HOROSCOPE OF ELIZABETH OF ENGLAND 319 HOROSCOPE OF HENRY VIII OF ENGLAND 349 BEAUTIFUL COLOUR GEMS (_In colour_) 360 Kelsey I. Newman Collection. SPECIMEN OF ROUGH TURQUOISE (_In colour_) 390 Victoria, Australia HOROSCOPE OF SHAKESPEARE 402 The Magic and Science of Jewels and Stones CHAPTER I STUDY OF PRECIOUS STONES IN EARLY TIMES “_A thing of beauty is a joy forever; Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness._” KEATS. INSPIRATION AND KNOWLEDGE: EXPERIMENTS ON SENSITIVES: GEMS AND COLOUR ATTRACTIONS: ANCIENT GEM CLASSIFICATION: SCIENCE HERMETIC AMONG ANCIENT NATIONS: PUNISHMENT OF THE PEACH TREE: MODERN CLASSIFICATION. The study of the precious and semi-precious stones of the earth has commanded the attention of man from the mists of ages when, according to Enoch, the angel Azazzel came to the earth plane to teach him the use of them. Hence man considered the actual benefit to himself of these stones until his natural curiosity led him to study more deeply the marvel of their existence. There can be little doubt that the indicated use was talismanic, and that the pure wisdom of divine inspiration and a clear faith rendered man’s intuition so keen that he was quite able to know the virtue of various stones without chemical analysis. Dr. Ennemoser has recorded the effects of precious stones on certain psychic subjects, giving the opinion that “it is not improbable that in the early ages the belief in the virtues of talismans was induced by similar observations.” This, no doubt, is true and indicates to us that certain observed phenomena compelled a closer study. We are then reminded of the experiments which have been attributed to the schools of Pythagoras and of the observed effects of certain stones in the hands of sensitives by Baron Reichenbach in the middle of the nineteenth century and of the still more recent experiments in the schools at Nancy. There are records of these experiments being carried out on magnetic somnambulists when diamonds, emeralds, rubies, loadstones, beryls, jaspers and other stones were found to produce varied and strange effects. Gems in common with all manifestations of nature have the power of attracting certain colours to themselves: and so persistent are these colours that it has been observed that when they are changed by art they are liable to revert slowly (for the action of the stone world is slow) to their original colours. This can be noticed especially with Topaz which may on