depths translucent he beholds
The nymphs, unconscious of the winter colds:
And the dry ball exploring with his lip,
Seems, while he fails, the illusive lymph to sip."

The Latin is subjoined:--

"Dum crystalla puer contingere lubrica gaudet
Et gelidum tenero pollice versat onus,
Videt perspicuo deprensas in marmore nymphas,
Dura quibus solis parcere novit hyems:
Et siccum religens labiis sitientibus orbem,
Irrita quaesitis oscula figit aquis."

Not the least remarkable of the qualities here ascribed to the crystal
ball is its energy in imparting the sensation of cold. Dom Chifflet, who,
in 1665, published his learned treatise at Antwerp on the objects then
recently discovered in the supposed tomb of King Childeric, at Tournay,
says of the crystal ball which was found amongst them, "You would say it
was petrified ice; so cold it was, that my palm and fingers, after
handling it, were quite torpid." And cites Anslem Boetius, in his book on
stones and gems, as saying, "the crystal is of so cold and dry a nature,
that placed beneath the tongue of a feverish person, it allays the thirst;
and held in the hands even of those violently fevered, it refreshes and
cools them, especially if it be of considerable size, and of a spherical
figure;" and another writer on the same subject, Andreas Cisalpinus, who
states of the marble called ophite, that "they make of it little globes,
for the handling of such as are in burning fever, the coldness of the
stone expelling the disease." So far Dom Chifflet. It seems almost as if
we were reading Reichenbach. "He (Reichenbach) found that crystals are
capable of producing all the phenomena resulting from the action of a
magnet on cataleptic patients. Thus, for instance, a large piece of rock
crystal, placed in the hand of a nervous patient, affects the fingers so
as to make them grasp the crystal involuntarily, and shut the fist.
Reichenbach found that more than half of all the persons he tried were
sensible of its action." Chifflet probably was a man of a nervous
temperament. Those who desire to see the crystal ball in question, may
inspect it, where it is still preserved, with other objects found in the
tomb, at the Gallerie de Medailles, in Paris. Two similar balls may be
seen here in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy.

The use of water in communicating an ecstacy similar to the mesmeric
lucidity, is largely dwelt on by the mystical writers known as the