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All this was quite new to Virginia, where there is neither barns nor provifion for cattle.

His horfes, his affes, his mules, were wandering in the neighbouring paftures. He told us, that it was his intention to fet his country the example of cultivating, artificial meadows, fo rare in it, yet fo neceffary, as in winter the cattle are frequently in want of fodder. He had a noble stallion, which will keep up the breed of good horfes in the country, and fhowed us two fine affes from Malta and Spain.

His three hundred negroes were diftributed in log-houfes fcattered over the estate, which in that part contains upwards of ten thoufand

acres.

Colonel Humphreys, the poet of whom I have already fpoken, and who lives with him in the quality of his fecretary affured me, that his poffeffions in different, places confifted of more than two hundred thoufand

acres.

The General had invited over from England a good English farmer, with his family, and placed him at the head of his hufbandry.

Every thing in the General's houfe is fimple. His table is well fupplied, but without oftentation. Mrs Wafhington fuperintends every thing, and with the qualities of an excellent farmer's wife unites that fimple dignity which ought to distinguish a woman whofe husband has filled the greatest ftation. To thefe fhe adds alfo that fweetness, and that attention to ftrangers, which renders hofpitality fo agreeable. The fame virtues are poffeffed by her engaging niece, whofe health, unhappily, appears to be very

delicate.

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in his eyes. They have no longer that fire which his officers found in them when at the head of his army; but they brighten in converfation. In his countenance there are no ftriking features; whence it is difficult to catch a likeness of him, for few of his portraits resemble bin. All his anfwers difcover good fenfe, confummate prudence, and great diffidence of himfelf; but at the fame time, an unalterable firmnefs in the part he has once embraced. His modefty cannot but be particularly aftonishing to a Frenchman. He fpeaks of the American war as if he had not been the conductor of it; and of his victories with an indifference with which no ftranger could mention them. I never faw him grow warm, or depart from that coolness which characterises him, except when talking on the prefent state of America. The divifions of his country rend his foul. He feels the neceffity of rallying all the friends of liberty around a central point, and of giving energy to the government. To his country he is ftill ready to facrifice that quiet which conftitutes his happinefs. Happiness, faid he to me, is not in grandeur, is not in the bustle of life. This philofopher was fo thoroughly convinced of the truth of this, that from the moment of his retreat he broke off every political connection, and renounced every place in the government; yet in spite of fuch a renunciation, of fuch difinterestedness, of fuch modefty, this aftonishing man has enemies! He has been vilified in the new papers, he has been accused of ambition, of intrigue, when all his life, when all America, can witnefs his difintereftednefs, and the rectitude of his conduct: Virginia is perhaps the fole country where he has enemies; for no where elfe have I heard his name pronounced but with refpect, mixed with affection and gratitude. You would think the Americans were fpeaking of their father. It would

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be wrong perhaps to compare Wafh. he knew, on the other, their profound idolatry for their ancient government and their monarchy, the inviolability of which appeared to him ridiculous.

ington with the most celebrated warriors: but he is the model of a republican; difplaying all the qualities, all the virtue of one.

He spoke to me of Mr la Fayette with tenderness. He confidered him as his fon; and faw with joy, ́mixed with anxiety, the part he was about to play in the revolution preparing in France. Of the iffue of that revolution he had his doubts if he knew, on the one hand, the ardour of the French in rufhing into extremes,

After having spent about three days in the house of that celebrated man, who loaded me with civilities, and gave me much information, refpecting both the late war and the prefent fituation of the United States, I returned with regret to Alexan"dria.

M

Anecdotes of Count Cagliostro.*.,

SINCE the death of Jofeph Francis Borri, the celebrated chemift, herefiarch, phyfician, and prophet, who distinguished himself about the beginning of the feventeenth century, by his uncommon capacity and numerous impoftures, Europe has not, perhaps, produced fuch an extraordinary cha racter as Jofeph Balfamo, commonly known by the name of Count Cagliol

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fceptre of Trebifond! To infufe into this fory a greater portion of the mar vallous, it was added, that a revolution taking place in confequence of which, the reigning fovereign was facrificed to the fury of his feditious fubjects, his infant fon was conveyed by a trufty friend to Medina, where the Muffalman Sherif had the generofity to educate him in the faith of his Chriftian parents. He himself afferted, that at an age, when he firit became confcious, of his exiftence, he found himself in the city of Medina, was called Acharat, had a perfon of the name of Altatas for his governor, was attended by two eunuchs, who treated him with the utmost deference and refpect, and refided in the house of the Mufti Salaahym.

In a memoir publifhed by himself while in England, being defrous to conceal the fecret of his origin beneath an impenetrable veil of mystery, he pretended that he could not fpeak pofitively. as to the place of his nativity, nor in regard to the parents from whom he derived his birth. This circumftance gave an ample scope to the imagination of his followers, fome of This account, which, it must be acwhom pretended that he was the off-knowledged, has all the air of a rofpring of the grand mafter of Malta, by a Turkifh lady, taken captive by a galley belonging to that ifland; while others with equal probability, affert ed that he was the only furviving fon of that Prince, who about thirtyfive years ago fwayed the precarious

mance, could neither fatisfy nor impofe upon the inquifition. The holy fathers accordingly made the ftrictelt fearch after the origin of Cagliostro, and at lat difcovered, that this pretended prince and heir apparent to the kingdom of Trebifond, was the fon

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of Peter Balfamo and Felicia Braco- nativity, on account of having duped a goldsmith of the name of Morano. out of about fixty pieces of gold, by taking advantage of his avarice. The exafperated jeweller not only applied to a magiftrate for juftice, but also threatened to revenge his wrongs by means of his ftiletto, and to avoid thefe impending calamities, Cagliostro thought proper to withdraw himself from his vengeance.

nieri, both of them perfons of mean extraction, and that he was born at Palermo on the 8th of June, 1745. His father happening to die during his infancy, his maternal uncles took him under their protection endeavoured to inftruct him in the principles of religion, and gave him an education fuitable to his years and their own fituation; but from his earliest infancy he is faid to have shewn him felf fo averfe to a virtuous course of Jife, that he would not remain at the feminary of St Roch at Palermo, where he had been placed for his inftruc

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We hall not follow this celebrated adventurer through the several capitals of Europe, nor recapitulate the various deceptions by which he procured immenfe fums of money. His www.connexion with Cardinal de Rohan, and with Madame de la Motte, in the memorable affair of the diamondnecklace purchased in the name of the Queen of France, his two journies to England, and his tricking à quaker, during his refidence in Lon

cy of his wife, are all detailed at full length. The fecrets too of his Egypt tian mafoury, and his fuccefsful impofitions by means of a pretended intercourfe with the world of fpirits, are related and commented upon.

At thirteen years of age he was fent to a convent at Caltagirone, where he affumed the habit of a novice, and being placed under the tuis tion of the apothecary, he learned from him the first principles of chemiftry and medicine. He did not condon, out of a fum of money by the agentinue long in this afylum; during his ftay, however, if we are to put impli eit confidence in his right reverend biographers, he exhibited for many new fymptoms of a vicious character, that the religious were often under the neceffity of chaftifing him. It is res After committing a multitude of corded, among other things, that frauds in various kingdoms, and efbeing employed to read during meals, caping from the hand of justice in alas is customary in all holy communi- most every capital of Europe, Caglities, he could never be prevailed upon oftro at length, by uncommon fatality, to recite what aappared in the book was arrested in his career, and conbefore him, but, on the contrary, he demned to death in the only metropowould repeat whatever occurred to his lis, perhaps, in which he could not own imagination; nay, he has even have been convicted of a breach confeffed, that in reading the eartyro- of the moral obligations that conjogy, he used to fubítitute the names nectomans with fociety. Having of the most famous courtezans of the repaired to Rome in 1789, he endea time, instead of thofe of the female voured to procure difciples, and even faints ! walton, inflituted a lodge of Egyptian mafonHaving foen after abandoned his con ry. The papal government, jealous of rent on account of the rigour of its its authority, and terrified, left this difcipline, and the fevere mortifica affociation fhould plot against the fafetions he was expofed to, the friar electry of the ecclefiaftical ftate, ordered returned to Palermo. There he was him to be feized on the evening of the frequently feized and imprisoned on 27th of December in the fame account of his conduct, and at length and, after an exact inventory of his was forced to fly from the place of his moveables had been taken and fealed

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favour or form focieties and conventicles of free-mafons, as by the edict of the council of ftate, against thofe who are guilty of this crime at Rome, or any other place under the dominion of the pope.

Notwithstanding this, by way of fpecial grace and favour, this crime, the expiation of which demands the delivery of the culprit over to the secular arm, to be by it punished with death, is hereby changed, and commuted into perpetual imprisonment, in a fortress, where the culprit is to be

in his prefence, he was fecretly conveyed to the caftle of St Angelo. We shall not enter into the particulars of his trial, but content ourselves with observing, that it is afferted with uncommon acrimony, that his religion tended towards deifm;' that during twenty-seven years of his life he was never perceived to make the fign of the cross;' and that, he was not a diligent obferver of the precepts of the church which enjoin the hearing of mass on festivals, and fafting and abftaining from flesh meat on certain occations. The only crime fair-ftrictly guarded, without any hope of ly proved against him was that of be pardon whatever. And after he fhall ing a free mafon; this however is a have made abjuration of his offences, capital felony within the ecclefiaftical as a formal heretic, in the place o ftate, by an edict of Clement xii. of his imprisonment, he fhall be abfolved glorious memory,' confirmed by a ball from ecclefiaftical cenfures; and cerof the immortal Benedict xiv. Ac- tain falutary penance is to be preferibcordingly Cagliostro being convicted ed to him, to which he is hereby ordeadly fin,' notwithstanding dered to fubmit.s the knowledge and abilities of Signora Gaetano Bernardini, and Signor Charles Louis Conftantini, the counfel affigned him, he was condemned to death. The procefs was then car ried the general affembly of the Ocfore holy office on the 24th of March, 1791, and, according to cuftom, was referred to the Pope on the 7th of April following.

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The manufcript book entitled, Egyptian Mafonry,' is hereby folemly condemned, as containing rites, propofitions, a doctrine and a fyftem, which open a road to sedition, as tending to deftroy the Chriftian religion, and as being fuperftitious, impious, heretical, and abounding in blafphemy this book shall therefore be burnt by the hand of the executioner; and We fhall conclude this curious sar alfo the other books, symbols, &c. &c. ticle by a copy of the definitive fen-appertaining and belonging to that tence, which will convey a lafting reproach on the reign of Pius vi. who,By a new apostolic law, we shalk under fuch flight pretences, detained, confirm and renew not only the laws tried, and condemned Cagliostro to per- of the preceding pontiffs, but allo butallo petual imprisonment. the edict of the council of ftate, which Jofeph Balfamo, attainted and con- prohibits the focieties and conven victed of many crimes, and of having ticles of free mafons, making particu incurred the cenfures and penalties olar mention of the Egyptian fest, and pronounced against formal heretics, of another vulgarly called the Illumin dogmatifts, herefiarchs, and propaga-vated and we hall enact the most tors of magic and fuperftition, bas grievous corporal punishments, and been found guilty and condemned to principally thofe provided for heretics, the cenfures and penalties denounced, against whofoever fhall affociates. Hold as well by the apoftolic laws of Cle- communication with, or protect tholement. xii. and of Benedict xiv. against focieties. thofe who in any manner whatever

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Now proceed to speak of the moft important article of the Athenian religion, of those myfteries, the origin of which is loft in the obfcurity of time, of which the ceremonies inspire no lefs dread than veneration, and the fecret of which has never been revealed but by fome perfons immediately condemned to death and the public execration; for the law is not fatif fied with depriving them of life and confifcating their goods, the remembrance of their crime and punishment must be preserved on a column expof ed to every eye.

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Among all the mysteries inftituted in honour of different divinities, there are none fo celebrated as thofe of the goddefs Ceres; fhe herself, it is faid, appointed the ceremonies. While the traverfed the earth in fearch of Proferpine, who had been carried off by Pluto, the arrived in the plain of Eleufis, and, pleafed at the reception fhe met with from the inhabitants, bestowed on them two fignal benefits; the art of agriculture, and the knowledge of the facred doctrine. The leffer my fteries, which ferve as a preparation to the greater, were inftituted in favour of Hercules.

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To fhun fo fearful an alternative, the Greeks repair from all parts to solicit at Eleufis the pledge of happiness there offered them. From the most tender age the Athenians are admitted to the ceremonies of initiation, and thofe who have never participated in them request to be admitted to them before they die; for the menaces and reprefentations of the punishments of another life, which they had before garded as a fubject of derifion, then make the ftrongest impreffion on their minds, and fill them with fears, which are fometimes of the most abject kind.

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Yet fome enlightened perfons do not believe that to be virtuous there is any neceffity for fuch an affociation. Socrates would never be initiated, and his refufal gave birth to fome doubts concerning his religion. Diogenes was once advised, in my prefence, to contract this facred engagement; but he anfwered: "Patacion "the notorious robber obtained initia"tion; Epaminondas and Agefilaus "never folicited it; is it poffible I "fhould believe that the former will "enjoy the blifs of the Elyfian Fields, "while the latter fhall be dragged "through the mire of the infernalfhades?"

But let us leave fuch idle traditions to the vulgar, fince it is of lefs importance to be acquainted with the authors of this religious fyftem, than to discover its object. It is afferted that, wherever it has been introduced by the Athenians, it has diffufed a fpirit" of union and humanity; that it purifies the foul from its ignorance and pollution; that it procures to the initiated the peculiar aid of the gods, the means of arriving at the perfection of virtue, the ferene happinefs of a holy life, and the hope of a peaceful death and endless felicity. The initiated hall occupy a diftinguished place in

All the Greeks may claim to be admitted to initiation into the myfteries, but the people of every other nation are excluded by an ancient law. I had been promifed that this law fhould be difpenfed with in my behalf. I had in my favour the title of citizen of Athens, and the powerful. authority of examples. But as it

* From "Travels of Anacharfis the Younger, in Gre.ce."

would

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