bronze urn from which red flames burst forth. The flames took a human
form, and gave back Sophia to the assembly.

Such is the gift of substitution, which follows penetration, and such is
the substance of the memoirs of M. Bataille, ship's doctor, who, in the
year 1880, undertook to exploit Freemasonry and has come forth unsinged
from Diabolism. There is one maxim of the Psalmist which the experience
of most transcendentalists has taught them to lay to heart, and to
repeat without the qualifications of David when certain aspects of
supernatural narrative are introduced--_Omnis homo mendax!_ But lest I
should appear to be discourteous, I should like to add a brief dictum
from the Magus Eliphas Levi. "The wise man cannot lie," because nature
accommodates herself to his statement. In a polite investigation like
the present, there is, therefore, no question whether Doctor Bataille is
defined by the term _mendax_, which is forbidden to literary elegance;
it is simply a question whether he is a wise man, or whether nature
blundered and did not conform to his statement.

The credibility, in whole or in part, of Dr Bataille's narrative will
involve some extended criticism, and I purpose to postpone it till the
remaining witnesses have been examined. We shall then be in a position
to appreciate how far later revelations support his statements. Setting
aside the miraculous element, which is tolerably separate from what
most concerns our inquiry, namely, the existence of Palladian Masonry
attached to the cultus of Lucifer, it may be stated that the most sober
part of Dr Bataille's memoirs is the account of his visit to Charleston;
here the miraculous element is entirely absent. He confirms by alleged
personal investigations the existence of the New and Reformed Palladium;
he is the first witness who distinguishes clearly between the Luciferian
Order and the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite of
Charleston. That distinction is made, however, at one expense; it
assumes that the Supreme Council preserved the Baphomet idol as well as
the reputed skull of Molay for nearly seventy years, and then
surrendered it to another order with which it had no official
acquaintance. Under what circumstances and why did it do that? The
Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite is connected by its legend with the
Templars, and for the Charleston Supreme Council to part with the
trophies of the tradition seems no less unlikely than for a