Ch. 2: Superstitions of Gemstones

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	SUPERSTITIONS AND RELIGIOUS USES are not satisfied with the translation, and say that the words rendered diamond really signify a stone hard to break, or a stone used in breaking others. It is considered very doubtful if the diamond was really known in the time of Moses. If the poet exclaims: "The woods were God's first temples," how truly may we also say, "The stones were man's first tablets!" If the geologist tells us of "Sermons in stones", we think that these sparkling jewels have "sermons" also. This is especially true of the lost stones. There we touch upon the tenderest point in the feelings of the student of history. That which is lost always seems to us of far more priceless value than that which we have retained. The lost Iliad, the lost "Fairie Queen," how tenderly does the bibliophile picture to himself what might have been their golden contents! How gladly would we have seen that fair ruby, "great like a rocketball," which Queen Elizabeth showed in her cabinet to the Ambassador of Mary Stuart when the latter with some assurance "Desired she would either send it to my queen, or the Earl of Leicester's Picture." She replied: "If Queen Mary would follow her counsel she would get them both in time, and all she had, but she would send her a diamond as a token by me". The names of the precious stones and semi-precious stones are frequently used as adjectives and when so employed convey something more to the mind than to the corresponding adjectives of color. We may suggest the following expressions:—the "Emerald Isle" and "emerald ^x7

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