336 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c
the green of the Plasma united
with the brilliancy and lucidity of the Crystal, by which he probably
sought to distinguish the true Emerald ; ever a special favourite with
the Jews. Such allusions display that exact knowledge of particulars
only possessed by persons either dealing in precious stones, or from
other circumstances obliged to have a practical acquaintance with their
nature, which could never have been found in a Galilean fisherman ;
unless we choose to cut the knot of the difficulty with the ever-ready
sword of verbal inspiration. Here then may be found another argument to
support the opinion that St. John the Evangelist and the Divine were
two different persons. The image, however, of the Holy City built up
of precious stones is not original, for it occurs in the prayer of
Tobias ; certainty, whatever be its date, a much more ancient
composition than the Apocalypse. In our version the passage stands thus
: '« Jerusalem shall be built up of Emerald, Sapphire, and all precious
stones, her walls, and
towers, and battlements of most fine gold......the
streets
of Jerusalem shall be paved with Carbuncle, Beryl, and stones of
Ophir." It is possible the writer may have had in his mind the old
legend derived from his brethren in Persia, as to the seven concentric
walls of Ecbatana, coloured in this order; black, white, red, blue,
yellow, silver, gold : a disposition apparently having reference to the
planets, so important in the religious system of the Chaldeans.
St.
John doubtless intended his twelve colours to typify the twelve tribes,
and saw no other, nor deeper, meaning in them, but Marbodus has
ingeniously applied them to express the several virtues that ought to
build up the Christian Church, of whose fanciful allegory the following
verses are a close translation :—
