The alchemistic promises of health, wealth and happiness and a pseudo-mystical style of language were effectively employed by these impostors. Some more or less ingenious tricks--such as the use of hollow stirring-rods, in which the gold was concealed, &c.--convinced a credulous public of the validity of their claims. Of these pseudo-alchemists we have already made the acquaintance of Edward Kelley, but chief of them all is generally accounted the notorious “Count Cagliostro.” That “Cagliostro” is rightfully placed in the category of pseudo-alchemists is certain, but it also appears equally certain that, charlatan though he was, posterity has not always done him that justice which is due to all men, however bad they may be. “Count Cagliostro” (--?-1795). § =70.= Of the birth and early life of the personage calling himself “=Count Cagliostro=” nothing is known with any degree of certainty, even his true name being enveloped in mystery. It has, indeed, been usual to identify him with the notorious Italian swindler, Giuseppe Balsamo, who, born at Palermo in 1743 (or 1748), apparently disappeared from mortal ken after some thirty years, of which the majority were spent in committing various crimes. “Cagliostro’s” latest biographer,[88] who appears to have gone into the matter very thoroughly, however, throws very grave doubts on the truth of this theory. [88] W. R. H. TROWBRIDGE: _Cagliostro_: _The Splendour and Misery of a Master of Magic_ (1910). We must acknowledge our indebtedness for many of the particulars which follow to this work. It is, however, unfortunately marred by a ridiculous attempt to show a likeness between “Cagliostro” and Swedenborg, for which, by the way, Mr. Trowbridge has already been criticised by the _Spectator_. It may justly be said of Swedenborg that he was scrupulously honest and sincere in his beliefs as well as in his actions; and, as a philosopher, it is only now being discovered how really great he was. He did, indeed, claim to have converse with spiritual beings; but the results of modern psychical research have robbed such claims of any inherent impossibility, and in Swedenborg’s case there is very considerable evidence for their validity. [Illustration: PLATE 14. _To face page 92_]]