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FROM THE DEPTHS
as romance, has persisted about the diamond from the beginning. Leonardus says:
Adamant,
or the Diamond, is a most precious Stone, of the Colour of polish'd
Iron, and as it were Christalline. Its Quantity is never found larger
than the Bigness of a Filberd. It will give way to no Sort of Matter,
neither to Fire nor Iron, but despises all; it had its Name from the
Greek Interpretation, which is, an unconquer'd Virtue. Some hold, it
can be mollified only by the warm Blood of a Goat; which is fabulous,
since I have seen many broke with the Blow of a Hammer. Neither is
there any Thing so hard, but it will suffer by the Adamant. ... Its
Virtue is to repel Poison, tho' ever so deadly; is a Defence against
the Arts of Sorcery; disperses vain Fears; enables to quell all
Quarrels and Contentions; is a Help to Lunaticks, and such as are
possess'd with the Devil; being bound to the left Arm, it gives Victory
over Enemies; it tames wild beasts; it helps those who are troubled
with Phantasms, and the NightÂmare; and makes him that wears it bold
and daring in his Transactions.
That's
quite an order, but it is not something entirely to laugh at smugly,
since today there are a good many equally foolish superstitions about
the diamond—including their luck or lack of luck. You will find almost
all the stories about famous stones, some of which will be recounted in
this book, are surrounded with tales that it is safe to assume are
partly apocryphal, simply because those who passed them along couldn't
avoid the charm of superstition.
But
this adamant, this diamond, was born of Time and Nature, not
superstition. As a matter of fact, it is nothing more than pure carbon.
You take any soot or graphite or lampblack. It's all the same. The
difference is that the diamond crystallized. Perhaps that will seem
strange when you realize that of the ninety-two elements composing the
earth's crust, carbon is one of the commonest and most familiar. It is
almost everywhere you look, in all living
(3)
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