Diamonds and precious stones, a popular account of gems .. . ssolution of the body, saidthe philosophers of India, the soul, âtmâ, very dif-ferent from the merely vital principle, will uniteitself, if it is pure, with the great universal soul,paramâtmâ, from which it emanated. If it is im-pure it will be condemned to submit to a certainnumber of transmigrations, that is to say, to ani-mate successively plants or animals, or even to beincarcerated in some mineral body until, purified ofall imperfections, it is considered worthy of absorp-tion, muktif into the Divinity. Thus minerals as well as
Diamonds and precious stones, a popular account of gems .. . ssolution of the body, saidthe philosophers of India, the soul, âtmâ, very dif-ferent from the merely vital principle, will uniteitself, if it is pure, with the great universal soul,paramâtmâ, from which it emanated. If it is im-pure it will be condemned to submit to a certainnumber of transmigrations, that is to say, to ani-mate successively plants or animals, or even to beincarcerated in some mineral body until, purified ofall imperfections, it is considered worthy of absorp-tion, muktif into the Divinity. Thus minerals as well as animals and plants were to these philosophers living beings. 3 34 PRECIOUS STONES. They maintained also, that the world was ananimal reuniting the two principles, active andpassive; an idea that entered fundamentally intonearly all the systems of ancient philosophy. From India these theories passed into Egypt,whence they were transported to Greece by Plato,Pythagoras, and other philosophers. Confined forcenturies to the European orient, they reappeared. Figs. 20 aiid 21.—Egyptian Figures carved in hard stone. with some brilliancy at the commencement of thepresent era in the writings of philosophers of theschool of Alexandria. In the mediaeval age, whenthe alchemists transported them into the mineralkingdom, they reigned supreme. If we examine, in connection with these ideas,the rank that was ascribed to precious stones, weshall find that they necessarily acquired a great im-portance. The beauty of their forms and the splen-dour of their colours could not fail to make them HISTORICAL SURVEY. 35 to be considered productions of an incomparablepurity, and an epitome of all that nature held mostperfect. To endow these mar-vellous products with propertiesin conformity with the prevailingidea of their nature and originwas but a step farther, and accord-ingly we find attributed to themtalismanic virtues and agenciesof the utmost potency. It would not be without in-terest, writes
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