two,
sometimes three, and sometimes many ; and that these virtues are not
caused by the beauty of the Stones, since some of them are most
unsightly, and yet have a great virtue ; and sometimes the most
beautiful have none at all, and therefore we may safely conclude, with
the most famous doctors, that there are virtues in Stones as well as in
other things ; but how this is effected is variously controverted." "
Do we not witness the magnet attract iron ? the sapphire curing a
grievous carbuncle ? and the like in many others ? "
" There is," saith the Author of Precious Stones : their History and Mystery (1880),
" a strange fascination in Precious Stones. It is not surprising that
they should have been held in peculiar veneration by the ancients, when
other objects, infinitely less attractive and important, were supposed
to be endowed with supernatural attributes ; but it is a matter for
wonder why the mysterious properties ascribed to them should have
survived the growth of ages, and still find believers." " In the region
of faith which our forefathers respected, a man fortified with the
protecting segis of a charmed Jewel would brave the greatest perils ;
and, probably through the force of his conviction as to its efficacy,
would pass unscathed through dangers where another person, without
having such helpful influences realised in his imagination, would
straightway succumb."
Some
such a potent reason as this may actually underlie the well known
Oriental passion of Eastern chiefs for rare and costly jewels.
Mysticism, and an irisight into the occult, are special attributes of
the Oriental mind : whilst the " astral conditions recognised thereby
(under which the ordinary mental perceptions
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