Drost Aagé had not neglected to attend Thrand Fistlier's performances, and the optic theatre with which he entertained the astonished visitors at the fair. He had bought of the artist some of his most remarkable and valuable inventions, and gained information of their application and use. He could not refuse his admiration to what he here saw of the famous discoveries of Roger Bacon, and observed the whole exhibition with attention. It consisted chiefly of small optical cases in which the powers of the magnifying glass were applied in a manner hitherto unknown in the North, and by which the artist excited great astonishment. What was seen in these boxes was not only the transformation of small animals into monsters, but even a figurative metamorphosis of the world in Master Thrand's own taste:--saints and martyrs, miraculous sights, and legendary pictures, processions of monks with the Host, the banners of the Madonna, and crucifixes, were represented in a ridiculous manner by the side of all the Grecian and Roman gods with their profanest love adventures. All this passed in dim caricature before the eyes of the spectators, and gave place at last to a number of dazzling allegorical figures, intended to represent Wisdom, Philosophy, Freedom, Burgher Commerce, Political Economy, The Study of Nature, and other subjects of the same kind. As soon as it grew sufficiently dark for the purpose, Master Thrand exhibited small burning wheels, stars, and suns with many-coloured rays, which flew with a clear light into the air, and suddenly exploded with a slight report. The Drost considered this last exhibition both beautiful and remarkable; all these things, however, were but trifles compared with what Master Laurentius had related of the matchless and wondrous feats which this mountebank was capable of performing. The sight of the small stars and suns which flew up over the sea and burst in the calm evening sky, afforded endless amusement to the spectators, to whom it seemed an entirely novel and incomprehensible phenomenon; but the people's admiration of this dazzling diversion as well as the beautiful fantastic spectacle itself in its aërial theatre, threw Aagé into a singularly pensive mood.