A good report 't will give and endless praise,
440. And crown thy honour'd course with length of days.
It checks the flow of blood, the wearer's soul
Shall laugh at treason or the poison'd bowl.
Though with such potent virtues grac'd by heaven
One yet more wondrous to the gem is given.
This with the herb that bears its name unite
With incantation due and secret rite,
Then shalt thou mortal eyes in darkness shroud
And walk invisible amidst the crowd.
The stone for colour might an emerald seem,
But drops of blood diversify the green.
"T is sent sometimes from Ethiopia's land, 450. Sometimes from Afric or the Cyprian strand.
Experience old the Geranites' praise,
Though dark of hue, amongst the first doth raise:
For put this in thy mouth-first rinsed-and lo!
What others of thee think thou straight shalt know :
Implanted in it is imperious sway
To make all women to thy wish give way.
To test its force thy naked body smear
With milk and honey, and this jewel wear;
Still shall it keep the greedy swarms at bay,
Nor shall the airy host approach their prey:
460. Remove the stone, instant the hostile brood
Plunge myriad stings and suck the gushing blood.
In Corinth's Isthmus springs the Hephaestite,
More precious than its brass, and ruddy bright.
The seething caldron bubbling o'er the blaze,
Cast in the stone, its fervent fury stays;
Tam'd by the virtue of the gem, as cool
It falls as water in a tranquil pool.
Nor flights of locusts, nor the scourging hail,
Nor whirlwinds fierce shall thy fair fields assail;
Nor falling rust the growing crops shall blight
That stand defended by its saving might.
470. Held to the sun it shoots out fiery rays
Dazzling the eye as with the furnace blaze :
This burning stone sedition's fury charms
And 'gainst all danger its possessor arms.
But let this precept in thy mind be borne-
Right o'er the heart this mineral must be worn.
The Hematite-named by the Greeks from blood-
Benignant nature formed for mortals' good :
Its styptic virtue many a proof will shew
To heal the tumours that on th' eyelids grow.
480. And rubbed on darkening eyes
it clears away
The gathering cloud and gives to see the day:
Rubbed in a mortar with tenacious glaire
And juice of pomegranates, an eye-salve rare.
Those who spit blood its healing power will own,
As those who under cankering ulcers groan.
It stays the flux that drains the female frame,
And, powdered fine, proud flesh in wounds can tame :
Dissolved in wine the oft repeated dose
Will stop all looseness that excessive flows;
Dissolved in water 't will allay the smart
490. Of poisonous serpents' bite or aspic's dart.
If mixed with honey 't is an unction sure
All maladies that pain the eyes to cure.
This potent draught, as by experience shewn,
Within the bladder melts the torturing stone.
Of red and rusty hue, in Afric found,
Or in Arabian, or in Lybian ground.
Of steely colour and of wondrous might
Arcadia's hills produce th' Asbeston bright;
For kindled once it no extinction knows
But with eternal flame unceasing glows:
500. Hence with good cause the Greeks Asbeston name, Because once kindled nought can quench its flame.
The mountains of the Macedonian bold
Within their mines the Paanites hold,
Unknown the cause, with imitative throes
It heaves, and all the pangs of childbirth knows.
From some mysterious seed the wondrous earth
Conceives, and in due time excludes the birth;
Hence teeming females its protection bless
In that last moment when their dangers press.
Rarest the Sagda saw the light of day
Did it not yield itself a willing prey :
Sprung from the womb of the remotest deep 510. By some strange force it seeks the passing ship · Cleaves to the keel as to the port she flies, (The crew unconscious of their priceless prize,) But grasps the timber with so firm a fold If that's not cut, it will not loose its hold. Dark green its colour like the verdant Prase, Its virtues high the learned Chaldeans raise.
The Median Stone dug up in Media's plains
At once a source of health and death contains:
This in a mortar of green marble brayed
With woman's milk now first a mother made,
Will to the blinded eye restore the sight
520. Although for many a year denied the light.
Mixed with ewe's milk that once has borne a male
It remedies the gout's tormenting ail:
It heals the liver in the panting breast,
Or injured reins by racking pains opprest;
Store it in glass or else in silver pure,
And take it fasting 't is a sovereign cure.
But yet if thou to harm thy foeman seek,
530. With it a deadly vengeance canst thou wreak :
Do thou a fragment of the mortar take
And mix with this and both together break,
Then dropped in water offer it thy foe
And bid him bathe as with a wash his brow;
Forthwith eternal darkness seals his eyes,
Or if he drink, with riven lungs he dies.
Black is the stone, not so its virtue shews:
"Tis white to heal us, black to slay our foes.
No force of blows can thee, Chalazia! tame; White as the hailstone and in form the same: Which potent nature with such coldness arms 540. No furnace flame its icy crystal warms.
True to its name, the Hexacontalite
In one small orb doth sixty gems
With numerous hues for scanty size atones
And singly shews the tints of many stones.
Mid Lybia's deserts parched by burning winds
The Troglodyte this rainbow jewel finds.
The Indian tortoise yields a gem full bright
With varying purple, Chelonites hight:
Placed 'neath the tongue, as learned Magians shew,
It gives the power the future to foreknow.
To the sixth hour endures the magic boon
Whilst fills her crescent horns th' increasing moon;
550. But at new moon the prescient power, they say,
Lasts from the opening to the close of day.
When at her fifteenth day she rides through heaven
The same extent as at her prime is given;
But while her narrowing crescent nightly wanes
Not past the break of day this gift obtains.
Like the Chalazias it the fire defies
And cold remains where hottest flames arise:
Midst precious stones a place the Prase may claim,
Of value small, content with beauty's fame.
No virtue has it; but it brightly gleams
With emerald green, and well the gold beseems;
Or blood-red spots diversify its green,
560. Or crossed with three white lines its face is seen.
Crystal is ice through countless ages grown (So teach the wise) to hard transparent stone : And still the gem retains its native force, And holds the cold and colour of its sourceYet some deny, and tell of crystal found Where never icy winter froze the ground; But true it is that held against the rays Of Phoebus it conceives the sudden blaze, And kindles tinder, which, from fungus dry Beneath its beam, your skilful hands apply: Dissolved in honey, let the luscious draught 570. By mothers suckling their lov'd charge be quaffed, Then from their breasts, as sage physicians shew, Shall milk abundant in rich torrents flow.
The ashy Galactite, if mixed with mead,
Has likewise power milk in the breasts to breed:
Yet let the dame just rising from the bath,
Before she eats, the strength'ning potion quaff:
Or let the perforated stone be strung
On thread made from the wool of ewe with young;
Thus, round the neck of nursing mother bound,
It makes her breasts with plenteous milk abound.
Tied round the thigh in parturition's pains
580. The trembling wife an easy labour gains.
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