of the Holy Land," who had initiated him into marvellous
secrets; one in particular who is described as "a man who is not a
European" had "perfectly instructed him." Moreover, de Waechter, who had
set forth poor, returned loaded with riches attributed by his
fellow-masons to the "Asiatic Brethren" he had frequented in Florence
who possessed the art of making gold.[487] I would suggest then that
these were the members of the "Italian Order" referred to by Mr.
Tuckett, which, like Schroepfer and de Hundt, he imagined to have been
connected with the Jacobites.

But all these secret sources of instruction are wrapped in mystery.
Whilst Saint-Germain and Cagliostro--who is referred to in this
correspondence in terms of light derision--emerge into the limelight,
the real initiates remain concealed in the background. Falk "is almost
inaccessible!" Yet one more almost forgotten document of the period may
throw some light on the important part he played behind the scenes in
Masonry.

It may be remembered that Archenholz had spoken of certain marvels he
had seen performed by Falk in Brunswick. Now, in 1770 the German poet
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was made librarian to the Duke of Brunswick in
that city. The fame of Falk may then have reached his ears. At any rate
in 1771 Lessing, after having mocked at Freemasonry, was initiated in a
masonic lodge at Hamburg, and in 1778 he published not only his famous
masonic drama _Nathan der Weise_, in which the Jew of Jerusalem is shown
in admirable contrast to the Christians and Mohammedans, but he also
wrote five dialogues on Freemasonry which he dedicated to the Duke of
Brunswick, Grand Master of all the German Lodges, and which he entitled
"_Ernst und Falk: Gesprache fur Freimaurer_."[488]

Lessing's friendship with Moses Mendelssohn has led to the popular
theory, unsupported however by any real evidence, that the Jewish
philosopher of Berlin provided the inspiration for the character of
Nathan, but might it not equally have been provided by the
miracle-worker of Brunswick? However, in the case of the dialogues less
room is left for doubt. Falk is mentioned by name and represented as
initiated into the highest mysteries of Freemasonry. This is of course
not explained by Lessing's commentators, who give no clue to his
identity.[489] It is evident that Lessing committed an enormous blunder
in thus letting so important a cat out of the bag, for after the
publication of the first three d