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Beryl

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46
GEMS.
abundance, and found in all parts of the globe ; whereas the ancients had it only from India, and prized it as much as the emerald, with which they even confounded it; so that the enormous emeralds of which Theo-phrastus and Apion speak are now thought to have been aquamarina, as this stone is found in very large pieces.
There are very few undoubtedly antique intagli in this stone, and they are as rare as those on the emerald ; the best, according to my experience, belonged to the Mertens collection. Generally the engraved beryls are Ionian work, whereas the engravings on emerald are Roman.
But although the Romans did not engrave the beryl they facetted it, and it was the only stone they cut in that manner. They used it for ear-drops and rings. When the shade of Cynthia appears to Propertius, he remarks that—
" Et solitam digito beryllon adederat ignis."
Here we may remark, it appears that the ancients applied the term " beryllus " also to a magnifying glass, and perhaps they used aquamarina for the same purpose. This supposition is rendered probable from two reasons ; the first is that in the German language spectacles are called " brille," and no other derivation has been found for this word than the Latin " beryllus ;" the second is that Nero is said to have looked at the spectacle in the theatres through a very large emerald. We have already seen how easily the ancients con­founded the emerald with the beryl, and therefore we
Beryl Page of 243 Boort or Kuotty Diamond
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