does the\ncoincidence fail to help him; wheresoever he goes it times his arrival\nrightly to witness some occasional and rare event, and it places him at\nonce in communication with the indispensable person whose presence was\nantecedently unlikely. The very existence of his memoirs would have been\njeopardised had the Anadyr reached Point-de-Galle immediately before\ninstead of immediately after the catastrophe which converted Carbuccia.\nAt the beginning of his mission against Masonry, coincidence arranged\nthe last illness of the Cingalese pythoness to the exigencies of his\ndate of arrival; it brought John Campbell to Pondicherry and Phileas\nWalder to Calcutta; at Singapore it fixed a Palladic institution in the\ngrade of Templar-Mistress to correspond with his flying visit on the\nroad to Shanghai. Now, all these coincidences are of the class which\ncome off in fiction and miss in the combinations of real life, but to\ninsist on this point would not disillusionise the believers in Dr\nBataille, who will say that he was assisted by Providence. We must show\nthat he has deceived them in matters which admit of verification, over\ncertain points of ordinary fact, which can be placed beyond the region\nof dispute, and by which the truth of his narrative may be held to stand\nor fall. I shall confine myself for this purpose to what he states at\nfirst hand in his capacity as an eyewitness, and to two salient cases\nwhich may be taken to represent the whole. Among the rest some are in\ncourse of investigation, and so far as they have gone are promising\nsimilar results; the locality of others has been so chosen as to baffle\ninquiry; and in one or two instances I have failed to obtain results. It\nis obviously impossible to prove that there is not a native hut in \"a\nthick and impassable forest\" at an unindicated distance from\nPoint-de-Galle, or that this hut does not possess a vast subterranean\nchamber. When we cannot check our witness we must regard what he tells\nus in the light of those instances which it is possible to fix firmly.\nAmong negative results I may mention an inquiry into the alleged death\nof a person named George Shekleton in a Masonic lodge at Calcutta. Sir\nJohn Lambert, K.C.S.I.E., the commissioner of police at that place, very\ncourteously made investigations at my suggestion, first at the coroner's\ncourt, but the records for the year 1880 are not now in existence, and,\nsecondly, among the oldest police officers, but also without result. I\napplied thereupon to Mr Robert William Shekleton, Q.C., J.P., inquiring\nwhether any relative of his family had died under curious circumstances\nat Calcutta about the year 1880. His answer is this:--\"I never heard\nanything about the death of a George Shekleton in Calcutta. My elder and\nyounger brother were both living in Calcutta, and if any person of the\nsame name had been living there I should have heard it from them. My\nyounger brother Alexander Shekleton died at Madras on his way home with\nhis wife and children of confluent small-pox; my eldest brother Joseph\nis still alive.\" The presumption, therefore, is that Carbuccia's story\nof the strange fatality which occurred in his presence at a Masonic\nlodge is without any foundation in fact, but I regard the result as\nnegative because it falls short of demonstration. I am now setting other\nchannels in operation, but as it is not a test case, and not an event\nwhich Dr Bataille claims to have witnessed himself, it is unnecessary to\nawait the issue.\n\nIf the reader will now glance at the several sections of the sixth\nchapter, he will find that one of the most important is that entitled\n\"The Seven Temples and a Sabbath in Sheol,\" where Dr Bataille tells us\nthat he witnessed unheard of operations in black magic on the part of\nPalladian Masons and diabolising fakirs. The locality was a plain called\nDappah, two hours drive from Calcutta. The particulars which are given\nconcerning the edifices on the mountain of granite, but more especially\nconcerning an open charnel where the dead bodies of innumerable human\nbeings, mixed indiscriminately with those of animals and with the town\nrefuse, are left to rot under the eye of heaven, will not impress any\none, however unacquainted with India, and with the vicinity of the\nEnglish capital and seat of government, as wearing many of the features\nof probability. The facts are as follows:--A place called Dhappamanpour,\nand for brevity Dhappa, does exist in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, and\nthereto the town refuse is actually carried by a special line of\nrailway; there is no granite mountain and there are no temples, while so\nfar from it being a charnel into which human bodies are flung, or a\nplace where the adepts of the Palladium could celebrate a black Sabbath\nand form a magic chain with putrid corpses, it is a great lake covering\nan area of thirty square miles, and is known by Anglo-Indians as the\nSaltwater Lake. In the year 1886 it was in course of reclamation, but\nall that Dr Bataille tells us is specifically untrue, and he could never\nhave witnessed there the things which he describes as taking place in\nthe year 1880. The _recit d'un temoin_ is in this matter an invented\nhistory.\n\nAs a consequence of this bogus experience in Calcutta, Dr Bataille\npretends to have been admitted within the charmed circle of the New and\nReformed Palladium, and was therefore qualified to be present at the\ninitiation of a Templar-Mistress which took place not long after at\nSingapore. His account of this initiation turns upon two or three points\nwhich do not appear in the synopsis of the sixth chapter. One of these\nis the existence of a Kadosch Areopagite of the Ancient and Accepted\nScotch Rite. But at least, at the period in question, there was no such\nAreopagite, and the Scotch Rite did not exist at Singapore. The sole\nMasonic institution was a District Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and\nAccepted Masons of England in the Eastern Archipelago, working under the\nwarrant of the English Grand Lodge, holding half-yearly communications,\nand special meetings when the District Grand Master deemed necessary.\nIts patent dates from March 3, 1878, and the District Grand Master at\nthe time was the Hon. William H. Macleod Read. Three lodges worked\nunder its jurisdiction, two of which were at Singapore and one at\nPenang, and to one of the former a Royal Arch Chapter was attached. It\nis needless to say that our author's Misraim diploma would have obtained\nhis admission to none, and there is no person here in England who would\nhave the effrontery to affirm that he might have fared better by reason\nof his Palladian degree. It is sufficient, however, to state that there\nwas no Lodge of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite in Singapore at the\ntime of his visit. But the imposition does not end here; Dr Bataille\ndoes not merely describe what took place at a lodge which was not in\nexistence--he gives particulars of an address delivered by a certain Dr\nMurray at a meeting attended by himself. Now, at the date in question,\nthere was no such person either in the town, in its vicinity, or in\nPenang. There is fortunately an institution among us which is termed the\nBritish Museum, and it enables us to verify questions of this kind.\nFurthermore, when describing the Palladian meeting at the Presbyterian\nchapel--there was such a chapel by the way--he tells us that the Grand\nMaster was named Spencer, and that he was a _negociant_ of Singapore,\nbut there was again no such person in the town or its vicinity at the\ntime, and so his entire narrative, with its ritual reproduced from Leo\nTaxil, is demolished completely. I submit that these two instances are\nsufficient to indicate the kind of man with whom we are dealing. It may\nbe a matter of astonishment to my readers that a work even of imposition\nshould be performed so clumsily as to betray itself at once to a little\neasy research, but it must be remembered that the class of French\nreaders to whom Dr Bataille made appeal are so ignorant of all which\nconcerns the English that skill is not required to exploit them; it is\nenough that the English are abused. Of our author's qualifications in\nthis respect I have already given some specimens, but they convey no\nidea of his actual resources in the matter of abuse and calumny. A\ndirect quotation will not be beside the purpose in this\nplace:--\"Wheresoever religious influence can make itself felt, there\nthe wife and maid are the purest, the most ingenuous expression of the\ncreation and the divinely touching idea synthetised by the immaculate\nMother of Christ, the Virgin Mary; but, on the contrary, in England, and\nstill more especially in the English colonies, under the pernicious\ninfluence of the Protestant heresy engendered by revolts of truly\ndiabolical inspiration, the wife and maid are in some sort the\nopprobrium of humanity. The example, moreover, comes from an exalted\nplace, as is known. The whole world is acquainted with that which John\nBull does not himself confess, namely, the private history of her whom\nIndians term 'the old lady of London,' given over to vice and\ndrunkenness from her youth--Her Majesty Wisky the 1st.\" I have made this\nquotation, because it gives the opportunity to dispense with the\ncivility of discussion which is exercised by one gentleman towards\nanother, but would be out of place on the part of a gentleman who is\ngiving a deserved castigation to a disgusting and foul-mouthed rascal.\nThis is the nameless refuse which flings itself to bespatter Masonry.\nDown, unclean dog, and back, scavenger, to your offal! The scullion in\nthe Queen's kitchen would, I think, disdain to whip you.\n\nSetting aside these scandalous slanders, and returning to the subject in\nhand, it is clear that when a writer who comes forward with a budget of\nsurprising revelations is shown to have invented his materials in\ncertain signal instances, it becomes superfluous to subject his entire\ntestimony to a laborious sifting, and there is really no excuse to delay\nmuch longer over the memoirs of Dr Bataille. It will be needless to\nstate that my researches have failed to discover any such dismantled\ntemple as that described at Pondicherry, and affirmed to be on the\nEnglish soil adjacent to the French town. It is equally unnecessary to\nsay that the story of the caves of Gibraltar is a gross and absurd\nimposture, for, in fact, it betrays itself. Parisian literature of the\nby-ways has its own methods, and its purveyors are shrewd enough to know\nwhat will be tolerated and what enjoyed by their peculiar class of\npatrons; transcendental toxicology and an industry in idols worked by\ncriminals intercommunicating by means of Volapuk may be left to them.\n\nNor is it needful to do more than touch lightly upon a pleasant process\nin piracy by which Dr Bataille lightens the toils of authorship. He has\ndone better than any other among the witnesses of Lucifer in his\ngleanings from Eliphas Levi. On p. 32 of his first volume there is a\nbrazen theft concerning the chemistry of black magic, and there is\nanother, little less daring, on p. 67, being a description of a\nBaphometic idol. It goes without saying that the Conjuration of the Four\nis imported, as others have imported it, from the _Rituel de la Haute\nMagie_. The vesture of the master of ceremonies who officiated in the\nSanctuary of the Phoenix, one of the mythical temples of Dhappa, is a\nproperty derived from the same quarter. So in like manner is part of a\nmagical adjuration in the account of a Sabbath in Sheol. Finally, a\nmethod of divination described in a later place (vol. i., pp. 343, 344)\nwill be found in Christian's _Histoire de la Magie_.\n\nThe artist who has illustrated the memoirs has acted after the same\nmanner. The two Baphometic figures (vol. i., pp. 9 and 89), are\nreproductions from Levi's plates. The Sabbatic figure (_Ib._, p. 153) is\na modification from Christian. The original idea of the shadow-demon on\np. 201 will be found in Levi's sacerdotal hand making the sign of\nesotericism. The four figures of the Palladian urn on p. 313 are\nplagiarised in a similar way. The illustration on p. 337, which purports\nto be a gnostic symbol of the dual divinity, is actually the\nfrontispiece to Levi's _Dogme de la Haute Magie_. The magical urn on p.\n409 is the facsimile of a similar object in another of Levi's drawings;\nand if it were worth while to continue, the material for a further\nenumeration is not wanting. But these matters, after all, are of\ninferior moment, and to complete the exposure of this witness, I pass to\nthe final points of my criticism.\n\nDr Bataille publishes an alleged Table of High-grade Masonry as it\nexisted on March 1, 1891, and this document, which is similar in many\nrespects to another of a slightly anterior date, produced by Signor\nMargiotta, is said to have been prepared by Albert Pike himself; it\nincludes a long list of the persons then in correspondence with the\nSupreme Dogmatic Directory as Inspectors General \"in permanent mission.\"\nIt is a bizarre medley which includes the Orders of the Druids, Mopses,\nOddfellows, and Mormon Moabites in the same connection as the Ancient\nand Accepted Scotch Rite, the Rites of Memphis and Misraim, and the\nSan-Ho-Hei. As such, it would be, in any case, a large tax upon the\ngullibility of readers outside the back streets of Paris. But I\ndetermined to make some inquiries among the English names mentioned. For\nexample, Mr R. W. Shekleton, to whom I have already referred, is said,\nat the period in question, to have been in official correspondence with\nthe Dogmatic Directory, representing the special relations of Ireland,\nand, having drawn his attention to the point, he has furnished me with\nthe following contradiction:--\"The statement in your letter, taken from\nthe book you refer to, that I was in the year '91 in direct\ncorrespondence with the Supreme Dogmatic Directory of Charleston is\nutterly false. I never even heard of any such Body as the Supreme\nDirectory, or of what is called the New and Reformed Palladium. The only\ncommunication I ever had with General Albert Pike (whom I had never\nseen) was in reference to a question of Masonic procedure in America. So\nfar as I am aware the existence of either of the Bodies you refer to is\nunknown to any of the Masonic Body in Ireland, and I can, with almost\ncertainty, make the same statement in reference to the English and\nScotch Masons. Having been for nearly twenty-seven years the Acting Head\nof the Order in Ireland, I can speak with authority, and you are at\nliberty in my name to give the most emphatic contradiction to the\nstatements quoted from the book. So far as I am aware, General Pike was\nnever anything more than Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme\nCouncil of the 33rd Southern Jurisdiction of America.\"\n\nThe case of Mr John Yarker, Grand Master of the Memphis Rite in England,\nI have already had occasion to mention, and have cited his explicit\ndenial of any acquaintance with the New and Reformed Palladium, but he\nis included by Dr Bataille in his wonderful enumeration. Upon the\ngeneral question, Mr Yarker observes: (a) that the Scottish or Ancient\nand Accepted Rite has nothing occult about it, but the Memphis and\nMisraim Rites are wholly occultism. (b) That Pike has, however, in his\nlectures added occult matters from these occult Rites. (c) That Pike, as\na very able man, ruled the whole of the Supreme Grand Councils of the\n33 deg. (Ancient and Accepted), which almost all originated from Charleston.\n(d) That this is the only form in which there can be said to have been a\nDogmatic Directorate.\n\nIn like manner, Mr William Officer of Edinburgh, an initiate of the\nScotch Rite, Inspector-General of the Supreme Council of the French\nGrand Orient, and Hon. Member of its Grand College of Rites, denies his\nalleged connection with any Central Directory, and has heard nothing of\nsuch an institution.\n\nI do not conceive that there is any call to fill space by the\nmultiplication of these denials, and I need therefore only add that I\nhave others equally explicit in my possession. The obvious conclusion is\nthat the alleged Table of High-Grade Masonry is a bogus document founded\non some official lists of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite.\n\nLastly, there are certain statements made by Dr Bataille which warrant\nthe presumption that he could have had little, if any, active\nacquaintance with the Memphis Rite. That he may have purchased a diploma\nfrom Pessina is probable enough; what I learn of the Grand Master of the\nNeapolitan Sovereign Sanctuary, through sources not tainted like those\nof the witnesses of Lucifer, does not place him wholly above financial\nconsiderations, but Pessina was, and is, totally unrecognised by any\nMasonic power in the world of Craft Masonry. So far, therefore, from\nsuch a diploma acting as an _Open Sesame_, it would have sealed all\ndoors against its owner, and this statement is true not only for\nordinary Craft Masonry, but for the great majority of lodges under the\nMisraim obedience. Dr Bataille would not, therefore, have much\nopportunity for participating in that Rite to which he had purchased\nentrance, and, as a fact, he is wholly ignorant concerning it. For\nexample, he seems to represent the Memphis and Misraim Rites as enjoying\nrecognition from the Scotch Rite, and the latter as consciously\nsubordinate and inferior, whereas the position is this. Memphis\nrecognises the 33 deg. of the Ancient and Accepted as its first steps, and\nplaces 62 degrees upon them, which are not recognised in return. Misraim\nalso includes the 33 deg. of the Scotch Rite, but in a more irregular\narrangement, other degrees being interspersed among them. Pessina's\nMisraim Rite has been reduced by him from 90 deg. to 33 deg., which are\nvirtually those of the Ancient and Accepted Rite approximated to Misraim\nteaching. So also he states that General Garibaldi was in 1860, and had\nbeen so for many previous years, the Grand Master and Grand Hierophant\nof the Rite of Memphis for all countries of the globe. This is\ncompletely untrue, for, as a matter of fact, Garibaldi succeeded\nJacques Etienne Marconis of Paris, becoming president of a confederation\nof the Rites which was brought about by Mr John Yarker in the year 1881.\nBefore this period he was simply an Hon. Grand Master of Pessina's body.\nThe articles of this treaty, with a true copy of all the signatures\nattached to it, and with the seals of the Sovereign Sanctuaries against\nthem, is before me as I write. I may state, in conclusion, that Dr\nBataille also falsely represents himself to have met with Mr Yarker, who\ntold him that he had personally aspired to the succession at the death\nof Garibaldi, which Mr Yarker characterises as \"an infamous concoction.\"\n\nI am in possession of ample materials for illustrating more fully the\nmarvellous inventions produced by this witness of Lucifer, but the\ninstalment here given is sufficient for the present purpose.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nDIANA UNVEILED\n\n\nThe discovery of Leo Taxil and of M. Ricoux has one remaining witness in\nthe person of Miss Diana Vaughan. She also, as we have seen, is a writer\nof memoirs, and in giving some account of her narrative I have already\nindicated in substance certain lines of criticism which might be applied\nwith success thereto. We must obviously know more about this lady, and\nhave some opportunity of verifying the particulars of her past life\nbefore we can accept her statement that she has written while fresh from\n\"conversion,\" and is speaking for the first time the language of a\nChristian and a Catholic. The supernatural element of her memoirs it is\nnot worth while to discuss. Were she otherwise worthy of credit, we\nmight exonerate her personal veracity by assuming that she was tricked\nover the apparition and hallucinated in the vision that followed it, but\nI propose submitting to my readers sufficient evidence to justify a\nconclusion that she does not deserve our credit, and though out of\ndeference to her sex it is desirable, so far as may be possible, to\nspeak with moderation, I must establish most firmly that the motive she\nbetrays in her memoirs is not in many respects preferable to that of the\nprevious witness.\n\nIt will be advisable, however, to distinguish that part of the narrative\nfor which Miss Vaughan is admittedly and personally responsible from\nthat which she claims to be derived from her family history. I must\ndistinguish between them, not that I am prepared to admit as a\nlegitimate consequence of her statement that there is any real\ndifference or that I unquestionably regard Miss Vaughan as having\ncreated a strong presumption that she is in possession of the documents\nwhich she claims to have. I am simply recognising the classification\nwhich she may herself be held to make. If in this respect it can be\nshown that I have mistaken the actual position, I will make such\nreparation as may be due from a man of letters, whose reasonable\nindignation in the midst of much imposture will, in such case, have\nmisled him. But there is only one course which is open to Miss Vaughan\nin the matter, and that is to produce the original documents on which\nshe has based her narrative for the opinion of competent English\ninvestigators, in which case Miss Vaughan may be held to have\nestablished not the truth of her family history, which is essentially\nbeyond establishment, but her _bona fides_ in connection with its\nrelation. After this the portion for which she is personally\nresponsible, and from which there is no escape, will still fasten the\ncharge of falsehood ineffaceably upon her narrative.\n\nIn addition, then, to her personal history, Miss Vaughan's memoirs\ncontain:--I. A mendacious biography of the English mystic, Thomas\nVaughan. II. A secret history of the English Rosicrucian Fraternity, and\nof its connection with Masonry, which is also an impudent fraud. The two\nconstitute one of the most curious literary forgeries which are to be\nmet with in the whole range of Hermetic literature; and Hermetic\nliterature, it is known, has been enriched by many triumphs of\ninvention. I shall deal with the narratives plainly on the provisional\nassumption that Miss Vaughan has been herself deceived in regard to\nthem. They are based upon family papers said to be now in possession of\nthe Charleston Dogmatic Directory. The central facts which are sought to\nbe established by means of these papers have been mentioned already in\nmy eighth chapter, namely, that Miss Vaughan is one of the two last\ndescendants of the alchemist Thomas Vaughan; that this personage made a\ncompact with Satan in the year 1645, that under the name of Eirenaeus\nPhilalethes, he wrote the well-known alchemical work entitled \"An Open\nEntrance to the Closed Palace of the King,\" and that he consummated a\nmystical marriage with Venus-Astarte, of which the Palladian\nTemplar-Mistress is the last development. For the purposes of these\nnarratives the birth of Thomas Vaughan is placed in the year 1612, and\nhis death, or rather translation, in the year 1678. At the age of\ntwenty-four years, that is to say, in 1636, he proceeded to London, and\nthere connected himself with the mystic Robert Fludd, by whom he was\ninitiated into a lower grade of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, and received\na letter of introduction to the Grand Master, Johann Valentin Andreae,\nwhich he took over to Stuttgart and presented. In 1637, having returned\nto London, he was present at the death of Robert Fludd, which occurred\nin that year. In 1638 he made his first voyage to America, where he was\nhospitably entertained by a Protestant minister, named John Cotton, but\nhis visit was not characterised by any remarkable occurrence. At this\nperiod the alchemist is represented by his descendant as a Puritan\nimpregnated with the secret doctrine of Robert Fludd. In 1639 Vaughan\nreturned to England, but was immediately attracted to Denmark by the\ndiscovery of a golden horn adorned with mysterious figures, which he and\nhis colleagues in alchemy supposed to typify the search for the\nphilosophical stone. At the age of twenty-eight, Vaughan made further\nprogress in the Rosicrucian Fraternity, being advanced to the grade of\n_Adeptus Minor_ by Amos Komenski, in which year also Elias Ashmole\nentered the order. Accompanied by Komenski, Vaughan proceeded to\nHamburg, thence by himself to Sweden, and subsequently to the Hague,\nwhere he initiated Martin de Vries. A year later he visited Italy, and\nmade acquaintance with Berigard de Pisa. This was a pious pilgrimage\nwhich testified his devotion to Faustus Socinus, for Miss Vaughan, on\nthe authority of her documents, regards the Italian heretic, not only as\na conscious Satanist, but as the founder of the Rosicrucian Society, and\nthe initiator of Johann Valentin Andreae, whom he also won over to\nLucifer. On his return Thomas Vaughan tarried a short time in France,\nwhere he conceived the project of organising Freemasonry as it exists at\nthe present day, and there also it occurred to him that the guilds of\nthe Compagnage might serve him for raw material. When, however, he\nreturned to England, he concluded that the honorary or Accepted Masons,\nreceived by the Masonic guilds of England, were better suited to his\npurpose. Some of these were already Rosicrucians, and among them he set\nto work. In the year 1644 he presided over a Rosicrucian assembly at\nwhich Ashmole was present. At this time also Oliver Cromwell is said to\nhave been an accepted Mason, and it was by his intervention that, a year\nlater, Thomas Vaughan was substituted for the headsman at the execution\nof Archbishop Laud, for the object already described. It was after his\ncompact with Lucifer that the alchemist wrote the \"Open Entrance.\" His\nactivity in the Rosicrucian cause then became prodigious, and the\nfollowers of Socinus, apparently all implicated in the Satanism of their\nmaster, began to swell the ranks of the Accepted Masons. At this time\nalso he began his collaborations with Ashmole for the composition of the\nApprentice, Companion, and Master grades, that is to say, for the\ninstitution of symbolical Masonry. In 1646 he again visited America, and\nconsummated his mystic marriage, as narrated in the eighth chapter. In\n1648 he returned to England, and one year later completed the Master\ngrade, that of Companion having been produced during his absence, but\nfollowing the indications he had given, by Elias Ashmole. In 1650 he\nbegan to issue his Rosicrucian and alchemical writings, namely,\n_Anthroposophia Theomagica_ and _Anima Magica Abscondita_, followed by\n_Lumen de Lumine_ and _Aula Lucis_ in 1651. The Rosicrucian Grand Master\nAndreae died in 1654, and was succeeded by Thomas Vaughan, whose next\nstep was the publication of his work, entitled \"Euphrates, or the Waters\nof the East.\" In 1656 he is said to have published the complete works of\nSocinus, two folio volumes in the collection, entitled _Bibliotheca\nFratrum Polonorum_. Three years later appeared his \"Fraternity of R.C.,\"\nand in 1664 the _Medulla Alchymiae_. In 1667 he decided to publish the\n\"Open Entrance,\" the MS. of which was returned to him by the editor\nLangius after printing, and was subsequently annotated in the way I have\npreviously mentioned. During the early days of the same year Vaughan\nconverted Helvetius, the celebrated physician of the Hague, who in his\nturn became Grand Master of the Rosicrucian Fraternity. In 1668 he\npublished his \"Experiments with Sophic Mercury\" and _Tractatus Tres_,\nwhile ten years later, or in 1678, the year of his infernal translation,\nhe produced his edition of \"Ripley Revived\" and the _Enarratio Trium\nGebri_.\n\nFrom beginning to end, generally and particularly, the narrative I have\nsummarised above is a gross and planned imposture, nor would any\nepithets be so severe as to be undeserved by the person who has\nconcocted it, because it does outrage to the sacred dead, in particular\nto the greatest of the English spiritual mystics, Thomas Vaughan, and to\nthe greatest of the English physical mystics, Eirenaeus Philalethes. For\nthe mendacious history confuses two entirely distinct persons--Eugenius\nand Eirenaeus Philalethes. It is true that this confusion has been made\nfrequently, and it is true also that at the beginning of my researches\ninto the archaeology of Hermetic literature I was one of its victims, for\nwhich I was sharply brought to book by those who knew better. But a\nyoung and unassisted investigator, imperfectly equipped, has an excuse\nwhich will exonerate him at least from a malicious intention. It is\notherwise with a pretended family history. When documents of this kind\nreproduce blunders which are pardonable to ignorance alone, and upon a\nsubject about which two opinions are no longer possible, it is certain\nthat such documents are not what they claim; in other words, they have\nbeen fabricated, and the fabrication of historical papers is essentially\na work of malice. Furthermore, when such forgeries impeach persons long\nsince passed to their account, on the score of unheard of crimes, they\nare the work of diabolical malice, and this is a moderately worded\njudgment on the case now in hand. Thomas Vaughan, otherwise Eugenius\nPhilalethes, was born in the year 1621 at Newton, in Brecknockshire. The\naccepted and perfectly correct authority for this statement is the\n_Athenae Oxonienses_ of Anthony Wood, but he is not the only authority,\nand if he be not good enough for Miss Vaughan, she can take in his place\nthe exhaustive researches of the Rev. A. B. Grosart, whose edition of\nthe works of the Silurist Henry Vaughan have probably been neither seen\nnor heard of by this unwise woman, in the same way that she is ignorant\nof most essential elements in the matters which she presumes to treat.\nThe authority of a laborious scholar like Dr Grosart will probably be of\ngreater weight than the foul narrative of a Palladian memoir-maker, who\nhas not produced her documents. From this date it follows that in the\nyear 1636 Thomas Vaughan was still in the schoolboy period, not even of\nsufficient age to begin a college career. He could not, as alleged, have\nvisited Fludd, the illustrious Kentish mystic, in London, nor would he\nhave been ripe for initiation, supposing that Fludd could have dispensed\nit. In like manner, Andreae, assuming that he was Grand Master of the\nRosicrucians, would not have welcomed a youngster of fifteen years,\nsupposing that in those days he was likely to travel from London to\nStuttgart, but would have recommended him to return to his\nlesson-books. The first voyage to America and all the earlier incidents\nof the narrative are untrue for the same reason. In place of wandering\nthrough Denmark, the Hague, and Sweden, initiating and being initiated,\nhe was drumming through a course at Oxford; in place of pious\npilgrimages to the shrine of Socinus, he was preparing to take orders in\nthe English Church, and the narrative which is untrue to his early is\nuntrue also to his later life. After receiving Holy Orders he returned\nto his native village and took over the care of its souls. He was never\na Puritan; he was never a friend of Cromwell; he was a high-churchman\nand a Royalist, and he was ejected from his living because he was\naccused by political enemies of carrying arms for the king. He never\ntravelled; on the contrary, he married, at what period is unknown, but\nhis tender devotion to his wife is commemorated on the reverse pages of\nan autograph alchemical MS. now in the British Museum, which belies\nfurthermore, in every line and word, the Luciferian imposture of the\nParis-cum-Yankee documents, by its passionate religious aspiration and\nits adoring love of Christ.\n\nWhen Vaughan came up to London, it was as a man who was somewhat out of\njoint with English, in spite of his Oxford career, because he was a\nWelsh speaking man, and when he took to writing books, he apologises for\nhis awkward diction. He accentuates also his youth, which would be\nwarrantable at the age of twenty-eight, but would be absurd in a writer\napproaching forty years. This point may be verified by any one who will\nrefer to my edition of Vaughan's _Anthroposophia Theomagica_. The works\nof Thomas Vaughan, besides _Anthroposophia Theomagica_, are _Anima\nMagica Abscondita_, published in 1650; _Magia Adamica_ 1650, apparently\nforgotten by the \"authentic documents\" of Miss Vaughan, as are also \"The\nMan-Mouse\" and \"The Second Wash, or the Moore scoured once\nMore\"--satires on Henry More, written in reply to that Platonist, who\nhad attacked the previous books. These belong to the year 1651, as also\ndoes _Lumen de Lumine_; \"The Fame and Confession of the Fraternity\nR.C.\" appeared in 1652, not 1659, as the \"family history\" affirms; _Aula\nLucis_, 1652 (not 1651); and \"Euphrates,\" 1655. What is obvious\neverywhere in these priceless little books is the devotion of a true\nmystic to Jesus Christ, and to gift them with the sordid interpretation\nof a French-born cultus of Lucifer is about as possible as to attribute\na Christian intention to the calumnies of Miss Vaughan's documents.\n\nIn the year 1665, at the house of the rector of Albury, a chemical\nexperiment with mercury cost the Welsh alchemist his life, and he was\nburied in the churchyard of that village in Oxfordshire.\n\nIt is clear, therefore, that the wonderful archives in the possession of\nMiss Vaughan give a bogus history of Eugenius Philalethes, but they are\nalso untrue of Eirenaeus. It is untrue that this mysterious adept, whose\nidentity has never been disclosed, was born in 1612; he was born some\nten years later.\n\nThe source of both dates is \"The Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of\nthe King\"; but that which Miss Vaughan champions is based upon a\ncorrupt reading in a bad version, and she has evidently never seen the\noriginal and best of the Latin impressions, that of Langius, though she\nhas the presumption to cite it. That edition establishes that he wrote\nthe treatise in the year 1645, he being then in the twenty-third year of\nhis age--whence it follows that the date of his birth was most probably\n1622, and the history with which he is invested by Miss Vaughan is again\na misfit; it is putting man's garments on a boy. Furthermore, there is\nnot one item in her statements concerning the \"Open Entrance\" which is\nnot directly and provably false. It was not printed, as she indicates,\nunder the supervision of the author; it was not printed from the\noriginal MS., nor was that MS. returned to Philalethes after it had\npassed through the press. It is shameful for any person, male or female,\nhowever little they may consider their own fair fame, to so far violate\nthe canons of literary honour as to make dogmatic statements concerning\na work which they cannot have seen. The preface prefixed to this\nedition by Langius completely refutes Miss Vaughan. Here is a passage in\npoint:--\"Truly who or what kind of person was author of this sweet,\nmust-like work, I know no more than he who is most ignorant, nor, since\nhe himself would conceal his name, do I think fit to enquire so far,\nlest I get his displeasure.\" Again--\"To pick out the roses from the most\nthorny bushes of writings, and to make the elixir of philosophers by his\nown industry, without any tutor, and at twenty-three years of age, this\nperchance hath been granted to none, or to most few hitherto.\" Langius,\nmoreover, laments explicitly the fact that he did not print from an\noriginal MS. He printed from a Latin translation, the work of an unknown\nhand, which had come into his possession, as he tells us, from a man who\nwas learned in such matters. Miss Vaughan's pretended autograph, with\nits despicable marginal readings, is obviously a Latin copy, whatever be\nits history otherwise. The original was in English, and when Langius was\nregretting its loss, \"a transcript, probably written from the author's\ncopy, or very little corrupted,\" was in possession of the bookseller\nWilliam Cooper, of Little Saint Bartholomews, near Little Britain, in\nthe city of London, who published it in the year 1669, to correct the\nimperfections in the edition of Amsterdam. This transcript also\nestablishes that the \"Open Entrance\" was penned when the author was in\nhis twenty-third year.\n\nAs a matter of fact, Philalethes does not appear to have superintended\nthe publication of any of his writings, and here Miss Vaughan again\nexhibits her unpardonable ignorance concerning the works with which she\nis dealing. To prove that her reputed ancestor was alive after the\naccepted date of Thomas Vaughan's death, she triumphantly observes that\nin the year 1668 he published his experiments on the preparation of\nSophic Mercury and _Tractatus Tres_. But the latter volume was a piracy,\nfor in his preface to \"Ripley Revived\" the author expressly laments that\ntwo of its three treatises had passed out of his hands, and he feared\nlest they should get into print, because they were imperfect works\npreceding the period of solid knowledge which produced the \"Open\nEntrance.\" Again, so little was he consulted over the appearance of the\n\"Sophic Mercury\" that the printer represents it as the work of an\nAmerican philosopher, whence it has been fathered upon George Starkey.\n\nEirenaeus Philalethes was undoubtedly a great traveller and he visited\nAmerica, but there is no ground for supposing that he was ever in Italy,\nand that either he or Thomas Vaughan edited the works of Socinus is an\nignorant fiction, for which even Miss Vaughan can find no better warrant\nthan the evasive place of publication which figures on the title-page of\nthe _Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum_, namely, Eirenaeopolis. In like\nmanner she erroneously credits him with the authorship of the _Medulla\nAlchemiae_, which is the work of Eirenaeus Philoponos Philalethes,\notherwise George Starkey.\n\nThese facts fully establish the fraudulent nature of Miss Vaughan's\nfamily history, by whomsoever it has been devised, and seeing that where\nit is possible to check it, it breaks down at every point, we need have\nno hesitation in rejecting the information which it provides in those\ncases where it cannot be brought to book. The connection of Faustus\nSocinus with the Rosicrucian Fraternity, as founder, is one instance;\nthis is merely an extension of the imposture of Abbe Lefranc in his\n\"Veil Raised for the Curious,\" and it rests, like its original, on no\nevidence which can be traced. Another is the Rosicrucian Imperatorship\nof Andreae, and yet another the initiation of Robert Fludd. Again, the\nconnection of Philalethes with John Frederick Helvetius is based on\nspeculation only, and that of Ashmole with the institution of symbolical\nMasonry has never been more than hypothesis, and not very deserving at\nthat. I regret to add that, on the authority of her bogus documents,\nMiss Vaughan has given currency to a rumour that the founder of the\nAshmolean Museum poisoned his first wife. She deserves the most severe\nreprobation for having failed to test her materials before she made\npublic this foul slander. Furthermore, in that portion of her materials\nwhich is concerned with her family history, she is not above tampering\nwith the sense of printed books. The worshippers of Lucifer are\nrepresented as invariably terming their divinity the \"good God\"--_Dieu\nbon_,--or our God--_notre Dieu_--to distinguish him from the God of the\nAdonaites, and the references made to the Deity by Philalethes in the\n\"Open Entrance\" she falsely translates by these Luciferian equivalents,\nthus creating an impression in the minds of the ignorant that he is not\nspeaking of the true Divinity. After this it will hardly surprise my\nreaders that a pretended translation from a MS. of Gillermet de\nBeauregard, which she states to be preserved in the archives of the\nSovereign Patriarchal Council of Hamburg, is simply stolen from an\n_Instruction a la France sur la verite de l'Histoire des Freres de la\nRoze-Croix_, by Gabriel Naude, who ridiculed and reviled the Order. I\nsubmit in conclusion that, in view of the facts already elicited, it is\nnot worth while to inquire into the value of the episode concerned with\nthe judicial murder of Archbishop Laud, and to elaborately argue that\nOliver Cromwell was the last person in England to be implicated in such\na transaction, he, at the period in question, being briskly employed in\ncheckmating his King, who was at Oxford in winter quarters, and having\nneither the power nor opportunity to meddle with the details of an\nexecution. The incident, in a word, is worth as much and as little as\nthe abominable story of the subsequent pact with Lucifer or the foolery\nof the mystic marriage.\n\nThe critical investigation of Miss Vaughan's alleged documents having\nled to these results, it remains to be seen how far the other portions\nof her narrative will bear analysis. So long as she confined the more\nresponsible part of her memoirs to personal experiences in the science\nof conversion and to the relation of her Eucharistic raptures, the\nlovers of ardent reading in this order of sensation were the only\npersons who could lay a complaint against her if she failed to fulfil\ntheir requirements. So long also as she fixed the scene of her history\nin a comparatively remote place, and among men now dead, she was\npartially protected from exposure, but when she transfers her\nrevelations to England she is treading on dangerous ground, and she has\nin fact fallen into the pit. She has had the temerity to meddle with the\nmodern history of Rosicrucian societies, and has undertaken to inform\nher readers after what manner she has come into possession of the\nrituals of the revived Rosicrucian Order, and her account is\nspecifically untrue. She is undoubtedly acquainted with the grades of\nthe order, but she could have obtained these from more than one\npublished source--as, for example, the late Kenneth McKenzie's\n\"Cyclopaedia of Freemasonry,\" or from my own \"Real History of the\nRosicrucians.\" But even if she possess the rituals, she has not come by\nthem in the manner she describes. Her account is as follows:--\"The\nFraternity of the Rose-Cross comprises nine degrees of initiation--1.\nZelator; 2. Theoricus; 3. Practicus (Miss Vaughan writes _Praticus_,\nwhich would be the error of a French person who does not read Latin and\nnot the error of an English or American person as she claims to be); 4.\nPhilosophus; 5. Adeptus Minor, according to the variants of Valentin\nAndreae, or Adeptus Junior, according to the variants of Nick Stone\n(those were the variants of Nick Stone which were ostensibly burned in\n1720 by the Grand Master Theophilus Desaguliers, but were not in reality\ndestroyed; transmitted to trusty English brethren, after the death of\nDesaguliers, they passed from reliable hands to others also reliable,\nuntil the reconstitution of the Rose-Cross; for the reconstituted\nassociation exists actually in England, Scotland, the United States, and\nCanada, and those variants of the grades which were made by Nick Stone,\nare at the present day deposited with Doctor W. W. W., living at Cambden\n(_sic_) Road, London, Supreme Magus of the Rose-Cross for England, AT\nWHOSE HOUSE I HAVE TRANSCRIBED THEM); 6. Adeptus Major; 7. Adeptus\nExemptus; 8. Magister Templi; 9. Magus.\"\n\nMiss Vaughan's literary methods are not exactly captivating, and the\nenormous parenthesis is hers, but the capitals which close it are mine.\nThe English doctor mentioned is well known to transcendentalists, and he\nis actually a high-grade Mason; he is also personally well-known to\nmyself. To the best of his recollection he has never at any time met any\nperson terming herself Diana Vaughan. More especially, no such\nindividual has ever called at his house, much less copied any rituals of\nwhich he may be in possession. There is therefore only one term by which\nit is possible to qualify Miss Vaughan in her account of this matter,\nand if I refrain from applying it, it is more out of literary grace than\nfrom considerations of gallantry, for when persons of the opposite sex\nelect to make themselves odious by gross imposition, they cannot expect\nto escape the legitimate consequences at the hands of criticism any more\nthan another class of female malefactors will escape on the plea of\ntheir sex at the hand of justice.\n\nThe subject of Luciferian Freemasonry has been under discussion in the\ncolumns of _Light_ long before the appearance of this volume, and a\nnumber of transcendentalists, including one of great eminence--Mr\nCharles Carleton Massey--a few high-grade Masons, and myself, have\nexposed the pretensions of the French conspiracy. In most cases, and by\nmore than one person, copies of the various issues were sent to Miss\nVaughan through her publisher, and if she be not, as I hinted in that\njournal, the Mrs Harris of Freemasonry, there is little doubt that they\nreached her like other friendly offerings which she acknowledges in odd\ncorners of her memoirs. It is probably in consequence of the exposures\nmade in _Light_ in connection with others said to have been made\nrecently in Canada that in the eighth number of her memoirs she\nthreatens to turn somewhat desperately on her critics. I understand that\nthe Australian boomerang is a weapon that comes back to its caster, and\nthe vindictive feeling which has prompted Miss Vaughan to a fresh burst\nof revelation has returned upon herself in a very overwhelming manner.\n\"I am driven, and I will do it,\" is her position. \"I will reveal the\nEnglish Palladists such as they actually and personally are.\" And she\ndoes so to her own destruction as follows:--\n\n\"The actual chief of the English Luciferians is Doctor William Wynn\nWestcott, living at 396 Cambden Road, London, whom on a previous\noccasion I mentioned only by his initials. It is he who is the actual\ncustodian of the diabolical rituals of Nick Stone; it is he who is the\nSupreme Magus of the Socinian Rose-Cross for England.\" She proceeds to\ngive the names of the Senior and Junior Sub-Magi, the members of the\nGrand Council, the chiefs of what she terms the Third Luciferian Order,\nand the Masters of the Temple, otherwise the Metropolitan College.\nSimilar particulars follow concerning the York College, the College of\nNewcastle-on-Tyne, and that of Edinburgh.\n\nNow, Dr Wynn Westcott is a high-grade Mason, as I have said, and he\noccupies a professional position of influence and importance; it is\nclear that a gratuitous attempt to fasten upon him charges of an odious\ncharacter is an exceedingly evil proceeding and places the person who\ndoes so outside all limits of tender consideration. When Miss Vaughan\nstates that Dr Westcott is a Palladist, a diabolist, a worshipper of\nLucifer, or however she may elect to distinguish it, I reply that she is\nguilty of a gross libel, which is at the same time an abominable and\ncruel falsehood. When she says that she has been received at his house,\nI reply that she has not been received there, and that Dr Westcott is\nlikely to require better credentials from female visitors than are\nsupplied by the infamous inventions in the \"Memoirs of an Ex-Palladist.\"\nWhen Miss Vaughan affirms that she has transcribed Dr Westcott's rituals\nat the house of Dr Westcott, I reply that this would be an untrue\nstatement if the lady who made it were an intimate friend, and it is\ndoubly untrue when affirmed by a perfect stranger. When Miss Vaughan\nstates that Dr Westcott is the head of a Society which worships Lucifer,\nI reply that she is speaking falsely of a body concerning which she is\nin complete ignorance, and when an ignorant person thus attributes evil\nshe or he does not only act foolishly but with exceeding malice. Miss\nVaughan is henceforth upon all accounts outside that category of\nliterary honour which makes it possible for criticism to be concerned\nwith her and still preserve its dignity. Lastly, Miss Vaughan alleges\nthat the official appointments made by Dr Westcott as Supreme Magus of\nthe Society in question for the year 1896 were submitted to Adriano\nLemmi and approved by him. This allegation is false _in toto_. Neither\nin a general nor a special sense is Dr Westcott responsible to Lemmi or\nto any Italian Freemason; what is more, no personal or written\ncommunication has at any time passed between them, and save as a past\nGrand Master Dr Westcott has never heard of the person to whose commands\nhe is thus supposed to be subject. It will be seen that the baseless\nnature of this absurd statement involves all others of its kind, and\nthere is no reason to attach the slightest credibility to anything which\nhas been advanced concerning the supreme position of Adriano Lemmi, who,\nfurther, himself denies it, and, whatever his past history, is as much\nentitled to belief as accusers who betray their true character in this\nunenviable manner.\n\nThe Society which has thus been attacked in the person of its Supreme\nMagus is of singularly unpretending nature, simple as regards its\nhistory, and making no claim either to Masonic or Mystical importance.\nIt does not claim or possess a connection with the original Rosicrucian\nFraternity. It does not attribute antiquity to the rituals which it\nuses. It was founded by Robert Wentworth Little, who died in 1878, and\nhas been in existence somewhat less than forty years. Its sole\nconnection with Masonry is that it only initiates Masons. It neither\nenjoys nor expects recognition from the Grand Lodge of England. It is\nliterary and antiquarian in its object, and came into existence chiefly\nfor the study of the history of Freemasonry and of other secret\nsocieties. Its members are required to believe in the fundamental\nprinciples of Christian doctrine. The Metropolitan College has only four\nconvocations and one banquet annually; the number of Fratres upon the\nRoll of Subscribers is fifty-four. It has attracted Masons interested in\nthe antiquities of their craft and has no other sphere of influence. It\npublishes occasional transactions, the dimensions of which are regulated\nby an exceedingly modest income. I mention many of these particulars\nmerely to place a check upon exaggerated notions. Some of the provincial\nColleges have a larger membership, but they are of precisely the same\ncharacter. It is not a society of occultists, though, like innumerable\nother bodies, it counts occultists among its brethren. Finally, no\nreligious cultus of any kind is performed at its meetings, and no woman\nhas ever passed its threshold.\n\nThe Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia is Rosicrucian only in its name, as\nit is Masonic only in its name, and its members are not Miss Vaughan's\n_ex-Freres d'Angleterre_.\n\nIt is certainly and in all respects necessary that something effectual\nshould be done to curb a slanderous and evil tongue which has the\naudacity to impress the most sacred feelings of religion into the\nservice of wilful lying. Dr Westcott is not the only English Mason who\nhas suffered the undeserved indignity of gross aspersion from this\nunclean pen. Another victim is Mr Robert S. Brown, Grand Secretary of\nthe Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland, who is also a member\nof the Ancient and Accepted Rite, and of nearly all Masonic Orders, the\nSocietas Rosicruciana in Anglia included. This honourable gentleman is\nespecially recommended by Miss Vaughan to the attention of Catholics in\nEdinburgh, being the city in which he resides. She describes him as a\ndangerous sectarian, a veritable sorcerer, and the evil genius of one of\nher own relatives. She states further that he is an Elect Magus of the\nPalladium, that he protects Sophia Walder when she visits Scotland, and\nthat he was a great admirer of Phileas Walder, at whose instance he\nconsecrated himself to the demon anti-Christ. In each and all these\nstatements this malicious woman has lied foully. I communicated with Mr\nBrown on the subject, and hold his written denials, which are at the\nservice of any person who desires to see them. Mr Brown says:--\"I am not\nan Elect Magus of the Palladium. I never to my knowledge saw Miss\nWalder, and never knew Miss Vaughan, or anyone of the name, man, woman,\nor child. I never heard Miss Walder named till I received your letter,\nand never knew of the existence of the Palladian Order, if it does\nexist, till I saw it mentioned in articles in 'Light' and the\n'Freemason's Chronicle' (London).... With reference to the particular\nstatements in this copy of the _Memoires_, no doubt the writer has\nsucceeded in getting hold of the facts in most cases as to the official\npositions of the parties named, which of course are easily obtained; the\nlittle details regarding some of us would indicate the presence of an\nagent in our midst or near at hand. The 'inventions' and most slanderous\nstatements regarding most of us are, however, outrageously false and\nwicked. My house has never had the honour(!!!) of entertaining Miss\nWalder or any other lady of like character; it is not a chemical\nlaboratory, and I have never exercised myself in these _mysterious\nexperiences_ either there or elsewhere. I am a humble member of the\nEpiscopal Church of Scotland, and, I trust, a sincere follower of the\nMaster.... I count nearly all the gentlemen named in this vile\nproclamation among my friends, they are all good men and true, and I\nhope to associate with them for many years to come. I most emphatically\ndeny the vile aspersions cast on their characters and my own, and you\nhave my full authority to do so as far as the same may serve your\npurpose.\" My readers will agree that the clear and temperate statement\nof Mr R. S. Brown brands Diana Vaughan with indelible disgrace in the\neyes of the civilised world.\n\nThere is a limit to the necessity of exposure, but should Miss Vaughan\nmanifest any desire to have further instances of her mis-statements I\nwill undertake to supply them. I will only add here in conclusion my\npersonal opinion that Miss Vaughan has not been for any length of time a\nresident in an English-speaking country, much less can she have\nreceived, as it is alleged by some of her friends, an American\neducation. The proof is that she makes characteristic French blunders\nover English names. Thus, we have _Cambden_ on each occasion for Camden,\n_Wescott_ for Westcott; we have _baronnet_ for baronet, _Cantorbery_ for\nCanterbury, _Kirkud-Bright_ for Kirkcudbright; we have hybrid\ncombinations like _Georges_ Dickson, impossibilities like _Tiers-Ordre\nLuciferien d'Honoris Causa_, and numerous similar instances.\n\nTo behold \"Diana unveiled\" was equivalent in alchemical terminology to\nattaining the _magnum opus_. The reputed author of the \"New Light of\nAlchemy\" testifies that some persons had in his own day and to his\ncertain knowledge attained this supreme privilege. It is not of my own\nseeking if in another sense I have made public the same spectacle, and\nthus broken with the traditions of secret science. It would have been\npreferable from one point of view to have discovered Lucifer behind the\nmask of Masonry than to have found the conspiracy against it another\n_Tableau des Inconstances des Demons_ in which the _infidelite et\nmecreance_ connected with the old false witness, abound after a manner\nundreamed of by Bodin and Wierus, for it is distinctly disconcerting to\nthink that a great church is so little honoured by her combatants and\nconverts.\n\nIt only remains to state, and I do so with extreme reluctance, that the\nevidence of Signor Domenico Margiotta, which seems so strong in itself,\ncan only be accepted, as we have seen, in connection with the\ncredibility of Miss Vaughan, and as this has completely broken down, we\ncannot do otherwise than regard that part of his evidence which is\nconcerned with Palladism as the narrative of a person who has been very\nseriously misled. And I think he has otherwise shown us that he is not a\njudicious critic of the materials which have come into his hands. He\nshould never, for example, have printed his list of Palladian Lotus\nLodges--so far as regards Great Britain, it is undeniably a false list.\nTake that of Edinburgh as a typical instance. Mr Brown, who has every\nopportunity of knowing, tells me there is absolutely no truth in the\nstatement that there is in Edinburgh a Mother, or any, Lodge of the\nPalladian Order. \"Neither is there a Triangular Province--whatever that\nmay mean--such as is described. All is absolutely false.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nTHE RADIX OF MODERN DIABOLISM\n\n\nWe have finished with the witnesses of Lucifer, and I think that the\nsearch-light of a drastic criticism has left them in considerable\ndisarray. We approach the limit of the present inquiry, but before\nsumming up and presenting such a general statement or conclusion as may\nbe warranted by the facts, there is one point, left over hereunto, and\ndesigned for final consideration, because it appeals more exclusively to\nprofessed transcendentalists, which it will be necessary to treat\nbriefly. I have already indicated that sporadic revivals of black magic\nhave occasionally been heard of by mystics here in England, and from\ntime to time we have also heard vaguely of obscure assemblies of\nLuciferians. Quite recently an interview with Papus, the French\noccultist, published in _Light_, mentions a society which was devoted to\nthe cultus of Lucifer, star of the morning, quite distinct from Masonry,\nquite unimportant, and since very naturally dead. Now, a large\nproportion of mystics here in England are High-Grade Masons, and if a\nsociety of the Palladium had extended to anything remotely approaching\nthe proportions alleged, they could not have failed to know of it. I\nwill go further and affirm that our non-Masonic transcendental\nassociations have abundant opportunities to become acquainted with\ninstitutions similar to their own, and it is preposterous to suppose\nthat there could be several Palladian triangles working their degrees in\nthis country without our being aware of the fact. But we have not been\naware of it, and our only informations concerning Palladism have come to\nus from France. We do not accept these informations; we know that the\npersons here in England who are alleged by French false witnesses to be\nconnected with the Palladium are not so connected, and are now learning\nof it for the first time. The statements concerning Mr John Yarker are\ncategorically untrue; the gross calumny published by the \"converted\"\nDiana Vaughan about Dr Wynn Westcott, who happens to be a High-Grade\nMason, she will never dare to come forth from her \"retreat\" and\nre-affirm within the jurisdiction of these islands, because she knows\nwell that a British jury would make a large demand upon her reputed\nAmerican dollars. Let us, however, put aside for the moment the\nmendacities and forgeries which complicate the question of Lucifer, and\nlet us approach Palladism from an altogether different side. I believe\nthat I may speak with a certain accent of authority upon any question\nwhich connects with the French magus Eliphas Levi. I am an old student\nof his works, and of the aspects of occult science and magical history\nwhich arise out of them; in the year 1886 I published a digest of his\nwritings which has been the only attempt to present them to English\nreaders until the present year when I have undertaken a translation _in\nextenso_ of the _Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie_, which is actually\nin the hands of the printer. Now, it has not been alleged in so many\nwords that the radix of Modern Diabolism and the Masonic cultus of\nLucifer is to be found in Eliphas Levi, but that is the substance of the\ncharge. Most, or all, of the witnesses agree in representing him as an\natrocious Satanist, an invoker of Lucifer, a celebrater of black masses,\nand an adept in the practical blasphemies of Eucharistic sacrilege; all\nof them father either upon the Palladium or upon Pike a variety of\ndocuments containing gross thefts from Levi; some of them, directly and\nupon their own responsibility, cite passages from his works, always with\nconspicuous bad faith. Finally, they agree in connecting him with the\nfoundation of the New and Reformed Palladium through his alleged\ndisciple Phileas Walder; and one of them goes so far as to say that\nPalladism was a further development or restoration of a Satanic society\ndirected by Eliphas Levi and operating his theurgic system, which he in\nturn, if I rightly understand the mixed hypothesis of M. de la Rive, may\nhave derived from the Palladic rite of 1730. If we accept for the\nmoment this origin of the reformed order, it will follow that if the\noccult doctrines of Eliphas Levi have been seriously misunderstood or\ngrossly defamed by the witnesses, the diabolical or Luciferian\nconnection of Palladism does not wear the complexion which has been\nascribed to it. It is represented as: (a) outwardly Masonic, and (b)\nactually theurgic. (c) It is Manichaean in doctrine. (d) It regards\nLucifer as an eternal principle co-existent, but in a hostile sense,\nwith Adonai. (e) It holds that the beneficent deity is Lucifer, while\nAdonai is malevolent; (f) Certain sections of Palladists, however,\nrecognise that Lucifer is identical with Satan, and is the evil\nprinciple. (g) This section adores the evil principle as such. Now, in\neach and all these matters the Palladian system conflicts with that of\nLevi.\n\nTo give a colourable aspect to their hypothesis, the witnesses affirm\nthat Levi was a high-grade Mason. He was nothing of the kind; he affirms\nmost distinctly in his \"History of Magic,\" that for any knowledge which\nhe possessed about the mysteries of the fraternity, he owed his\ninitiation only to God and to his individual studies. Secondly, the\npractice of ceremonial magic, which is what the witnesses understand by\ntheurgy, is a practice condemned by Levi, except as an isolated\nexperiment to fortify intellectual conviction as to the truth of magical\ntheorems. He attempted it for this purpose in the spring of the year\n1854, and having satisfied himself as to the fact, he did not renew it.\nThirdly, the philosophy of Eliphas Levi is in direct contrast to\nManichaean doctrine; it cannot be explained by dualism, but must be\nexplained by its opposite, namely, triplicity in unity. He shows that\n\"the unintelligent disciples of Zoroaster have divided the duad without\nreferring it to unity, thus separating the pillars of the temple, and\nseeking to halve God\" (_Dogme_, p. 129, 2nd edition). Is that a\nManichaean doctrine? Again: \"If you conceive the Absolute as two, you\nmust immediately conceive it as three to recover the unity principle\"\n(_Ibid._). Once more: \"Divinity, one in its essence, has two fundamental\nconditions of being--necessity and liberty\" (_Ibid._, p. 127). And yet\nagain: \"If God were one only, He would never be Creator nor Father. If\nHe were two, there would be antagonism or division in the infinite, and\nthis would be severance or death for every possible existence; He is\ntherefore three for the creation by Himself, and in His image of the\ninfinite multitude of beings and numbers. Thus He is really one in\nHimself and triple in our conception, by which we also behold Him triple\nin Himself and one in our intelligence and in our love. This is a\nmystery for the faithful and a logical necessity for the initiate of the\nabsolute and true sciences\" (_Ibid._, p. 138). And the witnesses of\nLucifer have the effrontery to represent Levi as a dualist! I will not\ndiscredit their understanding by supposing that they could misread so\nplain a principle, nor dissemble my full conviction that they acted with\nintentional bad faith. Fourthly, Eliphas Levi regarded Lucifer as a\nconception of transcendental mythology, and the devil as an impossible\nfiction, or an inverted and blasphemous conception of God--divinity _a\nrebours_. He describes the Ophite heresy which offered adoration to the\nserpent and the Cainite heresy which justified the revolt of the first\nangel and the first murderer as errors fit for classification with the\nmonstrous idols of the anarchic symbolism of India (_Rituel_, pp. 13,\n14). Is that diabolism? Is that the cultus of Lucifer? True, Levi did\nnot believe in the personal existence of a father of lies, and if it be\nSatanism not to do so, let us be content to diabolise with Levi while\nthe false witnesses illustrate the methods of their father.\n\nIt is unnecessary to multiply quotations, but here is one more: \"The\nauthor of this book is a Christian like you; his faith is that of a\nCatholic deeply and strongly convinced; therefore his mission is not to\ndeny dogmas, but to combat impiety under one of its most dangerous\nforms, that of erroneous belief and superstition.... Away with the idol\nwhich hides our Saviour! Down with the tyrant of falsehood! Down with\nthe black god of the Manichaeans! Down with the Ahriman of the old\nidolaters! Live God alone and His incarnate Logos, Jesus the Christ,\nSaviour of the world, who beheld Satan precipitated from heaven!\" Go to,\nM. le Docteur Bataille! _A bas_, Signor Margiotta! Phi, diabolus and Leo\nTaxil!\n\nSeeing then that Eliphas Levi has been calumniously represented, and\nthat he was not a Satanist, he could not have founded a Satanic society,\nnor could a Manichaean order have been developed out of his doctrines.\nHence if a Palladian Society do exist at Charleston, it either owes\nnothing to Levi, or its cultus has been falsely described. In other\nwords, from whatever point we approach the witnesses of Lucifer, they\nare subjected to a rough unveiling. In the words of the motto on my\ntitle, the first in this plot was Lucifer--_videlicet_, the Father of\nLies!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nCONCLUSION\n\n\nIt remains for us now to appreciate the exact position in which the\nexistence of the Palladian Order is left after all suspicious\ninformation has been subtracted. We have examined in succession the\ntestimony of every witness to the discovery of Leo Taxil and M. Adolphe\nRicoux, and it has been made entirely evident that they are of a most\nunsatisfactory kind. I make no pretence to pass a precise judgment upon\nLeo Taxil, for I am not in a position to prove that the Palladian\nrituals which appear in \"Are there Women in Freemasonry?\" can be\ncharacterised as invented matter. Granting his personal good faith,\nthere are still many obvious questions, one of which is the connection\nbetween the Palladians and Masonry. As regards the so-called Paris\ntriangle, from which the information was obtained, as regards the\nritual itself, there is obviously no such connection, except the\nfantastic and arbitrary rule that initiation is imparted exclusively to\npersons possessed of Masonic degrees. It is patent that such an\ninstitution is not Masonic, though it possesses some secrets of Masonry.\nThe Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, as we have seen, is an association\nbased upon precisely the same regulation, but it has no official\nposition. Should a circle of Catholic priests conspire for the formation\nof a society dedicated to black magic and the celebration of the Satanic\nmass, that would not be the Church diabolising. No institution, and no\nsociety, is responsible for the unauthorised acts of individual members.\nAt the same time, if it should be advanced by hostile criticism that the\ninvention of rituals is easy, and that the literary antecedents of Leo\nTaxil are not precisely of that kind which would lead any cautious\nperson to place blind confidence in his unchecked statements, I am\ncompelled to say that I should find considerable difficulty in\nchallenging such a position.\n\nMgr. Meurin, the next witness, deserves, by his position and ability,\nour very sincere respect; compared with the octogenarian sentimentalism\nof Jean Kostka, the violence of Signor Margiotta, and the paste-pot of\nM. de la Rive, one breathes _a pleine poitrine_ in the altitudes of\necclesiastical erudition, artificial as their eminence turns out; the\nart sacerdotal does not concern itself with preposterous narratives, so\nthat it disputes nothing with the art of Bataille; it has never stood in\nneed of conversion, and hence is exempt from the hysterical ardours and\nlanguors of Diana Vaughan. But the archbishop's interpretation of\nMasonry is based upon another interpretation of Kabbalistic literature,\nwhich can be accepted by no person who is acquainted therewith, and\nwould have scarcely been attempted by himself if he had known it at\nfirst hand. In the matter of Palladian Masonry, he can tell us only what\nhe has learned from Ricoux.\n\nIt is agreed upon all sides that we dismiss Dr Bataille. He does not\ndisclose the name and nation which he adopted during his Masonic career,\nand hence the persons whom he states that he met are, with one\nexception, not in a position to contradict him, because they are not in\na position to identify him. The personality of the one exception is not\nparticularised, but may be guessed without the exercise of much skill in\ndivination, and here I must leave the point, not because I am\ndisinclined to speak plainly and thus risk the possibility of being\nmistaken, but because Dr Bataille informs us that this one confidant is\nin his power, and that he could procure for him or her a term of penal\nservitude. Lastly, he is not in a position to exhibit his Palladian\ndiplomas, which were demanded by the dispensing authorities when he\nfirst fell under their suspicion and have not been returned to him.\nWhile we are therefore prevented from checking his affirmations in what\nmost concerns our inquiry, we see that at all points where it is\npossible to control him he has completely broken down; the miraculous\nelement of his narrative transcends credit, and his statements upon a\nmultitude of ordinary matters of fact are beneath it. When we connect\nthese points with the mode of publication he has seen fit to adopt, and\nremember the kind of motive which usually attaches to that mode, we have\nno other course but to set him entirely outside consideration. His book\nis evidentially valuable only to close the question. He may have visited\nCharleston; he may have made the personal acquaintance of Albert Pike,\nGallatin Mackey, Phileas Walder, and his daughter Sophia; three of these\npersons are dead and cannot testify; the fourth acknowledges that he\nattended her medically at Naples; she protests against his betrayal, but\nshe does not betray in return his Masonic identity, though I need\nscarcely add that she does not substantiate his statements. On these\npoints my readers may be reasonably left to form their own judgments.\n\nMiss Diana Vaughan is a lady who, in spite of much notoriety, is not in\nevidence; with one exception no credible person has ever said that he\nhas seen her; that exception is Signor Margiotta. It would not, however,\nbe the strongest line of criticism to dispute her existence; we may\naccept very gladly all that her Italian friend is good enough to say in\nregard to her personal characteristics, but we know that she has tried\nto deceive us, with conspicuous ill-success it is true, yet in a gross\nand most wicked manner. As to Signor Margiotta himself, with all his\nimperfections, he is the strongest witness to the discovery of Leo\nTaxil. I have admitted the great apparent force which belongs to his\nenormous array of documentary evidence, and I have established the\nnature of the complications which make that evidence extremely difficult\nto accept.\n\nLastly, Jean Kostka and M. A. C. de la Rive, though they came within the\nscope of our inquiry, are not Palladian witnesses. It would appear,\ntherefore, that Leo Taxil and M. Adolphe Ricoux are, for the most part,\nneither honoured in their witnesses nor in a position to stand alone.\nThe evidence which has grown out of their discovery is in an exceedingly\ncorrupt state, and in summing the Question of Lucifer, as an impartial\ncritic, I shall therefore simply propose to my readers the following\ngeneral statement:--In the year 1891, Leo Taxil and M. Adolphe Ricoux\nstate that they have discovered certain documents which show the\nexistence of a Palladian Society, claimed to be at the head of Masonry,\nand in the year 1895 Signor Domenico Margiotta states that he belonged\nto that society and gives further particulars concerning it. A number of\nother witnesses have also come forward whose evidence must, for various\nreasons, be completely rejected. It is in all respects much to be\ndeplored that Signor Margiotta has largely and approvingly cited the\ntestimony of two of these witnesses who are most open to condemnation,\nand that he has himself exercised an imperfect and uncritical censorship\nover papers which have come into his hands. From first to last all\ndocuments are open to strong suspicion.\n\nSuch is the slender residue which results from this sifting of Lucifer;\nif I have made my final statement thus indeterminate in its character,\nit is because I wish my readers to form their own conclusions as to Leo\nTaxil and Domenico Margiotta, and because I believe that, before long,\nfurther evidence will be forthcoming. I have little personal doubt as to\nthe ultimate nature of the verdict, but at the present stage of the\ninquiry, with all the exposures which I have had the satisfaction of\nmaking fresh and clear in my mind, I would dissuade any one from saying\nthat there is \"nothing in\" the Question of Lucifer; it is at least\nobvious that there is no end to its impostures, in which respect I do\nnot claim to have done more than trim the fringes of the question. It is\nnot therefore closed, and, if I may so venture to affirm, it assumes a\nfresh interest with the appearance of this book. It deserves to rank\namong the most extraordinary literary swindles of the present, perhaps\nof any, century. The field which it covers is enormous, and there is\nroom, and more than room, for a score of other investigators who will\nnone fail of their reward. Within the limits of a moderate volume, it is\nimpossible to take into account the whole of the issues involved, while\nthe importance which is to be attributed to the subject should not be\nlightly regarded, seeing that in France, at the time of writing, it\nprovides an apparently remunerative circulation to two monthly reviews,\nand that its literature is otherwise still growing. At the present\nmoment, and for the purposes of this criticism, a few concluding\nstatements alone remain to be made; they concern the position of Italy\nin connection with the so-called Universal Masonry, some aspects of the\nhistory of the Scotch Rite in connection with the recent revelations,\nand the interference of the Catholic Church, wisely or not, in the\nquestion.\n\nThe one Mason whose rank corresponds in Italy to that of Albert Pike in\nAmerica is not Adriano Lemmi, but Signor Timoteo Riboli, Sovereign Grand\nCommander of the 33rd and last degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch\nRite. Adriano Lemmi is, or was, Grand Master of the Craft Section of\nItaly and Deputy Grand Commander only of the Supreme Council of Italy of\nthe 33 deg.. The pretended Grand Central Directory of Naples, which governs\nall Europe in the interests of Charleston, with Giovanni Bovio for\nSovereign Director, is a Masonic myth--_pace_ Signor Margiotta. Signor\nBovio is a Member of the Grand Master's Council and a 33 deg. at Rome. There\nis a Neapolitan Section of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, but it has\npowers only up to the 30 deg., and as such has no authority in general\ngovernment, nor does Bovio appear to be a member of the Neapolitan\nsection, though as a member of Lemmi's Council, and a 33 deg., he no doubt\nhas his share in the government of the Neapolitans.\n\nThe history of the Ancient and Accepted Rite as given by Signor\nMargiotta and sketched in my second chapter is an incorrect history. The\nfacts are as follows:--A person named Isaac Long was engaged in\npropagating the French Rite of Perfection of 25 deg. in America before 1796;\nin that year he gave the degrees to one de Grasse and also to de la\nHogue, who established a Consistory of the 25 deg. at Charleston. In 1802\nthis Consistory had blossomed into a Supreme Grand Council, 33 deg., and at\na little later period they forged the name of Voltaire's friend,\nFrederick the Great of Prussia, to what Mr Yarker terms \"one of the most\nstupidly concocted documents ever palmed upon an ignorant public.\"\nHowever this may be, Long does not seem to have been at any time a\nmember of this body. This is how the \"Mother Council of the World\" is\nsaid to have come into existence, and Charleston has established Supreme\nCouncils 33 deg., between 1811 and 1846, in France, Ireland, Scotland,\nEngland, and elsewhere.\n\nThere is no foundation for the legend of the Charleston Templar relics,\nnamely, the skull of Jacques de Molay and the Baphomet, beyond the fact\nthat one of the grades, the 23 deg. of the old Rite of Perfection and the\n30 deg. of the modern Rite, uses a representation of the Papal tiara in its\nceremonies and also of the crown of France, in allusion to Pope Clement\nV. and Philip le Bel.\n\nI can find no Mason, of what grade or rite soever, who has ever heard of\nPike's Sepher d'Hebarim, his book called Apadno, or lectures in which he\nimparted extracts unacknowledged from Eliphas Levi; they may rank with\ntriangular provinces, Lucifer _chez lui_, the skull of Molay, and the\nPalladium; in other words, they are lying myths. Nothing which Pike has\nor is known to have written has any Luciferian complexion. He has\ncollected into his lectures a mass of mystical material from rites like\nMemphis and Misraim, but it is alchemical, theosophical, or dealing with\nancient symbolism, the mysteries, pre-christian theology, &c. As to Pike\nhimself, a Mason of high authority observes in a private letter:--\"He\nwas one of the greatest men who ever adorned our Order. He was a giant\namong men, his learning was most profound, his eloquence great, and his\nwisdom comprehensive; he was a scholar in many languages, and a most\nvoluminous writer. He was an ornament to the profession to which he\nbelonged, namely, Law; he fought the cause of the red man against the\nAmerican government many years ago, and prevailed in a large degree. I\nbelieve he was a true and humble servant of the One True and Living God,\nand a lover of humanity.\"\n\nHaving regard to all these facts, it is much to be regretted that the\nCatholic Church should have warmly approved and welcomed the extremely\nunsatisfactory testimony which connects Masonry with Diabolism. When the\nreport of Diabolism first reached the ears of English mystics, and it\nwas understood that the Church had concerned herself very seriously in\nthe matter, I must confess that a hidden motive was immediately\nsuspected. A recrudescence of mediaeval Black Magic was in no sense\nlikely to attain such proportions as to warrant the august interference;\nit seemed much as if Her Majesty's government should think it worth\nwhile to suppress the League of the White Rose. But when it transpired\nthat the Question of Lucifer was a new aspect of the old question of\nCatholic hostility to Masonry, the astonishment evaporated; it was at\nonce seen that Modern Diabolism had acquired an extrinsic importance\nbecause it was alleged to be connected with that Fraternity which the\nChurch has long regarded as her implacable enemy. I must be permitted to\nregister clearly the general conviction that if black magic, sorcery,\nand the Sabbath up to date had been merely revived demonomania, had been\nmerely concerned with the black paternoster, the black mass, or even\nwith transcendental sensualism and the ordeal of the pastos, the Roman\nhierarchy would not have taken action as it has, nor would the witnesses\nconcerning these things have been welcomed with open arms; as a fact,\nno interest whatsoever is manifested in the doings of diabolists who\noperate apart from Masonry. Now, the hostility of Continental Masons\ntowards Catholicism, in so far as it provably exists, has been largely\nor exclusively created by the hostility of the Church, and we know that\nhe hates most who hates the first. In so far, therefore, as the Church\nhas concerned herself by encouragement, which has something of the\naspect of incitement, in the recent revelations, we shall have to bear\nin mind her attitude, while the history of forged decretals and bogus\napostolic epistles will reveal to us that she does not invariably\nexercise a searching criticism upon documents which serve her purpose.\n\nThe sorcery of the nineteenth century is under no circumstances likely\nto justify the faggots of the fifteenth; it might be easier to justify\nthe sorcery. As much by mystics as by the Church Catholic, modern black\nmagic may be left to perish of its own corruption. But an attempt on the\npart of the Church to fasten the charge of diabolism on the Masonic\nFraternity has credibly another motive than that of political hostility,\nwhich seems held to justify almost any weapon that comes to hand. At the\nbottom of her hatred of Masonry there is also her dread of the mystic.\nTranscendental science claims to have the key of her doctrines, and\nthere is evidence that she fears that claim. Black magic, which, by the\nhypothesis, is the use of the most evil forces for the most evil\npurposes, she does not fear, for it wears its condemnation on its\nforehead; but mysticism, which accepts her own dogmas and interprets\nthem in a sense which is not her own, which claims a certitude in\nmatters of religion that transcends the certitude of faith, seems to\nhint that at one point it is possible to undermine her foundations.\nHence she has ever suspected the mystic, and a part of her suspicion of\nMasonry has been by reason of its connection with the mystic; she has\nintuitively divined that connection, which by Masons themselves, for the\nmost part, is not dreamed at this day, and when suggested is generally\nsomewhat lightly cast aside. It would be quite out of place at the\nclose of the present inquiry, which, from a wholly independent\nstandpoint, has sought to justify a great fraternity from a singularly\nfoul aspersion, to attempt enforcing upon Masons a special view of their\ninstitution, but it is desirable, at the same time, to be just towards\nthe Catholic Church, and to affirm that we, as mystics, are on this\npoint substantially in agreement with her. The connection in question\nwas for a time visible, and remains in historical remembrance; from the\nbeginning of its public appearance till the close of the eighteenth\ncentury, the history of Masonry is part of transcendental history. That\nconnection has now ceased to manifest, but there is another which is\nintegral and permanent, and is a matter of common principles and common\nobjects. Let it be remembered, however, that connection is not identity;\nit is not intended to say that the threshold of Masonry is a gate of\nMysticism, but that there is a community of purpose, of symbolism, of\nhistory, and indirectly of origin, between the two systems.\n\nAll true religion, all true morality, all true mysticism have but one\nobject, and that is to act on humanity, collective and individual, in\nsuch a manner that it shall correspond efficiently with the great law of\ndevelopment, and co-operate consciously therewith to achieve the end of\ndevelopment. Under all the mysteries of its symbolism, behind the\nimpressive parables of its ritual, and as equally, but if possible more\neffectually concealed, beneath the commonplace insistences of its moral\nmaxims, this end is also proposed by the occult initiations of Masonry;\nand if it be defined more explicitly as the perfection of man both here\nand hereafter, and his union with what is highest in the universe, we\nshall see more clearly not only that it is the sole fundamental\nprinciple of all religion, its very essence, divested of creed and\ndogma, but also inherent in the nature of symbolical Masonry, and\n\"inwrought in the whole system of Masonic ceremonies.\"\n\nAs mystics, however, we consider that the ethical standard of Masonry\nwill produce good citizens to society and good brethren to the\nFraternity, but it will not produce saints to Christ. There is an\nexcellence which is other than the moral, and stands to morality in\nprecisely the same relation that genius bears to talent. The moral\nvirtues are not the _summum bonum_, nor the totality of all forces at\nwork in the development of man, nor actually the perfect way, though\nthey are the gate of the way of perfection. Now, the mystic claims to be\nin possession of the higher law which transcends the ethical, from which\nthe ethical derives, and to which it must be referred for its reason.\nThat the lost secret of Freemasonry is concerned with special\napplications of this higher law which connect with mysticism, we, as\nmystics, do hold and can make evident in its proper time and place.\nHere, and personally, I am concerned only with a comprehensive\nstatement. In addition to its body of moral law, which is founded in the\ngeneral conscience, or in the light of nature, Masonry has a body of\nsymbolism, of which the source is not generally known, and by which it\nis identified with movements and modes of thought, and with\nevolutionary processes, having reference to regions already described as\ntranscending the ethical world and concerned with the spiritual man.\nFrom every Masonic candidate, ignoring the schismatic and excommunicated\nsections, there is required a distinct attitude of mind towards the\nworld without and the world within. He is required to believe in the\nexistence of a Supreme Intelligence, with which his essential nature\ncorresponds in the possession of an indestructible principle of\nconscious or understanding life. Beyond these doctrines, Masonry is\nwholly unsectarian; it recognises no other dogmas; it accredits no form\nof faith. Now, Mysticism is a body of spiritual methods and processes,\nbased, like the Masonic body of ethical methods and processes, on these\nsame doctrines. Every man who believes in God and immortality is the raw\nmaterial of a mystic; every man who believes that there is a\ndiscoverable way to God is on the path of conscious mysticism. As this\npath has been pursued in all ages and nations by persons of widely\ndivergent creeds, it is clear that however much mysticism has been\nidentified with special spheres of religious thought and activity, it is\nindependent of all.\n\nBut while Masonry would appear to regard the evolution of our physical,\nintellectual, and moral nature as the best preparation for that larger\nexistence which is included in its central doctrine, and would thus work\ninward from without, mysticism deems that the evolution of the spiritual\nman and the production of a human spirit at one with the divine,\nconstitute the missing condition requisite for the reconstruction of\nhumanity, and would thus work outward from within. Neither Mason nor\nMystic, however, can ignore either method. The one supplements the\nother; and seeing that the processes of mysticism are distinct from what\nis still a subject of derision under the name of transcendental\nphenomena, as they are wholly philosophical and interior, not to be\nappreciated by the senses, a secret experience within the depths and\nheights of our spiritual being, an institution which believes in God and\nimmortality, and by the fact of immortality in the subsistence of an\nintimate relation between the spirit and God, will not look suspiciously\non mysticism when it comes to understand it better.\n\nI have spoken of Masonic symbolism, and the method of instruction in\nMasonry is identical with that of mysticism; both systems are \"veiled in\nallegory and illustrated by symbolism.\" The significance of this\ncorrespondence would not be measurably weakened were there no similarity\nin the typology, no trace of mystic influence in Masonic rite and\nlegend. But there is a resemblance, and the types are often identical,\nthough the accredited interpretation varies. Masonry, as a fact,\ninterprets the types which belong to our own science according to the\ncriterion of ethics, and thus provides a prolegomena to Mysticism, as\nethics are a necessary introduction to the inner science of the soul.\nThere is naturally a minor body of conventional typology which is\ntolerably exclusive to the craft, but the grand and universal emblems,\ncharacteristic of symbolical Masonry as distinct from the operative\nart--these are our own emblems. The All-Seeing Eye, the Burning Star,\nthe Rough and Perfect Ashlar, the Point within a Circle, the Pentalpha,\nthe Seal of Solomon, the Cubic Stone--all these belong to the most lofty\nand arcane order of occult symbolism, but in mystic science they\nillumine more exalted zones of the heaven of mind. The rites, legends,\nand mysteries of the great Fraternity are also full of mystical\nallusions, and admit of mystical interpretation in the same manner, but\ntheir evidential force is weaker, because ceremonial and legend in the\nhands of a skilful commentator can be made to take any shape and any\ncomplexion; it is otherwise with the symbols of the Brotherhood which\nwere possessed by us before the historical appearance of Masonry. So\nalso the Masonic reverence for certain numbers which are apparently\narbitrary in themselves is in reality connected with a most recondite\nand curious system of mystic methodical philosophy, while in the high\ntitles of Masonic dignity there is frequently a direct reference to\nMysticism.\n\nIf we turn from these considerations and approach the historical\nconnection through those still undetermined problems which concern the\norigin of Masonry, we shall discern not unfortunately a way clear to\ntheir solution, but a significant characteristic pervading every Masonic\nhypothesis almost without exception--namely, an instinctive desire to\nrefer Masonry in its original form to sources that are provably mystic.\nIn the fanciful and extravagant period, when archaeology and comparative\nmythology were as yet in their childhood, this tendency was not less\nstrong because it was mostly quite unconscious. To pass in review before\nus the chief institutions of antiquity with which Masonry was then said\nto be connected, would be to sweep the whole field of transcendental\nhistory, and when we come to a more sober period which recognised the\nbetter claim of the building guilds to explain the beginnings of the\nFraternity, the link with Mysticism was not even then abandoned, and a\nsplendid variant of the Dionysian dream took back the mediaeval\narchitects to the portals of Eleusis and of Thebes.\n\nWhen the history of Freemasonry becomes possible by the possession of\nmaterials, its chief philosophical interest centres in one country of\nEurope; there is no doubt that it exercised an immense influence upon\nFrance during that century of quakings and quickenings which gave birth\nto the great revolution, transformed civilisation in the West, and\ninaugurated the modern era. Without being a political society, it was an\ninstrument eminently adaptable to the sub-surface determination of\npolitical movements. At a later date it may have contributed to the\nformation of Germany, as it did certainly to the creation of Italy, but\nthe point and centre of Masonic history is France in the eighteenth\ncentury. To that country also is mainly confined the historical\nconnection between Masonry and mystic science, for the revival of\nMysticism which originated in Germany at the close of the eighteenth\ncentury, and thence passed over to England, found its final field in\nFrance at the period in question. There Rosicrucianism reappeared, there\nAnton Mesmer recovered the initial process of transcendental practice,\nthere the Marquis de Puysegur discovered clairvoyance, there Martines de\nPasqually instructed his disciples in the mysteries of ceremonial magic;\nthere the illustrious Saint-Martin, _le philosophe inconnu_, developed a\nspecial system of spiritual reconstruction; there alchemy flourished;\nthere spiritual and political princes betook themselves to extravagant\nresearches after an elixir of life; there also, as a consequence, rose\nup a line of magnificent impostors who posed as initiates of the occult\nsciences, as possessors of the grand secret and the grand mastery;\nthere, finally, under the influences of transcendental philosophy,\nemblematic Freemasonry took root and grew and flourished, developing ten\nthousand splendours of symbolic grades, of romantic legends, of sonorous\nnames and titles. In a word, the Mysticism of Europe concentrated its\nforces at Paris and Lyons, and all French Mysticism gathered under the\nshadow of the square and compass. To that, as to a centre, the whole\nmovement gravitated, and thence it worked. There is nothing to show that\nit endeavoured to revolutionise Masonry in its own interest. The\nFraternity naturally attracted all Mystics to its ranks, and the\ndevelopment of the mystic degrees took place as the result of that\nattraction.\n\nBy the year 1825 a variety of circumstances had combined to suspend\ntranscendental activity, and the connection with Masonry ended, but the\npresent revival of mystic thought is rapidly picking up the links of the\nbroken chain; secretly or unobtrusively the spirit of transcendentalism\nis working within the Fraternity, and the bogus question of Lucifer is\nsimply a hostile and unscrupulous method of recognising that fact. If\nMasonry and Mysticism could be shown in the historical world to be\nseparated by the great sea, the consanguinity of their intention would\nremain, which is more important than external affinity, and they are\nsisters by that bond. But they have not been so separated, and on either\nside there is no need to be ashamed of the connection. With all brethren\nof the Fraternity, \"we also do believe in the resurrection of Hiram,\"\nand we regard the Temple as \"an edifice immediately realisable, for we\nrebuild it in our hearts.\" We also adore the Grand Architect, and offer\nour intellectual homage to the divine cipher which is in the centre of\nthe symbolic star; and we believe that some day the Mason will recognise\nthe Mystic. He is the heir of the great names of antiquity, the\nphilosophers and hierarchs, and the spiritual kings of old; he is of the\nline of Orpheus and Hermes, of the Essenes and the Magi. And all those\nillustrious systems and all those splendid names with which Masonry has\never claimed kindred belong absolutely to the history of Mysticism.\n\nTHE END\n\nTURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.","title":"Devil-Worship in France; or, The Question of Lucifer","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":58243}