1825 Mirror Article

I recently picked up a new article from The Mirror.

The Mirror, No. CXLVLJ, Saturday June 18, 1825.

Article Text:

Count De St. Germain

At the court of Louis XV, was a singular charlatan, said to be a bastard son of the King of Portugal, and a worthy predecessor of the notorious Cagliostro: --

"The Count de St. Germain pretended to have already lived two thousand [years,] and according to him, the account was still running.  He went so far, as to claim the power of transmitting the gift of long life.  One day, calling upon his servant to bear witness to a fact that went pretty far back, the man replied, 'I have no recollection of it, sir; you forget that I have only had the honour of serving you for five hundred years.'

"St. Germain, like all other charlatans of this sort, assumed a theatrical magnificence and an air of science calculated to deceive the vulgar.  His best instrument of deception was the phantasmagoria; and, as by means of this abuse of the science of optics, he called up shadow which were asked for, and almost always recognized his correspondence with the other world was a thing proved by the concurrent testimony of numerous witnesses.

"He played the same game in London, Venice, and Holland, but he constantly regretted Paris, where his miracles were never questioned.

"St. Germain passes his latter days at the court of the Prince of Hesse Cassel, and died at Plewig, in 1784, in the midst of his enthusiastic disciples, and to their infinite astonishment at this sharing the common destiny."

The count used to amuse himself, as he said, not by making, but by letting it be believed that he lived in old times; he also pretended to remove spots from diamonds and to make pearls grow.  One day, --

"The king ordered a diamond of middling size, which had a spot, to be brought.  It was weighed; and the king said to the count, 'It is valued at two hundred and forty pounds; but it would be worth four hundred if it had no spot.  Will you try to put a hundred and sixty pounds in my pocket?'  He examined it carefully, and said, 'It may be done; and I will bring it you again in a month.'  At the time, appointed, the count brought back the diamond, without a spot, and gave it to the king.  It was wrapped in a cloth of amianthus, which he took off.  The king had it weighed, and found it to be very little diminished.  The king sent it to his jeweller, by M. de Gontaut, without telling him anything of what had passed.  The jeweler gave three hundred and eighty pounds for it.  The kind, however, sent for it back again, and kept it as a curiosity.  He could not overcome his surprise, and said, that M. de St. Germain must be worth millions, especially if he had also the secret of making large diamonds out of a number of small ones. He neither said that he had, nor that he had not; but he positively asserted, that he could make pearls grow, and give them the finest water."

Housset's Memoirs.

Analysis

This is a typical article on historical mysterious figures. Later in the 19th century, these would be expanded upon and the mystery amplified. Articles of slander, especially regarding those of a questionable nature (magicians, occultists, etc), have been found throughout history making this a common practice.

His servant is not named in this article, but has been named in other works as "Roger" and "Zeffort".

What is amianthus?  This is mentioned “it was wrapped in a cloth of amianthus”.  Amianthus is a type of asbestos. It was often woven into fabric and used to preserve the ashes of the dead. The dead could be wrapped in a cloth of amianthus and burned, but the amianthus being incombustible would simply contain the burned ashes of the body.

It's important to understand specific materials that become mentioned as it helps us create a more well-rounded picture of history. What the amianthus indicates is that high heat may have been a factor in his work.

This piece is noted as coming from Housset's Memoirs. Here is a link to a free text on Project Gutenberg of the memoirs.

What do you think? Is there something I missed?