The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-02 00:00:00

to strange and sad vicissitudes. " The Wild
Huntress" has every prospect of being one of the
most striking navels of the season, from its excit-
ing subject and attractive style.

Gems and Jewels ; Ilistory, Geography,
chemistry, and Ana. By Madame de Barrera,
Author of "Memoirs off Rachel." Bentley.
An interesting volume, compounded of history,
science, and anecdote, relating to gems and jewel-
lery of every kind, from the earliest ages of which
we have any record down tr, the present time.
Tho passion for ornamen t has always existed in
men. The savage nations, the lowest in the scale
of humanity, and the luxurious votaries of effemi-
nate civilisation, alike sl Aare this feeling. Strings
of beads and showy tr inkets have long proved
the most advantageous a rticles of barter with the
wild natives of newly e Liscovered. lands ; and the
inhabitants of the leading cities of Europe, while
they smile at the childish simplicity of the bar-
barian chief, have shown. themselves no less suscep-
tible to the glitter of d iamonds, or the sparkle of
rubies. The latter gem n indeed, as Madame de
Barrera informs us, is more highly valued for or-
namental purposes than the diamond, owing to
the rarity of large and perfect stones. This scar-
city proceeds from the high estimation in which
it is held by Eastern potentates, and the jealous
care with which the East Inffian princes especially
have prevented rubies from being exported from
their dominions. The rubies of Ceylon are
esteemed the best, and are brought down by
the torrents from the mountains into the
beds of the streams. Tavernier, a French
merchant jeweller and eel( brated traveller of the
17th century, who spent 40 years of his life tra-
velling in the East as a trader in precious stones,
alludes to the eagerness with which this gem was
sought in the East Indies. He asserts that he
found it more profitable to bring fine rubies back
from Europe than to take them there from Asia.
As may be supposed, the authoress of the work
before us quotes frequently from Tavernier's writ-
ings. She has evidently bestowed much care and
labour on the compilation of her book, and has
collected a large amount of varied information.
She has divided the work into different parts, each
treating of a separate branch of the subject. The
first gives us a general history of gems, their uses
among different nations, and some of the romances
or tragedies connected with them. The second and
third parts will attract the more scientific reader,
as they relate to the geography and chemistry of
precious stones, giving ample details of the locali-
ties where they have beenjprincipally discovered, and
their component parts when subjected to chemical
analysis. The fourth division treats of the quali-
ties, properties, and virtues superstitiously attri-
buted to gems ; while the concluding portion re-
lates to historical jewels, tracing the his-
tory of individual stones, and discussing the
peculiar importance and significance of various
articles of jewellery in ancient and modern times.
It will thus be seen that although treating of mere
articles of ornament the work is by no means of a
superficial character. It has apparently been com-
piled from many different sources, and classified
with skill and ability. Occasionally we meet
with slight repetitions. A fact or an incident
alluded to under one heading re-appears under
another. This, however, is not often the case, and
in such a mass of disjointed information it is not
surprising. The style, when treating directly of the
subject, is clear and to the point; it is only in the
introductory passages that we are inclined to smile
at the grandiloquence of the writing, But great
allowance must be made for a lady moralising on
such a topic; since such is the fascination these
glittering baubles possess over the fair sex that the
authoress confesses there have been few thefts of
jewels in which a woman has not been implicated.
M. Babinet, member of the Paris Institute, to whose
approval the work was submitted, has furnished
the writer with a highly complimentary preface.
In it, in his capacity as mineralogist, he alludes to
the chemical nature of gems. "It would seem "
he observes, "as though the mighty creative and
organising power had chosen to manifest its
omnipotence by producing the most valuable sub,-
stances from the most ordinary elements. The
diamond is crystallised carbon, the sapphire and
the ruby are crystallised clay; the topaz, the
emerald, the amethyst, are in a greater or lesser
degree merely pebbles tinged with certain metallic
particles, more especially with iron, which has
been called the great colourist of mineral nature."
But, as the author observes, there is an immense
uifference between the analysis of bodies and their
synthesis. "The chemist may reduce a fine
diamond to a small amount of carbon, but of that
carbon he cannot reconstruct the gem he has
destroyed ;" and, in spite of the efforts of science,
the manufacturing of diamonds has proved no more
successful than the artificial propagation of pearls.
Of the diamond many interesting particulars are
given. M. de Morveau, in the last century.
exposed a diamond to intense heat, enclosed in a
small cavity in a piece of iron. " When the cavity
was opened the diamond was entirely gone, and
the iron around converted into steel. This proved
it to be pure carbon, which combines with iron -
to form steel, and not charcoal, which is
generally an oxide of iron." It was an error to
suppose that the diamond was incombustible. If
exposed to sufficient heat it will burn with an un-
dulating blueish flame, and ultimately disappear,
leaving no trace. We quote a few interesting par-
ticulars of the nature of this gem :

The diamond, when first taken out of the Mine, is covered
with a thick crust that scarcely permits of any transparency
being visible ; and even the most practised eye cannot then
tell its value with certainty. It usually resembles a clear,
semi-transparent pebble, well worn by the waters, a bit of
unpolished glass, or of gum-arabic. Thus coated, it is
called a rough diamond.
This crust is so hard that there is no substance save that
of the diamond itself that can take it off. The diamond
cuts every substance in nature, and can be cut but by itself.
Allusion to the dust of the diamond being the only sub-
stance that has power to lessen that gem, is touchingly
made in the verses composed by Charles 1., the night after
his condemnation :
"With mine own power my majesty they wound,
In the king's name the king himself's uncrowned ;
So doth the dust destroy the diamond !"
There are few things in the history of commerce more
remarkable than the enormous mercantile value which has
been set, by all civilised nations and in all ages, on gems.
The jealousy with which the traders of remote times have
protected this branch of commerce, and the favour with
which it was regarded by semi-barbaric nations, proved the
high esteem in which they were held. At the present day a
very large amount of capital, in almost every part of the
world, is vested inprecious stones. Of this capital, however,
coloured gems do not appear to represent more than 1-10th,
while diamonds constitute the remaining 90 per cent. With
the ancients the case was reversed. Their preference
for coloured stones might arise in a great measure from
their ignorance of the art of cutting and polishing the
diamond, which reveals its prismatic hues to such advan-
tage. The ancients, moreover, lived more in the bright
light of day than the moderns, and it is by that light alone
that the richness of mineral colours can be fully appreciated.
The diamond, on the contrary, is far less brilliant in the
broad glare of day than by night.
Comparing the diamond with those substances which
are of the greatest utility to mankind, we find the money
value of the latter to be in an inestimable ratio. Take a
substance very similar to the diamond in composition,
namely, coal. To express the value of an ounce of coal,
we have no coin sufficiently small ; it is the same with iron
and lead,—metals of inestimable importance. An ounce of
copper may be worth a penny ; an ounce of silver may be
worth ss. ; an ounce of pure gold £4. But the very refuse
of the diamond, that which is used for the purpose of
breaking up into small particles for cutting other stones, is
worth 150 an ounce.
Not the least curious among the scraps of infor-
mation collected in these pages are the accounts of
the absurd speculations of ancient philosophers,
who, according to their custom, indulged in the
wildest theories without the slightest foundation.
Amber, in particular, gave rise to the most extraor-
dinary conjectures. The Romans set a high value
upon this substance, and its quality of negative
electricity made it remarkable among the Greeks.
"It is from electron, the Greek word for this sub-
stance, that electricity takes its name." The early
chapters of the work contain many interesting anec-
dotes, and the mournful histories of the envied
owner of invaluable jewels might teach a moral to
those dazzled by pageantry and power. The jewels
of the hapless Queen of Scots fell into the hands
of her relentless enemy, Elizabeth ; but it is a satis-
faction to find that the rapacity of the maiden
Queen was properly punished. She availed herself
of the opportunity offered to secure her rival's beau-
tiful and costly pearls at a low price; and soon
after Queen Mary, in one of her anxious appeals on
the subject, offered Elizabeth the choice of them.
The famous story of the diamond necklace and
Madame Lamotte is given in full ; and numerous
anecdotes, which have come down to us from
earlier times, whether true or false, are cited. The
story of the Earl of Essex and the ring is of
course not omitted, but we wonder that the
authoress has not included some of the won-
derful tales told of Buckingham's diamonds,
and Anne of Austria. In the chapter on famous
jewels a history of our own Koh-i-noor is
;,liven. ;The records, of the gorgeous spoils of
Roman wars are succeeded by the lavish pro-
fusion of the middle ages. In these more sober
days it seems marvellous how bankrupt monarchs
and penniless nobles found means for their pro-
digality. Gifts in gems were, at one time, greatly
the fashion. The following anecdote gives an
amusing evidonce of Parisian gallantry .

The gallants of the Court of Louis XV. carried extrava-
gance as far as the famous Egyptian queen. She melted $
pearl—they pulvet ised diamonds to prove their insane mar
nificence. A lady, having expressed a desire to have the
portrait of her canary in a ring, the last Prince de Conti
requested she would allow him to give it to her ; she se:
cepted, on condition that no precious gems should be se'
in it. When the ring was brought to her, however, a dia-
mond covered the painting. The lady had the brilliant takett
out of the setting, and sent it back to the giver. Tll°
prince, determined not to be gainsaid, caused the stone to pi°