Where ignorance abounds, rascality thrives, and there was abundant ignorance in the olden times about jewelry and jewels.
Most
of our current newspaper and magazine literature about precious
stones, is a rehash of ancient fables written by men who knew little of
the things they wrote about. They gathered their information largely
from the advertisements of dealers, who endowed their wares with any
virtue which might assist in selling them. And these dealers were
doubtless assisted by men in authority and high place. Even in these
days, if one would place a spring-water on the market, he must first
secure the recommendation of a physician, and that is to be had for a
fee. The vendor of every nostrum has letters by the thousand from
grateful dupes, who think they have been benefited by swallowing it,
and know they would like to see their letters of acknowledgment in
print. Ministers have been known to sing the praises of gold mines in
which they had an interest that cost them nothing. Lords of high degree
and smaller fry are constantly lending their names to doubtful
enterprises, for a consideration. It is but fair to presume,
therefore, that in a stage of the same old human race, where ignorance
was even more rife than now, apostle and birth stones, charms, amulets,
and antidotes, were established in the public faith, not by an apparent
demonstration of fact, but by the reiterations of those who were
seeking profit, aided by others whose place or profession inspired
confidence.
After
the days of oral tradition came the writer. Naturally imaginative,
desirous of supplying that which the people would read, and therefore
inclined to
