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Rock Crystal

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ROCK CRYSTAL.
73
forms are always identical, in the small as well as in the large crystals.
This mineral was known to the ancients. Much esteemed by the Greeks on account of its purity and regularity of formation, they made it the symbol of modesty, loyalty, and sincerity. Homer, Thucydides, and Plutarch declared their belief that it was water congealed by time into crystal. Aristotle confirmed this supposition, saying : " Ex aqua generatur crystallus remoto totaliter calido."
All ancient works in rock crystal are of beautiful de­signs. In Imperial Rorne vases of this substance were valued very highly. Nero, when forced to fly, broke one immense vase, on which was engraved the story of the Iliad.
Rock crystal offered to the Italians of the Middle Ages a very extended industry, to which art lent addi­tional value. The works executed on this mineral in the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries followed, ac­cording to the times, the taste prevalent in other arts of design. At present, the manufacture of artificial crystal has reduced that industry to nothing, having substi­tuted one on a larger scale, which is practised not only by Italians, but by almost all civilized nations.
Chrysoprase Page of 243 Rock Crystal
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