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follower of Mesmer, and had met Cagliostro in 1783 at a Masonic lodge in Strasbourg, later becoming an initiate of his Egyptian Rite. De Loutherberg settled in London in 1785, lived in Hammersmith and devoted himself to mesmerism and the pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone; among other occult notables, Cagliostro was one of his guests.

    After his wild weekend, Beckford's taste for oriental magic, as well as for sodomy and adultery, became well known. He frequented occult circles in London and Paris, knew the Swedenborgian violinist Francois-Hippolyte Barthelemon and the kabbalistic painter Richard Cosway. Beckford was in Paris for the early part of the crucial occult year of 1784, when the mystical tide was still rising. Later, the current would begin to ebb with Mesmer's fall, the growing antipathy to freemasonry, and Cagliostro's embroilment in the `Diamond Necklace Affair'. Yet, aside from some titillating dabbling, Beckford's contact with the occult was for the most part superficial. His one real encounter proved unsettling and closed the door on any future initiations. During his visit to Paris in 1781, Beckford made the acquaintance of the architect CharlesNicholas Ledoux. Ledoux was a Freemason and practising occultist, and his architectural style ran to the fantastic. In 1784, he and Beckford renewed their acquaintance, and Ledoux offered to show Beckford his crowning achievement, "the most sumptuous apartment I ever erected." Beckford's own architectural taste was outre and he was eager to see Ledoux's handiwork. After an hour's drive from Paris they arrived at a hidden chateau. Ledoux had explained that his client's interests were "not of the common world" and that his own appearance was "very peculiar."

    After passing through several chambers, Beckford reached a splendid salon, and there Ledoux introduced him to an old man. Though of small stature, he had a powerful presence, and his odd and antique dress piqued Beckford's interest. The old man asked Beckford to regard the many works of art that adorned the room. Beckford was intrigued by a large bronze cistern, resting on a green porphyry base; it was filled to the brim with water. After studying it for a few moments, something peculiar began to happen.
    As I stood contemplating the last gleams ofa ruddy sunset reflected on its placid surface (Beckford wrote in a letter to Louisa) the old man, risen at length from his stately chair, approached and no sooner had he drawn near, than the water becoming agitated rose up in waves. Upon the gleaming surface of the undulating fluid, flitted by a succession of ghastly shadows, somewhat resembling ... the human form in its last agonies of dissolution ...
    The images moved quickly, but Beckford had seen enough to produce a genuine frisson. He later told Louisa that what he had seen in Ledoux's apartment reduced "to insignificance all Loutherberg's specious wonders," and that the phantasmagoria "froze" his "young blood." His reactions, however, did not ingratiate him with Ledoux and the mysterious old man. After remarking that "This is most frightfully extraordinary," a shaken Beckford was led away, apparently having failed the test. Passing out of the inner sanctum, Beckford caught a glimpse of a candle-lit chamber, and heard the low sound of voices chanting. When asked what was taking place, an impassive Ledoux remarked that the place was dedicated to a "high, but not entirely religious purpose." It's conceivable, as Joscelyn Godwin speculates in The Theosophical Enlightenment, that Ledoux, through Loutherberg, saw Beckford as a potential ally - or more likely patron - of some secret society, and brought him to the threshold of initiation. Beckford, however, was an inveterate dilettante, and to him henceforth the portal was closed. After this unsettling experience, Beckford apparently lost all interest in the occult.

    Jacques Cazotte
    Most readers of occult literature know of Jacques Cazotte through the story of his