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The Comte de St. Germain - by Isabel Cooper-Oakley - [1912]

From 1763, the date at which we have now arrived, up to 1769, we only get the details of one year in Berlin, and this account comes from the memoirs of M. Dieudonné Thiébault, who gives the following interesting sketch:

"There came to Berlin and remained in that city for the space of a year a remarkable man, who passed by the name of the Comte de St. Germain. The Abbé Pernety was not slow in recognising in him the characteristics which go to make up an adept, and came to us with wonderful stories."

The author then goes on to relate that the Princess Amélie went to call on him, and he also remarks that the old Baron Knyhausen was always addressed by M. de St. Germain as "my son." Says our author:--

"Madame de Troussel was also anxious to see him. The Abbé Pernety arranged the matter for her, and the Comte came to her house one evening to supper. They chanced to make mention of the 'Philosopher's Stone,' and the Comte curtly observed that most people who were in pursuit of that were astonishingly illogical, inasmuch as they employed no agent but fire, forgetting that fire breaks up and decomposes, and that consequently it was mere folly to depend upon it for the building up of a new composition. He dwelt much upon this, and finally led the conversation back to more general topics.