The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE EQUINOX always born from the hypertrophy or atrophy of the nervous system. They resemble hysteria, which is one of their varieties, and are often produced, either by excesses of celibacy, or those of exactly the opposite kind. One knows how closely connected with the brain are the organs charged by Nature with the accomplishment of her noblest work: those whose object is the reproduction of being. One does not violate with impunity the sanctuary of Nature. Without risking his own life, no one lifts the veil of the great Isis. Nature is chaste, and it is to chastity that she gives the key of life. To give oneself up to impure loves is to plight one’s troth to death. Liberty, which is the life of the soul, is only preserved in the order of Nature. Every voluntary disorder wounds it, prolonged excess murders it. Then, instead of being guided and preserved by reason, one is abandoned to the fatalities of the ebb and flow of magnetic light. The magnetic light devours ceaselessly, because it is always creating, and because, in order to produce continually, one must absorb eternally. Thence come homicidal manias and temptations to commit suicide. Thence comes that spirit of perversity which Edgar Poe has described in so impressive and accurate a manner, and which Mr. de Mirville would be right to call the devil. 222