Mr. King received information that miners in California have died from drinking the water from a hydrolite, and this circumstance exhibits the subtle action of some of the stones attached to the sign of the Fishes. The crystal, wrongly but frequently termed “beryl” stone, is highly esteemed as an instrument for heightening the imagination and bringing out the gazing power of the third eye previously mentioned. Mr. William Jones gives an illustration of the seal of a divination ring from Licini’s “Antiqua Schemata.” It shows a half nude woman holding a serpent in her left hand, the head of which is bending towards a crystal ball held by a nude man, his right leg resting on a wooden stand, his left stretching towards an altar on which the sacred fire is burning. The female bends over the male who gazes intently into the crystal ball. The work is full of expression and force.
In the Highlands of Scotland large pieces of crystal were used for charms, and cattle were given to drink water which had been poured over crystals. Similar crystals were employed for the protection of cattle in Ireland, a fine specimen being still kept by the Tyrone family.
The sign Pisces is the natural 12th celestial House, ruling large cattle. It is also the sign of occult and mysterious things and of the elevation of Venus. Thus, all the legends, stories and philosophies connected with this bright stone of the sign Pisces are easily understood. Professor Sir William Ridgeway, of Cambridge, England, in his work, “The Drama and Dramatic Dances of Non-European Races,” draws attention to the fact that “crystals have always been and are still regarded as the most amuletic of precious stones, and comedians also are frequently cut into faceted shapes by the Arabs and others. The diamond and spinel are both octahedral. The Japanese are especially fond of rock crystal, one of their favorite amulets being a double gourd cut out of such a crystal.” Swedenborg recognized in the crystal “Divine Truth in all its brightness” and truth certainly has its correspondence in the clear glistening magnetic crystal.
CHAPTER XVI
THE DIAMOND
ARNOTT’S OBSERVATION: EXTREME HARDNESS: BOYLE AND DU FAY PROVE ELECTRICAL QUALITIES: DR. KUNZ AND PHOSPHORESCENCE: SIR WILLIAM CROOKS ON RADIUM AND THE DIAMOND: EXPERIMENTS IN ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTION BY MARDEN, MOISSAN AND CROOKS: SIR CHARLES PARSONS’ CONCLUSIONS: “SEARCH FOR THE ABSOLUTE”: DISCOVERY OF A LARGE DIAMOND AT JACOB’S FARM ON THE ORANGE RIVER: SIR WILLIAM WODEHOUSE’S PURCHASE: DIAMONDS IN MUD BRICKS: AUSTRALIAN DIAMONDS: FIRST DIAMOND BROUGHT TO EUROPE: GOLCONDA: BRAZIL: FLORENTINE DEMONSTRATION OF THE TRUTH OF BOETIUS’S BELIEF AND NEWTON’S DEDUCTIONS: BOYLE’S EXPERIMENTS AT HIGH TEMPERATURE: AVERANI PROVES THE FORCE OF THE SUN’S RAYS ON A DIAMOND: EASILY BURNED BUT UNAFFECTED BY ACIDS: THE GNOMES OF THE ROSICRUCIANS: GNOME LEGENDS: SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE ON THE DIAMOND: RABBI BENONI, BOETIUS DE BOODT AND THE HINDU WRITERS: ES-SINDIBAD OF THE SEA AND THE VALLEY OF DIAMONDS: SIMILAR STORIES: EL-KAZWEENEE: MARCO POLO: MR. MARSDEN’S OBSERVATIONS: GOLCONDA: LITTLE PRINCESS MARY’S DIAMOND MARRIAGE RING: LORD LISLE’S DEATH DIAMOND: THE DIAMOND HEART RING OF MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS: QUEEN ELIZABETH AND SIR WALTER RALEIGH: DIAMOND SAVES THE LIFE OF QUEEN ISABELLA OF SPAIN: EX-PRESIDENT KRUGER’S UNLUCKY DIAMOND: KING ARTHUR AND THE DIAMOND JOUSTS: THE AFFAIR OF THE DIAMOND NECKLACE: INDIAN DIAMOND CUTTERS: LOUIS VAN BERGHEM: CHARLESMAGNE’S DIAMOND CLASP: HERMAN THE LAPIDARY: PERUZZI: CLEMENT BIRAGO AND JACOPO DA TREZZO ENTER THE SERVICE OF PHILIP II: POPE HILDEBRAND SENDS A DIAMOND RING TO WILLIAM OF NORMANDY: THE DIAMOND SWORD IN THE TALE OF THE YELLOW DWARF: THE ZODIACAL SIGNS OF THE DIAMOND: THE DIAMOND IN LOVE AND MARRIAGE: BORT.
“The lively diamond drinks thy purest rays.”
Thomson.
The diamond derives its name from the Greek ADAMAS, ADAMANTOS, adamant. It has been written at various times as dyamawnte, dyamamaunt, dyamant, diamant, diamownde, dyamonde, dyamount, diamonde, diamont, dimond, dymauntz, and adamant stone. It is but pure crystallized carbon, and Arnott (Physics, 1830), writes: “The diamond has nearly the greatest light-bending power of any known substances, and hence comes in part its brilliancy as a jewel.” It is remarkable also for its extreme hardness and for its variety of colours—steel, white, blue, yellow, orange, red, green, pink and black. This “prince of gems” in days of old was considered the royal stone which only a prince was privileged to wear. The highly electrical properties ascribed by the ancients to the diamond were proved in the 17th and 18th centuries by the chemists Boyle and Du Fay, and Dr. Kunz has demonstrated today that all diamonds “phosphoresce when exposed to the rays of radium, polonium, or actinum, even when glass is interposed.” In a paper read to the Royal Society, London, November 5th, 1914, the late Sir William Crooks said: “Many substances become coloured by direct exposure to radium, the colour depending on the substance. Diamond takes a full sage-green, the depth of tint depending on the time of exposure to the radium. In addition to the change of colour the diamond also becomes radio-active, continuously giving off α, β, γ rays. The acquired colour and activity withstand the action of powerful chemical agents and continue for years with apparently undiminished activity. Removing the surface by mechanical means removes both colour and radio-activity. The appearance of an auto-radiograph made by placing an active diamond crystal on a sensitive photographic plate and the visual examination of its scintillating luminosity suggest that there is a special discharge of energy from the corners and points of the crystal.”
The several experiments for the production of diamonds by artificial means have since 1880 been conducted by some eminent scientists, notably Professor Marden, Professor Henri Moissan and Sir William Crooks. For many years Sir Charles Parsons has been working closely at the problem, and the main conclusions arrived at by this scholar were communicated to the Royal Society, London, in 1918. They were as follows: