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DIAMONDS IN LITERATURE 397
In Tasso's
gorgeous word picture of scenes discovered by the wizard to the two
knights in search of Rinaldo, are two lines which embody in small space
the highest conception of precious, gem-like beauty:
—" flashed the diamond white In virgin state, on sparkling opals piled."
What
greater magnificence could earth afford than a mass of virgin white
diamonds radiating light from an opalescent bed of vivid, changeful
color.
In
his lines to the memory of Lord Talbot, Thomson, with a nice
understanding of the gem, illustrates by it the perfection of a great
soul in graceful fashion thus:
"
How from the diamond single out each ray, Where all, though trembling
with ten thousand hues, Effuse one dazzling, undivided light?"
The
changing colors which the diamond's dispersive powers scatter from the
white light rays falling upon it, were suggested to Moore by the
brilliant plumage of a humming-bird, and he unites them so that each
brings to the mind a realization of the beauty of the other:
" See him now, while diamond hues Soft his neck and wings suffuse."
Mental
brilliancy reminds him of the bright hard stone, and by the well-known
qualities of the gem, he makes a clearer impress of the more subtle
qualities of the mind, in this way:
" While Wit a diamond brought, Which cut his bright way through."
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