The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES vain to search memory for any delicious taste which would give an idea of it... And what shall I tell you,” added the Abbé Charvoz, “ of those miracles of blood which astonish us every day? Thousands of wounded and bleeding hosts are found upon our altars. The sacred stigmata appear to all who wish to see them. The hosts, at first white, slowly become marked with characters and hearts in blood. ... Must one believe that God abandons the holiest objects to the false miracles of the devil? Should not one rather adore, and believe that the hour of the supreme and final revelation has arrived?” Abbé Charvoz, as he thus spoke, had in his voice that sort of nervous trembling that Eliphas Levi had already noticed in the case of Mr. Madrolle. The magician shook his head pensively; then, suddenly : “Sir,” said he to the Abbé; “you have upon you one or two of these miraculous hosts. Be good enough to show them to me.” “Sir——” “You have some,I know it; why should you deny it?” “I do not deny it,” said Abbé Charvoz; “but you will permit me not to expose to the investigations of incredulity objects of the most sincere and devout belief.” “Reverend sir,” said Eliphas gravely; “incredulity is the mistrust of an ignorance almost sure to deceive itself. Science is not incredulous. I believe, to begin with, in your own conviction, since you have accepted a life of privation and even of reproach, in order to stick to this unhappy belief. Show me then your miraculous hosts, and believe entirely in my respect for the objects of a sincere worship.” L2 147