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96 PRECIOUS STONES.
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and
devout, confirming the soul in good works " ; which refuses to shine
for the beautifying of the unchaste, or the impure ; and which, by the
mere force of its own pure rays, kills all noxious and venomous
creatures.
The
Sapphire in its true colour is blue ; blue as an Italian sky, blue as
the deep blue sea. But it may also be red, and yellow, and violet, and
green, and hair-brown, such a brown as the Venetian painters loved,
with a golden light striking through it.
Sometimes
the stone is bluish-grey, and blackish ; the Sapphire also sometimes
changes colour by artificial light. Sapphires of the finest blue come
from Ceylon. The composition thereof is pure Alumina, for the most part.
Next
to the diamond the Sapphire is the hardest known mineral. Its splendid
colour of deep translucent blue is probably due to the presence of
oxide of cobalt; which chemical salt is invariably used when making
imitations of the gem. The Sapphire of the ancients is our " Lapis
Lazuli."
Epiphanius
said, " It is medicinal; for, being powdered it heals the sores
following pustules, and boils, if smeared over them, being thus applied
mixed with milk to the ulcerations."—" It is written also in the Law
that the vision seen by Moses in the. Mount, and the Law given there
unto him were made out of the Stone, Sapphire." The chemical
constituents of the Sapphire are (being virtually pure alumina,
coloured through admixture with oxide of iron, cobalt). " Alumina,
98-5; lime, OS ; silica, O'O ; oxide of iron, l'O." The gem is highly
electric.
Dr. John Schroder wrote (in Latin, 1669) concerning the Sapphire, " It is of a sky-blue colour ; clear, and
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