2 A Book of Precious Stones
reader
who loves the strange and romantic, than to the antiquary or the
historian or the scientist. These tales of fact or fiction are
fascinating in part, because they associate with the gems fair women
whose names have become synonymous with whatever is beautiful and
beguiling in the sex. In the mind of the lowest savage, as in the
thought of man in his highest degree of civilisation, personal
adornment has always occupied a prominent place, and for such
adornment gems are most prized. The symbolism and sentiment of the
precious and semi-precious stones, and precious metals, permeate
literature. Jewels have their place in the descriptions of heaven in
the sacred writings of almost every people that has attained to a
written language.
So
wide and so interesting is the subject of precious stones and precious
metals, their artistic treatment apart and combined, their importance
in society, commerce, and the arts, their part in the wealth of
individuals and nations, that it is in a high degree remarkable that,
comparatively speaking, so few books have been written about them.
Geology
and mineralogy are the names of the sciences that concern themselves
with minerals —among them gems—in the rough; metallurgy
