THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES
How many respectable women cast an envious eye upon pros-
titutes! It isnot very long ago since convicts were in fashion.
Why? Doyou think that public opinion can ever give homage
to vice? No, but it can do justice to activity and bravery, and
it is right that cowardly knaves should esteem bold brigands.
Boldness united to intelligence is the mother of all
successes in this world. To undertake, one must know; to
accomplish, one must will; to will really, one must dare; and
in order to gather in peace the fruits of one’s audacity, one
must keep silent.
To KNOW, TO DARE, TO WILL, TO KEEP SILENT, are, as
we have said elsewhere, the four qabalistic words which corre-
spond to the four letters of the tetragram and to the four
hieroglyphic forms of the Sphinx. To know, is the human
head; to dare, the claws of the lion; to will, the mighty
flanks of the bull; to keep silent, the mystical wings of
the eagle. He only maintains his position above other men
who does not prostitute the secrets of his intelligence to their
commentary and their laughter.
All men who are really strong are magnetizers, and the
universal agent obeys their will. It is thus that they work
marvels. They make themselves believed, they make them-
selves followed, and when they say, “This is thus,” Nature
changes (in a sense) to the eyes of the vulgar, and becomes
what the great man wished. “This is my flesh and this is
my blood,” said a Man who had made himself God by his
virtues; and eighteen centuries, in the presence of a piece of
bread and a little wine, have seen, touched, tasted and adored
flesh and blood made divine by martyrdom! Say now, that
the human will accomplishes no miracles !
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