poem
are nothing more than pieces taken bodily out of the ' Origines,' as
they stand at present, and put into rude hexameters. Intermixed come
occasionally what are unmistakable extracts from Orpheus, whom, by the
way, he quotes at length, under ' Coral,' as " Metrodorus," referring
in the same passage to Zoroaster also. Now, Lessing is of opinion that
a treatise on stones ascribed to Evax was really then current for
genuine, and that there is no reason to doubt the assertion of Marbodus
that his own is merely a condensation of the same. But Evax is never
mentioned by Pliny; whence it may be concluded that the book passing
by his name was compiled and put forth under that specious title late
in the Decline, when these, primarily Oriental, notions as to the
potency of gems had become the general belief and had been adopted even
by the philosophers of the times.
Contemporary with the Breton Bishop of Rennes flourished the Byzantine Michael Psellus, tutor
to the emperor Michael Parapinaces, and the most learned Greek of the
eleventh century. Amongst his numerous works exists a brief tractate '
On the Virtues of Stones,' describing the uses in medicine of the
Diamond, Haematite, Amethyst, Carbuncle, AEschates, Beryl, Galactites,
Amber, Jasper, Idaeus-Daotylus, Crystal, Lychnites, Magnet, Onyx,
Caprinus, Sardonyx, Selenites, Emerald, Hyacinthus, Chrysolithus,
Chryselectrus, Chrysoprasus, Chalazias, To-pazion.
His
notices are not worth much as regards the natural history of his
subject, of which he evidently knew nothing, and, as evidently,
regarded as beneath the consideration of a philosopher. Of his " deeper
science" take the following characteristic specimens: — "the
Idaeus-Dactylus (Jove's-finger) is produced in the isle of Crete, and
in shape is like a man's thumb, and of the colour of iron. This
