deal with a harmless, religious fanatic, and instead of taking 

 umbrage quietly replied that he trusted he would not need 

 earnest protestations to lead a correct life. He also expressed 

 curiosity about the "holy-stone" and Dee soon forgot his 

 fervid religious mood in the quiet conversation that followed 

 on the mysteries of crystallomanc3\ He told the Emperor 

 that the use of crystals in divination was very ancient and 

 analogous to the method with mirrors known as catopt- 

 romancy. According to Varro, the intimate friend of Cicero, 

 these methods originated in Persia ; the Greek mathematician 

 Pythagoras constructed a highly polished steel mirror at the 

 full of the moon, for divination, as early as 500 B. C. 

 Diviners by mirrors were called by the Romans Specularii; 

 they were employed by the ill-fated Roman Emperor Didius 

 Julianus (born 133 A. D.) who sought to learn the issue of 

 the battle about to take place between his general, Severus, 

 and TulHus Crispinus, a child being the seer on that occasion. 

 Dee remarked that Rudolph was of course acquainted with 

 the recently published work describing excellent methods for 

 reading the future, by the Italian philosopher Pico della 

 Mirandola. The mirrors used by these and others were, how- 

 ever, of human manufacture, whereas the "shew-stone" was 

 of supernatural origin, having been given him by the angel 

 Uriel. Rudolph expressed great interest and curiosity in the 

 matter and Dee promised to exhibit its powers on another 

 occasion. 



The conversation then drifted into astrology, especially 

 on the influence of the zodiacal signs on the human anatomy ; 

 Dee criticised the horoscope of the Emperor cast by a Bohe- 

 mian expert as barbarous and offered to work out a correct 

 one, for which purpose he obtained the necessary data as to 

 Rudolph's nativity. The learned Englishman's lofty, mathe- 

 matical way of discussing astronomy rather bored his Majesty 



32 



