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unleſs we are to give Credit to the Commentaries of the Egyptian Kings, in which it is recorded, that there was once ſent as a Preſent from a King of Babylon an Emerald [1]four Cubits in length, and three in breadth: And that there was in their Temple of Jupiter,
- ↑ There are, beſide what is here related, many other Accounts of Emeralds of an enormous Size, though none ſo aſtoniſhingly incredible as this: All theſe I imagine to be either abſolutely falſe; Deſcriptions of Things which never had Being: Or erroneous; Accounts of Things which really have been, but have been miſrepreſented through Ignorance or otherwiſe in the relating. Of this laſt Kind I imagine the Ægyptian Account to be, and believe that there really were Stones of theſe Shapes and Sizes among them; but that they were not Emeralds, but of ſome other beautiful green Stone, of the Jaſper or ſome like Kind.
The Antients, in their Accounts of the Emerald, we find, have diſtinguiſhed three Kinds of their twelve, as much ſuperior to the others; theſe were,
1. The Scythian, which greatly excelled all the other Kinds, and of which Pliny obſerves, that quantum Smaragdi a gemmis diſtant, tantum Scythici a cæteris Smaragdis. The Emerald in general was ſometimes, from the particular Excellence of thoſe of this Country, called the Scythian Gem, ἡ Σκυθὶς by the Greeks, and Scythis by the Latins.
2. The Bactrian, which nearly approached to the Scythian in Colour and Hardneſs, but was always ſmall. And
3. The Ægyptian, which was dug in the Mountains about Coptos. Theſe were ſometimes of conſiderable Size, but of a muddy Colour, and wanted the vivid Luſtre of the two former Kinds,
Theſe were the Characters of the three fineſt
before been obſerved of it in regard to the Air, and it has been ſaid, [B 1]Inficere circa ſe repercuſſum aërem. Our Author obſerves, that it will do the ſame in Water; and, according to its Size and Goodneſs, diffuſe a Greenneſs through that alſo, if laid in it.
- ↑ Pliny, L. 37. c. 8.
