LOOKING-GLASSES. Moses says, that the devout Women who sat up all Night at the Door of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, offered very chearfully their Looking-Glasses to be employed in making a Brazen Bason for the Purifications of the Exod. xxxviii. 8. Plin. l. xxiii. c. 9.Priests. These Looking-Glasses were without Doubt of Brass, since the Bason here mentioned, and the Basis of it, were made out of them. Nevertheless some Interpreters are of Opinion, that they were of Glass, with only a Border of Brass. Others will have it, that they were placed about this brazen Vessel, that the Priests might there behold themselves: But it is needless to have Recourse to these Explanations, since we know that Looking-Glasses were formerly made of Brass, Tin, Silver, and a Mixture of Brass and Silver. The last of these were the most valued: Optima apud majores fuerunt Brundusina stanno & æreque mistis. There are some to be seen still at this Day of Metal, which are much esteemed. Saint Cyril of Alexandria1 says, that when the Ægyptian Women went to the Temple dressed in Linnen, they carried a Looking-Glass in their right Hands, and a Sistrum in their left.
Magicians sometimes used Looking-glasses in their superstitious and diabolical Operations; and there are those who affirm2, that Solomon and Alexander had some of them, by the Help whereof they knew all Things natural, and sometimes even supernatural Things: The Way of divining by Looking-Glasses was known among the Ancients. They would hoodwink, they say, the Eyes of a Child, and notwithstanding he should see in the Looking-Glass what People had a Mind to be acquainted with. The Sorcerers of Thessaly who boasted that they could draw down the Moon, wrote the Particulars upon which they were consulted on a Looking-Glass, and he who consulted them, read the Answer, not upon the Looking-Glass, but in the Moon, which, as was said, they procured to descend from Heaven, Lunam deducere.3
The Looking-Glasses of the Ancients were generally round. Seneca inveighs against the Luxury of the Women in his Time, which was arrived to such a Height, that Looking-Glasses were as large as human Bodies, and cost more than formerly was required to endow the Daughter of a Roman General. Do you believe, adds he, that Scipio’s Daughters had Looking-Glasses set in Gold? They to whom the Senate gave a moderate Portion, which now would not be sufficient to purchase a Looking-Glass for the Daughter of a Freed-Man.
Sophocles, according to the Citation in Athenæus4, represents Venus viewing herself in a Looking-Glass, after having perfumed her whole Body. This shews the Antiquity of Looking-Glasses among the Greeks. Pausanias5 speaks of another Looking-Glass, made Use of in Order to know whether sick Persons were recoverable or not. It was fastened to a Pack-thread, and let down gently to the Surface of the Water, so that the Circle or Extremity of it, the Edge of it touched the Water; then they presented their Prayers with burning Incense to the Goddess, and in the Looking-Glass they saw the sick Persons in the Condition wherein they were to be after their Sickness, either dead or in Health.
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