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PRECIOUS STONES.
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Phaeton, the tears shed by the sisters of Meleager, the tears
for ^Esculapius, the tears of certain sea-birds, to which allusion is made by the poet in the lines : — " Around thee shall glisten the loveliest amber
That ever the sorrowing sea-bird hath wept." Amber is certainly a most pathetic gem, since so many tears
were shed at its birth ; but it had also a more material source — honey melted by the sun and congealed by falling into the sea. Lapis-lazuli sprung from the agonizing cry of an Indian giant ; the emerald originated in the fire-fly ; and other equally fantastic notions constituted the popular belief in regard to the origin of precious stones, though some of the ancient philosophers were disposed to account for their existence on less superstitious grounds. They were supposed by Plato to be the result of fermentation originating in the stars, while the diamond, which has always been an exceptional gem, was the kernel of auriferous matter condensed into a transparent mass. Theophrastus, nearly twenty-four centuries ago, discarding the general belief in the supernatural origin of mineral species, thought all rocks and metals originated from water and earth, water being the base of metals, earth of stones, both common and precious. Later Theories. — Modern scientists, who are as much inclined to speculations as their predecessors, have their extraordinary and conflicting systems upon this fruitful theme. There
are those who maintain that precious stones are the result of aqueous solution, others that they were the product of hot vapors, while a third school believe they were formed through metamorphism by segregation from older rocks ; but how the primary rocks came into being, is a question which naturally arises for solution. Robert Boyle, of the seventeenth century, believed all precious stones were originally formed of |
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