10	THE DIAMOND
	acy defy time. Among them are " precious stones." Ethereal though it seems as a white cloud in a sunny sky, or mist beads on the leaves at early morning, the pearl recks not of rising or setting suns. The emerald remains green when the grass burns, and it lies vivid yet in the frozen heart of winter. The diamond sparkles and flashes whenever and wherever the light finds it, while the generations which successively enjoyed its beauty, fade and are forgotten. Combined with the qualities that withstand the destruc­tions of time, precious stones possess others which prevent the weariness of monotony growing usually out of changeless existence. These make them as captivat­ing to the senses when the eye dims with age as when they first attracted it in eager youth. To the sun, " soul of surrounding worlds," year after year and age after age, they respond like the stars. " The ruby lights its deepening glow, and with a waving radiance inward flames." From it forever " the sapphire, solid ether, takes its hue cerulean" and all combined, its beams " thick through the whitening opal play." By the play of light and color, precious stones coquette as capri­ciously after a thousand years as in the beginning, and keep ardor burning by a constant revelation of new tones of beauty and a tantalizing but delicious expec­tancy of more. In shadow, mysteries of romance and tragedy slumber in the blood-red of the ruby, but sun­light wakes fires in it, ardent and changeful as the glances of love. We say the color of the ruby is red, and of the emerald, green, and of the sapphire, blue, but as they move in the light, or quiescent, the light rays pass over them, a thousand tones of color in harmonious chords