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from the particular. Powers[1] before named, are leſs frequent; nor do they, like theſe, happen. to whole Strata, or vaſt Maſſes. Some of the Stones, in which they take Place, are very ſcarce and ſmall, as the Emerald, the Carnelian, the Carbuncle, the Sapphire; and, in general, all that are cut as Gems: and ſome of them are found in dividing other Stones.
- ↑ The Author, having now gone through the general Differences of the Strata of Stone, ariſing from common Cauſes; and having particularly mentioned, and in few Words deſcribed the various Species of Marble known in his Time, comes now to the Conſideration of certain more extraordinary Qualities in Stones of ſmaller Size; ariſing from the Powers of more particular Combinations of Matter in their Formation. The particular Stones he mentions in this Place, as poſſeſſing theſe Powers, are hereafter treated of more at large. I ſhall therefore refer, what I have to obſerve in regard to them, to their proper Places, where they are ſeparately deſcribed. To thoſe particularly named the Author adds a great Number, which he alſo hereafter deſcribes, in the Words τῶν εἰς τὰ σφραγίδια γλυπτῶν, which I have choſen to tranſlate "that are cut as Gems," not as the literal Meaning of the Words might ſeem to imply, limiting what are added only to thoſe on which Seals were engraven.
It is evident, the Author meant himſelf no ſuch Limitation, ſince he has afterwards deſcribed, among the Stones of this Claſs, many which he expreſsly ſays were too ſmall for this particular Uſe. The Reaſon of his uſing the Word in this Place is, that the Greeks had no particular Name for the pellucid Stones, which we call diſtinctly Gems; they called all Stones, whether large or ſmal], hard or ſoft, precious or common, by the general Name λίθος, and diſtinguiſhed them, one from another, by their Epithets only, as διαφανὲς &c. and as the general Uſe of what we call Gems, and for
