Abraham Cowley writes thus.
With hasty wings, time present they out-fly,
And tread the doubtful maze of destiny;
There walk and sport among the years to come,
And with quick eye pierce every causes womb.
The magicians now use a crystal sphere, or mineral pearl, as No. 3,
for this purpose, which is inspected by a boy, or sometimes by the
querent himself.
No. 3. {Illustration}
There are certain formulas of prayer to be used, before they make the
inspection, which they term a call. In a manuscript of Dr. Forman of
Lambeth, (which Mr. Elias Ashmole had) is a discourse of this, and the
prayer. Also there is the call which Dr. Nepier did use.
James Harrington (author of Oceana) told me that the Earl of Denbigh,
then Ambassador at Venice, did tell him, that one did shew him there
several times in a glass, things past and to come.
When Sir Marmaduke Langdale was in Italy, he went to one of those
Magi, who did shew him a glass, where he saw himself kneeling before a
crucifix: he was then a Protestant; afterwards he became a Roman
Catholick. He told Mr. Thomas Henshaw, E.S.S., this himself.
I have here set down the figure of a consecrated Beryl, as No. 4, now
in the possession of Sir Edward Harley, Knight of the Bath, which he
keeps in his closet at Brampton-Bryan in Herefordshire, amongst his
Cimelia, which I saw there.
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