THE AMETHYST. 171
eminently
gives off, do really exercise, according to the pronouncement of modern
science, salutary effects of a calmative nature upon those persons who
come within their influence. Similarly, it has been found by
experiment in lunatic asylums that a room hung with violet drapery has
a soothing effect on insane patients, who are put to abide therein.
Plants, again, which are purple in their blossom, and juices, exert
sedative actions; for example, belladonna, henbane, foxglove,
bitter-sweet, etc. The Amethyst is the Precious Stone associated with
February, as its particular month; which month the Romans dedicated to
Neptune, their water-god. It should further be worn specially on a
Thursday, the day of Thor. In the eighteenth century the Amethyst was
highly prized as a gem. Queen Charlotte possessed a necklace of
perfectly-matched Stones, which was valued at two thousand pounds
sterling. A modern French poet, making this precious stone the Amulet
in a mystical Play, has feelingly styled it, L'Etoile de Vamour, qui luit dans Vabsence, el le deuil. By
candle-light the Amethyst loses a part of its beauty, being apt to
appear of a blackish hue. In 1652 an Amethyst was worth as much as a
Diamond of equal weight.
Marbodeus gives (Latine.) a line about this Stone : "Hie facilis sculpi: contrarius ebrietati."
The Amethyst:—
" A lithos est' ametheustos ego d'o potas Dioneusos Hee neephrein peisei; mee matheto metheuein."
" On wineless Gem I, toper Bacchus, reign; Learn, Stone, to drink; or, teach me to abstain ! "
This variety of quartz is told-of in the Revelation of Saint John the Divine as one of the precious stones in
