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Ch. 6: Inherent Diamond Qualities & Cutting

Ch. 5: Celebrated Diamonds (con't) Page of 448 Ch. 6: Inherent Diamond Qualities & Cutting Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
CHAPTER VI
INHERENT QUALITIES OF THE DIAMOND AND DIAMOND
CUTTING
T HE qualities which make a diamond so supremely beautiful are those which husband and coquette with light. As trembling dewdrops, restless waters, or the windows of a far-off cottage, receive the sun's rays and signal his glory far and wide with their flashlights, so the diamond makes an altar for the light of the at­mosphere. But the water is unstable and the light of the window is evanescent; the diamond is everywhere and always ready for a single ray or the flood of noon. If a nimble ray glides over its surface, yet more swiftly does the diamond catch it in the passing, and breaking it into many, sends them on, a sparkling shower. Harder than all else, its glistening walls nevertheless give cheer­ful entry to the light, but exit, if properly cut, only where it entered. Once within, the adamantine faces smile and smile and pass it on, to cast it forth finally, effulgent. It is very wonderful that a thing can be at once so pervious and so impervious.
Light falling vertically upon the surface of a diamond, enters and passes on in a straight line, but of that which strikes it in a slanting direction, part is reflected and part enters. That which enters is refracted or bent. This is a power peculiar to mediums more dense than air. All precious stones possess it, but it is greater in the
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Ch. 5: Celebrated Diamonds (con't) Page of 448 Ch. 6: Inherent Diamond Qualities & Cutting
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