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120 NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
No
Boreas fierce, no nippng winter, knows The hidden spring, but ever ebbs
and flows : No frosts congeal it, and no Dog-star dries ;. E'en
all-consuming Time its youth defies."
"
A stream unfetter'd pent in Crystal round, A truant fount by harden'd
waters bound : Mark how the gem with native sources foams ! How the
live spring in refluent eddies roams ! How the live rainbow paints the
opposing ray, As with the iinprisou'd winter fights the day ! Strange
nymph ! above all Naiads' fame supreme— Gem, yet no gem—a stone, yet
flowing stream ! "
"
Erst while the boy, pleased with its polish clear, With gentle finger
twirl'd the icy sphere, He mark'd the drops pent in its stony hold,
Spared by the rigour of the wintry cold. With thirsty lips the
unmoisten'd ball he tries. And the loved draught with fruitless kisses
plies."
"
Streams which a stream in kindred prison chain, Which water were, and
water still remain, What art hath bound ye, by what wondrous force Hath
ice to stone congeal d the limpid source? What heat the captive saves
from winter hoar, Or what warm zephyr thaws the frozen core ? Say in
what hid recess of inmost earth, Prison of floating tides, thou hadst
thy birth ? What power thy substance fix'd by icy spell, Then loosed
the prisoner in his lucid cell ? "
This
singular phenomenon equally excited the admiration of the mediaeval
philosopher, Marbodus devoting a separate section to a description of
the mystery which he owns himself unable to explain. It is the modern
opinion, however, that the liquid, instead of being imprisoned in its "
lucid dungeon " at the time of the Crystal's formation,
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