The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES the expiation of the greatest crimes, since it was the conse- quence of a sentence of death. The most wicked men, being the most unhappy of all, seemed to him to offer the sublimest of expiations to God. He broke all bounds in his attack on all repression and all damnation. “A religion which damns,” he cried, “is a damned religion!” He further preached the most absolute licence under the pretext of charity, and so far forgot himself as to say, that the most imperfect and the most apparently reprehensible act of love was worth more than the best of prayers. It was the Marquis de Sade turned preacher!? Further, he denied the existence of the devil with an enthusiasm often full of eloquence. “Can you conceive,” said he, “a devil tolerated and authorized by God? Can you conceive, further, a God who made the devil, and who allowed him to ravage creatures already so weak, and so prompt to deceive themselves! A god of the devil, in short, abetted, protected, and scarcely surpassed in his revenges, bya devil of a god!” The rest of the pamphlet was of the same vigour. The Professor of Magic was almost frightened, and inquired the address of Mr. Madrolle. It was not without some trouble that he obtained an interview with this singular pamphleteer, and here is, more or less, their conversation: Eurpnas Levi. “ Sir, I have received a pamphlet from you. 1 Quoted with approval in Solution of the First Problem, IX, p. 52.—O. M. It is difficult to determine whether the words ‘act of love’ should be inter- preted in their gross, or in their mystical, sense. Perhaps Madrolle was himself intentionally ambiguous.—TRANS. 2 But the Marquis de Sade was, above all, a preacher. Three-fourths ot Justine are verbose arguments in favour of so-called vice. Again Levi trips in referring to an author whom he has not read.—TRANS. 139