ich pension for past services. But, alas! in the year 1620, Prague,
the place he dwelt in, was taken by Frederick, then king of Bohemia,
several members of the imperial council were imprisoned, and some of them
even put to death.

Bereft of every thing he possessed, a prisoner as well as the others, poor
Drebbel would perhaps have undergone the same lot if the High Mighty States
of the United Provinces had not sent a message to the King of England,
asking him to interfere in their countryman's favour. They succeeded in
their benevolent request for his English Majesty obtained at last from his
son-in-law, the Dutch philosopher's liberation, who (I don't exaggerate)
was _made a present of_ to the British king; maybe as a sort of _lion_,
which the king of Morocco had never yet thought of bestowing upon the
monarch as a regal offering.

Drebbel, however, did not forget how much he owed to the intercession of
King James, and, to show his gratitude, presented him with an object of
very peculiar make. I will try to give you an exact version of its not very
clear description in the Dutch book.

"A glass or crystal globe, wherein he blew or made a perpetual
motion by the power of the four elements. For every thing which
(by the force of the elements) passes, in a year, on the surface
of the earth (sic!) could be seen to pass in this cylindrical
wonder in the shorter lapse of twenty-four hours. Thus were
marked by it, all years, months, days, hours; the course of the
sun, moon, planets, and stars, &c. It made you understand what
cold is, what the cause of the _primum mobile_, what the first
principle of the sun, how it moves the firmament, all stars, the
moon, the sea, the surface of the earth, what occasions the ebb,
flood, thunder, lightning, rain, wind, and how all things wax and
multiply, &c.,--as every one can be informed of by Drebbel's own
works; we refer the curious to his book, entitled _Eeuwige
Beweginghe_ (Perpetual Motion)."

Can this instrument have been a kind of Orrery?

"He built a ship, in which one could row and navigate _under
water_, from Westminster to Greenwich, the distance of two Dutch
miles; even five or six miles, as far as one pleased. In this
boat, a person could see under the surface of the water, and
without candlelight, as much as he needed to read in the Bible or
any other book. Not long ago, this remarkable ship w