Why such immense value should be attached to diamonds, in all civilized countries, and by a kind of common consent, is one of those singular things that seem inexplicable. That a magnificent house, with a large estate, and the means of living not only in comfort but splendor, should be set in competition with, and even deemed inadequate to the purchase of, a transparent crystallized stone, not half the size of a hen’s egg, seems almost a kind of insanity! If for the mere consciousness of possessing a diamond of less than the weight of an ounce, any private gentleman were to pay four hundred and fifty thousand dollars in ready money, and an annuity of twenty thousand dollars besides, he would probably be thought beside himself. And yet not only was the above sum given, but a patent of nobility into the bargain, by the empress Catharine, of Russia, for the famous diamond “Nadir Shah.” In this case, however, though the seller acquired much, the purchaser did not suffer any personal privation; and in reality, notwithstanding the costliness and high estimation of diamonds, they are not put in competition with the substantial comforts and conveniences of life. Among ornaments and luxuries, however, they unquestionably occupy, and have ever occupied, the highest rank. Even Fashion, proverbially capricious as she is, has remained steady in this, one of her earliest attachments, during probably three or four thousand years. There must be, therefore, in the nature of things, some adequate reason for this universal consent; which becomes a curious object of inquiry. The utility of the diamond, great as it is in some respects, enters for little or nothing into the calculation of its price; at least all that portion of its value which constitutes the difference between the cost of an entire diamond and an equal weight of diamond powder, must be attributed to other causes.