August Nordenskiöld

[Paul Ferguson]

"[Gustav III] was not the possessor of a strong character, but this defect was due, in a great measure, to his early education, or, rather, to the lack of proper training and to the fact that his home influences were inimical to the development of a manly disposition. This will also account, in part, at any rate, for his falling a ready prey to charlatans and swindlers, such as Bjornram, a disciple of Cagliostro ; Haledin, another follower of Cagliostro, who had been sentenced to death for high treason, but who obtained ready audience of Gustavus (who was instrumental in securing his release), because he explained mesmerism in the light of the Swedenborgian philosophy ; Ulfenklows - astrologer, chiromancer, geomancer, hydromancer and spiritist ; Palmstrich, "the true Theosophist by the grace of God " and alchemist, who lived in the perpetual hope of discovering the philosopher's stone ; and Nordenskjold, who actually persuaded the king to fit up a laboratory near Drottningholm, for the making of gold. R. Nisbet Bain, in Gustavus III and His Contemporaries, vol . i, pp . 228-9, has given us the record by an eye-witness of a dark seance held in a cathedral and of the trickery performed in connexion therewith . There was also Boheman who, for a short time, exerted an inimical influence upon both Gustavus III and the Duke of Sudermania . Count Oxenstjerna says that the King " seldom attended the meetings of Grand Lodge, but remained alone in his silent abode, where, unnoticed, he employed himself in the study of his secret art and very rarely did he confide even to his intimate friends the result of his investigations, agitating, as he did, questions beyond the sphere of natural philosophy and coming into the regions of the occult sciences .""

From 'Gould's History of Freemasonry', vol. III, pp. 227-8