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THEOPHRASTUS ON STONES
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ing to one of these last two stones, especially since he compares the variety that he mentions with the Chian marble or stone, which, as indicated by the note on the preceding section, was probably a black rock variegated with spots or streaks of lightcolored material.
8. almost all those that can reasonably be cut and used as seals.
The reading of the manuscripts, σχεδόν ... λόγον, makes no sense. The meaning seems to be "almost all of those which," and this could be represented by σχεδόν πάντες (or πλείστοι) των. Here των is added to go with γλυπτών. But this does not account for the presence of λόγον. De Laet and Hill changed this to λόγω των, but the meaning of this is not clear. Schneider thought that the verb καταλέγονται might have survived as λόγον, and proposed σχεδόν δο-οι καταλέγονται εις τα σφραγίδια τών γλυπτών. The phrase κατά λόγον ("according to reason," "reasonably") is attractive, and Stephanides rightly included it in his emendation σχεδόν πάντες οι κατά λόγον εις τά σφραγίδια γλυπτοί. Though it is impossible to know what was originally in the manuscripts, the emendation (πάντες τών κατά) seems to be a good one and has therefore been added to the text. These three words are of the right length to fill up the gap in the Aldine edition, but this does not confirm their accuracy, for the gaps are of different sizes in the manuscripts. In A there is room for only a few letters; the space in botli Β and C is longer, but not long enough. So nothing can be proved by the size of the gaps.
8. And some are discovered in other stones when these
are cut up.
This apparently refers to crystals lining rock cavities or geodes, and especially to crystalline quartz which so commonly occurs in this manner, since in section 30 it is specifically stated that rock crystal and amethyst are found by dividing other stones.
9. fire-resisting stones and millstones.
Aristotle48 refers to these two kinds of stones in a similar way except that he implies that they were fusible by themselves, whereas
*e Meteorohgtca, IV, 6, 383B.
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