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EWELS,
gems, stones, superstitions and astrological lore are all so interwoven
in history that to treat of either of them alone would mean to break
the chain of association linking them one with the other.
Beauty
of color or lustre in a stone or some quaint form attracts the eye of
the savage, and his choice of material for ornament or adornment is
also conditioned by the toughness of some stones as compared with the
facility with which others can be chipped or polished.
"Whereas
a gem might be prized for its beauty by a single individual owner, a
stone of curious and suggestive form sometimes claimed the reverence of
an entire tribe, since it was thought to be the abode or the chosen
instrument of some spirit or genius.
Just
as the appeal to higher powers for present help in pressing emergencies
preceded the development of a formal religious faith, so this
never-failing need of protectors or healers eventually led to the
attribution of powers of protection to the spirits of men and women
who had led holy lives and about whose history legend had woven a web
of pious imaginations at a time when poetic fancy reigned instead of
historic record. The writer still holds that true sentiment, the
antithesis of superstitious dread, is good for all mankind —sentiment
meaning optimism as truly as superstition stands for pessimism—and that
even the fanciesigenerated by sentiment are helpful to us and make us
happier; and surely happiness often means health, and happiness and
health combined aid to evolve that other member of the triumvirate,
wealth. Do we not often wish for the union of these three supreme
blessings ?
vii
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