Leisure hours among the gems

by Augustus C. Hamlin

Marbodeus.

THE SAPPHIRE.

The colored varieties of sapphire were probably known to primitive man, and were gathered in their rough state to serve as rude ornaments long before the diamond, with its less attractive natural appearance, was recognized as a treasure or a gem. The mountain torrents, laying bare the superficial strata of the gem beds, early exposed to view the sapphires of bright and attractive colors, which readily caught the close, observing eye of the savage; while the diamond, lustreless within its apparent crust, was unnoticed and unknown until civilization became far advanced and revealed the hidden splendors of the gem by the application of art.

We may therefore infer with a reasonable degree of probability that the colored sapphires, though perhaps not the most ancient in mineralogy, were in reality among the earliest gems known to man. The researches of the antiquary and the archæologist rather strengthen this view, for specimens of these stones are found among the ruins of the ancient and long-forgotten cities of Arabia and Persia, while the diamond is not.

This beautiful mineral has been known in the land of its birth from time immemorial as “korund;” and under this harsh name were included all those beautiful gems known to commerce as the Oriental ruby, topaz, emerald, and sapphire. The ancients in the days of Pliny bestowed upon the blue variety the more euphonious name of “hyacinthus.” Modern nomenclature, however, has adopted the term “sapphire” for all the transparent forms of the mineral, reserving the name “corundum” for the opaque and translucent or non-crystallized varieties.

In making use of this word, we have another illustration of the strange adoption of a term which is destitute of any relationship to the characters of the object it is intended to describe. The “sapphirus” of the ancients referred to lapis-lazuli, a blue opaque mineral spotted with minute metallic flakes; and the only significance it bears in connection with any of the forms of corundum is the simple fact that it means azure. If we follow the antiquaries still farther into the mists of early language, in seeking the etymology of the name, we shall probably find even less satisfaction. The nature of this gem, as well as most of the other precious stones, was mere conjecture to the ancients, and they formed their estimate of them chiefly from their hardness and color.

Among the early Greeks, Theophrastus strove in vain to discover some satisfactory basis of arrangement for these minerals, and to explain their forms, their constituents, and the manner of their creation. But his efforts and those of his contemporaries were of little avail; and so Ictinus, when he constructed the marvellous façade of the Parthenon, and Phidias, while he adorned it with immortal statues of marble and other stones, were alike ignorant of the nature of the materials they employed in their work. Several centuries later the treatises of the Latin philosopher Pliny show that science had made but little progress in this respect. The people of India and of the valley of the Euphrates, however, undoubtedly studied at a very early period the internal structure of the precious stones, and the revelations thus obtained had some effect in shaping their religion and their views of civilization.

In searching for the mysterious in the gems, the Assyrians discovered the cuneiform crystals in the interior of transparent sapphires, and adopted the forms for their own use, believing them to be the language of the genii. We have little doubt but that the cuneiform character which now reveals the history of the extinct Oriental empires had its origin from the wonderful crystallizations sometimes seen in the internal structure of the sapphire. These crystals are sometimes visible to the naked eye; but when the polished surface of the mineral is exposed to a magnifying lens of even low power, they appear with startling distinctness, and exhibit forms of perfect arrow-head shape of all colors. The field of vision may at first include but a single arrow-head crystal of perfect symmetrical outline floating in the azure of the stone; but as the field is shifted myriads of crystals may suddenly come into view, presenting a scene of such remarkable beauty and fascination that the observer ceases to wonder at the credulity of Arabian superstition. These crystallizations may occur in sapphires of any hue, and then again we may search in vain for them in many other specimens of the same mineral. Some specimens may contain a very few of these arrow-head forms, while others seem to be composed of multitudes and masses of them. One large red sapphire of four karats weight submitted to our inspection appears to be composed of clouds of these cuneiform crystals; and under the magnifying power of about twenty diameters it presents fields of arrow-heads flashing forth the most brilliant hues, and changing into new scenes of startling and transcendent beauty as the focus is varied. Whatever startled the imagination of the ancients with a new and mysterious beauty was at once invested with supernatural power.

In connection with this theme it is interesting and instructive to trace back the history of the gems and precious stones even within the period of the past two hundred years, and read the descriptions and definitions bestowed upon them by mineralogists. Some of the most gifted of men, like Linnæus and Wallerius, labored diligently to place them correctly in science; but their efforts to define and arrange them properly seem at the present day like schoolboy fancies. Daubenton conceived the brilliant but erroneous idea of arranging them according to their color, taking the solar spectrum for a standard. His idea was to place them in seven genera, according to the seven principal prismatic colors, and constitute species according to the different shades. This able man was not then aware that the sapphire and the tourmaline exhibit quite all of the colors of his seven genera.

Romè de L’Isle was the first mineralogical writer who classed the gems systematically; but it has since appeared that the amateur, Chevalier Baillou, preceded him in his crystallogical ideas; for in 1747 this observer described, in the catalogue of his collection, his views in relation to the properties of gems, and how their characters might be readily ascertained by the tests of hardness and specific gravity, and also by the form of their crystallizations. The distinguished and learned Abbé Haüy became interested and even fascinated with the study of the history and physical properties of the gems and the precious stones; and to his genius we are indebted for much of the information we have at the present day on this subject. He was deeply interested in the nature and characteristics of the Oriental precious stones; and being dissatisfied with the harsh term and the vague synonomy of “korund,” as applied to some of them, he proposed the more elegant name, “telesie.” But science, often disdainful of new terms, finally adopted the name proposed by Wallerius; and at the present time all of the fine and transparent varieties of corundum are called sapphire.