gus Eliphas Levi. I am an old student
of his works, and of the aspects of occult science and magical history
which arise out of them; in the year 1886 I published a digest of his
writings which has been the only attempt to present them to English
readers until the present year when I have undertaken a translation _in
extenso_ of the _Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie_, which is actually
in the hands of the printer. Now, it has not been alleged in so many
words that the radix of Modern Diabolism and the Masonic cultus of
Lucifer is to be found in Eliphas Levi, but that is the substance of the
charge. Most, or all, of the witnesses agree in representing him as an
atrocious Satanist, an invoker of Lucifer, a celebrater of black masses,
and an adept in the practical blasphemies of Eucharistic sacrilege; all
of them father either upon the Palladium or upon Pike a variety of
documents containing gross thefts from Levi; some of them, directly and
upon their own responsibility, cite passages from his works, always with
conspicuous bad faith. Finally, they agree in connecting him with the
foundation of the New and Reformed Palladium through his alleged
disciple Phileas Walder; and one of them goes so far as to say that
Palladism was a further development or restoration of a Satanic society
directed by Eliphas Levi and operating his theurgic system, which he in
turn, if I rightly understand the mixed hypothesis of M. de la Rive, may
have derived from the Palladic rite of 1730. If we accept for the
moment this origin of the reformed order, it will follow that if the
occult doctrines of Eliphas Levi have been seriously misunderstood or
grossly defamed by the witnesses, the diabolical or Luciferian
connection of Palladism does not wear the complexion which has been
ascribed to it. It is represented as: (a) outwardly Masonic, and (b)
actually theurgic. (c) It is Manichaean in doctrine. (d) It regards
Lucifer as an eternal principle co-existent, but in a hostile sense,
with Adonai. (e) It holds that the beneficent deity is Lucifer, while
Adonai is malevolent; (f) Certain sections of Palladists, however,
recognise that Lucifer is identical with Satan, and is the evil
principle. (g) This section adores the evil principle as such. Now, in
each and all these matters the Palladian system conflicts with that of
Levi.

To give a colourable aspect to their hypothesis, the witnesses affirm
that Levi was a high-grade Mason. He was nothing of th