|
BERYL AND AQUAMARINE. 137
|
||
|
|
||
|
templation
of emeralds, for no verdure can compare to theirs. They are the only
stones that charm the eye without wearying it. Even when the eyes are
fatigued by having looked too continuously on anything, the sight of an
emerald soothes and strengthens them. Lapidaries can find nothing more
refreshing for their tired eyes than the soft greenness of this stone.
It loses its lustre neither in sun nor in shade, nor in artificial
lights. It shines continually with the same soft glow."
The
emerald is mentioned several times in our translation of the Bible, but
it is not certain that the word so translated really meant our emerald.
Among precious stones there is not one that has formed the basis of such great exaggerations as the emerald.
It is Herodotus who first describes those gigantic emeralds of which Theophrastus, Appian, and Pliny make later mention.
Theophrastus
relates that in the books of the Egyptians it was stated that a king of
Babylon had sent to one of their kings an emerald four cubits long and
three thick; and that there was in Egypt, in a temple of Jupiter, an
obelisk made of four emeralds, which nevertheless was forty cubits
long, four cubits thick at some places, and two in others. He adds,
also, that at the time when he wrote, there was yet to be seen at Tyre, in the temple of Her-
|
||
|
|
||