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CHAPTER VI
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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 atÂmosphere. 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
cheerÂful 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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