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THE DIAMOND
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facets,
even for those who profess to despise the bold gem. When the
light-sparks leap from diamond clusters on fair hands or fairer bosoms,
beauty is glorified, and if music reigns, slumbering memories are
roused in a glamour of romance, for the houris of imagination all wear
diamonds and their eyes are like them.
Imitations
of its good qualities as a stone are used by the poets to illustrate
undesirable ones in humanity. Bryant describes a faithless heart as a "
False diamond set in flint." Tasso ennobles the quality of hardness,
and likens a strong heart to the gem. Godfrey's choice troop, sent by
him to get timber from the enchanted forest, return empty-handed and in
terror of the demons infesting it. After reciting the horrors
encountered there, they say:
" The heart that fearless ventures where they dwell, Must be diamond, diamond to the core."
He
several times refers to the hardness, stability, and strength of the
stone, as do other poets, but its brittle-ness seems to have escaped
recognition, for the figures wherein he refers to it, demand toughness
as well as hardness. The two knights, sent to rescue Rinaldo from the
Enchantress, are provided by the hermit-wizard with a shield of
diamond. True, the chief purpose for which it was given appears to have
been that it might be used finally as a kind of magic mirror. As a
shield simply, it was of doubtful value, for a few sturdy blows rightly
placed would have reduced it to splinters. He charges the knights:
" Then with the diamond shield which I provide, Step forth, and so present it for a space,
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