164 A HISTORY OF 



character in which he himself appeared. In 1786, 

 Giesecke is found editing an actor's newspaper in 

 Regensberg, and from 1791 to 1799, he wrote a 

 number of librettos and operas. He was a friend of 

 Schiller, Klopstock, and Goethe, with whom he corre- 

 sponded, and it is not improbable that he was the 

 original of Wilhelm Meister. He was also associated 

 with Mozart, and there is no doubt he had a large 

 share in writing the libretto of the Magic Flute ; indeed, 

 in a work on German opera, it is recorded that he 

 stated himself as responsible for the whole of it, except 

 the parts of Papageno and Papagena, which may be 

 attributed to Schikaneder, a musician and manager 

 of operatic companies, who was also associated with 

 Mozart. During the middle and at the close of the 

 eighteenth century, Freemasonry flourished in Vienna, 

 where Mozart arrived in 1781, and both he and 

 Giesecke were members of the order. Mozart com- 

 posed a great deal of Masonic music, but by far his 

 most important composition in this line was the 

 opera of the Magic Flute, which was written in 1791. 

 It is understood to contain sympathetic allusions to 

 Freemasonry, and, under cover of a representation of 

 Egyptian mysteries, to have been intended as a glori- 

 fication of the order in Austria. 



Giesecke began in 1794 the serious study of 

 mineralogy, a science towards which he had always 

 had a particular inclination. He subsequently travelled 

 a good deal, and for a time entered the Austrian 

 service, finally settling in Copenhagen, where he con- 

 ducted a school of mineralogy and became a dealer 

 in minerals. In 1806, the King of Denmark sent 

 him to Greenland to study mineralogy and to make 

 charts, &c. In that country Giesecke underwent great 

 privations, and, returning in 1813, he found his way 



