The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE EQUINOX XVII THE NUMBER SEVENTEEN SEVENTEEN is the number of the star; it is that of in- telligence and love. Warrior and bold intelligence, accomplice of divine Prometheus, eldest daughter of Lucifer, hail unto thee in thine audacity! Thou didst wish to know, and in order to possess, thou didst brave all the thunders, and affronted every abyss! Intelligence, O Thou, whom we poor sinners have loved to madness, to scandal, to reprobation! Divine right of man, essence and soul of liberty, hail unto thee! For they have pursued thee, in trampling beneath their feet for thee the dearest dreams of their imagination, the best beloved phantoms of their heart ! For thee, they have been repulsed and proscribed, for thee they have suffered prison, nakedness, hunger, thirst, the desertion of those whom they loved, and the dark temptations of despair! Thou wast their right, and they have conquered thee! _ Now they can weep and believe, now they can submit themselves and pray! Repentant Cain would have been greater than Abel : it is lawful pride satisfied which has the right to humiliate itself ! I believe because I know why and how one must believe; I believe because I love, and fear no more. Love! Love! Sublime redeemer and sublime restorer; thou who makest so much happiness, with so many tortures, thou who didst sacrifice blood and tears, thou who art virtue 64