Devil-Worship in France; or, The Question of LuciferWaite, Arthur Edward
Religion
Devil-Worship in France; or, The Question of Lucifer
Waite, Arthur Edward
Satanism
she does not betray in return his Masonic identity, though I need
scarcely add that she does not substantiate his statements. On these
points my readers may be reasonably left to form their own judgments.
Miss Diana Vaughan is a lady who, in spite of much notoriety, is not in
evidence; with one exception no credible person has ever said that he
has seen her; that exception is Signor Margiotta. It would not, however,
be the strongest line of criticism to dispute her existence; we may
accept very gladly all that her Italian friend is good enough to say in
regard to her personal characteristics, but we know that she has tried
to deceive us, with conspicuous ill-success it is true, yet in a gross
and most wicked manner. As to Signor Margiotta himself, with all his
imperfections, he is the strongest witness to the discovery of Leo
Taxil. I have admitted the great apparent force which belongs to his
enormous array of documentary evidence, and I have established the
nature of the complications which make that evidence extremely difficult
to accept.
Lastly, Jean Kostka and M. A. C. de la Rive, though they came within the
scope of our inquiry, are not Palladian witnesses. It would appear,
therefore, that Leo Taxil and M. Adolphe Ricoux are, for the most part,
neither honoured in their witnesses nor in a position to stand alone.
The evidence which has grown out of their discovery is in an exceedingly
corrupt state, and in summing the Question of Lucifer, as an impartial
critic, I shall therefore simply propose to my readers the following
general statement:--In the year 1891, Leo Taxil and M. Adolphe Ricoux
state that they have discovered certain documents which show the
existence of a Palladian Society, claimed to be at the head of Masonry,
and in the year 1895 Signor Domenico Margiotta states that he belonged
to that society and gives further particulars concerning it. A number of
other witnesses have also come forward whose evidence must, for various
reasons, be completely rejected. It is in all respects much to be
deplored that Signor Margiotta has largely and approvingly cited the
testimony of two of these witnesses who are most open to condemnation,
and that he has himself exercised an imperfect and uncritical censorship
over papers which have come into his hands. From first to last all
documents are open to strong suspicion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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