The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1886-09-01
SUPERSTITION ABOUT GEMS.
Ehe Power and Influence Attributed
to Precious Stones.

10 PRECIOUS stones.
The superstitions that still linger round
gems and precious stones represent rapid
~ diminishing quantity. We no longer at
tribute, as our fore-fathers did, to each stone
special influence over each month, nor
wear the sapphire in April, the agate in
May, and so forth. We never think of APP
propriating to twelve kinds OF precious
stones the twelve sings of the zodiac or the
twelve Apostles; and if there was any pious
intent in making the chrysolite the symbol
OF st. Matthew, the jasper of st. Peter or
the uncertain beryl of the incredulous st.
Thomas, We deem ourselves exempt from
the need of such reminders. Surely it was
no mean happiness to possess such gems
which, like the sapphire, insured the fulfil.
ment of prayer, or, like the diamond and
amethyst, reduced war to safe and pleas
ant pastime. And any one who has the agi-
tations of lawsuit might well think That
the nervous reliance he places in his solicit
tor would not have been badly exchanged
for the faith which in an earlier age and
similar plight he would have placed in a
morsel of chalcedony.
Like botany, astronomy or even theology,
mineralogy had its roots and beginnings in
The superstitions and Something's of magic;
and perhaps, indeed, without superstition
to foster observation, science of any kind
would never have come to life at all. But
be this as it may, so imbedded in supersti-
ton is the older mythology, that notwith-
standing the intrinsic beauty of the prec-
ious stones it may fairly 10 suspected that
their original attraction lay less in their
beauty than in their anticipated efficacy for
magical and medicinal purposes. To this
day the agates, garnets, heliotrope, serpen-
tine, that are so frequently found in the
Tyrol mountains, are chiefly valued for their
magical uses, the agate, for instance, rem
dering its wearer proof against serpent bites
or making him good speaker, while the
emerald strengthens his sight and memory,
and drinking cups of serpentine are Sc
curity against poison. Take first the dia-
mond, the king of stones. Besides its
minor properties of averting bad dreams,
insanity and poson-all of them common
dangers to royalty-it has the higher virtue
OF rendering its possessor invincible in wal
and of repelling his enemies, and as wal
has from time immemorial been the fash
ionable occupation of kings and nobles the
magical qualities of the diamond would
alone suffice to give ii the rank among gems
that ii still enjoys.
Till the seventeenth century at least this
aspect of gems constituted the chief interest
of mineralogy. Marbodious is full of such
things ms the power of the chrysolite to
drive away evil spirits, of the onyx to dis
pei sadness, of the heilotrope to confer the
gift of prophecy, of the coral to avert storms
and thunderbolts from the fields or houses
or ships All these qualities go back, doubt
less, to the remotest days of paganism, for
they correspond in character with those at
tributed to precious stones in the Oldest OK
tant poem on the subject, written by Ono
mnkritus, Greek priest of the fifth century
before Christ, and by him ascribed to
0rpheus. One can understand that next or
equal in importance to the value of a stone
rs pledge of victory in battle would rank
its capacity to insure to its possessor the
fulfllment of his prayer addressed to the
immortal gods, and this is what stands out
in that work as their chief interest and pur.
port. The supreme merit of the adamns,
the crystal, the tree-agate, the jasper the
topaz and the opal is THAT the gods ale i'm
potent to resist the spell of their influence.
Only let man go to the temple with crys-
tai in his hand, and none of the immortals
will refuse to hear his prayer. Nothing is
30 conservative as superstition, or SO little
liable TO freaks and fluctuations, and there
fore it is strange that the sapphire, which,
In addition to its power of obtaining On
answer to prayer, had also the faculty of
protecting its owner from fraud, fear, or
envy, should have come in modern super
stition to hold the position of an unlucky
stone. The same puzzle meets us in regard
to that most glorious of oil stones, the opal,
so valued in olden days, that after ages APP
plauded that Roman Senator who, when
Mark Antony coveted his opal ring, went
INTO voluntary exile.