and this extraordinary victim probably could not in his most
dispassionate moments precisely distinguish what belonged to the one,
and what to the other.

As Dee was an enthusiast, so he perpetually interposed in his
meditations prayers of the greatest emphasis and fervour. As he was
one day in November 1582, engaged in these devout exercises, he says
that there appeared to him the angel Uriel at the west window of his
Museum, who gave him a translucent stone, or chrystal, of a convex
form, that had the quality, when intently surveyed, of presenting
apparitions, and even emitting sounds, in consequence of which the
observer could hold conversations, ask questions and receive answers
from the figures he saw in the mirror. It was often necessary that the
stone should be turned one way and another in different positions,
before the person who consulted it gained the right focus; and then
the objects to be observed would sometimes shew themselves on the
surface of the stone, and sometime in different parts of the room by
virtue of the action of the stone. It had also this peculiarity, that
only one person, having been named as seer, could see the figures
exhibited, and hear the voices that spoke, though there might be
various persons in the room. It appears that the person who discerned
these visions must have his eyes and his ears uninterruptedly engaged
in the affair, so that, as Dee experienced, to render the communication
effectual, there must be two human beings concerned in the scene, one
of them to describe what he saw, and to recite the dialogue that took
place, and the other immediately to commit to paper all that his
partner dictated. Dee for some reason chose for himself the part of
the amanuensis, and had to seek for a companion, who was to watch the
stone, and repeat to him whatever he saw and heard.