THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES
Whoever is not without reproach is the accomplice of all
evil; and whoever is not absolutely perverse, may participate
in all good.
For this reason an agony is always an humanitarian
expiation, and every head that falls upon the scaffold may
be honoured and praised as the head of a martyr.
For this reason also, the noblest and the holiest of martyrs
could inquire of his own conscience, find himself deserving of
the penalty that he was about to undergo, and say, saluting
the sword that was ready to strike him, “Let justice be
done!”
Pure victims of the Roman Catacombs, Jews and Protes-
tants massacred by unworthy Christians !
Priests of l’Abbaye and les Carmes,’ victims of the Reign
of Terror, butchered royalists, revolutionaries sacrificed in your
turn, soldiers of our great armies who have sown the world
with your bones, all you who have suffered the penalty of
death, workers, strivers, darers of every kind, brave children
of Prometheus, who have feared neither the lightning nor the
vulture, all honour to your scattered ashes! Peace and venera-
tion to your memories! You are the heroes of progress,
martyrs of humanity!
XII
THE NUMBER TWELVE
TWELVE
is the cyclic number; it is that of the universal
Creed.
2 Monasteries in Paris which were used as prisons in the Reign of Terror—TRANS.
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