with something of the effulgence of the heavens. There is a
legend among the Jews that the Ten Commandments were
engraved upon this gem. According to Persian cosmogony,
the globe rests on a vast sapphire, whose reflections give the
blue to the' sky.
Until the present century, it was thought the corundum and
the sapphire were distinct minerals ; and even at the present
time writers differ in their methods of classification, some
arranging under the generic term sapphire all hyalin corundums, making the ruby a red variety of sapphire, the emerald
a green, and the topaz a yellow sapphire. Other mineralogists
include the girasol, peridot, and aquamarine. The name is
here applied to the oriental or true sapphire, — a variety of the
precious corundum. What are called Brazilian sapphires, the
French sapphires of Puy, and sapphire-d'eau, belong to other
species. The Puy sapphires, of a fine blue color, are merely
hyalin quartz.
The blue sapphire is supposed to be identical with the hyacinthus of Pliny ; the white variety, with his adamas. Both its
primitive and modern names refer to its color — azure. The
origin of this epithet has been ascribed to a Syriac word,
meaning "to shine," as well as to the Arabic "jacut," which
may have suggested the term " huakinthos " to the Greeks.
Though the ancients gave the name to all blue stones, yet
their hyacinthus was always blue, never green, red, yellow or
purple ; and most modern mineralogists consider it identical
with the sapphire of the present day. The description given
by Solinus, a connoisseur in gems, who flourished two centuries
after Pliny, corresponds to that applied to this stone. It
came from the East, was of a cerulean hue, extremely liable
to blemishes, and very hard and cold. In his day, it was
obtained, as it is now, from Ceylon, where it was found
