dea. Not but that I really
am much older than I appear."

Many other stories are related of this strange impostor; but enough have
been quoted to shew his character and pretensions. It appears that he
endeavoured to find the philosopher's stone; but never boasted of
possessing it. The Prince of Hesse Cassel, whom he had known years before,
in Germany, wrote urgent letters to him, entreating him to quit Paris, and
reside with him. St. Germain at last consented. Nothing further is known
of his career. There were no gossipping memoir-writers at the court of
Hesse Cassel to chronicle his sayings and doings. He died at Sleswig,
under the roof of his friend the prince, in the year 1784.

CAGLIOSTRO.

This famous charlatan, the friend and successor of St. Germain, ran a
career still more extraordinary. He was the arch-quack of his age, the
last of the great pretenders to the philosopher's stone and the water of
life, and during his brief season of prosperity, one of the most
conspicuous characters of Europe.

His real name was Joseph Balsamo. He was born at Palermo, about the year
1743, of humble parentage. He had the misfortune to lose his father during
his infancy, and his education was left in consequence to some relatives
of his mother, the latter being too poor to afford him any instruction
beyond mere reading and writing. He was sent in his fifteenth year to a
monastery, to be taught the elements of chemistry and physic; but his
temper was so impetuous, his indolence so invincible, and his vicious
habits so deeply rooted, that he made no progress. After remaining some
years, he left it with the character of an uninformed and dissipated young
man, with good natural talents but a bad disposition. When he became of
age, he abandoned himself to a life of riot and debauchery, and entered
himself, in fact, into that celebrated fraternity, known in France and
Italy as the "Knights of Industry," and in England as the "Swell Mob." He
was far from being an idle or unwilling member of the corps. The first way
in which he distinguished himself was by forging orders of admission to
the theatres. He afterwards robbed his uncle, and counterfeited a will.
For acts like these, he paid frequent compulsory visits to the prisons of
Palermo. Somehow or other he acquired the character of a sorcerer--of a
man who had failed in discovering the secrets of alchymy, and had sold his
soul to the devil for the gold which he was not able to make