hours watching the revolutions of the lathes and the swing 

 of the polishing stones, to listening to the appeals of his 

 councillors for advice on religious problems and political 

 exigencies which were threatening disaster to the Empire. 



Mineralogy as a science had no existence; an empirical 

 knowledge of the value of ores and of the methods of extract- 

 ing the useful constituents was all that learned men had 

 attained; it is hardly surprising therefore that Rudolph set 

 a high value on specimens of rocks and minerals having 

 accidental markings on their surface that bore fancied 

 resemblances to natural objects, such as clouds, marshes, 

 rivers, cities, plants, animals, letters of the alphabet, and 

 even the features of the Saints. For these and for lodes tones, 

 thunder-stones so-called, and stones believed to increase in 

 size as they reposed on the shelves of the cabinet, extra- 

 ordinary prices were paid, relatively higher than for the 

 magnificent emeralds, sapphires, opals, topazes, pearls and 

 diamonds that gave real value to the imperial collections. 

 Among the highly prized curiosities were a skull carved out 

 of yellow agate, an ewer and basin of rock crystal bought 

 of Octavio Miseroni for eight hundred thalers, and a bowl 

 of the same translucent material, valued at twenty thousand 

 thalers, now preserved in the royal museum at Vienna. 



Josef Svatek, the Bohemian historian, whose essay we 

 follow, likens the Rudolphine cabinet of curiosities to the 

 heterogeneous assemblage in Barnum's museum long time one 

 of the sights of New York city; and with some reason, for 

 besides the objects above named, might have been seen the 

 following: Mummies and other Egyptian antiquities, ethno- 

 logical curiosities of American Indians, stuffed birds and bird 

 eggs from the four quarters of the globe, ivory carvings of 

 exquisite workmanship in great variety, a small altar of 

 silver inlaid with gold, artistic and unusual clocks, a superb 



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