"Precious stone" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... knight riding to meet her. He was clad in armour that shone more than any man's, and well it might, as it had been welded by the great enchanter Merlin. On the crest of his helmet a golden dragon spread his wings: and in the centre of his breast-plate a precious stone shone forth amidst a circle of smaller ones, 'like Hesperus among the ...
— The Red Romance Book • Various
... spread on cloths of dream The beautiful, the priceless things you seem; Perfume and precious stone, That you be ...
— Perpetual Light • William Rose Benet
... maner Jowell is to me lyke certayne Ne so profytable to mortall creature I passe all ryches and cause a man refrayne His mynde from synne, and of his ende be sure There is no treasoure nor precious stone so pure Carbuncle Ruby ne adamond in londe nor see Nor other lapydary ...
— The Ship of Fools, Volume 1 • Sebastian Brandt
... gold alternating with a square of the white marble wall of the building from top to bottom and from end to end, each of the white marble squares having in its centre a gold ornament about the size of one's hand which formed a mount for a precious stone, rubies and emeralds being the most numerous, although diamonds of considerable size gleamed here and there. Had the stones been cut and polished, instead of being set in the rough, the effect would have been gorgeous beyond description. Perhaps the most wonderful part of the whole building, ...
— Harry Escombe - A Tale of Adventure in Peru • Harry Collingwood
... ledge and pinnacle of rock, from which ran huge escarpments clothed with spruce and pine, scarred and gashed on every hand with slides and deep-worn watercourses, down which tumultuous streams rioted their foamy way. And nestled amid this, like a precious stone in its massive setting, a few hundred acres of level, grassy turf dotted with trees. Southward opened a narrow valley, as if pointing the road to a less rigorous land. No, she could not deny its beauty. But she was far too trail ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... of her lively looks Excels the precious stone; I wish to have none other books To ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan
... with our damsel this was not the case: Her dress was many-colour'd, finely spun; Her locks curl'd negligently round her face, But through them gold and gems profusely shone: Her girdle sparkled, and the richest lace Flow'd in her veil, and many a precious stone Flash'd on her little hand; but, what was shocking, Her small snow feet ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron
... monarch's life, honored with his especial favor; and at his death, he bequeathed it other lands, together with his sceptre, the crown he wore upon occasions of the highest solemnity, his hand of justice, a cup made of precious stone, his golden candlesticks, and all the royal ornaments which usually appertain to the crown. Still further to manifest his gracious regard, he directed that the abbatial church should be the depository of his mortal remains; ...
— Architectural Antiquities of Normandy • John Sell Cotman
... remarkable kind. The Museum of Vannes, where most of the valuable objects found in the excavations are preserved, possesses quartzite, fibrolite, diorite, and even nephrite and jadeite hatchets, some of which materials are not native to Europe; as well as amber beads and a necklace of calaite, that precious stone described by Pliny, and which long ...
— Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples • The Marquis de Nadaillac
... throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This happy breed of men, this little world; This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat, defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands; This blessed plot, this ...
— The Man Shakespeare • Frank Harris
... disclosed an enormous iron-bound coffer covered with plates of open ironwork. This coffer being opened out poured thousands of rays of different and lovely tints, and each ray seemed to leap out of a precious stone most artistically cut. King Loc dipped in his hands and there flowed in glittering confusion violet amethysts and virgins' stones, emeralds of three kinds, one dark green, another called the honey emerald because of its colour, and the third a bluish green, also called ...
— Honey-Bee - 1911 • Anatole France
... like a precious stone kept long in the lapidary's hands before its brilliancy met the public gaze. I had my home under his father's roof, and sat daily at table with him, during my Junior year. We were colleagues afterwards, together with our classmate Jarvis Gregg, in the Western ...
— The History of Dartmouth College • Baxter Perry Smith
... throne of kings, this sceptre'd isle, This other Eden, demi-paradise.... This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea.... This blessed plot, this earth, ...
— If Winter Comes • A.S.M. Hutchinson
... Mr. Vigo; "you are a yearling, and I have formed my judgment as to your capacity. What I wish to do in your case is what I have done in others, and some memorable ones. Dress does not make a man, but it often makes a successful one. The most precious stone, you know, must be cut and polished. I shall enter your name in my books for an unlimited credit, and no account to be settled till you are a privy councillor. I do not limit the credit, because you are a man of sense and ...
— Endymion • Benjamin Disraeli
... Cynthia's light, So nam'd, with her still ranging, 150 Which as she wanes or waxeth bright Its colours so are changing. With Opalls, more then any one, We'll deck thine Altar fuller, For that of euery precious stone, It doth retaine some colour; With bunches of Pearle Paragon Thine Altars vnderpropping, Whose base is the Cornelian, Strong bleeding often stopping: 160 With th' Agot, very oft that is Cut strangely in the Quarry, As Nature ment to show in this, How she her selfe can varry: With worlds of Gems ...
— Minor Poems of Michael Drayton • Michael Drayton
... yellow, his tail is white; With little ears and tawny head, No steed like him was ever bred. The good archbishop spurs a-field, And smites Abyme upon the shield, His emir's shield, so thickly sown With many a gem and precious stone, Amethyst and topaz, crystals bright, And red carbuncles flashing light: The shield is shivered by the blow; No longer worth a doit, I trow; Stark dead the emir lies below. 'Ha! bravely struck!' the Frenchmen yell: 'Our bishop guards ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume IV. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... nearly so. Now, brother, had I but bent a finger in favour of the Rommany chal, the plastramengro would never have come alive out of the lane; but I did not, for I thought to myself fair play is a precious stone; ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow
... wore a remarkable ring; not a signet, but a large gem of great value, beautifully cut in many facets, and clear set in massive gold. This precious stone, said to be a chrysoprasus, had been given to the Bishop by a Russian prince, in acknowledgment of a great service rendered him when he came on pilgrimage to Rome. The rarity of these gems arose partly from the fact that the sovereigns of Russia had decreed that they should be held ...
— The White Ladies of Worcester - A Romance of the Twelfth Century • Florence L. Barclay
... royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden—demi-paradise—.... This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in a silver sea,.... This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, This nurse, this teeming womb of Royal Kings... This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land, Dear for her reputation through ...
— By-ways in Book-land - Short Essays on Literary Subjects • William Davenport Adams
... admiring the marvellous beauty of its form, which seemed so greatly to exceed that of all other flowers. It had thick petals, and at first gave me the idea of an artificial flower, cut by a divinely inspired artist from some unknown precious stone, of the size of a large orange and whiter than milk, and yet, in spite of its opacity, with a crystalline lustre on the surface. Next day I went again, scarcely hoping to find it still unwithered; ...
— Green Mansions - A Romance of the Tropical Forest • W. H. Hudson
... spiders have as many as eight eyes, they are all "simple," while the eyes of insects are "compound"; that is, great numbers are massed together at each side of the head, like the "facets," or little faces, of a precious stone. As insects have fixed eyes, which cannot move, they would be very badly off without these many ...
— Twilight And Dawn • Caroline Pridham
... holidays in that charming sport every now and then. Of course there are disappointments. Sometimes you find a diamond which is not a diamond; it is only a quartz crystal or some such worthless thing. The expert can generally distinguish it from the precious stone which it is counterfeiting; but if he is in doubt he lays it on a flatiron and hits it with a sledgehammer. If it is a diamond it holds its own; if it is anything else, it is reduced to powder. I liked that experiment very much, and did not tire of repetitions of it. It was full of enjoyable ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... sparkle in their skies; Nor be you proud, that you can see All hearts your captives, yours, yet free; Be you not proud of that rich hair Which wantons with the love-sick air; Whenas that ruby which you wear, Sunk from the tip of your soft ear, Will last to be a precious stone, When all your world ...
— A Selection From The Lyrical Poems Of Robert Herrick • Robert Herrick
... motionless in the sunshine. Beatrice observed this remarkable phenomenon and crossed herself, sadly, but without surprise; nor did she therefore hesitate to arrange the fatal flower in her bosom. There it blushed, and almost glimmered with the dazzling effect of a precious stone, adding to her dress and aspect the one appropriate charm which nothing else in the world could have supplied. But Giovanni, out of the shadow of his window, bent forward and shrank ...
— Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Stories • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... presented to him his toko (a small ecclesiastical wand). On seeing this, the priest also made him the following presents:—A rosary of Kongoji (a kind of precious stone), which the sage Prince Shotok obtained from Corea, enclosed in the original case in which it had been sent from that country; some medicine of rare virtue in a small emerald jar; and several other objects, with a spray of Wistaria, and a ...
— Japanese Literature - Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical - Poetry and Drama of Japan • Various
... them to be able to profit by them; I can but feel them; and they control me without leaving me time to control them in my turn. I listen to my life, I contemplate it. It has too many opposing voices, too many absolutely different shapes; my consciousness is lost in it as a precious stone is swallowed up by the sea. I blush at such chaos. My soul appears to me only fit to compare with one of those wretched table-cloths which country dressmakers patch together, at the end of the year, out of the thousand scraps ...
— The Choice of Life • Georgette Leblanc
... to be constant. The fire on the altar should never be quenched. The odour of the sweet-smelling incense should ever ascend. Why is it that we have so little of this grace which the Apostle in our text regards as the precious stone that binds all Christian graces together, the sparkling crest of the wave of a Christian life? Mainly because we have so little of the habit of regarding all things as God's Fatherly discipline and meditating on that for which they are making us meet. ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren
... if he possessed a thousand talents weight of some precious stone, we should say that ...
— Eryxias • An Imitator of Plato
... by the arrival of this magnificent diamond. "The mountain of light," as its eastern designation means, was valued at two millions sterling, and was the most costly precious stone in the world. A certain Brazilian gem in the crown of Portugal was alone admitted to be a rival. Its discovery was made in the mines of Golconda, and passed into possession of the Mogul emperors from the king of that country. From Delhi it was borne away by the ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan
... threw the ruby up out of its mouth, and that very instant the burning in its stomach ceased. "Ah," said the alligator, looking at the ruby, "I swallowed that one day when I was drinking." And he gave the ruby to the man, saying, "In return for your kindness I will give you this ruby. It is a very precious stone." (In old days every Raja possessed such a ruby; now very few Rajas, if any, have one.) The poor man thanked the alligator, put the ruby into his cloth, and went on his way till he came to the camel, who said, "Did you ask your fate why I have to carry these two sacks of gold?" ...
— Indian Fairy Tales • Anonymous
... told her father that a boy of the street had an uncommonly bright stone in his possession which she must have or else she would starve herself to death. The king ordered his servants to bring to him the lad with that precious stone. When the boy was brought, the king wondered at the largeness and brilliancy of the ruby. He had never seen anything like it. He doubted whether any king of any country in the world possessed so great a treasure. ...
— Folk Tales Every Child Should Know • Various
... many details that will have but slender interest for the reader, whose eyes perhaps may never have followed a flight of bees; or who may have regarded them only with the passing interest with which we are all of us apt to regard the flower, the bird or the precious stone, asking of these no more than a slight superficial assurance, and forgetting that the most trivial secret of the non-human object we behold in nature connects more closely perhaps with the profound enigma of our origin and our end, ...
— The Life of the Bee • Maurice Maeterlinck
... This is now wonderful in our eyes, as the prophet says; it seems strange to us, and where the Spirit does not teach it, it is utterly incomprehensible. Therefore he says, in God's eyes the stone is elect, and an extremely precious stone; it is of great importance also that it takes away death, satisfies for sin, and rescues from hell, besides ...
— The Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude Preached and Explained • Martin Luther
... setting. The water of the harbor, changing as you look to green and back to blue until you are not sure which is the color, is the feature that attracts and holds you. Montboron, the littoral and Cap Ferrat are as secondary as the prongs and ring which hold a precious stone. ...
— Riviera Towns • Herbert Adams Gibbons
... his horse, and making his bow, rode off towards the city of Dobri, in the kingdom of the Tsar Vorcholomei, to see the beauty of the Princess Anastasia. Now, in this country there was a large lake, in which lived a huge three-headed Dragon guarding a precious stone, that every year came to the shore and devoured a number of men. The Tsar had proclaimed again and again that if anyone slew this monster he would give them plenty of gold and silver and towns. When Yaroslav came to the city and heard of this proclamation, he mounted his steed again and ...
— The Russian Garland - being Russian Falk Tales • Various
... versa, as water; and be sure to send them all shattering out of reach and discrimination of all sense; and look into a dictionary for some such word as "chrysoprase," which we find to come from chrysos gold, and prason a leek, and means a precious stone; it is capable of being shattered, together with "sunshine"—the reader will think the whole passage a "flash" of moonshine. But there is a discovery—"I believe, when you have stood by this for half an hour, you will have ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXVI. October, 1843. Vol. LIV. • Various
... breaking up of the ship. By [the] light of torches. Arm in arm. There seized him some fear at the thought. Nothing helps; one must only bravely remain of his [own] opinion. She laughed at his recital. At every word which you (will) speak, out of your mouth will come either a flower or a precious stone. ...
— The Esperanto Teacher - A Simple Course for Non-Grammarians • Helen Fryer
... importation of gold and silver vases, objects in lapis-lazuli and crystal, or of blocks of the same materials; the Theban tombs of this period afford examples of the vases and blocks brought by the Syrians. The Tel el-Amarna letters also mention vessels of gold or blocks of precious stone sent as presents or as objects of exchange to the Pharaoh by the King of Babylon, by the King of Mitanni, by the King of the Hittites, and by other princes. The lapis-lazuli of Babylon, which probably came from Persia, was that which was most prized by the Egyptians on account ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12) • G. Maspero
... chef d'ouvre[Fr], prime, flower, cream, elite, pick, A1, nonesuch, nonpareil, creme de la creme, flower of the flock, cock of the roost, salt of the earth; champion; prodigy. tidbit; gem, gem of the first water; bijou, precious stone, jewel, pearl, diamond, ruby, brilliant, treasure; good thing; rara avis[Lat], one in a thousand. beneficence &c. 906; good man &c. 948. V. be beneficial &c. Adj.; produce good, do good &c. 618; profit &c. (be of use) 644; benefit; confer a benefit &c. 618. be the making ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... of a pine tree, was found in Sicily, the shores of the Baltic, and other parts of Europe. It was a precious stone then as now, and an article of trade with the Phoenicians, those early merchants of the Mediterranean. The attractive power might enhance the value of the gem in the eyes of the superstitious ancients, but they do not seem to have investigated it, and beyond the speculation of Thales, ...
— The Story Of Electricity • John Munro
... mosaic-work that would not be out of place in the fabled halls of the Eastern genii, so much did they exceed my former ideas of human skill. The tops were of jasper, and each had a border of fruit and flowers in which every color was represented by some precious stone, all with the utmost delicacy and truth to nature. It is impossible to conceive the splendid effect it produced. Besides some fine pictures on gold by Raphael Mengs, there was a Madonna, the largest specimen of ...
— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume V (of X) • Various
... Romans introduced many innovations in the general use and treatment of the orders. Monolithic shafts were preferred to those built up of superposed drums. The fluting was omitted on these, and when hard and semi-precious stone like porphyry or verd-antique was the material, it was highly polished to bring out its color. These polished monoliths were often of great size, and they were used in ...
— A Text-Book of the History of Architecture - Seventh Edition, revised • Alfred D. F. Hamlin
... Antony's sons, Antyllus, his eldest son by Fulvia was slain, because his schoolmaster Theodorus did betray him unto the soldiers, who strake off his head. And the villain took a precious stone of great value from his neck, the which he did sew in his girdle, and afterwards denied that he had it: but it was found about him, and so Caesar trussed him up for it. For Cleopatra's children, they were very honourably kept, with their ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume I (of X) - Greece • Various
... bodies when he did beholde, They seemd all glistring to be made of gold, But he perceiued, being somewhat nere, It was the beautie of her dangling haire, Which from her head hung downe vnto her waste, And such a bright and orient colour cast. About her necke she ware a precious stone, A high pris'd, matchlesse, sparkling diamond, But poising it with her transpiercing eye, Shewd like a candle when the Sun is by. The louely boy was taken with the hooke, The more he gazd, the more still was he strooke; A thousand amourous glances he doth throwe, And those recoild, seconds ...
— Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) • Dunstan Gale
... was not apparent until he stood alongside another man. Will's eyes were grey as Phoebe's, but of a different expression; soft and unsettled, cloudy as the recent weather, full of the alternate mist and flash of a precious stone, one moment all a-dreaming, the next aglow. His natural look was at first sight a little stern until a man came to know it, then this impression waned and left a critic puzzled. The square cut of his face and abrupt angle of his jaw did not indeed belie Will Blanchard, but the man's ...
— Children of the Mist • Eden Phillpotts
... conceptions of future happiness, it is always some priggish nonsense about "planes," about "cycles of fulfilment," or "spirals of spiritual evolution." Now a cycle is just as much a physical metaphor as a flower of Eden; a spiral is just as much a physical metaphor as a precious stone. But, after all, a garden is a beautiful thing; whereas this is by no means necessarily true of a cycle, as can be seen in the case of a bicycle. A jewel, after all, is a beautiful thing; but this is not necessarily ...
— Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens • G. K. Chesterton
... another, it is certainly older than the Christian religion, so that some have thought that Janus, that old god who once presided at the beginning of all noble things, was the divine originator of this city also. And remembering the sun that continually makes Genoa to seem all of precious stone, of moonstone or alabaster, it seems indeed likely enough, for Janus was worshipped of old as the sun, he opened the year too, and the first month bears his name; and while on earth he was the guardian deity of gates, in heaven he was porter, and his sign was a ship; therefore he may well have ...
— Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa • Edward Hutton
... you, it is one of the richest places in the world, for from 1807 to 1817 the annual return was about eighteen thousand carats. Ah! there have been some rare finds there, not only for the climbers who seek the precious stone up to the very tops of the mountains, but also for the smugglers who fraudulently export it. But the work in the mines is not so pleasant, and the two thousand negroes employed in that work by the government ...
— Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon • Jules Verne
... had been some innate strength and nobility in Mrs. Allen's character it might have developed now into something worthy of respect under this sharp attrition of trouble, however perverted before. But where a precious stone will take lustre a pumice stone will crumble. There is a multitude of natures so weak to begin with that they need tonic treatment all through life. What must such become under the influence of enervating luxury, flattery, and uncurbed selfishness from childhood? ...
— What Can She Do? • Edward Payson Roe
... "Bdellium," if that was the substance known as "B'dolach." It is indeed uncertain what this was, but Gesenius long ago rejected the idea that it was a stone, because there is no prefix to it, as there is to "shoham," which follows, and certainly is a precious stone. The manna in the wilderness is described as being of the "colour of bdellium," and was also like hoar-frost;[3] hence the idea that b'dolach was a crystal. But a fragrant and precious gum-resin seems ...
— Creation and Its Records • B.H. Baden-Powell
... a reason for Christ's fixing the number of His disciples, some have found a fancied one in the twelve precious stones of Aaron's breastplate. The most precious stone would represent John, the chosen one of the Great High Priest. In his own vision of the new Jerusalem "the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones." "And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names ...
— A Life of St. John for the Young • George Ludington Weed
... in Ceylon embodies the popular legend, that the stomach of the cobra de capello occasionally contains a precious stone of such unapproachable brilliancy as to surpass all known jewels. This inestimable stone is called the n[a]ga-m[a]nik-kya; but not one snake in thousands is supposed to possess such a treasure. The cobra, before eating, is believed to cast it up and conceal it for the moment; else its ...
— Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon • J. Emerson Tennent
... her aunt was smiling recognition, but Anthony never saw that. Gazing upon the beauty of that face which he had once transfigured, he found it frozen. That proud red bow of a mouth, that had been his for the taking, might have been graven of precious stone. Here was no vestige of Love. Tenderness was clean gone. Even as he looked, the blue eyes shifted casually to wander around the Court.... The cold wind of Indifference made Anthony's ...
— Anthony Lyveden • Dornford Yates
... dapple-gray,[5] Swilk[6] one ne saw I never none; As does the sun on summer's day, That fair lady herself she shone. 20 Her saddle it was of roelle-bone[7]; Full seemly was that sight to see! Stiffly set with precious stone And compast all with crapotee[8]— Stones of Orient great plenty; 25 Her hair about her head it hang; She rode over that longe lea; A while she blew, another she sang. Her girths of noble silk they were; The buckles were of beryl-stone; 30 Her stirrups ...
— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick
... luck to me my dream forebodes; For to me, to me, fair maid, it seemed, On my right hand did my gold ring burst, O'er the floor then rolled the precious stone. ...
— Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic - Nations • Therese Albertine Louise von Jacob Robinson
... her hearth lay blazing many a piece Of sandal wood, rare gums, and cinnamon; Men scarcely know how beautiful fire is— Each flame of it is as a precious stone 260 Dissolved in ever-moving light, and this Belongs to each and all who gaze upon. The Witch beheld it not, for in her hand She held a woof that dimmed ...
— The Witch of Atlas • Percy Bysshe Shelley
... a precious stone, the first in rank of all the gems, and valued for its beautiful lustre; it is the hardest of all stones, as well as the most valuable. The most esteemed are colorless. A diamond in its natural state as it comes out of the mine, and before it is cut, is called ...
— A Catechism of Familiar Things; Their History, and the Events Which Led to Their Discovery • Benziger Brothers
... sand. Lo, and behold! What did she see? Tall shade trees had sprung up along the path she had traveled, and each tiny grain of sand that the wonderful thread had touched was now changed into a diamond, or ruby, or emerald, or some other precious stone. On one side the pathway across the desert shone and glittered, while on the other the graceful trees cast a cool and ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various
... precious stone,' rejoined his brother; 'more precious, I take it, than all the diamonds in the world. Is it ...
— The Desert Home - The Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid
... With these words they both went towards a willow-tree on the right, by the new stairs, which tree seemed to cleave open, and as they went in it closed, and I never saw them more. With great haste I returned to my chamber, where, lifting up the right pillow, I found my precious stone; being greatly rejoiced, together with my wife, who joined me in thanking God for ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... and virtues, possesseth this property besides. It cannot be seen out of hand, save by one whose eyesight is strong and sound, and his body pure and thoroughly undefiled. If any man, lacking in these two good qualities, do rashly gaze upon this precious stone, he shall, I suppose lose even the eyesight that he hath, and his wits as well. Now I, that am initiated in the physician's art, observe that thine eyes are not healthy, and I fear lest I may cause thee to lose even the eyesight that thou ...
— Barlaam and Ioasaph • St. John of Damascus
... the costume of this, the beautiful Mademoiselle de la Valiere, upon a form that surpasses her own; I raise my eyes, and I behold a mask, and yet I recognize the lady; beauty is like that precious stone in the 'Arabian Nights,' which emits, no matter how concealed, a light that ...
— The Room in the Dragon Volant • J. Sheridan Le Fanu
... business of collecting and selling them seems from the earliest time to have fallen into the hands of the Arabs, and hence they bore in China the designation of "Mahometan stones."[1] They consisted of rubies, sapphires, amethysts, carbuncles (the "red precious stone, the lustre of which serves instead of a lamp at night")[2]; and topazes of four distinct tints, "those the colour of wine; the delicate tint of young goslings, the deep amber, like bees'-wax, and the pale tinge resembling the opening bud ...
— Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and • James Emerson Tennent
... unexpected and enchanting vision of great forest and rushing water, of hillside and plain, of crystal cliffs and flame-winged birds; of the Pearl among her white peers; of the Apocalyptic Jerusalem, discovered to the poet, it may be, as a goodly Gothic city, though its walls are built of precious stone, and its towers rise from ...
— The Pearl • Sophie Jewett
... this was not the case: Her dress was many-coloured, finely spun; Her locks curled negligently round her face, But through them gold and gems profusely shone: Her girdle sparkled, and the richest lace Flowed in her veil, and many a precious stone Flashed on her little hand; but, what was shocking, Her small snow feet ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron
... 20th of September, in every year, it is imposed on her to take the form of a seven-headed snake, the large centre head adorned with a splendid carbuncle. Many have tried to capture the snake and secure this precious stone, for an old prophecy promises wealth to whoever shall wrest it from the serpent. But thus far the people of Connecticut have found more wealth in clocks and tobacco ...
— Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, Complete • Charles M. Skinner
... sparkle in their skies; Nor be you proud that you can see All hearts your captives, yours yet free; Be you not proud of that rich hair Which wantons with the love-sick air; Whenas that ruby which you wear, Sunk from the tip of your soft ear, Will last to be a precious stone When all ...
— Book of English Verse • Bulchevy
... likely to be performed. But he said nothing, and Matteo walked from tree to tree, dropping here a piece of cup, there a fragment of plate; and, wherever the china fell, the ground between the trees turned to diamond or sapphire or ruby. With the walls it was just the same. Every kind of precious stone known and unknown was to be found in that wonderful orchard, even to a carbuncle which grew on a courtier's toe in consequence of his incautious action in putting his foot just where Matteo was dropping a tiny bit ...
— Edmund Dulac's Fairy-Book - Fairy Tales of the Allied Nations • Edmund Dulac
... justified, yes," broke in Cheniston coolly. "After all, if one man has a precious stone, a diamond, let us say, and another man manages to lose it, well in the unlikely event of the two of them discovering another stone, which of them has the best right ...
— Afterwards • Kathlyn Rhodes
... Don Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, the good count of Tendilla, was to be governor of the city, Boabdil drew from his finger a gold ring set with a precious stone and presented it to the count. "With this ring," said he, "Granada has been governed; take it and govern with it, and God make you more ...
— Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada • Washington Irving
... and another begun. And as they were beginning the first move of the game, they beheld at a small distance from them a tent speckled yellow, the largest ever seen, and the figure of an eagle of gold upon it, and a precious stone on the eagle's head. And coming out of the tent, they saw a youth with thick yellow hair upon his head, fair and comely, and a scarf of blue satin upon him, and a brooch of gold in the scarf upon his ...
— The Mabinogion Vol. 1 (of 3) • Owen M. Edwards
... inquiringly at it; but as it rose higher and higher, and poured down more light on all objects around, it seemed to smile at our inquisitiveness, and to bid us turn less eager glances towards the dust and rubbish of old times, where perchance we may find a precious stone, perchance a bit of broken glass—but bend our eyes more steadfastly to the future, the centuries unborn, the inevitable, ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 428 - Volume 17, New Series, March 13, 1852 • Various
... little world, This precious stone, set in the silver sea That serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands, This blessed plot, this ...
— Set in Silver • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson
... What constitutes a precious stone is the question which, at the onset, rises in the mind, and this question, simple as it seems, is one by no means easy to answer, since what may be considered precious at one time, may cease ...
— The Chemistry, Properties and Tests of Precious Stones • John Mastin
... arduous task fell to my share: I had to cut and polish the recondite gem, to strip it of its ruggedness and present it to my companion's intelligence under a less forbidding aspect. This diamond cutter's work, which admitted a little light into the precious stone, was the favorite occupation of my leisure; and I owe a great ...
— The Life of the Fly - With Which are Interspersed Some Chapters of Autobiography • J. Henri Fabre
... etiquette, which on so solemn an occasion was revived in all its stately strictness. The dignitaries of the Church wore their most sumptuous robes. The Nobles glittered with silk and gold lace; jeweled clasps fastened plumes of feathers in their hats; orders glittered on their breasts; and many a precious stone sparkled in the hilts of their swords. The representatives of the Commons were allowed neither feathers, nor embroidery, nor swords; but were forced to content themselves with plain black cloaks, and an unadorned ...
— The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France • Charles Duke Yonge
... skirts were chrysolite. Technically, chrysolite is synonymous with the precious stone peridot, or olivine—its tint is a yellowish green. But probably Shelley thought only of the primary meaning of the word chrysolite, 'golden-stone,' and his phrase as a whole comes to much the same thing as 'a cloud ...
— Adonais • Shelley
... come where some huge watcher is And tremble with their love and kiss. They know undying things, for they Wander where earth withers away, Though nothing troubles the great streams But light from the pale stars, and gleams From the holy orchards, where there is none But fruit that is of precious stone, Or apples of ...
— In The Seven Woods - Being Poems Chiefly of the Irish Heroic Age • William Butler (W.B.) Yeats
... journey to you!" said Pinocchio, and he began to search the ground for a forgotten piece of gold, or some precious stone which might have fallen from a lady's diadem; but ...
— Pinocchio in Africa • Cherubini
... Zabdanu his brother with 300 of his soldiers and Bel-bal-idin who marched at the head of their armies I captured, together with them 21 many soldiers I smote down with my weapons; silver, gold, tin, precious stone of the mountains,[9] the treasure of his palace, 22 chariots, horses trained to the yoke, trappings for men and horses, the women of his palace, his spoil, 23 in abundance I carried off; the city I pulled down and razed; ordinances and edicts ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Literature • Anonymous
... God as 'faithful' is, like a precious stone, turned in many directions in Scripture, and wherever turned it flashes light. Sometimes it is laid as the foundation for the confidence that even our weakness will be upheld to the end, as when Paul ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren
... clever eye would have detected the foul hieroglyphic among the twistings of gold patterning. The whole plate was about ten inches square, the centre divided by gold ribs, across and across, into twelve sections, each section holding a separate precious stone of fabulous wealth. Just for a moment or two the wondrous mechanical music stole out again upon the silence. Lovers of music recognized part of Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony." What wondrous melody there was in the fragment! The priests' ...
— The Mark of the Beast • Sidney Watson
... "impression of keen whips" produced ruby streaks on the skin; even more materialistic is the nose "all o'er embellished with rubies, carbuncles and sapphires" (Comedy of Errors, Act iii, sc. 2). The common employment of the designation carbuncle for a precious stone and also for a boil was usual from ancient times. At least, we might gather from this passage that the poet was aware of the distinction between ruby and carbuncle (pyrope garnet). Rubies as "fairy favors" is a dainty mention in the fairy drama Midsummer Night's Dream (Act ii, sc. ...
— Shakespeare and Precious Stones • George Frederick Kunz
... the precious stone became converted into a magnet. A bit of paper placed a few inches away was attracted to it with an ...
— Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) - A Novel • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... glossy black curls; on his head was a broad velvet Spanish hat, in which instead of a feather was fastened with a great gold clasp a whole Quezal bird, whose gorgeous plumage of fretted golden green shone like one entire precious stone. As he finished his speech, he took off the said hat, and looking at ...
— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley
... demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself, This precious stone set in the silver sea, This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land, Dear for her reputation ...
— Stories of Authors, British and American • Edwin Watts Chubb
... Grand Arcanum is a genuine King, and more than a king, for he is inaccessible to all fear and all empty hopes. In all maladies of soul and body, a single particle from the precious stone, a single grain of the divine powder, is more than sufficient to cure him. "Let him hear, who hath ears to ...
— Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry • Albert Pike
... consistent with the views announced by Paul in his address to the Athenians. He intimates that the Athenians "thought that the Godhead was like unto (e nai omoion)—to be imaged or represented by human art—by gold, and silver, and precious stone graven by art, and device of man;" that is, they thought the perfections of God could be represented to the eye by an image, or symbol. The views of Paul are still more articulately expressed in Romans, i. 23, 25: "They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of an image ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker
... men, the most cleanly in eating, as also in all other things. When he sat at table, he ate from fair antique vases, and, in like manner, all his table was covered with porcelain and other vessels of great beauty. The cup from which he drank was of crystal, or of some other precious stone. To see him at table—a perfect model of the men of old—was of a truth a charming sight. He always willed that the napkins set before him should be of the whitest, as well as all the linen." . . . . What distinguished Niccolo was the combination ...
— The Private Library - What We Do Know, What We Don't Know, What We Ought to Know - About Our Books • Arthur L. Humphreys
... for my brother. My brother's presents (are)—a (weight?) of solid gold from the land Ris Burkhis, a weapon with a stone head(399) ... of precious stone ... (an ornament?) for the hands of precious stones, one part of gold: three cloths: three ... three ... (with fastenings?) of gold, ... of refined bronze (or copper) ... ...
— Egyptian Literature
... impugn them. Nevertheless, be it lawful to say, that men show the wisest arguments in vain to those who do not understand reason, just as you would in vain exhibit a curious piece of limning to the blind, or endeavour to bribe, as scripture saith, a sow by the offer of a precious stone. The fault is not, in such case, in the accuracy of your sacred reasoning, but in the obtuseness and perverseness of the barbarians to ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott
... m., gem, precious stone, jewel: nom. sg. heofones gim, heaven's jewel, i.e. the sun, ...
— Beowulf • James A. Harrison and Robert Sharp, eds.
... the name given by old writers to the King of Ethiopia in Abyssinia. A corruption of Belul Gian, precious stone; in Latin first Johanus preciosus, then Presbyter Johannes, and then Prester John. In Sir John Mandeville's Voiage and Travails, 1356, Prester John is said to be a lineal descendant of Ogier the Dane.—Hartley would ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas
... some great personage, for in her clothes we found a golden jewel with a precious stone inscribed with strange characters. It is very costly, and my wife is keeping it ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... exceeded belief. Col told us, that O'Kane, the famous Irish harper, was once at that gentleman's house. He could not find in his heart to give him any money, but gave him a key for a harp, which was finely ornamented with gold and silver, and with a precious stone, and was worth eighty or a hundred guineas. He did not know the value of it; and when he came to know it, he would fain have had it back; but O'Kane took care that he should not. JOHNSON. 'They exaggerate the value; every body ...
— The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. • James Boswell
... Every precious stone was supposed to exercise its own peculiar virtue; for instance, amber was regarded as a good remedy for throat troubles, and agate was thought to preserve from snake-bites. ELIHU RICH(1) gives a very full list of stones and their supposed virtues. Each sign of the zodiac was supposed ...
— Bygone Beliefs • H. Stanley Redgrove
... the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. ...
— Studies in Prophecy • Arno C. Gaebelein
... came to see what could have happened. They came in just in time to see Monique empty the purse, and count the golden pieces. There were as many as fifteen on the one side of the purse, and on the other was a ring with a precious stone in it, and four pieces of paper curiously stamped. Martin Stolberg saw at once that these pieces of paper were worth many times the value of the gold, for he or any man might have changed them ...
— The Fairchild Family • Mary Martha Sherwood
... precious ointments, &c. All these articles were preserved either in golden boxes, or in little oval narrow-necked phials of dazzling white alabaster, which bore the name of onyx, from its resemblance to the precious stone of that name, but was in fact a very costly sort of marble, obtained in the quarries of Upper Egypt, or those of the Libanus in Syria. Indeed, long before the birth of Christ, alabaster was in such general use for purposes of this kind in ...
— Theological Essays and Other Papers v2 • Thomas de Quincey
... movements. Its cold body seems to like the warmth of your hand. Yet in color it is as rich an orange as the petal of the cardinal flower is a rich scarlet. It seems more than an outside color; it is a glow, and renders the creature almost transparent, an effect as uniform as the radiance of a precious stone. Its little, innocent-looking, three-toed foot, or three and a half toed—how unreptilian it looks through my pocket glass! A baby's hand is not more so. Its throbbing throat, its close-shut mouth, its ...
— Under the Maples • John Burroughs
... parent and child, and recognizes how few are the opportunities, in the rough and tumble of life, for the fitly spoken word to confirm "what has been silently indrawn by contact of love." A passionate Nature lover himself, he takes for unique treasures of Australia—a flower, a bird, a tree, and a precious stone—and treats them in a way to quicken every earnest heart, and foster the child spirit of ...
— Platform Monologues • T. G. Tucker
... making off, when, in crossing a very dark room, his foot struck upon a hard substance, and the misstep nearly threw him down. Stooping, he picked up that upon which he had trodden. He believed it, from feeling, to be a precious stone. He carried it to his mouth, touched it with his tongue,—it was salt! And thus, by his own action, he had tasted salt beneath the prince's roof,—in Eastern parlance, had accepted his hospitality, become his guest. He could not rob him. Jacoub laid ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various
... contemptuously away. Afterwards he thought it might be worth something, to be so carefully kept, and went back to look for it. He found it under a wagon, and sold it to a clergyman in the neighborhood for a crown. This precious stone, one of the few great diamonds in the world, is now in the possession of the Emperor of Austria, its value enhanced to him, it may be, ...
— Historical Tales, Vol. 6 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality. French. • Charles Morris
... with splendours such as these, could one question for a moment the purity of the gem from which they sparkled? Alas! to us, who know not La Dumesnil, to us whose Merope is nothing more than a little sediment of print, the precious stone of our forefathers has turned out to be a simple piece of paste. Its glittering was the outcome of no inward fire, but of a certain adroitness in the manufacture; to use our modern phraseology, Voltaire was able to make up for his lack of genius ...
— Books and Characters - French and English • Lytton Strachey
... water; and I judge the statement to be correct from the fact that the diamond-workers from Sandak come here and work secretly, and the people from Banjamassim, who are likewise clever at this trade, are most desirous to be allowed to work for the precious stone. Gold of a good quality certainly is to be found in large quantities. The eagerness and perseverance of the Chinese to establish themselves is a convincing proof of the fact; and ten years since a body of about 3000 of them had great ...
— The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido - For the Suppression of Piracy • Henry Keppel
... the general public, which was allowed to circulate freely through the Winter Palace for several days after its capture, made away with table silver, clocks, bedding, mirrors and some odd vases of valuable porcelain and semi-precious stone, to ...
— Ten Days That Shook the World • John Reed
... A precious stone found in the veins of the mountains on the confines of Persia to the east, subject to the Tartars. Many superstitious qualities were imputed to it, all of which were either monitory ...
— The Merchant of Venice [liberally edited by Charles Kean] • William Shakespeare
... food for himself and his hens, found a precious stone; on which he said: "If thy owner had found thee, and not I, he would have taken thee up, and have set thee in thy first estate; but I have found thee for no purpose. I would rather have one barleycorn than all the jewels in ...
— Aesop's Fables - A New Revised Version From Original Sources • Aesop
... can only by chance be reached, for only occasionally the earth gapes, and he who would descend must do it with precipitation, ere the earth closes again. All that is gathered under the ground there is gem and precious stone. The brook pours into another river, and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood obtain thence abundance of precious stones. Yet they never venture to sell them without having first offered them to us for our private use: should we decline them, they ...
— Legends That Every Child Should Know • Hamilton Wright Mabie
... writer himself associated any essential meaning with it. Certainly I will not allow that he had such a poor notion in it as that of a voting pebble—white, because the man who receives it is accepted or chosen. The word is used likewise for a precious stone set as a jewel. And the writer thought of it mystically, a mode far more likely to involve a reference to nature than to a political custom. What his mystic meaning may be, must be taken differently by different minds. I think he sees ...
— Unspoken Sermons - Series I., II., and II. • George MacDonald
... landscape. But something more is necessary. The vandalism still continues in a small way. While we were being escorted through the beautiful buildings by a blithe and gay young Irish soldier, I called his attention to several spots in the wall where bits of precious stone—carnelian, turquoise and agate—had been picked out and carried away as relics. The wounds in the wall were recent. It was perfectly apparent that the damage had been done that very day, but he declared that there was no way ...
— Modern India • William Eleroy Curtis
... languages, from the Arabic al-lazward, for the precious stone lapis lazuli, the initial l having dropped), the lapis lazuli; and so ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 - "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" • Various
... slightly downwards. Another circular chamber in the same group has a much longer passage, which bulges out into two small rounded antechambers. These tombs have been excavated and yielded some pottery vases, together with objects of copper and beads of a peculiar precious stone called callais. All the finds made in the megalithic remains of Spain and Portugal point to the period of transition from the age of stone to ...
— Rough Stone Monuments and Their Builders • T. Eric Peet
... instance, asking him what he could say against it, he answered, that he was loth to answer arguments taken from the topic-place of the cloth of estate; but if they would urge him to answer, he said his opinion was, she did it by virtue of some precious stone in possession of the crown of England that had such a natural quality. But had queen Elizabeth been told that he ascribed more virtue to her jewels (though she loved them well) than to her person, she would never have made him bishop ...
— Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth • Lucy Aikin
... soon as the Persians renounce the superstition that the daily contemplation of a turquoise is a talisman against the "evil eye" (K. Ritter, Erdkunde, VIII, 327), that precious stone will lose much of its value. On the other hand, the amulets of antiquity, although they have long lost the quality of goods as objects of superstition, have now a real value for ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • William Roscher
... his chair, placed the jewel on the hearthstone, and fiercely ground the precious stone beneath his iron-shod heel, and flung the crushed and distorted gold ...
— The Tale of Timber Town • Alfred Grace
... the eye which cannot suffer the least injury without damage; it is a precious stone, the price of which is ...
— Life and Literature - Over two thousand extracts from ancient and modern writers, - and classified in alphabetical order • J. Purver Richardson
... receive his present—a shabby ring, with her affectionate uncle's hair for an ornament, instead of a precious stone, and with a heartless French inscription inside, about congenial sentiments and eternal friendship—"dear Laura" was to receive this tender tribute from my hands immediately, so that she might have plenty of time to recover from the agitation produced by the ...
— The Woman in White • Wilkie Collins
... Araby, in which is the hill Sinai: and a man may lightly sail by the Red Sea out of Egypt and Syria into Ind. In this land is found gold wonderfully red, like thin and small roots, and that gold is the best that is in the world. Herein is also a hill called Bena, where is found a precious stone, called smaragd. ...
— In the Yule-Log Glow, Book I - Christmas Tales from 'Round the World • Various
... tells narratives of the magical action of the sapphire. "The sapphire is a precious stone," he says, "and is blue in colour, most like to heaven in fair weather and clear, and is best among precious stones, and most apt and able to fingers of kings. And if thou put an addercop in a box, and hold a very sapphire of India ...
— Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages • Julia De Wolf Addison
... a legend that God gave to Abraham a precious stone which had the power of preserving him from all kinds ...
— Folk Lore - Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland within This Century • James Napier
... now as she looked at the brilliant gem sparkling upon her hand, she felt a thrill of something more than joy at that good fortune which had brought her to diamonds. Vanity, we suppose it was—such vanity as was very natural in her case, and she thought she should never tire of looking at the precious stone; but when Wilford showed her next the plain broad band of gold, and tried it on her third finger, asking if she knew what it meant, the true woman spoke within her, and ...
— Family Pride - Or, Purified by Suffering • Mary J. Holmes
... did not disappear. It stood in beauty where before the temple of Balder had stood. Its broad walls were of silver, and each pillar seemed cut of deep blue steel. The altar was carved of a single precious stone. The ceiling seemed like the blue sky with twinkling golden stars, and there sat the gods of ...
— Northland Heroes • Florence Holbrook
... called [Greek omitted] from its astringent quality; for, by its dryness preceding from its heat, it fixes [Greek omitted] or dries the seed, and is very hurtful to great-bellied women. But those that imagine the herb amethyst [Greek omitted], and the precious stone of the same name, are called so because powerful against the force of wine are much mistaken; for both receive there names from their color; for its leaf is not of the color of strong wine, but resembles that of weak diluted liquor. And indeed I could mention a great many which have their names ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch
... a beast called the hydra, and cut off his seven heads. If the middle head is split open a leveret will jump out and run off. If the leveret is split open, a bird will fly out. If the bird is caught and opened, in its body is a precious stone, and should that be placed under my pillow I shall die." Cajusse accomplishes all these things, and gives the life-stone to the princess, together with a bottle of opium. The princess drugs the wizard's wine, and when he had laid ...
— A History of Pantomime • R. J. Broadbent
... precious stone of my mosaic is the glorious statue of David, on the heights of San Miniato. Perhaps, if Michael Angelo could have known, four hundred years ago, that I was going to have one minute of such very great happiness ...
— Rafael in Italy - A Geographical Reader • Etta Blaisdell McDonald
... appeared a young man more light-limbed than the stag, whose eyes were like sparks of fire. By his side was a scimitar of diamond, all of one clear precious stone, and on his feet were golden sandals, from the heels ...
— Heroes Every Child Should Know • Hamilton Wright Mabie
... order, and you have the diamond. The difference between the pearl and the oyster-shell that holds it is one of structure or arrangement of the same particles of matter. Arrange the atoms of silica in one way and you have a quartz pebble, in another way and you have a precious stone. The chemical constituents of alcohol and ether are the same; the difference in their qualities and properties arises from the way the elements are compounded—the way they take hold of hands, so to speak, in that marriage ceremony which constitutes a chemical compound. ...
— The Breath of Life • John Burroughs
... business he had almost allowed himself one or two little laughs. But business was business, and the diamond that he sought still lay on the lap of Hlo-hlo, where it had been for the last two million years since Hlo-hlo created the world and gave unto it all things except that precious stone called Dead Man's Diamond. The jewel was often stolen, but it had a knack of coming back again to the lap of Hlo-hlo. Thangobrind knew this, but he was no common jeweller and hoped to outwit Hlo-hlo, perceiving not the trend of ambition and lust ...
— The Book of Wonder • Edward J. M. D. Plunkett, Lord Dunsany
... and how sweet and kind-hearted Araw, God gave the older sister her diamond as a reward. Buwan was greatly angered by this favoritism on the part of the Almighty, so she went to the heavenly kingdom and stole one of God's diamonds. Then she returned to earth with the precious stone, but there she found that her jewel was ...
— Filipino Popular Tales • Dean S. Fansler
... Lamb. [21:10]And he bore me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the city, the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, [21:11]having the glory of God; its luminary was like the most precious stone, like a crystalline jasper. [21:12]It had a great and high wall, it had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names inscribed, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. [21:13]On the east were three gates, and ...
— The New Testament • Various
... not aware of its existence, excepting men who can discover it by the practice of Meditation. Enlightened consciousness is often called Buddha-nature, as it is the real nature of Universal Spirit. Zen teachers compare it with a precious stone ever fresh and pure, even if it be buried in the heaps of dust. Its divine light can never be extinguished by doubt or fear, just as the sunlight cannot be destroyed by mist and cloud. Let us quote a Chinese Zen poet to see how Zen treats ...
— The Religion of the Samurai • Kaiten Nukariya
... down upon those jewel-pits. In them lay every kind of precious stone for which, from remotest antiquity, men had cheated, schemed, lied, fought, murdered. The jewels showed no attempt at sorting or classification. With true Oriental laissez-faire, they were all mingled quite at random; these gems, any chance handfuls of which ...
— The Flying Legion • George Allan England
... papyrus-rolls means this or that. It is therefore very possible that in many of the Egyptian inscriptions which have come down to us a great deal is told of the stones found here on the Elgon, whilst we, misled by the great value which the narrator ascribes to the said stones, think that some precious stone now highly valued was referred to, and that generations of Egyptian slaves have spent their lives here in cruel toil, in order to procure for their masters an object of luxury which we to-day carelessly kick aside when it ...
— Freeland - A Social Anticipation • Theodor Hertzka
... thyself a rare jewel, a most precious stone, one of a thousand, yea, of ten thousand, being compared with the many thousands of common stones, I mean, external professors in the visible church, who rest on a bare name, and of whom that is verified in every nation, which our Saviour saith, Matth. xx. 16. "Many are called, ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning
... experienced a most cordial display of kindnesses and hospitalities, I prepared to return to my own country, "that precious stone set in the silver sea." I had to part with those who, in the short space of one fleeting month, had, by their endearing and flattering attentions, rivetted themselves to my affections, with the force of a long, and frequent, and cherished intercourse, ...
— The Stranger in France • John Carr
... precious stone, a valued painting or a woman's costume—the effect produced depends upon the ...
— Woman as Decoration • Emily Burbank
... many single-minded, wholesome thoughts in the impassioned statement of his thesis. And if you happen to belong to that simple discredited breed, the English, so long overshadowed by the nimbler Britons, you may have quite a nice little private thrill of your own, a thrill of pride in your precious stone, and begin to think with seriousness of the advantages of "home rule all round" in an England-for-the-English mood, and of the value of a nationalism that is as irrational as conjugal or mother ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Nov. 28, 1917 • Various
... moment to have been so much as tempted to lose sight of the scope of their art in its strictness, or to forget that painting must be before all things decorative, a thing for the eye, a space of colour on the wall, only more dexterously blent than the marking of its precious stone or the chance interchange of sun and shade upon it:—this, to begin and end with; whatever higher matter of thought, or poetry, or religious reverie might play its part therein, [141] between. At last, with final mastery of all the technical secrets ...
— The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry • Walter Horatio Pater
... long black lace shawl and a head-dress consisting in equally striking parts of a brown wig, a plume of some sort waving over it and a band or fillet, whether of some precious metal or not I forget, keeping it in place by the aid of a precious stone which adorned the centre of her brow. Such was my first view of the feronniere of our grandmothers, when not of our greatgrandmothers. I see its wearer at this day bend that burdened brow upon me ...
— A Small Boy and Others • Henry James
... [Sidenote: The Noblemans attire.] The Noblemans attire is on this fashion. First a Taffia, or little nightcappe on the head, that couereth litle more then his crowne, commonly verie rich wrought of silke and golde threede, and set with pearle and precious stone. His head he keepeth shauen close to the very skinne, except he be in some displeasure with the Emperour. Then hee suffereth his haire to growe and hang downe vpon his shoulders, couering his face as ugly and deformedly as he can. Ouer the Taffia hee weareth ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation v. 4 • Richard Hakluyt
... surprised, for the sound of the harp cannot overpower the noise of the drum, and the fragrance of ambergris is overcome by fetid garlic. The ignorant fellow was proud of his loud voice, because he had impudently confounded the man of understanding. If a jewel falls in the mud it is still the same precious stone,[20] and if dust flies up to the sky it retains its original baseness. A capacity without education is deplorable, and education without capacity is thrown away. Sugar obtains not its value from the cane, but from its innate ...
— Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers • W. A. Clouston
... what "azure blue" really was, soon revealed the fact that it was generally defined as the clear blue color of the sky or of the sea reflecting it, and was further described as that of the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. Cobalt and prussian blue were also given as synonyms. With this clear definition in mind, the committee was able to fix the colors, and Michigan now has a clear deep blue and the yellow of Indian corn, with ...
— The University of Michigan • Wilfred Shaw
... with colours and gilding, you would call it no small benefit. God has built for you a huge mansion that fears no fire or ruin, in which you see no flimsy veneers, thinner than the very saw with which they are cut, but vast blocks of most precious stone, all composed of those various and different substances whose paltriest fragments you admire so much; he has built a roof which glitters in one fashion by day, and in another by night; and yet do you say that you have received ...
— L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits • Seneca
... and from a leather case taken from inside his cloak Zador drew a delicately wrought anklet of gold set thick with shining green chalcedony. From it hung bangles, like bits of fine gold lace, carrying, each in the center, a precious stone of changing color. At sight of it Martha gave an exclamation of delight, and Lazarus and Joel looked at it with interest. "My betrothal gift to Mary," Zador Ben Amon said with undisguised admiration as he turned it about and shook it ...
— The Coming of the King • Bernie Babcock
... were, we take upon us to be more competent judges of virtue. And whereas virtue, for being a vulgar thing among them, was of no less rate than jewels are with such as wear the most, we are selling this precious stone, which we have ignorantly raked out of the Roman ruins, at such a rate as the Switzers did that which they took in the baggage of Charles of Burgundy. For that Camillus had stood more firm against the ruin of Rome than ...
— The Commonwealth of Oceana • James Harrington
... setting and present him with the bill? Why she hesitated she did not know; she was like all her wilful sisters who gaze and sigh, pity themselves, and then steal away to Oriental shops to appease the hunger by a near-silver ring with a bulging near-precious stone set ...
— The Gorgeous Girl • Nalbro Bartley |
