Part 7 (1/2)

It is evident from the _Canon's Yeoman's Tale_ in Chaucer, that many of those who professed to turn the base metals into gold were held in bad repute as early as the 14th century. The ”false chanoun” persuaded the priest, who was his dupe, to send his servant for quicksilver, which he promised to make into ”as good silver and as fyn, As ther is any in youre purse or myn”; he then gave the priest a ”crosselet,” and bid him put it on the fire, and blow the coals. While the priest was busy with the fire,

This false chanoun--the foule feend hym fecche!-- Out of his bosom took a bechen cole, In which ful subtilly was maad an hole, And therinne put was of silver lemaille An ounce, and stopped was withouten faille The hole with wex, to kepe the lemaille in.

The ”false chanoun” pretended to be sorry for the priest, who was so busily blowing the fire:--

Ye been right hoot, I se wel how ye swete; Have heer a clooth, and wipe awey the we't.

And whyles that the preest wiped his face, This chanoun took his cole with harde grace, And leyde it above, upon the middeward Of the crosselet, and blew wel afterward.

Til that the coles gonne faste brenne.

As the coal burned the silver fell into the ”crosselet.” Then the canon said they would both go together and fetch chalk, and a pail of water, for he would pour out the silver he had made in the form of an ingot. They locked the door, and took the key with them. On returning, the canon formed the chalk into a mould, and poured the contents of the crucible into it. Then he bade the priest,

Look what ther is, put in thin hand and grope, Thow fynde shalt ther silver, as I hope.

What, devel of h.e.l.le! Sholde it ellis be?

Shavyng of silver silver is, _parde!_ He putte his hand in, and took up a teyne Of silver fyn, and glad in every veyne Was this preest, when he saugh that it was so.

The conclusion of the _Canon's Yeoman's Tale_ shows that, in the 14th century, there was a general belief in the possibility of finding the philosopher's stone, and effecting the trans.m.u.tation, although the common pract.i.tioners of the art were regarded as deceivers. A disciple of Plato is supposed to ask his master to tell him the ”name of the privee stoon.” Plato gives him certain directions, and tells him he must use _magnasia_; the disciple asks--

'What is Magnasia, good sire, I yow preye?'

'It is a water that is maad, I seye, Of elementes foure,' quod Plato.

'Telle me the roote, good sire,' quod he tho, Of that water, if it be youre wille.'

'Nay, nay,' quod Plato, 'certein that I nylle; The philosophres sworn were everychoon That they sholden discovers it unto noon, Ne in no book it write in no manere, For unto Crist it is so lief and deere, That he wol nat that it discovered bee, But where it liketh to his deitee Man for tenspire, and eek for to deffende Whom that hym liketh; lo, this is the ende.'

The belief in the possibility of alchemy seems to have been general sometime before Chaucer wrote; but that belief was accompanied by the conviction that alchemy was an impious pursuit, because the trans.m.u.tation of baser metals into gold was regarded as trenching on the prerogative of the Creator, to whom alone this power rightfully belonged. In his _Inferno_ (which was probably written about the year 1300), Dante places the alchemists in the eighth circle of h.e.l.l, not apparently because they were fraudulent impostors, but because, as one of them says, ”I aped creative nature by my subtle art.”

In later times, some of those who pretended to have the secret and to perform great wonders by the use of it, became rich and celebrated, and were much sought after. The most distinguished of these pseudo-alchemists was he who pa.s.sed under the name of Cagliostro. His life bears witness to the eagerness of human beings to be deceived.

Joseph Balsamo was born in 1743 at Palermo, where his parents were tradespeople in a good way of business.[5] In the memoir of himself, which he wrote in prison, Balsamo seeks to surround his birth and parentage with mystery; he says, ”I am ignorant, not only of my birthplace, but even of the parents who bore me.... My earliest infancy was pa.s.sed in the town of Medina, in Arabia, where I was brought up under the name of Acharat.”

[5] The account of the life of Cagliostro is much condensed from Mr A.E. Waite's _Lives of the Alchemystical Philosophers_.

When he was thirteen years of age, Balsamo's parents determined he should be trained for the priesthood, but he ran away from his school.

He was then confined in a Benedictine monastery. He showed a remarkable taste for natural history, and acquired considerable knowledge of the use of drugs; but he soon tired of the discipline and escaped. For some years he wandered about in different parts of Italy, living by his wits and by cheating. A goldsmith consulted him about a hidden treasure; he pretended to invoke the aid of spirits, frightened the goldsmith, got sixty ounces of gold from him to carry on his incantations, left him in the lurch, and fled to Messina. In that town he discovered an aged aunt who was sick; the aunt died, and left her money to the Church. Balsamo a.s.sumed her family name, added a t.i.tle of n.o.bility, and was known henceforward as the Count Alessandro Cagliostro.

In Messina he met a mysterious person whom he calls Altotas, and from whom, he says in his Memoir, he learnt much. The following account of the meeting of Balsamo and the stranger is taken from Waite's book: ”As he was promenading one day near the jetty at the extremity of the port he encountered an individual singularly habited and possessed of a most remarkable countenance. This person, aged apparently about fifty years, seemed to be an Armenian, though, according to other accounts, he was a Spaniard or Greek. He wore a species of caftan, a silk bonnet, and the extremities of his breeches were concealed in a pair of wide boots. In his left hand he held a parasol, and in his right the end of a cord, to which was attached a graceful Albanian greyhound.... Cagliostro saluted this grotesque being, who bowed slightly, but with satisfied dignity. 'You do not reside in Messina, signor?' he said in Sicilian, but with a marked foreign accent.

Cagliostro replied that he was tarrying for a few days, and they began to converse on the beauty of the town and on its advantageous situation, a kind of Oriental imagery individualising the eloquence of the stranger, whose remarks were, moreover, adroitly adorned with a few appropriate compliments.”

Although the stranger said he received no one at his house he allowed Cagliostro to visit him. After various mysterious doings the two went off to Egypt, and afterwards to Malta, where they performed many wonderful deeds before the Grand Master, who was much impressed. At Malta Altotas died, or, at anyrate, vanished. Cagliostro then travelled for some time, and was well received by n.o.blemen, amba.s.sadors, and others in high position. At Rome he fell in love with a young and beautiful lady, Lorenza Feliciani, and married her.

Cagliostro used his young wife as a decoy to attract rich and foolish men. He and his wife thrived for a time, and acc.u.mulated money and jewels; but a confederate betrayed them, and they fled to Venice, and then wandered for several years in Italy, France, and England. They seem to have made a living by the sale of lotions for the skin, and by practising skilful deceptions.

About the year 1770 Cagliostro began to pose as an alchemist. After another period of wandering he paid a second visit to London and founded a secret society, based on (supposed) Egyptian rites, mingled with those of freemasonry. The suggestion of this society is said to have come from a curious book he picked up on a second-hand stall in London. The society attracted people by the strangeness of its initiatory rites, and the promises of happiness and wellbeing made by its founder to those who joined it. Lodges were established in many countries, many disciples were obtained, great riches were ama.s.sed, and Cagliostro flourished exceedingly.

In his _Histoire du Merveilleux dans les Temps modernes_, Figuier, speaking of Cagliostro about this period of his career, says: