there
was one that made glass pliant, which might be amended, and wrought
with an hammer ; and he brought a vial made of such glass before
Tiberius, the Emperor, and threw it down on the ground, and it was not
broken but bent, and folded. And he made it right, and amended it with
an hammer. Then the Emperor commanded to smite off his head anon, lest
that his craft were known. For, then gold should be no better than fen,
and all other metal should be of little worth ; for, in certain, if
glass vessels were not brittle, they should be accounted of more value
than vessels of gold."
"
Crystal," so Saint Gregory, (his reason is true) has told, " may be
gendered of water." " Water," saith he, "is of itself fleeting ; but by
strength of cold it is turned, and made stedfast Crystal. Men trowe
that it is of snow, or ice, made hard in space of many years."
Robert
Boyle (1672), " found the weight of Crystal to be, as relative to that
of water, as more than two to one, which fact shows how groundlessly
many writers make Crystal to be only ice extraordinarily hardened by
long, and vehement cold ; whereas ice is lighter than water, and
therefore swims upon it. Moreover, Madagascar, and other countries in
the Torrid zone abound with Crystal! "
In the palmy days of luxurious ancient Rome, when
the Rock Crystal was generally supposed to be ice
solidified during the course of long years, ladies carried
Crystal balls in their hands, for cooling purposes, during
summer weather.
" Et modo Pavonis caudae flabella superbae; Et manibus dura frigus habere pila."
" Now courts the breeze, with plumes of Peacocks fanned; Now holds the flinty ball to cool her hand."
