24 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
ants,
by the learned as well as by the ignorant. Here and there, however, a
note of scepticism was sometimes apparent, as in the famous reply of
the court jester of Emperor Charles V, to the question, "What is the
property of the turquoise?" "Why," replied he, "if you· should happen
to fall from a high tower whilst you were wearing a turquoise on your
finger, the turquoise would remain unbroken/'
The
doctrine of sympathy and antipathy found expression in the belief that
the very substance of certain stones was liable to modification by the
condition of health or even by the thoughts of the wearer. In case of
sickness or approaching death the lustre of the stones was dimmed, or
else their bright colors were darkened, and unfaithfulness or perjury
produced similar phenomena. Concerning the turquoise, the prosaic
explanation can be offered that this stone is affected to a certain
extent by the secretions of the skin ; but popular superstition saw
the same phenomena in the ruby, the diamond, and other stones not
possessing the sensitiveness of the turquoise. Hence the-true
explanation is to be found in the prevailing idea that an occult
sympathy existed between stone and wearer. The sentiment underlying
the conception is well expressed by Emerson in-the following lines from
"The Amulet":
Give me an amulet
That keeps intelligence with you,— Bed when you love, and rosier red,
And when you love not, pale and blue.
A
Persian legend of the origin of diamonds and precious stones shows
that in the East these beautiful objects were looked upon as the
source of much sin and sorrow. We are told that when God created the
world he made no useless things, such as gold, silver, precious
