those about to die. She saw in mirrors, cups of water; in soap-bubbles, the coming future.
We are here reminded of many beautiful superstitions and legends; of the secret pool in which the daring may, at mid-moon of night, read the future; of the magic globe, on whose pure surface Britomart sees her future love, whom she must seek, arrayed in knightly armor, through a difficult and hostile world.
| A looking-glass, right wondrously aguized, |
| Whose virtues through the wyde world soon were solemnized. |
| It vertue had to show in perfect sight, |
| Whatever thing was in the world contayned, |
| Betwixt the lowest earth and hevens hight; |
| So that it to the looker appertayned, |
| Whatever foe had wrought, or friend had fayned, |
| Herein discovered was, ne ought mote pas, |
| Ne ought in secret from the same remayned; |
| Forthy it round and hollow shaped was, |
| Like to the world itselfe, and seemed a World of Glas. |
| Faerie Queene, Book III. |
Such mirrors had Cornelius Agrippa and other wizards. The soap-bubble is such a globe; only one had need of second sight or double sight to see the pictures on so transitory a mirror. Perhaps it is some vague expectation of such wonders, that makes us so fond of blowing them in childish years. But, perhaps, it is rather as a prelude to the occupation of our lives, blowing bubbles where all things may
