ABSTRACT
Cagliostro hinting at sorcery, the Armenian smiled somewhat scornfully, and dilated on the ignorance of a nation which confused science with witchcraft, and prepared faggots for discoverers. Cagliostro advanced cautiously along a narrow passage, illuminated by a small iron lamp in a niche of the wall. At the extremity of the passage a big door swung open, giving admittance to an apartment which was illuminated by four-branched candelabra, containing tapers of wax, and was, in fact, a laboratory furnished with all the apparatus in use among alchemists. He silenced the expressed astonishment and admiration of Cagliostro by declaring that the art of divination was simply the result of scientific calculation and close observation. Cagliostro later claimed to have followed his instructor into the heart of Africa and to Egypt, to have visited the pyramids, making the acquaintance of the priests of several temples, and penetrating to their inner sanctuaries.
