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    ELIZABETH VON RECKE.- 22 9

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    Part Ii. Great Misfortune, Which As Rare...

    superstitious follies so rife in those times ; and the warning would surelconie all the more emphatically from one who had herself

    been y beguiled into the same paths . She therefore resolved to have the journal which she had kept during Cagliostro's visit to

    Mittau , printed and published side by side with the elucidation afforded by of Counsellor her own unprejudiced Bode . So after anxious -reflections was she , and about by the thi communications s work , looking

    on it as a legacy which she owed to her contemporaries , that she dictated , part of it from a sick bed ; and as soon as it was conrpleted

    showed it to her friends . Many of them were much opposed to its being printedand urged herif she insisted on publishing it , at

    least to do so , anonymously ; but , she knew too well how little weight was attached to evidencehowever true and important , if

    unauthenticated by a name . Other , s feared for her the fate of Ganganelli , and besought her not to risk the danger of secret poison ; and as she

    now , in common with many others , believed that Cagliostro was able of any crimethe apprehension seemed by no means

    groundless cap ; but she replied , that no sparrow could fall to the ground without the will of her Heavenly Fatherand if it were His will that she

    , should die , it mattered little whether it were by an illness or by poison . Some objected that she would be breaking her solemn

    initiatory oath of secrecy ; but to this she answered that she did not intend to enter on any needless revelations , and whatever secrets

    she might reveal were only what she was bidden to disclose by the prior obligation which bound her to speak the truth when required

    for the warning of others ; and , besides , Cagliostro himself had told her that she mihtafter the lapse of a year , make known the

    wonders they had g experienced , , and , indeed , had specially wished her to write an account of themto Lavater , with whom she was then in

    , correspondence . In spite of all opposition , conscience urged upon her that it was a duty to sacrifice every personal consideration at the

    shrine of truth ; and this prevailed . Nicolai undertook the publication of her book , and himself wrote

    a preface to it , though he had fairly warned her to weigh well the probable unpleasant consequences . Under the title of " News

    of Cagliostro , " it was brought out at Berlin , in the curious interleaved form consequent on the reflections and explanations of 1787 9

    being arranged so as to be read , page by page , with the journal of 1779 and it attracted universal attention . But what so many of

    her friends , had fearedand she herself had scarcely doubted would be the casesoon resulted , and a host of known and unknown

    writers began , to attack her . , Stark , who was at that tinie head chaplain at the court of Darmstadtand whom she had mentioned in a

    foot-note with some reference , to the charge against him of being Papisticallinclinedbrought out a thick volume against her , which

    was rather y an elaborat , e piece of self-contradiction than a reply to his opponent ; but while he declared all her representations to be

    shallow and superficial , and easily to be explained , he at the same

    Elizabeth Von Recke.- 22 9

    ELIZABETH VON RECKE .- 22 9

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1860, page 229, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061860/page/13/