Cagliostro And The Lodge Of Antiquity.

caudle light ) , offered thc choicest element for him . All men profit by union with men , the quack as much as another ; nay , in these tivo Avord ' sivorn secrecy' alone has he not found a very talisman V Cagliostro , then , determines ou Masonship . It was aftenvards urged that the Lodge he and his Seraphina got admission to ( for she was also made a Mason or Masoness , and had riband garter solemnlbound with order to sleep in it for a

a y on , " night ) was of IOAV rank in the social scale , numbering not a feAv of the pastrycook and hairdresser species . To ivhich it could only be replied , that these alone spoke French ; that a man and a Mason , though he cooked pastry , was still a man and a Mason . Be this as it might , the apt reflipiendary is rapidly promoted through the three grades of apprentice , companionmasterat the cost of five guineasThat of his being first

, , . raised into the air by means of a rope and pulley fixed in the ceiling , ' during which the heavy mass of his body must assuredly have _ caused him a dolorous sensation ; ' and then being forced blindfold to shoot himself ( though ivith privily dis-loaded pistol ) in . sign of courage and obedience , all this we can esteem an apocrypha—palmed on the Koman Inquisition , otherwise prone to delusion . Five guineas , and some foolish froth-speeches (

delivered over liquor aud otherwise ) , ivas the cost . If you ask noiv , iu Avhat London Lodge was it ? Alas , know not , and shall never know . Certain only that Count . Alessandro is a Master iMason ; that having once crossed the threshold , his plastic genius ivill not stop there . Behold , accordingly , he has bought from " a bookseller" certain MSS . belonging to ' one George Cofton , a ' man absolutely unknoivn to him ( and to us ) ivhich treat of ' the Egyptian Masonry . ' In other words Count Alessandro ivill raise the

bloAv AA'ith his neiv fii'e guinea belloivs , having ahvays occasion to wind : " With regard specially to that huge soap bubble of an ' Egyptian Masonry , ' ivhich he WCAV , and as conjuror , caught many flies Avith , it is our painful duty to say a little—not much . The Inquisition biographer , Avith deadly fear of heretical and democratical and black-magical Freemasons before his has into the matter to boundless depths commenting

eyes , gone ; ^ elucidating , eA'en confuting . A certain expository Masonic Order-book of Cagliostro ' s , Avhich he has laid hands on , opens tiie Avhole mystery to him . The ideas he declares to be Cagliostro ' s ; the composition all a disciple ' s , for the Count had no gift that ivay . What then does the disciple set forth ? or , at loivest , the Inquisition biographer say that he sets forth ? Much , much that is not to the point .

" Understand , hoivever , that once inspired , by the absolutely unknown George Cofton , ivith the notion of Egyptian Masonry , wherein as yet lav much " magic and superstition , " Count Alessandro resolves to free it of these impious ingredients , and make it a kind of Lost Evangile , or IlenO ' valor of the Universe , AA'hich so needed renovation . ' As he did not believe anything in matter of faith , ' says our ivooden familiar , ' nothing could arrest him . ' "

We shall not follow Mr . Carlyle through his account of some ot the tenets of the Egyptian Masonry , as Ave shall at a future time present our readers ivith Cagliostro ' s princip les entire—at least so far as AVe can gather them from the scarce Italian book alluded to . So , equipped ivith the respectability of our Order , this arch cheat had but to present himself in any city , to ascertain tho principal Masonic officer resident therein—to introduce himself ; , and in a single night establish an interest iu himself thafc he had previously been months