Charles Edwards

“ Heroes, philosophers, poets—indeed, men of all classes leave remembrances in the shape of rings. The will of Washington contains this: “To my sisters-in-law Hannah Washington and Mildred Washington, to my friends Eleanor Stuart, Hannah Washington of Fairfield and Elizabeth Washington of Hayfield, I give each a mourning ring of the value of one hundred dollars. These bequests are not made for the intrinsic value of them, but as mementoes of my esteem and regard.” ”

“ A young lady, of great beauty, adorned with jewels and a costly dress, undertook a journey alone, from one end of the kingdom to the other, with a wand only in her hand, at the top of which was a ring of exceeding great value; and such an impression had the laws and government of the then monarch, Brian Borholme, made on the minds of all the people that no attempt was made upon her honor, nor was she robbed of her clothes or jewels. ”

“ Abbott is this ring. And if exquisite work can add to its value, it has it in a high degree. Beautiful in execution;—there is something wonderful in its preservation; while a species of awe, seldom attaching to a small substance, seems to chill our nature and we are dumb while we look upon it.
Here is the most valuable antique ring in the world. This ring alone ought to be sufficient to secure the collection to New-York for ever. [252] ”

“ What a speck, for such a tomb! The monuments of man take up much space. Here was a whole nation employed to make one man’s mausoleum. We fear that the virtues which live after men could often go within the compass of their finger-ring.
To every kingly order or decree connected with the foundation of the Great Pyramid or with the thousands of men who had to work or with the prodigious material employed, an impression of the signet-ring of Suphis had to be attached. Rings have been used for higher and holier things ”

“ The moderns only run the chance of a loss of custom; but the latter were well off if they got no greater fright than the jeweller who sold to the wife of Gallienus a ring with a piece of glass in it. Gallienus ordered the cheat to be placed in the circus, as though he were to be exposed to the ferocity of a lion. While the miserable jeweller trembled at the expectation of instant death, the executioner, by order of the emperor, let loose a capon upon him. An uncommon laugh was raised at this; and the emperor observed that he who had deceived others should expect to be deceived himself. ”

“ In no form or fashion could a mother’s love have been more beautifully and permanently displayed—pure as the metal, perfect as the emblem. It makes us feel that love is indestructible; that it came from Heaven and returns thither. ”

“ We would refer our reader to a beautiful Syrian legend in the “Household Words,” [202] in which a ring is made to play an interesting part upon the fingers of a maiden, who is able to know of the good or ill fortune and faith of her absent lover through its changes. He, in giving it, had informed her: “If good fortune is with me, it will retain its brightness; if evil, dim. If I cease to love, and the grave opens for me, it will become black.” Fitful changes then come and go upon the ring, as the light and shadow of life accompany the roving lover. ”

“ Crowned heads have believed in amulets.
When Elizabeth of Poland could not induce her son Andrea to leave his lustful wife of sixteen, Joan of Naples, and he was determined to be and act the King of Sicily and Jerusalem, she drew from her finger a richly chased ring, took Andrea aside, placed it upon his finger, and, clasping him in her arms, “My son,” she said, in a trembling voice, “since you refuse to accompany me, here is a talisman which I never make use of but in the last extremity. While you retain this ring upon your finger, neither steel nor poison can injure you.” ”

“ Symbols of ring, staff, mitre and gloves are not used at the present day in the consecration of archbishops and bishops of the Church of England. The delivery of the pastoral staff in the Roman pontificate was preceded by its consecration, and followed by the consecration and putting on of a ring in token of his marriage to the church; and of a mitre, as an helmet of strength and salvation, that his face being adorned, and his head (as it were) armed with the horns of both Testaments, may appear terrible to the adversaries of the truth, as also in imitation of the ornaments of Moses and Aaron ”

“ Persons who desire to leave specific rings to friends should designate them; for, otherwise, the particular article will not pass. Thus, “I give a diamond ring,” is what is called a general legacy, which may be fulfilled by the delivery of any ring of that kind; while “I give [51] the diamond ring presented to me by A,” is a specific legacy, which can only be satisfied by the delivery of the specified subject. [86] A legacy of £50 for a ring is but a money legacy; it fastens upon no specific ring, and carries interest like other money bequests. ”

“ It is remarkable how often we find stories, which have originated in heathen times, made a vehicle for Catholic tales. The above has found its way into monkish legend.
In The Miracles of the Virgin Mary, compiled in the twelfth century, by a French monk, [242] there is a tale of a young man, who, falling in love with an image of the Virgin, inadvertently placed on one of its fingers a ring, which he had received from his mistress, accompanying the gift with the most tender language of respect and [141] affection. A miracle instantly took place and the ring remained immovable. ”

“ The Egyptian priests in the temple of the creative Phtha (Vulcan of the Greeks) represented the year under the form of a ring, made of a serpent having its tail in its mouth—a very common shape of ancient rings. Although Jupiter is often figured with attributes of mighty power, yet he is seldom coupled with a mark of eternity. There is, however, a gem (an aqua-marine, engraved in hollow) of this deity holding a ring as the emblem of eternity. [22]
Pythagoras forbade the use of the figures of gods upon rings, lest, from seeing their images too frequently, it should breed a contempt for them. ”

“ Inhabitants of the eastern world do not sign their names. They have ring-seals, in which name and title are engraven, and they make an impression with thick ink where we make our signature. To give a person, then, your seal-ring, is to give him the use of an authority and power which your own signature possesses. This explains the extraordinary anxiety about seals, as exhibited in the laws and usages of the East, and to which we have referred in a former chapter. It also illustrates Judah’s anxiety about the signet which he had pledged to Tamar. ”

“ We are aware of the value of many modern rings, arising from their being used as mere frames for jewels. And ancient ones, from the same fact or from having exquisite engraving upon them, were also highly prized. Nonius, [95] a senator, is said to have been proscribed by Anthony for the sake of a gem in a ring, worth twenty thousand sesterces.
The “Roving Englishman” [96] informs us, that the Pasha wears on his right-hand little finger, a diamond ring which once belonged to the Dey of Algiers, and cost a thousand pounds sterling. ”

“ The ancients have had a very high esteem of the diamond, “champion of the precious stones,” insomuch as [101] they have thought it to be endued with divine virtues, and that if it were but worn in a ring or carried about a person near his heart, it would assuage the fury of his enemies and expel vain fears, preserve from swooning, drive away the vanity of dreams and terrors of the night and frustrate all the malign contagious power of poisons.
According to Josephus, the high-priest of the Israelites wore a ring on his finger of inestimable value and celestial virtue ”

“ Hannibal carried his death in his ring, which was a singular one. When the Roman ambassadors required the king of Bythinia to give Hannibal up, the latter, on the point of the king’s doing so, swallowed poison, which he always carried about in his ring. In the late war between America and Mexico, rings were found upon the fingers of dead officers of the latter country. These opened and, it is said, a poisonous substance was discovered; [155] and there is a notion that the owners of these rings were ready to act the part of Hannibal: poison themselves rather than become prisoners. ”

“ In the year 1177, when the Emperor Barbarossa went to humble himself before the Pope, who had taken refuge in Venice, the Pope, in testimony of the kindness he had there received, gave to the Doge a ring, and with it a right for the Venetians to call the Adriatic sea their own. He bade the Doge cast it into the sea, to wed it, as a man marries his wife; and he enjoined the citizens, by renewing this ceremony every year, to claim a dominion which they had won by their valor ”

“ In Germany, a loving couple start on the principle of reciprocity and exchange rings. This is not done at the time of the marriage ceremony, but previously when the formal betrothment takes place, which is generally made the occasion of a family festival. The ring thus used is not called a wedding ring, but Trau ring, which means ring of betrothal. A particular ring does not form part of the ceremony of marriage. Royalty, however, appears to go beyond the common custom of the country, even in a marriage. ”

“ This makes the occupation of a seal-cutter one of as much trust and danger as it seems to have been in Egypt. Such a person is obliged to keep a register of every ring-seal he makes; and if one be lost or stolen from the party for whom it was cut, his life would answer for making another exactly like it. The loss of a signet-ring is considered a serious calamity; and the alarm which an Oriental exhibits when his signet is missing, can only be understood by a reference to these circumstances, as the seal-cutter is always obliged to alter the real date at which the seal was cut. ”

“ A venerable and learned bishop, who thought a living beauty was preferable to the remains of a departed one, rebuked his sovereign for his irreligious and strange passion and revealed to him the important secret that his love arose from a charm that lay under the woman’s tongue. Whereupon the bishop went to the woman’s corse and drew from her mouth the ring ”

“ Solomon’s wisdom and happiness have become proverbial; and the fable of the rabbins and the heroic and erotic poems of the Persians and Arabians speak of him, as the romantic traditions of the Normans and Britons do of King Arthur, as a fabulous monarch, whose natural science, (mentioned even in the Bible,) whose wise sayings and dark riddles, whose power and magnificence are attributed to magic. According to these fictions Solomon’s ring was the talisman of his wisdom and power.—Ency. Amer., Art. Solomon. ”

“ Husbands can love, where friends may see nothing to admire: Mrs. Johnson has been summed up as “perpetual illness and perpetual opium.” [369]
Lord Eldon wore a mourning ring for his wife. In his will we find this: “And I direct that I may be buried in the same tomb at Kingston in which my most beloved wife is buried and as near to her remains as possible; and I desire that the ring which I wear on my finger may be put with my body into my coffin and be buried with me.” ”

“ Good be with him who wears you and all his household. Remember it. Theanus is my light. Upon a ring bearing a hand which holds a ring: Remember good fortune. There are, also, upon Roman rings, sentiment and compliment [37] in Latin sentences, as thus translated: Live happy, my hostess. You have this pledge of love. Live in God. Live. And Caylus [62] gives a description and drawing of a remarkably formed gold ring; and although it bears Greek words, he leaves it in doubt whether it is of Roman or Grecian workmanship. ”

“ In our own time we find three young men in England subscribing sixpence each to be moulded into a ring for a young woman afflicted with the cramp.
In Berkshire, England, there is a popular superstition that a ring made from a piece of silver collected at the Communion is a cure for convulsions and fits of every kind. [222] Another curious British superstition, by way of charm, is recorded: that a silver ring will cure fits if it be made of five sixpences, collected from five different bachelors, to be conveyed by the hand of a bachelor to a smith that is a bachelor. ”

“ Lucati has attributed the modern want of virtue in medicated rings to their comparative smallness, contending that the larger the ring or the gem contained in it, the greater the medium power, especially with those persons whose flesh is of a tender and penetrable nature.
Lord Chancellor Hatton sent to Queen Elizabeth a ring against infectious air, “to be worn,” as the old courtier expresses it, “betwixt the sweet dugs” of her bosom. ”

“ At their foot, leaning upon his staff, for years of age were upon him, he turned towards the palace, and accompanied a last look with these parting words: “My services established me within your walls; it is the malice of my enemies which tears me from them.” The bells of the Campanile told of his successor. He suppressed all outward emotion, but a blood-vessel was ruptured in the exertion and he died in a few hours.
§ 6. A Pope wears a ring of gold with a costly emerald or other precious gem set in it. ”