The Diamond Mines of South Africa Volume 2 - Softcover
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 Excerpt: ...the diamonds of India; for the surface of these crystals is covered with a grayish white film or incrustation, veiling their refulgence so completely that the rough stones are scarcely more ornamental than common quartz pebbles. It was in view of this obscuring that the apostle of deportment, the Earl of Chesterfield, wrote to his son: "Manners must adorn knowledge and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet by way of curiosity and also for its intrinsic value." l A contemporary of this high authority, Dr. Samuel Johnson, was able to controvert this dictum by demonstrating that knowledge can rise from obscurity without any adornment of manners, but polish is indispensable to the revelation of the latent beauties of the rough diamond. Indian tradition runs back romantically five thousand years to the first gleam of the Koh-i-nur or "Mountain of Light" in the serpench of a chief who fell in the great battle described 1 Letters of the Earl of Chesterfield, July 1, 1748. in the epic poem "Mahabharata";' but nothing more solid than tradition sustains this tale. If it were true, it would demonstrate incontestably a very ancient proficiency in the art of grinding and polishing a rough Indian diamond, as the figure of the Koh-i-nur on page i shows, illustrating the appearance of this famous gem before it was recut by modern lapidary art to Examination of the Diamonds before and after Cutting. hold the foremost place in the jewels of the British crown.2 The Italian, Augusto Costellani, is the mouthpiece of another tradition, little firmer than a floating pipe-bubble, that a certain King Carna of India, who lived some three thousand years before the Christian era, possessed a diamond ...
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- PublisherRareBooksClub.com
- Publication date2012
- ISBN 10 1236290895
- ISBN 13 9781236290892
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages82
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