On the table near him, lying on black velvet the better to avoid reflections, was an egg-shaped crystal. A pretty enough thing it was, with its smooth surface clear and very luminous, true rock crystal, wherein your least initiated may gaze with advantage, so termed. For my part, I will take leave to question the advantage. By the crystal stood a gold vessel, cup-shaped, quaintly wrought with devices, of which the most obvious was the pentagram. It held a purplish liquid of the consistency of ink. The room had no windows. At all times it was lighted by a small hanging lamp, two gold wings bearing between them a red glass holding oil and a burning wick. For the better lighting of the place when the Sage was at his studies, there were a couple of candles set in bronze candlesticks. Menippus, reading from the parchment, paused now and again to peer into the gold cup, or look a moment towards the crystal. That some weighty matter was under consideration might be judged by the wrinkling of his brow, and the tapping of his clawlike finger on the table. A tall man, this Menippus, he looked the part himself, or Fate, had given him exceeding well. His hair, white and plentiful, fell straight on either side his face, and to the nape of his neck. His moustache and beard were of glossy silkiness. The latter, pointed, touched the third button of his black gown fashioned not unlike a priest’s cassock, the sleeves only being somewhat wider and looser. Round his neck hung a gold chain, and from it a gold device. The centre thereof was a small cross set within a triangle. Without the triangle was a circle, and without the circle a second triangle. On the forefinger of his right hand he wore a large seal ring, the setting blackened silver, the seal itself very ancient, reddish stone, carved with devices as follows: Man in his potential divinity (I give the reading Menippus would have given you) before the Fire Altar, backed by the Pillar of Truth, and looking towards the Trinity (Pagan), Man, Woman, and Child: these three surmounted by the Supreme,—a Woman crowned with the Sun; behind her, the Cornucopia, before her, the Caduceus; behind the Pillar of Truth, the Crescent Moon, horns pointing upwards; above it, a seven-pointed star. About his head he wore a thin gold fillet, in the centre was placed a Rising Sun. To those versed in such matters the sun, the ring, and the symbol at his breast showed him as belonging to the Ancient Order of Lux. An exceeding ancient Order this, Egyptian, and dating from far beyond the time of Solomon.