“The living throne, the sapphire blaze,

Where angels tremble while they gaze.”

Gray.

The Sapphire derives its name from the Greek SAPPHEIROS and the following are some of the many forms of the word: saphyr, saphir, safir, safire, zaphire, safere, saffere, safyre, sapher, saphyre, saphire, saffyr, saffre, safeur, safour, safur, sapheir, saphere, safure, saffure, saffoure, saufir, sapphier, saiffer, sapphyr.

The sapphire which may be said to lead the Corundum family is slightly harder than the ruby. The name, which varies but little in ancient languages, was without doubt applied to the blue lapis lazuli—the Hyacinthus of the ancients being the true sapphire of our days. Sapphire is the name given to the blue corundum, and the shades of colour vary from very light to very dark, the light specimens being anciently termed female, the dark, male. This blue tinge will, however, be detected in several light varieties of the corundum family. The velvety blue sapphire termed the “bleu du roi” has held its popularity for ages and is likely to continue to do so, although the pretty light specimens known as “cornflower blue” are fast coming into favour. Sapphires are found in Ceylon, India and Siam in considerable quantity and some good stones have been found in the United States. Large specimens come from Newton, New Jersey and also from the rich country round Montana. The sapphire fields at Anakie, Central Queensland, bid fair to become one of the biggest in the world, and in a highly instructive report, Messrs. William Rands and B. Dunstan, Government Geologists of Queensland, give a detailed account of the fields. The authors of the report give the following list of minerals found in the sapphire deposits:

The report emphasises the facts that “the field is a large one, that the extent of sapphire wash is second to none in the world and that a constant supply of stones could be maintained.” It seems that these Australian gems have not met with the fair treatment so necessary in the development of the fields, and in their report Messrs. Rands and Dunstan submit an extract from a letter received from an important firm of lapidaries and gem merchants in Geneva: “Fine sapphires equal to those from Burma have been found amongst the Australian gem stones. Most of these are sent to Germany by dealers where they are sorted. The best gems are afterwards sold separately under another name, and the inferior lots sold as Australian.”

Large sapphires are more frequently found than large rubies and Dr. Chambers mentions one discovered in 1853 in the alluvium a few miles from Ratnapoora, which was valued at over £4000 sterling. A large specimen, three inches long, is mentioned by Professor J. D. Dana as being in the possession of Sir Abram Hume. In the Green Vaults at Dresden several great specimens are shown. The large “Saphir merveilleux” which Mr. Hope exhibited at the London Exhibition in 1851—known as the “Hope Sapphire”—was blue by day-light and amethyst colour by nightlight. This gem was last said to be in the Russian Treasury. This sapphire has nothing in common with the blue cobalt-coloured artificial spinels known as “Hope Sapphires.” Dr. G. F. H. Smith mentions several large stones, the most notable being one of 950 carats which was reported to be in the King of Ava’s treasury in 1827. The weight of the Rospoli rough sapphire in the Jardin des Plantes is 132 carats. The Duke of Devonshire has a fine sapphire of 100 carats, brilliant cut above the girdle of the stone, and step cut below. From the earliest times the sapphire had the reputation of a holy gem. Solinus says that “it feels the air and sympathizes with the heavens, shining not the same if the sky be bright or obscured.” The ancients held the gem sacred to Phœbus, not as a personification of the Sun, but rather as explained by Dr. Alexander S. Murray (Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum) as follows:

“From the sun comes our physical light, but that light is at the same time an emblem of mental illumination, of knowledge, truth and right, of all moral purity: and in this respect a distinction was made between it as a mental and a physical phenomenon—a distinction which placed Phœbus Apollo on one side and Helios on the other. Accordingly Phœbus Apollo is the oracular god who throws light on the dark ways of the future, who slays the Python—that monster of darkness which made the oracle at Delphi inaccessible. He is the god of music and song which are only heard where light and security reign and the possession of herds is free from danger.” This is the ideal of the sign Aquarius, astrologically considered, and students of the old science well know what Solinus implies when he says that the gem of the sign Aquarius “feels the air and sympathizes with the heavens” for this sign of “air,” of fine ethereal forces, of “outer airs,” of fine subtle substances, etc., is also the sign of Heaven and the Heavens.

The great physician Galen used the sapphire “for expelling the hot humours of the body,” which unfavourable health condition is included in astrological philosophy on the evils of the sign Aquarius. The sign also, as the astrologer Raphael says, “has particular rule over the eyesight, and the Sun conjoined with Saturn therein is a sure sign of blindness.” Ancient writers say that he who gazes into a sapphire will charm away all threatened injury to his eyes, and Marbodus recommends that a sapphire “dissolved in milk” takes the sting from “dimmed eyes.” For removing foreign bodies from the eye, specks of dust, sand, etc., it was recommended that a sapphire be held a while on the closed eyelid and then drawn gently and slowly several times across from the nose to the corner of the eye. It is one of the old principles in medicine, astrologically administered, that the cause of the disease can also be used as a cure, whilst another rule advises the virtue of opposites. In this latter connection it was said that a sapphire placed near the heart would fortify that organ—the sign of Heaven “ruling” the heart is Leo, and Aquarius is exactly opposite to Leo in the Zodiac. In homœopathic medicine aconite in proper proportion is administered to reduce fevers and inflamed conditions. Astrologically, aconite is a herb of Saturn. Saturn is, like the herb, cold and contracting whilst Mars is warm and expanding. The blood and mental faculties are liable to disorder in certain people born with Aquarius rising at birth or with the Sun therein: and the sapphire was the panacea which also, it was said, stopped bleeding of the nose if held against the temples. In old pharmacies the sapphire held a place of importance and its reputed curative virtue led to its employment as a charm against swellings, boils, ruptures, profuse perspirations, poisons, melancholy, flatulence and other bodily inharmonies. It was also employed as a charm against enchantment, danger, treachery, quarrels between friends, evil suggestions and undue influence. Porta in his work on “Natural Magic,” 1561, writes of the value of the sapphire in all magical and religious ceremonies, protecting the wearer from the Larvae of the lower spiritual world and from the snakes and poisonous reptiles of the world of matter. It was considered intensely powerful as a destroyer of poisonous insects which it was said to kill if placed at the mouth of a vessel in which they were imprisoned. Boetius (“De Natura Gemmarum”) writes that the sapphire was worn by priests as an emblem of chastity, for none of evil thoughts, bad minds or vicious habits dare wear this gem of pure heavenly love which was used of old by those consulting the sacred oracles. In his messages to the Bishops of the 12th century Pope Innocent III asked that they should have their pure gold rings set with “that stone which is the true seal of secrecy.” When the Roman Catholic church received her novices into the Sisterhood a sapphire ring blessed by a Bishop was given as a holy symbol of the mystical marriage. In the famous Pulsky Collection—mentioned by Mr. C. W. King—there is a wonderful intaglio on a fine sapphire of Pope Paul III by the great Alessandro Cesati, three-quarters of an inch square. St. Jerome (4th and 5th centuries) wrote that the sapphire saved its wearer from captivity and pacified his enemies, also that it gained the favour of princes. Some old authors recommend the sapphire as a stone for the hands of Kings. It is a stone rather of Democracy. Perhaps, however, the symbolic idea was that the King as the servant of the people could adorn his hand with no more fitting emblem. It is traditionally reported that the ring of King Solomon was a sapphire, which stone was believed by some of the masters to be the special talisman of the Jews. One kept in the Holy of Holies as a holy emblem is said to have been saved and concealed for the people of Israel when Titus sacked Jerusalem. Moses was born with the Sun rising in the ascending Aquarius, hence the adoption of either the sapphire as we know it today or the lapis lazuli as national gems is perfectly natural. The sapphire in the signet of Constantine, weighing 53 carats, which now lies amongst the treasures in the Rinuccini Cabinet at Florence, is cut in intaglio with a portrait of the Emperor in the guise of Nimrod attacking a great boar with his spear in the Cæsarean plains. As a gem of heavenly and beautiful thoughts the sapphire was regarded as a scare against devils, evil forces, witchcraft, sorcery and all forms of villainy. The Buddhists symbolically say that a sapphire opens a closed door, brings prayerful feelings and sounds the sweet bells of peace. It is a stone of truth, constancy, friendship, goodness and angelic help; it warns against hidden dangers and heightens the imagination and psychic forces. It rebels against intoxication and refuses to adorn the hand of a drunkard; it helps hopes and wishes that are truly just and right. It was the third stone of the Nao-rattan and the fourth of the seven rings which Iarchus brought down from the angelic spheres as a gift to Apollonius of Tyana. It was the fourth stone of the magical necklace of Vishnu, and according to the Ramayana sapphires fell from the eyes of the slain god Maha Bali.