Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00520)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Dallas TenBroeck" <dalval14@e...> 
wrote:
> Mar 16 2004
> 
> Dear Friends:
> 
> Count St. Germain is said to be one of HPB's predecessors in the
> centenary cyclic effort to reintroduce the perennial wisdom of 
THEOSOPHY
> to the "West."

Excellent response. Two things still come to mind. First of
all, St G founded no overt movement, so it is difficult to see
how he could rank along with HPB. His TRINOSOPHIA, which is all
we have of his written work, does not hold a candle to the SD.

Second, when he was in Germany the Rosicrucians wanted to see if
he was one of their secret heads. So they sent some of their
people to see him. The story can be found translated in Butler's
RITUAL MAGIC, but I have also seen the German text. The
delegates returned to say that he was not a Rosicrucian and that
he was not a theosophist, meaning in the eighteenth century sense
that he was not a student of metaphysics. That I am sure I
remember correctly. It appears he was a trader in dyes and
jewels who amused himself by making absurd claims. Read what
Casanova had to say about him and see what you think.

I think Cagliostro deserves better than what Bart accorded to
him. There are some really amazing stories from credible
eyewitnesses about C's achievements, but he was an occultist and
not a particularly spiritual person. He is said to have dropped
his affairs more than once to charge into driving rain to heal
some distressed person, which says he was more altruistic than
most of the people on this list. Trowbridge, who studied him in
detail, says there is not a single credible instance of him
gaining anything through imposture. That cannot be said of most
people of his ilk, then or now. Overall, the record speaks
better of him than it does of St. G.

Here is what Casanova says about St. G. It is a first hand
account by a shrewd observer, and it is fair and balanced, giving
credit where credit is due, and denying it where it is not.

------------------------
The most enjoyable dinner I had was with Madame de Gergi, who
came with the famous adventurer, known by the name of the Count
de St. Germain. This individual, instead of eating, talked from
the beginning of the meal to the end, and I followed his example
in one respect as I did not eat, but listened to him with the
greatest attention. It may safely be said that as a
conversationalist he was unequalled.

St. Germain gave himself out for a marvel and always aimed at
exciting amazement, which he often succeeded in doing. He was
scholar, linguist, musician, and chemist, good-looking, and a
perfect ladies' man. For awhile he gave them paints and
cosmetics; he flattered them, not that he would make them young
again (which he modestly confessed was beyond him) but that their
beauty would be preserved by means of a wash which, he said, cost
him a lot of money, but which he gave away freely.

He had contrived to gain the favour of Madame de Pompadour, who
had spoken about him to the king, for whom he had made a
laboratory, in which the monarch--a martyr to boredom--tried to
find a little pleasure or distraction, at all events, by making
dyes. The king had given him a suite of rooms at Chambord, and a
hundred thousand francs for the construction of a laboratory, and
according to St. Germain the dyes discovered by the king would
have a materially beneficial influence on the quality of French
fabrics. 

This extraordinary man, intended by nature to be the king of
impostors and quacks, would say in an easy, assured manner that
he was three hundred years old, that he knew the secret of the
Universal Medicine, that he possessed a mastery over nature, that
he could melt diamonds, professing himself capable of forming,
out of ten or twelve small diamonds, one large one of the finest
water without any loss of weight. All this, he said, was a mere
trifle to him. Notwithstanding his boastings, his bare-faced
lies, and his manifold eccentricities, I cannot say I thought him
offensive. In spite of my knowledge of what he was and in spite
of my own feelings, I thought him an astonishing man as he was
always astonishing me. I shall have something more to say of
this character further on.

When Madame d'Urfe had introduced me to all her friends, I told
her that I would dine with her whenever she wished, but that with
the exception of her relations and St. Germain, whose wild talk
amused me, I should prefer her to invite no company. St. Germain
often dined with the best society in the capital, but he never
ate anything, saying that he was kept alive by mysterious food
known only to himself. One soon got used to his eccentricities,
but not to his wonderful flow of words which made him the soul of
whatever company he was in.

By this time I had fathomed all the depths of Madame d'Urfe's
character. She firmly believed me to be an adept of the first
order, making use of another name for purposes of my own; and
five or six weeks later she was confirmed in this wild idea on
her asking me if I had diciphered the manuscript which pretended
to explain the Magnum Opus.

"Yes," said I, "I have deciphered it, and consequently read it,
and I now beg to return it you with my word of honour that I have
not made a copy; in fact, I found nothing in it that I did not
know before."

"Without the key you mean, but of course you could never find out
that."

"Shall I tell you the key?"

"Pray do so."

I gave her the word, which belonged to no language that I know
of, and the marchioness was quite thunderstruck.

"This is too amazing," said she; "I thought myself the sole
possessor of that mysterious word--for I had never written it
down, laying it up in my memory--and I am sure I have never told
anyone of it."

I might have informed her that the calculation which enabled me
to decipher the manuscript furnished me also with the key, but
the whim took me to tell her that a spirit had revealed it to me. 
This foolish tale completed my mastery over this truly learned
and sensible woman on everything but her hobby. This false
confidence gave me an immense ascendancy over Madame d'Urfe, and
I often abused my power over her. Now that I am no longer the
victim of those illusions which pursued me throughout my life, I
blush at the remembrance of my conduct, and the penance I impose
on myself is to tell the whole truth, and to extenuate nothing in
these Memoirs.

The wildest notion in the good marchioness's brain was a firm
belief in the possibility of communication between mortals and
elementary spirits. She would have given all her goods to attain
to such communication, and she had several times been deceived by
impostors who made her believe that she attained her aim.

"I did not think," said she, sadly, "that your spirit would have
been able to force mine to reveal my secrets."

"There was no need to force your spirit, madam, as mine knows all
things of his own power."

"Does he know the inmost secrets of my soul?"

"Certainly, and if I ask him he is forced to disclose all to me."

"Can you ask him when you like?"

"Oh, yes! provided I have paper and ink. I can even ask him
questions through you by telling you his name."

"And will you tell it me?"

"I can do what I say; and, to convince you, his name is Paralis. 
Ask him a simple question in writing, as you would ask a common
mortal. Ask him, for instance, how I deciphered your manuscript,
and you shall see I will compel him to answer you."

Trembling with joy, Madame d'Urfe put her question, expressed it
in numbers, then following my method in pyramid shape; and I made
her extract the answer, which she wrote down in letters. At
first she only obtained consonants, but by a second process which
supplied the vowels she received a clear and sufficient answer. 
Her every feature expressed astonishment, for she had drawn from
the pyramid the word which was the key to her manuscript. I left
her, carrying with me her heart, her soul, her mind, and all the
common sense which she had left.

...
"We shall have the Comte de St. Germain," said Madame d'Urfe, "to
dinner. I know he amuses you, and I like you to enjoy yourself
in my house."

"For that, madam, your presence is all I need; nevertheless, I
thank you for considering me."

In due course St. Germain arrived, and in his usual manner sat
himself down, not to eat but to talk. With a face of
imperturbable gravity he told the most incredible stories, which
one had to pretend to believe, as he was always either the hero
of the tale or an eye witness of the event. All the same, I
could not help bursting into laughter when he told us of
something that happened as he was dining with the Fathers of the
Council of Trent.

Madame d'Urfe wore on her neck a large magnet. She said that it
would one day happen that this magnet would attract the
lightning, and that she would consequently soar into the sun. I
longed to tell her that when, she got there she could be no
higher up than on the earth, but I restrained myself; and the
great charlatan hastened to say that there could be no doubt
about it, and that he, and he only, could increase the force of
the magnet a thousand times. I said, dryly, that I would wager
twenty thousand crowns he would not so much as double its force,
but Madame d'Urfe would not let us bet, and after dinner she told
me in private that I should have lost, as St. Germain was a
magician. Of course I agreed with her.

A few days later, the magician set out for Chambord, where the
king had given him a suite of rooms and a hundred thousand
francs, that he might be at liberty to work on the dyes which
were to assure the superiority of French materials over those of
any other country. St. Germain had got over the king by
arranging a laboratory where he occasionally tried to amuse
himself, though he knew little about chemistry, but the king was
the victim of an almost universal weariness. To enjoy a harem
recruited from amongst the most ravishing beauties, and often
from the ranks of neophytes, with whom pleasure had its
difficulties, one would have needed to be a god, and Louis XV.
was only a man after all.

It was the famous marquise who had introduced the adept to the
king in the hope of his distracting the monarch's weariness, by
giving him a taste for chemistry. Indeed Madame de Pompadour was
under the impression that St. Germain had given her the water of
perpetual youth, and therefore felt obliged to make the chemist a
good return. This wondrous water, taken according to the
charlatan's directions, could not indeed make old age retire and
give way to youth, but according to the marquise it would
preserve one in statu quo for several centuries.

As a matter of fact, the water, or the giver of it, had worked
wonders, if not on her body, at least on her mind; she assured
the king that she was not getting older. The king was as much
deluded by this grand impostor as she was, for one day he shewed
the Duc des Deux-Ponts a diamond of the first water, weighing
twelve carats, which he fancied he had made himself. "I melted
down," said Louis XV., "small diamonds weighing twenty-four
carats, and obtained this one large one weighing twelve." Thus
it came to pass that the infatuated monarch gave the impostor the
suite formerly occupied by Marshal Saxe. The Duc des Deux-Ponts
told me this story with his own lips, one evening, when I was
supping with him and a Swede, the Comte de Levenhoop, at Metz.

...

After dinner we all went to Passy to be present at a concert
given by M. de la Popeliniere, who made us stay to supper. I
found there Silvia and her charming daughter, who pouted at me
and not without cause, as I had neglected her. The famous adept,
St. Germain, enlivened the table with his wild tirades so finely
delivered. I have never seen a more intellectual or amusing
charlatan than he.

...

When I got to Brussels, where I spent two days, I went to the
"Hotel de l'Imperatrice," and chance sent Mdlle. X. C. V. and
Farsetti in my way, but I pretended not to see them. From
Brussels I went straight to the Hague, and got out at the "Prince
of Orange." On my asking the host who sat down at his table, he
told me his company consisted of general officers of the
Hanoverian army, same English ladies, and a Prince Piccolomini
and his wife; and this made me make up my mind to join this
illustrious assemblage.

I was unknown to all, and keeping my eyes about me I gave my
chief attention to the observation of the supposed Italian
princess, who was pretty enough, and more especially of her
husband whom I seemed to recognize. In the course of
conversation I heard some talk of the celebrated St. Germain, and
it seemed that he was stopping in the same hotel.

I had returned to my room, and was thinking of going to bed, when
Prince Piccolomini entered, and embraced me as an old friend.

"A look in your face," said he, "tells me that the recognition
has been mutual. I knew you directly in spite of the sixteen
years that have passed since we saw each other at Vicenza. 
To-morrow you can tell everybody that we are friends, and that
though I am not a prince I am really a count; here is my passport
from the King of Naples, pray read it."

During this rapid monologue I could not get in a single word, and
on attentively scanning his features I could only recollect that
I had seen him before, but when or where or how I knew not. I
opened the passport and read the name of Ruggero di Rocco, Count
Piccolomini. That was enough; I remembered an individual of that
name who was a fencing-master in Vicenza, and on looking at him
again his aspect, though much changed left no doubt as to the
identity of the swordsman and the count.

"I congratulate you," said I, "on your change of employment, your
new business is doubtless much better than the old."

"I taught fencing," he replied, "to save myself from dying of
hunger, for my father was so hard a man that he would not give me
the wherewithal to live, and I disguised my name so as not to
disgrace it. On my father's death I succeeded to the property,
and at Rome I married the lady you have seen."

"You had good taste, for she's a pretty woman."

"She is generally thought so, and it was a love match on my
side."

He ended by asking me to come and see him in his room the next
day, after dinner, telling me that I should find good company and
a bank at faro, which he kept himself. He added, without
ceremony, that if I liked we could go half shares, and that I
should find it profitable. I thanked him, and promised to pay
him a visit.

I went abroad at an early hour next morning, and after having
spent some time with the Jew, Boaz, and having given a polite
refusal to his offer of a bed, I went to pay my respects to M.
d'Afri, who since the death of the Princess of Orange, the Regent
of the Low Countries, was generally known as His Most Christian
Majesty's ambassador. He gave me an excellent reception, but he
said that if I had returned to Holland hoping to do business on
behalf of the Government I should waste my time, since the action
of the comptroller-general had lowered the credit of the nation,
which was thought to be on the verge of bankruptcy.

"This M. Silhouette," said he, "has served the king very badly. 
It is all very well to say that payments are only suspended for a
year, but it is not believed."

He then asked me if I knew a certain Comte de St. Germain, who
had lately arrived at the Hague.

"He has not called on me," said the ambassador, "though he says
he is commissioned by the king to negotiate a loan of a hundred
millions. When I am asked about him, I am obliged to say that I
know nothing about him, for fear of compromising myself. Such a
reply, as you can understand, is not likely to increase his
chance of success, but that is his fault and not mine. Why has
he not brought me a letter from the Duc de Choiseul or the
Marquise de Pompadour? I take him to be an impostor, but I
shall know something more about him in the course of ten days."

I told him, in my turn, all I knew of this truly eccentric
individual. He was not a little surprised to hear that the king
had given him an apartment at Chambord, but when I told him that
the count professed to be able to make diamonds he laughed and
said that in that case he would no doubt make the hundred
millions. Just as I was leaving, M. d'Afri asked me to dine with
him on the following day.

On returning to the hotel I called on the Comte de St. Germain.

"You have anticipated me," said he, on seeing me enter, "I
intended to have called on you. I suppose, my dear Casanova,
that you have come to try what you can do for our Court, but you
will find your task a difficult one, as the Exchange is highly
offended at the late doings of that fool Silhouette. All the
same I hope I shall be able to get my hundred millions. I have
passed my word to my friend, Louis XV. (I may call him so), and
I can't disappoint him; the business will be done in the next
three or four weeks."

"I should think M. d'Afri might assist you."

"I do not require his assistance. Probably I shall not even call
upon him, as he might say he helped me. No, I shall have all the
trouble, and I mean to have all the glory, too."

"I presume you will be going to Court, where the Duke of
Brunswick may be of service to you?"

"Why should I go to Court? As for the Duke of Brunswick, I do
not care to know him. All I have got to do is to go to
Amsterdam, where my credit is sufficiently good for anything. I
am fond of the King of France; there's not a better man in the
kingdom."

"Well, come and dine at the high table, the company is of the
best and will please you."

"You know I never eat; moreover, I never sit down at a table
where I may meet persons who are unknown to me."

"Then, my lord, farewell; we shall see each other again at
Amsterdam."

I went down to the dining-roam, where, while dinner was being
served,

...

In the course of my life I have often observed that the happiest
hours are often the heralds of misfortune. The very next day my
evil genius took me to the Ville de Lyon. This was the inn where
Piccolomini and his wife were staying, and I found them there in
the midst of a horde of cheats and sharpers, like themselves. As
soon as the good people heard my name they rushed forward, some
to greet me, and others to have a closer look at me, as if I were
some strange wild beast. Amongst those present were a Chevalier
de Sabi, who wore the uniform of a Polish major, and protested he
had known me at Dresden; a Baron de Wiedan, claiming Bohemia as
his fatherland, who greeted me by saying that his friend the
Comte St. Germain had arrived at the Etoile d'Orient, and had
been enquiring after me; an attenuated-looking bravo who was
introduced to me as the Chevalier de la Perine, whom I recognized
at the first glance as the fellow called Talvis, who had robbed
the Prince-Bishop of Presburg, who had lent me a hundred Louis
the same day, and with whom I had fought a duel at Paris. 
Finally, there was an Italian named Neri, who looked like a
blacksmith minus his honesty, and said that he remembered seeing
me one evening at the casino. I recollected having seen him at
the place where I met the wretched Lucie.

...

Next day the worthy Dutchman begged me to oblige him by answering
a question to which his daughter's oracle had replied in a very
obscure manner. Esther encouraged me, and I asked what the
question was. It ran as follows:

"I wish to know whether the individual who desires me and my
company to transact a matter of the greatest importance is really
a friend of the King of France?"

It was not difficult for me to divine that the Comte de St.
Germain was meant. M. d'O was not aware that I knew him, and I
had not forgotten what M. d'Afri had told me.

"Here's a fine opportunity," thought I, "for covering my oracle
with glory, and giving my fair Esther something to think about."

I set to work, and after erecting my pyramid and placing above
the four keys the letters O, S, A, D, the better to impose on
Esther, I extracted the reply, beginning with the fourth key, D. 
The oracle ran as follows:

"The friend disavows. The order is signed. They grant. They
refuse. All vanishes. Delay."

I pretended to think the reply a very obscure one, but Esther
gave a cry of astonishment and declared that it gave a lot of
information in an extraordinary style. M. d'O----, in an ecstasy
of delight, exclaimed,

"The reply is clear enough for me. The oracle is divine; the
word 'delay' is addressed to me. You and my daughter are clever
enough in making the oracle speak, but I am more skilled than you
in the interpretation thereof. I shall prevent the thing going
any further. The project is no less a one than to lend a hundred
millions, taking in pledge the diamonds of the French crown. The
king wishes the loan to be concluded without the interference of
his ministers and without their even knowing anything about it. 
I entreat you not to mention the matter to anyone."

He then went out.

"Now," said Esther, when we were by ourselves, "I am quite sure
that that reply came from another intelligence than yours. In
the name of all you hold sacred, tell me the meaning of those
four letters, and why you usually omit them."

"I omit them, dearest Esther, because experience has taught me
that in ordinary cases they are unnecessary; but while I was
making the pyramid the command came to me to set them down, and I
thought it well to obey."

"What do they mean?"

"They are the initial letters of the holy names of the cardinal
intelligences of the four quarters of the world."

"I may not tell you, but whoever deals with the oracle should
know them."

"Ah! do not deceive me; I trust in you, and it would be worse
than murder to abuse so simple a faith as mine."

"I am not deceiving you, dearest Esther."

"But if you were to teach me the cabala, you would impart to me
these holy names?"

"Certainly, but I cannot reveal them except to my successor. If
I violate this command I should lose my knowledge; and this
condition is well calculated to insure secrecy, is it not?"

"It is, indeed. Unhappy that I am, your successor will be, of
course, Manon."

"No, Manon is not fitted intellectually for such knowledge as
this."

"But you should fix on someone, for you are mortal after all. If
you like, my father would give you the half of his immense
fortune without your marrying me."

"Esther! what is it that you have said? Do you think that to
possess you would be a disagreeable condition in my eyes?"

After a happy day--I think I may call it the happiest of my
life--I left the too charming Esther, and went home towards the
evening.

Three or four days after, M. d'O---- came into Esther's room,
where he found us both calculating pyramids. I was teaching her
to double, to triple, and to quadruple the cabalistic
combinations. M. d'O---- strode into the room in a great hurry,
striking his breast in a sort of ecstasy. We were surprised and
almost frightened to see him so strangely excited, and rose to
meet him, but he running up to us almost forced us to embrace
him, which we did willingly.

"But what is the matter, papa dear?" said Esther, "you surprise
me more than I can say."

"Sit down beside me, my dear children, and listen to your father
and your best friend. I have just received a letter from one of
the secretaries of their high mightinesses informing me that the
French ambassador has demanded, in the name of the king his
master, that the Comte St. Germain should be delivered over, and
that the Dutch authorities have answered that His Most Christian
Majesty's requests shall be carried out as soon as the person of
the count can be secured. In consequence of this the police,
knowing that the Comte St. Germain was staying at the Etoile
d'Orient, sent to arrest him at midnight, but the bird had flown. 
The landlord declared that the count had posted off at nightfall,
taking the way to Nimeguen. He has been followed, but there are
small hopes of catching him up.

"It is not known how he can have discovered that a warrant
existed against him, or how he continued to evade arrest."

"It is not known;" went an M. d'O----, laughing, "but everyone
guesses that M. Calcoen, the same that wrote to me, let this
friend of the French king's know that he would be wanted at
midnight, and that if he did not get the key of the fields he
would be arrested. He is not so foolish as to despise a piece of
advice like that. The Dutch Government has expressed its sorrow
to M. d'Afri that his excellence did not demand the arrest of St.
Germain sooner, and the ambassador will not be astonished at this
reply, as it is like many others given on similar occasions.

"The wisdom of the oracle has been verified, and I congratulate
myself on having seized its meaning, for we were on the point of
giving him a hundred thousand florins on account, which he said
he must have immediately. He gave us in pledge the finest of the
crown diamonds, and this we still retain. But we will return it
to him an demand, unless it is claimed by the ambassador. I have
never seen a finer stone.

"And now, my children, you see what I owe to the oracle. On the
Exchange the whole company can do nothing but express their
gratitude to me. I am regarded as the most prudent and most
farseeing man in Holland. To you, my dear children, I owe this
honour, but I wear my peacock's feathers without scruple.

"My dear Casanova, you will dine with us, I hope. After dinner I
shall beg you to enquire of your inscrutable intelligence whether
we ought to declare ourselves in possession of the splendid
diamond, or to observe secrecy till it is reclaimed."

After this discourse papa embraced us once more and left us.

"Sweetheart," said Esther, throwing her arms round my neck, "you
have an opportunity for giving me a strong proof of your
friendship. It will cost you nothing, but it will cover me with
honour and happiness."

"Command me, and it shall be done. You cannot think that I would
refuse you a favour which is to cost me nothing, when I should
deem myself happy to shed my blood for your sake."

"My father wishes you to tell him after dinner whether it will be
better to declare that they have the diamond or to keep silence
till it is claimed. When he asks you a second time, tell him to
seek the answer of me, and offer to consult the oracle also, in
case my answer may be too obscure. Then perform the operation,
and I will make my father love me all the better, when he sees
that my knowledge is equal to yours."

"Dearest one, would I not do for thee a task a thousand times
more difficult than this to prove my love and my devotion? Let
us set to work. Do you write the question, set up the pyramids,
and inscribe with your own hand the all-powerful initials. Good. 
Now begin to extract the answer by means of the divine key. 
Never was a cleverer pupil!"

When all this had been done, I suggested the additions and
subtractions I wanted made, and she was quite astonished to read
the following reply: "Silence necessary. Without silence,
general derision. Diamond valueless; mere paste."

I thought she would have gone wild with delight. She laughed and
laughed again.

"What an amazing reply!" said she. "The diamond is false, and it
is I who am about to reveal their folly to them. I shall inform
my father of this important secret. It is too much, it
overwhelms me; I can scarcely contain myself for joy! How much I
owe you, you wonderful and delightful man! They will verify the
truth of the oracle immediately, and when it is found that the
famous diamond is but glittering paste the company will adore my
father, for it will feel that but for him it would have been
covered with shame, by avowing itself the dupe of a sharper. 
Will you leave the pyramid with me?"

"Certainly; but it will not teach you anything you do not know." 
The father came in again and we had dinner, and after the
dessert, when the worthy d 'O---- learnt from his daughter's
oracle that the stone was false, the scene became a truly comical
one. He burst into exclamations of astonishment, declared the
thing impossible, incredible, and at last begged me to ask the
same question, as he was quite sure that his daughter was
mistaken, or rather that the oracle was deluding her.

I set to work, and was not long in obtaining my answer. When he
saw that it was to the same effect as Esther's, though
differently expressed, he had no longer any doubts as to his
daughter's skill, and hastened to go and test the pretended
diamond, and to advise his associates to say nothing about the
matter after they had received proofs of the worthlessness of the
stone. This advice was, as it happened, useless; for though the
persons concerned said nothing, everybody knew about it, and
people said, with their usual malice, that the dupes had been
duped most thoroughly, and that St. Germain had pocketed the
hundred thousand florins; but this was not the case.

Esther was very proud of her success, but instead of being
satisfied with what she had done, she desired more fervently
every day to possess the science in its entirety, as she supposed
I possessed it.

It soon became known that St. Germain had gone by Emden and had
embarked for England, where he had arrived in safety. In due
time we shall hear some further details concerning this
celebrated impostor

...

M. d'O---- came back and I went to dine with him. He was pleased
to hear that his daughter had effected a complete cure by
spending a day with me. When we were alone he told me that he
had heard at the Hague that the Comte St. Germain had the art of
making diamonds which only differed from the real ones in weight,
and which, according to him, would make his fortune. M. d'O----
would have been amused if I had told him all I knew about this
charlatan.