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A Necessary Introduction

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A Necessary Introduction
No one can regret more than I do that the shortcomings revealed in the following pages are for the most part due to my very restricted knowledge of gemology, an impor­tant if somewhat academic branch of mineralogy. For, as with my book on pearls, I write not as a man of science, but as a man of trade.
Although it had occurred to me more than once that I might write a book on precious and semi-precious stones, entirely from the point of view of one who has for many years extracted a living from the handling of these small but interesting objects, until recently I doubted my ability to contribute anything worth while to what other and in many ways more competent writers had already provided for those interested in the subject of gems.
Every now and then, however, I came across one or an­other textbook on gem stones written by some scientific authority, and it sometimes occurred to me that the information contained in such works might have been presented in a more readable form.
"Now why," I asked myself, "should things which are of the very essence of romance be treated in such a dry-as-dust way?" If I had worked it all out I would have seen that the romance of gems is imparted to them by
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Gem Trader Page of 280 A Necessary Introduction
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