The relative worth of the diamond has never been better described than by the following lines from the pen of an able English author:—
“It is in truth the very essence of property. It is riches condensed and wealth secured; too small to be seen by the midnight burglar; too easily hid to be seized by the tyrant; and too quickly carried away to be wrested from the patriot exile or torn from the hunted outlaw. In vain would the vanquished monarch strive to remove his bags of gold, or transport his territorial domains; but a diamond is an empire made portable, with which he might purchase a better kingdom, and mount a prouder throne. Had the treasure of Crœsus been invested in brilliants he might have founded a nobler Lydia beyond the reach of his Persian invader.”
THE EMERALD.
“The emerald burns intensely bright,
With radiance of an olive light;
This is the faith that highest shines,
No need of charity declines,
And seeks no rest and shuns no strife,
In working out a holy life.”
Marbodeus.
THE EMERALD.
Dutens and several others who have written upon gems and precious stones during the last two centuries, have asserted that the ancients were unacquainted with the true emerald, and that Heliodorus, when speaking nearly two thousand years ago of “gems green as a meadow in the spring,” or Pliny, when describing stone of a “soft green lustre,” referred to the peridot, the plasma, the malachite, or the far rarer gem, the green sapphire. But the antiquary has come to the rescue with the treasures of the despoiled mounds of Tuscany, the exposed ashes of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and now exhibits emeralds which were mounted in gold two thousand years before Columbus dreamed of the New World, or Pizarro and his remorseless band gathered the precious stones by the hundred-weight from the spoils of Peru.
Although these specimens of antique jewelry set with emeralds may be numbered by the score or more in the museums and reliquaries of Europe, but very few engraved emeralds have descended to us from ancient times. This rarity is not due to the hardness of the stone, for the ancient lapidaries cut the difficult and still harder sapphire; therefore we must believe the statement of the early gem-writers that the emerald was exempted from the glyptic art by common consent on account of its beauty and costliness.
Stones possessing a green color have been used for ornamental purposes from the very earliest periods of the social life of man. And as we review the archæological history of the human race, it would seem as though minerals of this hue had been especially selected among all others for ornamental purposes.
For instances of this primitive selection, we will refer to the green stone hatchets found among the ancient tombs of Brittany; the axe heads of jade in New Caledonia; the green serpentine implements of Africa; the articles carved from green zoisite, revered among the Chinese from time immemorial; as well as the green jade and amazon stones, which the Mexicans wrought with wondrous skill into strange and grotesque forms, and which they prized above even their magnificent and matchless emeralds. It is also clearly evident that the emerald was discovered in very ancient times, and that it was early adopted in ornamentation, and was prized as among the most valuable of the gems, if not the highest in estimation, for its color and fancied virtues.