[ 103 ]
and ſome others have done, that our Sapphire was unknown to them: it was unqueſtionably of the Number of their tranſparent Gems, though not, diſtinguiſhed by a particular generical Name. De Laet imagines it was one of the many Kinds they reckoned of the Amethyſt or Hyacinth; but I think it appears much more probably to have been the Gem they called the Beryllus Aëroides; as they did, for the ſame Reaſon, their blue Jaſper Ἴασπις ἀερόεσσα. Pliny deſcribes the Beryll in general to be (except in Colour) of the Nature of the Emerald, and ſays it was brought from the Indies. Their Beryll was what we now call the Aqua Marina, a beautiful tranſparent Gem of a bluiſh green; and there is abſolutely no Stone which our Sapphire more: nearly reſembles than this; and to which, if it were not allowed a particular generical Name of its own, it could more properly be referred: nor could there; I think, be otherwiſe conceived a better Name for it than ſuch a one as would expreſs, as this did, a tranſparent Stone of a [*]ſky blue, and (except in Colour) of the Nature of the Emerald. Our Sapphire is a very elegant, tranſparent in moſt Species of a beautiful blue, and aching to the Ruby in Hardneſs. It owes its Colour to Particles of Copper diſſolved in ſome Menſftruum of an alkaline, Nature and, as more or leſs of this cupreous Matter has entered its original Compoſition, is of a deeper or paler blue, and in the entire Abſence of it, perfectly colourleſs, and refembling a Diamond.
We have now among the Jewellers, four Species of this Gem: 1. The blue Oriental Sapphire. 2. The white Sapphire. 3. The Water Sapphire. 4. The Milk Sapphire; and beſide theſe there is a fifth, of a baſtard Kind, having a Tinge of green, the Sapphirus Subaviridis of Wallerius.
The firſt, or, fine blue Oriental Sapphires, are greatly ſuperior to the Occidental, and are called, in regard to their deeper or paler Colour, Male and Female. We have them from the Iſland of Ceylon, and from Pegu, Biſnagar, Conanor, Calecut, and ſome other Parts of the Eaſt Indies.
The ſecond is brought principally from the ſame Places, and is a true Sapphire, though wholly colourleſs, being of the ſame Hardneſs with the former, and equalling it in Splendor and Tranſparency.
The third is the Occidental Sapphire; theſe we have principally from Sileſia and Bohemia. They are of different degrees of blue, but never are ſo well coloured as the Oriental, or nearly ſo hard; their conftituent Matter coming nearer the Texture of common Cryſtal than the gemmeous Subſtance of the true Sapphire.
The fourth, or Milk Sapphire, is the ſofteſt and leaſt valuable of all; this is the Leuco-Sapphirus of Authors; it is brought from Sileſia,
