Again we have allusion to what is probably some form of the game of tennis in the following:—
“The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes But Right or Left as strikes the Player goes, And He that tossed Thee down into the Field He knows about it all—HE knows—HE knows.”
Other passages might be quoted, but these are enough for our purpose, for the form of amusement with which we have immediately to concern ourselves is rather a toy than a game—a toy indeed which would seem to have been the forerunner of a somewhat elaborate apparatus which, being used at first for more frivolous purposes, has now been largely adapted to educational ends.
The Magic Lantern of modern times is generally referred back to Athanasius Kircher, who died in 1680, although, according to some, it was known four centuries earlier to Roger Bacon. This may be true enough so far as the “projecting lantern” is concerned, but it can hardly be doubted that it had in the line of its earlier ancestors the Persian Fanus i Khiyal or Lantern of Fancy, which is used with such effect by the Philosopher of Naishápur, and which instigated the design of the {183} rare suppressed etching of which I here propose to treat with some particularity.
As literally translated by Mr. Heron-Allen, the quatrain referring thereto runs as follows:—
“This vault of heaven, beneath which we stand bewildered, We know to be a sort of magic-lantern; Know thou that the sun is the lamp flame and the universe is the lamp, We are like figures that revolve in it.”
As literally translated by Mr. John Payne it run:—“This sphere of the firmament, wherein we are amazed, The Chinese lantern I think a likeness of it; The sun the lamp-stand and the world the lantern; We like the figures are that in it revolve.”
As metrically translated by him into a throwback quatrain it runs:—
“The Sphere and mankind, who therein in amaze are, Chinese-lantern like, well it may seem, to our gaze are; See, the sun is the lamp and the world is the lantern And the figures ourselves, that revolve round the blaze are.”
As rendered by FitzGerald more literally than is his wont it ran in its first state as follows:—