Note AN — TRAVELS, ADVENTURES, AND IMPRISONMENTS OF JOSEPH BALSAMO.

“It was his ambition to inaugurate a mother-lodge at Paris, to which the rest should be entirely subordinate. He proclaimed himself as the bearer of the mysteries of Isis and Anubis from the far East. Though he threatened common masonry with a radical reform, his innovations triumphed over all obstacles. He obtained numerous and distinguished followers, who on one occasion assembled in great force to hear Joseph Balsamo expound to them the doctrines of Egyptian freemasonry. At this solemn convention he is said to have spoken with overpowering eloquence, and such was his signal success that his auditors departed in amazement and completely converted to his regenerated and purified masonry. None of them doubted that he was an initiate of the arcana of Nature, as preserved in the temple of Apis at the epoch when Cambyses belaboured that capricious divinity. From this moment the initiations into the new masonry were numerous, albeit they were limited to the aristocracy of society. There are reasons to believe that the grandees who were deemed worthy of admission paid exceedingly extravagantly for the honour.”—Figuier, Hist. du Merveilleux, t. iv. pp. 23, 24.