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Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum

Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum Page of 453 Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
196                                    HYACINTHUS.
pebbly beach of the sea, and cast in numbers at random upon the banks of torrents."
" Dote not on gold ; nor round thy neck so fair The purple hyacinth or green jasper wear : For gold and silver are but dust and earth, And gems themselves can boast no real worth : Stones are they scatter'd o'er the pebbly coast, Or on the torrent's banks at random toss'd."
Some of the varieties of Pliny's Adamas were indubitably grey or pale Sapphires, to judge from his description of their distinctive characters. The steel colour and great weight which he assigns to the Siderites prove this to demonstration ; for no other terms could so exactly express the tint of the unpolished paler Sapphire, or its unparalleled density ; for its specific gravity is actually one degree greater than that of the Diamond. The " aëreus color " also of his Adamas Cyprius is the sky-blue of our finest Sapphire, its hue being the exact shade of the " air " or pure heaven in the climate of Borne :—
" Acris ecce color tunc cum sine nubibus aer."—Ovid, Α. A. iii. 174.
Again, Epiphanius twice repeats the epithet αίριος applied to the " Adamas," worn, according to his version, by the High-Priest over the Rationale, and itself constituting the Βηλωσκ, or Urim and Thummim, the " Manifestation of God's Will," signified by the changes of its colour : and be it remembered that Epi­phanius was a Cyprian bishop. Pliny also states of this species that, besides having this blue tinge, it could be perforated by means of another diamond, i.e. of the true Indian sort, to which alone the Sapphire yields in hardness. The modern name Sap­phire is a mere epithet expressive of its colour : the ancient Sapphirus or Lapis lazuli furnishing the paint ultramarine, sap-phirinus came to signify " azure," exactly as " Nilaa," the present Indian name of our Sapphire, does.1 We find the blue species of
Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum Page of 453 Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum
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