[Earl Stanhope; Crystal Ball; clairvoyance etc] Autograph Letter Signed Stanhope to a Mr Slater, about an inferior quality crystal ball defining a good one..

Two pages, 8vo, bifolium, second leaf tipped onto slightly larger paper, minor staining but text clear and complete. Sir I am sorry to inform you that the Crystal which you sent to Mrs Royce has not answered its purpose, & is, as she assures me, of a very inferior quality, for its Spirit has never yet been seen nor any other spirits perfectly, & my Seer could not see any thing in it. I learn from the Spitit of my own Crystal that it is not a good Crystal and cannot be made good, that you made it too large to be good, that the proper size of a Crystal is about the size of mine, & that Mrs Royce's Crystal is lighter than mine & was not made with the same 'care' as mine, & that you did not take as much time about it. I did not try Mrs Royce's Crystal as I did the others, for it was sent to Lieutnt Morrison who may have been deceived by his Seer. | I will thank you to make the Crystal which I lately bespoke of about the same size as mine, not larger, & the prepare it exactly in the same manner. [...] Note: He shared his father's scientific interests and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 8 January 1807 and was a president of the Medico-Botanical Society. He was a vice-president of the Society of Arts. [Wikipedia]