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Sardius, Sard

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280                 NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
all the rocks are that substance of which the gems so coveted by the Greeks—Sards, Jaspers, and Emeralds—were hut fragments that had escaped the universal ruin of all things here below. But when the trade with the East was opened fully out by the conquests of Alexander, and the establish­ment of a powerful Greek kingdom in the North of India, the Sard came into general use. " No other stone," observes Pliny (xxxvii. 31), "was so great a favourite with the Greeks as this : at least the plays of Menander and of Philemon revel in allusions to it." On this stone nearly all the performances of the most celebrated antique artists are to be found, for as a general rule fine work was never thrown away upon an inferior or too obdurate material ; and there was good cause for this preference, such are its toughness, facility in working, beauty of colour, and the high polish of which it is susceptible ; which last, Pliny remarks, it retains longer than any other gem. The truth of this asser­tion has been confirmed by the eighteen centuries that have elapsed since he wrote, for antique Sards are found always retaining their original polish, unless where very roughly used ; whilst harder gems—Garnets, Jacinths, and Nicoli— have their surfaces greatly scratched and roughened by wear. So true is this, that the existence of a perfect polish upon any one of the latter class affords in itself a tolerably sure proof that the engraving is either modern or has been retouched in modern times.
The gradations of colour exhibited by the antique Sard are almost innumerable. The bright cherry deepens into the fiery red of the Carbuncle, and thence into a semi-opaque black, only red when viewed by transmitted light. The bright pale yellow increases in intensity to the richest orange, and thence to a reddish-brown scarcely to be dis­tinguished from the Jacinth. This again becomes over­charged with black till it darkens to the deepest coffee-
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