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Count Cagliostro
him to school , and afterwards obtained him admission as a novice to the Convent of Cartigirone . Here he was entrusted to the keeping of the convent apothecary , and , under his care , the lad studied chemistry and alchemy , laying , indeed , the foundation for the Masonic and Medical
quackeries for which he was afterwards famous . The discipline of the convent proved too severe for Balsamo , who was too lazy to work , but quite ready to eat whenever opportunity was offered for the indulgence of his vast carnal appetite . Punishment , admonition and fasting
having had no effect upon the obdurate youth , he was expelled in disgrace , and once more he played the part of scoundrel upon town in the streets of Palermo . His career was now of the vilest . He became a pander , fortune teller and forger , until the city having become too hot to
hold him , he retired to Naples , and ultimately to Rome , where he obtained a meagre subsistence by the sale of prints . At Rome he married Lorenza Feliciani , the daughter of a tradesman , and this lady afterwards figured in all his impostures as the Countess Seraphina . She was
a handsome , buxom woman , and played the part assigned to her with great skill . From Rome the scoundrel fled to Venice , Marseilles , Madrid , Cadiz and Brussels . At each of these places he appeared as a real noble , tho Marquis Peligrini , and finally casting this disguise , he assumed the
title of Count Alessandro di Cagliostro , the famous physician , the restorer of youth , the discoverer of the beautifying water , and of the wine of Egypt , a love-philtre , concocted of cantharides . In the year 1776 the Count
visited England , and obtained initiation into the primary secrets of Freemasonry . He is said to have joined a Lodge of low social rank , and , with his wife , who was also initiated , he passed through the grades of Apprentice , Fellow Craft , and Master Mason , for the small fee of five guineas .
Masonry appears to have opened up a new field for the genius of Cagliostro ; he is said to havepurchased , of a bookseller , some manuscripts belonging to a man named George Crofton , in which some fanciful theories of Egyptian Masonry were set forth . Having mastered these , the Count ,
to use the language of Carlyle , proceeded to " blow with his new five guinea bellows ; having always occasion to raise the wind . " A vast scheme of high Masonic science was concocted , which Avas to renovate society , and place his followers on a level with the old sages and philosophers
of the East . He promised to conduct his dupes to perfection , " by means of a physical and moral regeneration ; to enable them by the former ( or physical ) to find the prime matter or philosopher ' s stone , and the acacia which consolidates in man the forces of the most vigorous youth ,
and renders him immortal ; and , by the latter ( or moral ) , to procure them a Pentagon , which shall restore man to his primitive state of innocence , lost by original sin . He maintained that this Egyptian Masonry was instituted by Enoch and Elias , who propagated it in differents parts of the
world ; though , in time , it lost much of its purity and splendour . By degrees the Masonry of men had been reduced to pure buffoonery ; and that of women had been almost entirely destroyed . Till , at last , the zeal of the Grand Cophta ( so are the hi gh priests of Egypt named ) ,
had signalised itself b y restoring tho Masonry of both sexes to its pristine lustre . " The construction of the Pentagon , which was to abolish original sin , was a serious affair . On a solitary mountain , which was to be called Sinai , a pavilion , with twelve sides and three stories , was to
be erected to be named Sion . In every side of this edifice there must be a window . Twelve Master Masons , each at a window , with Cagliostro in the midst of them , were to go through various formalities , fasts and vigils , until the divine Pentagon was obtained . Cagliostro
declared himself to he the Grand Cophta or hi gh priest of this system of Egyptian Masonry , and the most solemn acts of worship were paid to him . He professed to have authority over the Angels ; he was invoked on all occasions , and everything was done by virtue of his powerwhich he
, declared to be immediately derived from God . No reli gion was excluded from the Egyptian society ; but members of all sects were admitted ; the belief in the existence of the Supreme Being and in the immortalit y of the soul alone being essential . The " brothers " who were elevated to the
rank of Masters took the names of the ancient Prophets , while the women adopted those of the Sib yls . The ceremony of initiation , as described by Carl yle , is too lengthy and too ridiculous for quotation . Every expedient ° was adopted to terrify the novice , who was kept for twentyfour hours in a vault , lighted only by three sepulchral
Count Cagliostro
lamps , which gave forth a dying glimmer . Phantoms trailing mortuary veils crossed the cell , and sank into caverns . Others , with garments dripping blood , and armed with swords , stripped the novice , and threw his garments upon a funeral pile , where they were burnt . Sculls grinned
at the victim from the walls ; a heap of skeletons in the centre of the vault formed a sort of altar , on both sides of which were piled books , some containing menaces against the perjured , others the deadly narrative of the vengeance which the Invisible Spirit had exacted . At the close of the
ceremonial a trembling voice pierced the vault ( that of Cagliostro himself ) , and articulated the formula of the oaths that were to be sworn , and the novice then rose up a closen member of the Grand Mystery of Egyptian Masoniy . Cagliostro , having made good his position as an apostle
of the Craft , travelled , and was received with enthusiasm eveiy where . The Grand Lodges of Europe flung wide their doors to him , and he was regarded as an honoured guest . He lectured on his system to the brotherhood , and expounded his mysteries in a language made up of half the
dialects of the Continent . His talk was the poorest claptrap , but it was received with awe and wonder . He founded his Egyptian Lodges in various cities of Europe , and drove a roaring trade in his Beauty Waters , Life Drops , and Secret Favours or Love Philtres . In the year
1780 he erected his Pavilion in St . Petersburg , but the police having some suspicions he \ vas compelled to fly ; and at Warsaw , where he attempted to form his Pentagon , he was exposed by a Count M— , who wrote a pamphlet , entitled
" Cagliostro Unmasked . " Not in the least dismayed by these reverses , the shameless villain made his appearance at Strasburg , where he lived in great state , and contrived to impose upon the Cardinal de Rohan , with whom he resided some time in the character of
an honoured guest . The disturbed state of France however rendered his position anything but secure , and the Cardinal having been consigned to the Bastille , Cagliostro fled to Boulogne . In 1786 he again visited London , and resided in Sloane-street , where he drove his old trade with
the Egyptian pills , and during his leisure composed his lying " Lettra au , Peuple Anglais , " in which his acts of benevolence and his unheard of persecutions are fully set forth . A curious copper plate etching , * which was published in November of this year , records a fact in the life of the
arch-quack , which is worthy of special mention . It seems that on the 1 st November , Cagliostro visited the Lodge of Antiquity , and supped with the brethren . The meal was a frugal one , costing but three shillings per head , wine and punch included . In the course of the evening a certain
Bro . Mash , an optician , " instead of giving a song , performed the part of a travelling quack , which Count Cagliostro taking as if aimed at himself , he left the Lodge in dudgeon , highly displeased at the entertainment of the company . " De Morande , the Editor of a French Journal ,
" Le Courrier de VEurope , " published in London , made it his business to attack and expose the impostor , who , finding his position untenable , again fled to Europe . After spending some time in obscurity , he entered Rome in May 1789 , and had the audacity to set up his Egyptian Lodge
under the very nose of the Pope . He was detected by the officers of the " Holy Inquisition , " and lodged in the Castle of St . Angelo . Here he languished for eighteen months ,
and was then condemned to imprisonment for life , his manuscript of Egyptian Masonry being burnt by the common executioner . Four years afterwards Cagliostro was found dead in the prison of St . Leo .
Carlyle tells us that one of the most authentic documents preserved of him is the picture of his visage . It was , he says , " A most portentous face of scoundrelism , a fat , snub , abominable face , dew-lapped , fiat-nosed , greasy , full of greediness , sensuality , ox-like obstinacy , a forehead
impudent , refusing to be ashamed , and then two eyes turned up seraphically-languishing , as in divine contemplation and adoration , a touch of quiz too ; on tho whole , perhaps , the most perfect quack face produced by the eighteenth century . There he sits , and seraphically languishes , with this epigraph : —
" Do l'Ame ties Humains reconnaissez les traits : Tous ses jonrs sont marques par tie nouveaux bienfaits , II prolonge la vie , il secourt l'indigeuce ; Le plaisir d'etre utile est senl sa recompense . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Count Cagliostro
him to school , and afterwards obtained him admission as a novice to the Convent of Cartigirone . Here he was entrusted to the keeping of the convent apothecary , and , under his care , the lad studied chemistry and alchemy , laying , indeed , the foundation for the Masonic and Medical
quackeries for which he was afterwards famous . The discipline of the convent proved too severe for Balsamo , who was too lazy to work , but quite ready to eat whenever opportunity was offered for the indulgence of his vast carnal appetite . Punishment , admonition and fasting
having had no effect upon the obdurate youth , he was expelled in disgrace , and once more he played the part of scoundrel upon town in the streets of Palermo . His career was now of the vilest . He became a pander , fortune teller and forger , until the city having become too hot to
hold him , he retired to Naples , and ultimately to Rome , where he obtained a meagre subsistence by the sale of prints . At Rome he married Lorenza Feliciani , the daughter of a tradesman , and this lady afterwards figured in all his impostures as the Countess Seraphina . She was
a handsome , buxom woman , and played the part assigned to her with great skill . From Rome the scoundrel fled to Venice , Marseilles , Madrid , Cadiz and Brussels . At each of these places he appeared as a real noble , tho Marquis Peligrini , and finally casting this disguise , he assumed the
title of Count Alessandro di Cagliostro , the famous physician , the restorer of youth , the discoverer of the beautifying water , and of the wine of Egypt , a love-philtre , concocted of cantharides . In the year 1776 the Count
visited England , and obtained initiation into the primary secrets of Freemasonry . He is said to have joined a Lodge of low social rank , and , with his wife , who was also initiated , he passed through the grades of Apprentice , Fellow Craft , and Master Mason , for the small fee of five guineas .
Masonry appears to have opened up a new field for the genius of Cagliostro ; he is said to havepurchased , of a bookseller , some manuscripts belonging to a man named George Crofton , in which some fanciful theories of Egyptian Masonry were set forth . Having mastered these , the Count ,
to use the language of Carlyle , proceeded to " blow with his new five guinea bellows ; having always occasion to raise the wind . " A vast scheme of high Masonic science was concocted , which Avas to renovate society , and place his followers on a level with the old sages and philosophers
of the East . He promised to conduct his dupes to perfection , " by means of a physical and moral regeneration ; to enable them by the former ( or physical ) to find the prime matter or philosopher ' s stone , and the acacia which consolidates in man the forces of the most vigorous youth ,
and renders him immortal ; and , by the latter ( or moral ) , to procure them a Pentagon , which shall restore man to his primitive state of innocence , lost by original sin . He maintained that this Egyptian Masonry was instituted by Enoch and Elias , who propagated it in differents parts of the
world ; though , in time , it lost much of its purity and splendour . By degrees the Masonry of men had been reduced to pure buffoonery ; and that of women had been almost entirely destroyed . Till , at last , the zeal of the Grand Cophta ( so are the hi gh priests of Egypt named ) ,
had signalised itself b y restoring tho Masonry of both sexes to its pristine lustre . " The construction of the Pentagon , which was to abolish original sin , was a serious affair . On a solitary mountain , which was to be called Sinai , a pavilion , with twelve sides and three stories , was to
be erected to be named Sion . In every side of this edifice there must be a window . Twelve Master Masons , each at a window , with Cagliostro in the midst of them , were to go through various formalities , fasts and vigils , until the divine Pentagon was obtained . Cagliostro
declared himself to he the Grand Cophta or hi gh priest of this system of Egyptian Masonry , and the most solemn acts of worship were paid to him . He professed to have authority over the Angels ; he was invoked on all occasions , and everything was done by virtue of his powerwhich he
, declared to be immediately derived from God . No reli gion was excluded from the Egyptian society ; but members of all sects were admitted ; the belief in the existence of the Supreme Being and in the immortalit y of the soul alone being essential . The " brothers " who were elevated to the
rank of Masters took the names of the ancient Prophets , while the women adopted those of the Sib yls . The ceremony of initiation , as described by Carl yle , is too lengthy and too ridiculous for quotation . Every expedient ° was adopted to terrify the novice , who was kept for twentyfour hours in a vault , lighted only by three sepulchral
Count Cagliostro
lamps , which gave forth a dying glimmer . Phantoms trailing mortuary veils crossed the cell , and sank into caverns . Others , with garments dripping blood , and armed with swords , stripped the novice , and threw his garments upon a funeral pile , where they were burnt . Sculls grinned
at the victim from the walls ; a heap of skeletons in the centre of the vault formed a sort of altar , on both sides of which were piled books , some containing menaces against the perjured , others the deadly narrative of the vengeance which the Invisible Spirit had exacted . At the close of the
ceremonial a trembling voice pierced the vault ( that of Cagliostro himself ) , and articulated the formula of the oaths that were to be sworn , and the novice then rose up a closen member of the Grand Mystery of Egyptian Masoniy . Cagliostro , having made good his position as an apostle
of the Craft , travelled , and was received with enthusiasm eveiy where . The Grand Lodges of Europe flung wide their doors to him , and he was regarded as an honoured guest . He lectured on his system to the brotherhood , and expounded his mysteries in a language made up of half the
dialects of the Continent . His talk was the poorest claptrap , but it was received with awe and wonder . He founded his Egyptian Lodges in various cities of Europe , and drove a roaring trade in his Beauty Waters , Life Drops , and Secret Favours or Love Philtres . In the year
1780 he erected his Pavilion in St . Petersburg , but the police having some suspicions he \ vas compelled to fly ; and at Warsaw , where he attempted to form his Pentagon , he was exposed by a Count M— , who wrote a pamphlet , entitled
" Cagliostro Unmasked . " Not in the least dismayed by these reverses , the shameless villain made his appearance at Strasburg , where he lived in great state , and contrived to impose upon the Cardinal de Rohan , with whom he resided some time in the character of
an honoured guest . The disturbed state of France however rendered his position anything but secure , and the Cardinal having been consigned to the Bastille , Cagliostro fled to Boulogne . In 1786 he again visited London , and resided in Sloane-street , where he drove his old trade with
the Egyptian pills , and during his leisure composed his lying " Lettra au , Peuple Anglais , " in which his acts of benevolence and his unheard of persecutions are fully set forth . A curious copper plate etching , * which was published in November of this year , records a fact in the life of the
arch-quack , which is worthy of special mention . It seems that on the 1 st November , Cagliostro visited the Lodge of Antiquity , and supped with the brethren . The meal was a frugal one , costing but three shillings per head , wine and punch included . In the course of the evening a certain
Bro . Mash , an optician , " instead of giving a song , performed the part of a travelling quack , which Count Cagliostro taking as if aimed at himself , he left the Lodge in dudgeon , highly displeased at the entertainment of the company . " De Morande , the Editor of a French Journal ,
" Le Courrier de VEurope , " published in London , made it his business to attack and expose the impostor , who , finding his position untenable , again fled to Europe . After spending some time in obscurity , he entered Rome in May 1789 , and had the audacity to set up his Egyptian Lodge
under the very nose of the Pope . He was detected by the officers of the " Holy Inquisition , " and lodged in the Castle of St . Angelo . Here he languished for eighteen months ,
and was then condemned to imprisonment for life , his manuscript of Egyptian Masonry being burnt by the common executioner . Four years afterwards Cagliostro was found dead in the prison of St . Leo .
Carlyle tells us that one of the most authentic documents preserved of him is the picture of his visage . It was , he says , " A most portentous face of scoundrelism , a fat , snub , abominable face , dew-lapped , fiat-nosed , greasy , full of greediness , sensuality , ox-like obstinacy , a forehead
impudent , refusing to be ashamed , and then two eyes turned up seraphically-languishing , as in divine contemplation and adoration , a touch of quiz too ; on tho whole , perhaps , the most perfect quack face produced by the eighteenth century . There he sits , and seraphically languishes , with this epigraph : —
" Do l'Ame ties Humains reconnaissez les traits : Tous ses jonrs sont marques par tie nouveaux bienfaits , II prolonge la vie , il secourt l'indigeuce ; Le plaisir d'etre utile est senl sa recompense . "