though the Empire was disturbed by dissensions within and 

 attacked by enemies without, he threw upon his Ministers 

 and later upon his brothers, the management of imperial 

 affairs. Always taciturn and morose, he was attacked by 

 hypochondriacal moods at whicli time he refused audience to 

 foreign ambassadors and even drove his Ministers from his 

 presence. Courtiers wishing to secure favors from this ec- 

 centric Emperor sometimes addressed him when he was visit- 

 ing the royal stables, as he was then apt to be in a com- 

 plaisant mood. Withdrawing more and more from executive 

 functions he was nevertheless a very busy man, devoting him- 

 self with great zeal to the accumulation of treasures of art 

 and to the cultivation of science as he understood the term. 



"Nicht so wie Max war dessen Sohn, 



Der nun be'stieg den Kaiserthron ; 



Das Reich bekiimmert ihn nicht sehr, 



Sterndeuterei bei weitem mehr 



Und ebenso , es ist zum Lachen 



Die Kunst, aus Steinen Gold zu mac hen." 



Rudolph did not pursue science for the purpose of in- 

 creasing knowledge, nor did he collect paintings, statuary, 

 antiquities and natural curiosities with a view to stimulating 

 progress in art and archaeology; astrology, alchemy and 

 magic were to his superstitious mind true sciences of pre- 

 eminent importance; charlatans claiming knowledge of the 

 Philosophers* Stone and the Elixir of Life, of divination by 

 celestial signs, and pretending to cure diseases by Potable gold 

 or by tincture of pearls, were more cordially welcomed at' 

 the Hradschin than genuine scholars in chemistry, astronomy 

 and medicine. Rudolph's intellectual bias and peculiar dis- 

 position made him the ready prey of swindlers and tricksters 

 of every nation who flocked to Prague and with impudent 

 assurance obtained entrance to the inner circles of the itn- 



13 



