2 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
traditional
beliefs. Strange as it may seem to us, there was little disposition to
doubt that the influence existed; this was taken for granted, and all
the mental effort expended was devoted to finding some plausible
explanation as to how precious stones became endowed with their
strange and mystic virtues, and how these virtues acted in modifying
the character, health, or fortunes of the wearer.
When
the existence of miracles is acknowledged, there will always be a
tendency to regard every singular and unaccountable happening as a
miracle; that is to say, as something that occurs outside of, or in
spite of, the laws of nature. We even observe this tendency at work in
our own time. As regards visual impressions, for instance, if a child
of lively imagination enters a half-lighted room and sees a bundle of
clothes lying in a corner, the indistinct outline of this mass may be
transformed to his mind into the form of a wild animal. The child does
not really see an animal, but his fear has given a definite outline and
character to the indefinite image printed on the retina.
The
writer has always sought to investigate anything strange and apparently
unaccountable which has been brought to his notice, but he can truly
say he has never found the slightest evidence of anything transcending
the acknowledged laws of nature. Still, when we consider the
marvellous secrets that have been revealed to us by science and the yet
more wonderful things that will be revealed to us in the future, we are
tempted to think that there may be something in the old beliefs, some
residuum of fact, susceptible indeed of explanation, but very
different from what a crass scepticism supposes it to be. Above all,
the results of the investigations now pursued in relation to the group
of phe-
