s prophet, people's butt
and laughing stock.

"What we need most is the valor to face ridicule. Ridicule is the
arm of all the miserable barbers, bachelors, parish priests, canons
and dukes who keep hidden the sepulchre of the Knight of Madness,
Knight who made all the world laugh but never cracked a joke. He
had too great a soul to bring forth jokes. They laughed at his
seriousness.

"Begin then, friend, to do the Peter the Hermit and call people to
join you, to join us, and let us all go win back the sepulchre even
if we don't know where it is. The crusade itself will reveal to us
the sacred place.

* * * * *

"Start marching! Where are you going? The star will tell you: to
the sepulchre! What shall we do on the road while we march? What?
Fight! Fight, and how?

"How? If you find a man lying? Shout in his face: 'lie!' and
forward! If you find a man stealing, shout: 'thief!' and forward!
If you find a man babbling asininities, to whom the crowd listens
open-mouthed, shout at them all: 'idiots!' and forward, always
forward!

* * * * *

"To the march then! And throw out of the sacred squadron all those
who begin to study the step and its length and its rhythm. Above
everything, throw out all those who fuss about this business of
rhythm. They'll turn the squadron into a quadrille and the march
into a dance. Away with them! Let them go off somewhere else to
sing the flesh.

"Those who try to turn the squadron on the march into a dancing
quadrille call themselves and each other poets. But they're not.
They're something else. They only go to the sepulchre out of
curiosity, to see what it's like, looking for a new sensation, and
to amuse themselves along the road. Away with them!

"It's these that with their indulgence of Bohemians contribute to
maintain cowardice and lies and all the weaknesses that flood us.
When they preach liberty they only think of one: that of disposing
of their neighbor's wife. All is sensuality with them. They even
fall in love sensually with ideas, with great ideas. They are
incapable of marrying a great and pure idea and breeding a family
with it; they only flirt with ideas. They want them as mistresses,
sometimes just for the night. Away with them!

"