Volume II Part 11 (2/2)
The ners of talent; in that lies the secret of their success Low prices cohter of Liberty
Therefore, a govern to establish on a firive co careful to prevent the frauds which private interests, often wrongly understood, eneral interests In fact, the government must hold the scales, and allow the citizens to load them as they please
In Lyons I enerally admitted that her equal had never been seen Her name was Ancilla Every man who saw her coveted her, and she was so kindly disposed that she could not refuse her favours to anyone; for if all men loved her one after the other, she returned the co thees were only a very secondary consideration
Venice has always been blessed with courtezans more celebrated by their beauty than their wit Those ere er days were Ancilla and another called Spina, both the daughters of gondoliers, and both killed very young by the excesses of a profession which, in their eyes, was a noble one At the age of twenty-two, Ancilla turned a dancer and Spina becaer Campioni, a celebrated Venetian dancer, iraces and the talents of which her physical perfections were susceptible, and married her Spina had for herof her only a very ordinary singer, and in the absence of talent she was co, to make the most of the beauty she had received froain of Ancilla before her death She was then in Lyons with her husband; they had just returned froreatly applauded at the Haymarket Theatre She had stopped in Lyons only for her pleasure, and, the moment she shewed herself, she had at her feet thehtest caprice Every day parties of pleasure, every evening reat faro bank The banker at the ga table was a certain Don Joseph Marratti, the same man whom I had known in the Spanish army under the name of Don Pepe il Cadetto, and a few years afterwards assumed the name of Afflisio, and came to such a bad end That faro bank won in a few days three hundred thousand francs In a capital that would not have been considered a large sum, but in a commercial and industrial city like Lyons it raised the alarht of taking their leave
It was in Lyons that a respectable individual, whose acquaintance I made at the house of M de Rochebaron, obtained forinitiated in the sublime trifles of Freemasonry I arrived in Paris a simple apprentice; a few months after my arrival I becaree in Freerees which I took afterwards are only pleasing inventions, which, although synity of e of everything, but every man who feels himself endoith faculties, and can realize the extent of his reatest possible a man ishes to travel and know not only the world, but also what is called good society, who does not want to find himself, under certain circumstances, inferior to his equals, and excluded froet himself initiated in what is called Freemasonry, even if it is only to know superficially what Freemasonry is It is a charitable institution, which, at certain times and in certain places, ot up for the overthrow of public order, but is there anything under heaven that has not been abused? Have we not seen the Jesuits, under the cloak of our holy religion, thrust into the parricidal hand of blind enthusiasts the dagger hich kings were to be assassinated! All men of importance, I ence andor by wealth, can be (and many of thes, in which the initiated,it a law never to speak, 'intra overn e; is it possible to suppose, I repeat, that those overners sufficiently serious to warrant the proscriptions of kings or the excos miss the end for which they are undertaken, and the Pope, in spite of his infallibility, will not prevent his persecutions fro Freemasonry an importance which it would perhaps have never obtained if it had been left alone Mystery is the essence of man's nature, and whatever presents itself to mankind under a ht, even whenbut a cypher
Upon the whole, I would advise all well-born young men, who intend to travel, to become Freemasons; but I would likewise advise theh bad coe, the candidate ainst bad acquaintances
Those who beco out the secret of the order, run a very great risk of growing old under the troithout ever realizing their purpose Yet there is a secret, but it is so inviolable that it has never been confided or whispered to anyone
Those who stop at the outward crust of things ins, or that the hest degree This is a uesses the secret of Freeuess it, reaches that point only through long attendance in the lodges, through deep thinking, comparison, and deduction He would not trust that secret to his best friend in Freemasonry, because he is aware that if his friend has not found it out, he could not make any use of it after it had been whispered in his ear No, he keeps his peace, and the secret ree must be secret; but those who have unscrupulously revealed what is done in the lodge, have been unable to reveal that which is essential; they had no knowledge of it, and had they known it, they certainly would not have unveiled the mystery of the ceremonies
The impression felt in our days by the non-initiated is of the same nature as that felt in former times by those ere not initiated in the mysteries enacted at Eleusis in honour of Ceres But the mysteries of Eleusis interested the whole of Greece, and whoever had attained some eminence in the society of those days had an ardent wish to take a part in those mysterious cerehest ht to acknowledge, because they are the refuse of mankind as far as morality is concerned
In thekept, owing to the veneration in which they were held Besides, as there in them that could be revealed? The three words which the hierophant said to the initiated? But ould that revelation have come to? Only to dishonour the indiscreet initiate, for they were barbarous words unknown to the vulgar I have read somewhere that the three sacred words of the mysteries of Eleusis meant: Watch, and do no evil The sacred words and the secrets of the various rees are about as criminal
The initiation in the mysteries of Eleusis lasted nine days The cerehest Plutarch informs us that Alcibiades was sentenced to death and his property confiscated, because he had dared to turn the mysteries into ridicule in his house He was even sentenced to be cursed by the priests and priestesses, but the curse was not pronounced because one of the priestesses opposed it, saying:
”I am a priestess to bless and not to curse!”
Sublime words! Lessons of wisdom and of morality which the Pope despises, but which the Gospel teaches and which the Saviour prescribes
In our days nothing is i is sacred, for our cosmopolitan philosophers
Botarelli publishes in a pamphlet all the ceremonies of the Freemasons, and the only sentence passed on him is:
”He is a scoundrel We knew that before!”
A prince in Naples, and M Hamilton in his own house, perform the miracle of St Januarius; they are, most likely, very merry over their perfor wears on his royal breast a star with the following device around the iuine foedus' In our days everything is inconsistent, and nothing has any o ahead, for to stop on the road would be to go froence, and were five days on our road to Paris Baletti had given notice of his departure to his faht in the coach and our seats were very uncoe oval in shape, so that no one had a corner If that vehicle had been built in a country where equality was a principle hallowed by the laws, it would not have been a bad illustration I thought it was absurd, but I was in a foreign country, and I said nothing Besides, being an Italian, would it have been right forwhich was French, and particularly in France?--Exaence: I respected the fashi+on, but I found it detestable, and the singular motion of that vehicle had the sa of a shi+p in a heavy sea Yet it ell hung, but the worst jolting would have disturbed ence undulates in the rapidity of its pace, it has been called a gondola, but I was a judge of gondolas, and I thought that there was no family likeness between the coach and the Venetian boats which, with two hearty rowers, glide along so swiftly and smoothly The effect of the movement was that I had to throhatever was on ht me bad co Frenchmen, who knohat politeness is They only remarked that very likely I had eaten too much at my supper, and a Parisian abbe, in order to excuse me, observed that my stomach eak A discussion arose
”Gentlerily, ”you are all wrong, for my stomach is excellent, and I have not had any supper”