From the Manifesto of the Rose + Croix, (2 IX 1881) quoted by Joséphin Palédan in Comment on devient Mage (How to become a Mage). Foretelling the end of the Latin race due to the Barbarian invasion yet to come, in the midst of its own decadence, this is a Manifesto for living among the ruins.

Nous ne croyons pas ni au progrès ni au salut. A la race latine, qui va mourir, nous préparons une dernière splendeur, afin d’éblouir et d’adoucir les Barbares qui vont venir …

Soyons le Tout-Passé en face de Tout-Paris. Soyons l’enthousiasme, en face de la blague. Soyons des patriciens en face de la canaille. Soyons nous-mêmes, et que nos personnalité, réfractaires au milieu où se meuvent, triomphent du péché et du public.

We believe neither in progress nor salvation. To the Latin race, which is going to die, we will prepare a final glory, in order to dazzle and soften the Barbarians who are going to come…

Let us be “everything that passes” in the face of “high society”. Let us be enthusiasm the face of the joke. Let us be patricians in the face of the rabble.
Let us be ourselves,
and may our characters, resistant in the midst in which they move, triumph over sin and the public.