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gem was a miracle of the glyptic art; the head in the impression from it stood out in full relief, with gaping jaws, expressive of the utmost spirit; while the stone was of the finest colour, purity, and lustre, and in itself of considerable value as a first-rate Emerald.

Among the Herz gems was a bust of Neptune, a full face, on a large pale Emerald with a bluish tinge, with the artist's name, 108, at the side. The execution of the engraving is very fine, and quite in the antique manner. It is cut upon the flat section of a large hemispherical stone, which, after a very careful examination, I have some doubt in pronouncing to be an Emerald, for when held up against the light it has a very blue tinge and a peculiar lustre, leading me to consider it as a very fine Aquamarine, a most appropriate stone to bear the impress of the head of Neptune.

Amongst Hancock's rings, sold Feb. 1858, was a very spirited intaglio, Cupid riding on a dolphin through the waves, the work to all appearance antique, upon a very large pale Emerald, for such the stone was pronounced to be by a jeweller of great experience in the purchase of precious stones. When examined against the light it did not present. the peculiar tinge of the Beryl, to which class I was at first disposed to refer it on account of its extraordinary size. It was absurdly described in the catalogue of the sale as a Chrysoprase.

The huge Smaragdi mentioned by Theophrastus when he speaks of one sent by the King of Babylon to the King of Egypt 4 cubits long by 3 wide, and of an obelisk in the Temple of Jupiter 40 cubits high made out of only 4 Emeralds, must have been either certain Green Jaspers, Malachites, or more probably glass. In his own time there was a pillar made out of a single Smaragdus standing in the Temple of Hercules in Tyre. Apion, who lived a little

before the time of Pliny, had mentioned a colossus of Serapis then standing in the Labyrinth 9 cubits high, made out of Smaragdus. The Alexandrians were always famous for their manufacture of glass, so that these figures and obelisks, although their size is doubtless greatly exaggerated, may have actually existed in some vitreous composition, and been passed off upon the credulous visitor as real Emeralds. Such was the case with the famous Sacro Catino of the Cathedral of S. Giovanni at Genoa, which was said by tradition to have been used by Our Lord at the institution of the Last Supper. It was a large dish of a transparent rich green substance, and believed for many ages to be formed out of a single Emerald of inestimable value, but which the investigating spirit of the French, when masters of the city, speedily tested and proved to be merely glass." However, it may here be observed that the antique glass Emeralds possess a degree of lustre, colour, and hardness very superior to those of modern pastes. One I have seen at Rome that had been recut and set in a gold ring, that eclipsed in beauty almost every real stone of the kind. In fact, it is a usual practice there, on finding a fine paste Emerald, to have it recut and facetted for a ring-stone, and as such to obtain a high price for it from the unwary dilettante."

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Nero, who was extremely short-sighted, "Neroni oculi hebetes nisi quum ad prope admota conniveret," used to view the combats of gladiators in the arena through an Emerald, "Smaragdo spectabat." This stone must have been hollowed out at the back, as many antique gems, especially Carbuncles, are still found to be, and thus have acted as a concave lens to assist his sight in watching the distant scene below the emperor's seat in the amphitheatre. But its power must then have been ascribed to the material, not to the form of the stone, for the looking at an Emerald was then considered as extremely beneficial to the sight-a notion that prevailed as early as the times of Theophrastus, who notices that people wore Emeralds set in their rings for this very purpose. Gem-engravers were accustomed to refresh their wearied eyes, after the excessive straining of them required in their work, by gazing for some minutes upon an Emerald kept by them for that purpose. Had it not been for this confusion of ideas, the invention of spectacles, at least for myopes, would have been anticipated by more than a thousand years. Some commentators have absurdly supposed that Nero used a flat "table" Emerald as a mirror to reflect the distant view of the combat; such writers could never themselves have suffered from the affliction of short-sightedness, or they would have known that to such an eye a reflection of a distant view would be but doubly obscured obscurity. Any one that has examined the portraits of this emperor on a gem or a wellpreserved medal will at once recognise, from the extraordinary size and fullness of his eyes, how very short-sighted he must have been. Curiously enough, myopism is still in Italy almost a distinct peculiarity of aristocratic birth.

Had the Emerald been only employed on these occasions as a mirror, Pliny would have used the expression "in smaragdo specta

bat," not merely "smaragdo," which can only mean "by the aid of an Emerald he used to view the combats of gladiators."

The Hindoos of the present day are very fond of the Emerald, especially when formed as a pear, and worn as a drop from the ear. They also wear it much in bracelets, and many a glorious gem of this species have they remorselessly ruined by drilling a hole through it for the purpose of stringing it as a bead. One of the finest known was thus to be seen martyrized upon the arm of Runjeet Sing. Such stones, in order to be used in European ornaments, must be cut in two to get rid of the perforation; and thus a gem of matchless magnitude is necessarily reduced into a pair of only ordinary dimensions. One of the largest and finest Sapphires that ever came under my notice had been thus cruelly maltreated in order to make an ear-pendant.

It may be added that "Smaragdus" is the Greek corruption of the Sanscrit Smarakata, the gem and its name having been imported together from Bactria into Europe by the traders of that race. Pliny's description of the Emerald will form a suitable conclusion to this lengthy dissertation ::"After the Diamond and Pearl, the third place is given to the Emerald for many reasons. No other colour is so pleasing to the sight; for grass and green foliage we view with pleasure, but Emeralds with so much the greater delight, as nothing whatever compared with them equals them in the intensity of its green. Besides, they are the only gems that fill the eye with their view, but yet do not fatigue it: nay, more, when the sight is wearied by any over-exertion, it is relieved by looking at an Emerald. For gem-engravers no other means of resting the eye is so agreeable; so effectually, by their mild green lustre, do they refresh the wearied eye." After reading this just panegyric, can any one doubt that Pliny was acquainted with the true Emerald, or suppose that he could have applied such terms of praise to the dull Plasma, Jasper, or Malachite, which many writers on gems

have contended that he exclusively meant by the name Smaragdus? 10

The Emerald is thus noticed by Theophrastus (On Stones, c. 23):-"Of stones there exist also others out of which they engrave signet-stones; some for the sake of their beauty alone, such as the Sard, the Jasper, and the Sapphirus: this last is, as it were, spotted with gold-dust. But the Emerald possesses also some peculiar properties, for it assimilates the colour of the water into which it is thrown to its own colour -the stone of middling quality tinging a smaller quantity, the best sort all the water, whilst the inferior gem only colours that immediately over and opposite to itself. It is good also for the eyes, for which reason people wear ringstones made of it, for the sake of looking at them. But it is rare, and small in size, unless we choose to believe the histories about the Egyptian kings, for some assert that one was brought amongst other presents from the King of Babylon four cubits in length by three cubits in width; and that there now exist, dedicated in the Temple of Jupiter, four obelisks made out of Emerald, forty cubits long, and four wide on one face, and three on the other. But these accounts rest merely on the testimony of their own writers. Of the sort called by many the Bactrian, that at Tyre is the largest, for there is a column of tolerable size in the Temple of Hercules there; unless, perhaps, it be the spurious Emerald, for there is found such a sort of gem. It exists in localities easily accessible

10 This, however, is not intended as a denial that many of the numerous Smaragdi, the list of which he has extracted from more early writers, were not mere green gems of different species: for the Cyprian Smaragdus of Theophrastus is clearly nothing but our transparent Chrysocolla, or copper Emerald, for he

says that it could be used as a solder for gold. Pliny is speaking for himself in the above laudation of the beauties of the true gem.

The meaning is that it will give a greenish cast to the water by the reflection of its own colour, not by staining the fluid, as most persons absurdly understand this passage.

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