“ It is found in the East and West Indies, and in Germany, Silesia, Bohemia, and England; but is little valued any where.
Woodward errs in thinking our Jewellers call this the Smaragdo-Prasus: that and the Chrysoprasus are both, indeed, called Species of it, but are much superior to it in Beauty and Value. The Chrysoprasus is a Stone of greater Lustre and Hardness than the Prasius, and is in Colour of an equal Mixture of green and yellow. And the Smaragdo-Prasus, a beautiful Gem, of a grass green, with the slightest Cast imaginable of yellow. ”

“ Whatever may be the Case in the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms, it is the Misfortune in the Study of fossile Bodies, that such has been the Confusion and Intermixture of their constituent Particles at the general Deluge, that there are none such to be established in them; for there are so many heterogene Particles, of a thousand different Kinds, mixed even with the same Fossil in different Places, that there is no determining to any Certainty, even its Manner of Variation from its pure State. ”

“ LXXVIII. The Nature of the Stone which tries [76] Gold, is also very wonderful, as it seems to have the same Power with Fire; which is also a Test of that Metal. Some People have, for this Reason, questioned the Truth of this Power in the Stone; but their Doubts are ill founded, for this Trial is not of the same Nature, or made in the same Manner with the other. The Trial by Fire is by the Colour, and Quantity lost by it; but that by the Stone, is made only by rubbing the Metal on it; the Stone seeming to have a Power of receiving separately the distinct Particles of different Metals. ”

“ Sand, and the common vegetable Mould, which some give a Place in the Catalogues of Earths, have of right no Business among them; for the first is only either a smaller kind of Gravel, consisting of an infinite Number of small Pebbles of different Shapes and Colours; or the constituent Particles of the Stone of Strata or other Bodies accidentally loose: and the latter owes its present Mode of Existence, in a great measure, to putrifed animal and vegetable Substances of a thousand Kinds; and is, distinctly speaking, no genuine Fossil. ”

“ The Antients reckoned five Species of the Amethyst, differing in Degrees of Colour; and we have at least as many among the Jewellers at present, though they are not at the pains to distinguish them by particular Names; they divide them in general into Oriental and Occidental: The former are very scarce, but of great Hardness, Lustre, and Beauty; the latter are had from many Places, particularly Saxony, Germany, and Bohemia: They are often as finely coloured as the Oriental, but are soft. In England we also sometimes find them very beautiful, and of tolerable Hardness. ”

“ The Stone here meant, was a very bright white Substance, so nearly resembling Silver in Appearance, that it was scarce, at first Sight, to be distinguished from it: It was found in large Masses, and was of a Texture easily to be wrought into any Shape or Figure. This made it in great Esteem among the Antients, and in constant Use, turned into Vessels of different Kinds. What Stone it was, is at present not to be certainly determined, farther than that it was of the Ollaris Kind; probably it may be now lost; at least among the Nations we have Commerce with. ”

“ With this Account of the Melian Earth, as white, it is very surprising that the generality of Authors, and even those of the first Class, have constantly imagined it to be yellow. The Occasion of the Mistake has been, that the Melinus Color of the Latins, Μήλινον χρῶμα of the Greeks, is yellow. This, they took it for granted, had its Origin from the Colour of the Melian Earth, a Substance antiently used in Painting, and which therefore they concluded must be yellow, and described it accordingly. ”

“ How far the Heat, which is apparently manifest to our Senses at great Depths in the Earth; and is from thence, and from much greater Depths than we are ever likely to have Opportunities of being acquainted with, continually passing upwards to the Surface, may have been concerned in disspating the remaining Part of the Water, which had served to bring the Particles of Stones and Earths together ”

“ The Pebble Crystals of England are often of very considerable Hardness; and some have been found here which the Lapidaries have said approached to the white Sapphire. The pointed and hexangular are what Authors have called Iris's and Pseudo-adamantes. The Antients were of opinion, that Crystal was only Water congealed in long tract of Time, into an Ice, more durable than the common. And Pliny thought it was no where to be found but in excessively cold Regions; but we are now very certain, that it is even in the hottest. ”

“ Many have imagined our Fullers-earth to be the Cimolia of the Antients, but erroneously: The Substance which comes nearest it of all the now known Fossils, is the Steatites of the Soap Rock of Cornwall; which is the common Matter of a great Part of the Cliff near the Lizard Point. The Antients used their Cimolia for cleaning their Cloaths: And partly from the similar Use of our Fullers-earth, and partly from an erroneous Opinion of that's being the fame with the Cimolia of the Antients, it has obtained the fame Name. ”

“ Its Particles, which are very powerful and very active, insinuate themselves into the Substance of the Matter to be melted, break and divide its Parts, and occasion a much smaller Contact of them than there was before, and of Course a weaker Cohesion: more fiery Particles continually getting in as the Matter continues on the Fire; more and more diminish the Degree of Contact, till at last there is not enough of it to keep the Particles from rolling one over another, that is coming into a State of Fusion. ”

“ Observations, which it was impossible for him to make, have given us the Testimony of our Senses, that Metals do contain more or less of an absolute, genuine, and vitrifiable Earth; and Stones, it is as certain, are never wholly divested of that Water which once served to bring their constituent Parts together. ”

“ The Xanthus or Xuthus, ξȣθὸς, here mentioned afterwards, was that which was afterwards called Elatites: It was naturally of a pale, yellowish Colour, but became red, as all ferrugineous Bodies do by burning.
Our Hæmatites is sometimes of a plain striated Texture, and sometimes has its Surface rising very beautifully into globular Tubera, or Inequalities, resembling Clusters of large Grapes. It is found in Spain, Italy, Germany, England, and elsewhere: That of our own Kingdom is very rich in Iron, some of it yielding 12/20 of that Metal, and running into a malleable Iron on the first Fusion. ”

“ The Amethyst loses its Colour in the Fire, like the Sapphire and Emerald: The Oriental Kind, divested of its Colour by this Means, comes out with the true Lustre and Water of the Diamond; and is so nice a Counterfeit of it, that even a very expert Jeweller may be deceived by it.
↑ The Division of the Gems into Male and Female, from their deeper or paler Colour, I have before observed, is in a Manner general, and runs through almost the whole Class: The Male is always the deeper, the Female the paler; tho' both Kinds, as they are called, are often found in the same Stone. ”

“ In order to the rightly understanding what is meant by the calling any Substance by either of the other Names, it may not be improper briefly to give their several Distinctions, so far as the general Uncertainty of the Fossile Kingdom will permit:
1. Clays are Earths composed of very fine Parts, smooth, heavy, not easily mixing with Water; and when mixed, not readily subsiding in it; compact, viscid, and leaving a fatty Impreflion on the Tongue: soft while in the Stratum, and hardening by Fire into a kind of stony Texture. ”

“ We are well acquainted with the many Changes which the Particles of Fire, insinuating themselves into Bodies, are able to make: Of which, their changing the Talcs and Alabasters into Gypsum, and the Lime-stones of various Kinds into Lime, are not the least worthy our Observation, though, from their being common, and every Day before our Eyes, they are but little regarded. ”

“ Water is the Basis of Metals; as Silver, Gold, and the rest: Earth of Stones; as well the more precious, as the common: and of the various Earths of peculiar Kinds, whether remarkable for Colour, Smoothness, Density, or whatever other Quality.
III. The Metals have been considered in another Work: the Stones and Earths of various Kinds, therefore, are to be the Subject of this Treatise.
IV. All these we are (plainly speaking) to judge formed by the Concretion of Matter pure and equal in its constituent Parts ”

“ The Description the Author gives of them, proves them to be no genuine Pumices, but Tophi; natural and original Nodules, or loose Masses of Matter; covered with a Crust, as most of the natural Nodules are, but none of the Pumices ever are seen to be; nor, indeed, is it easy to be conceived, from their manner of Formation, how they should: These were fossile Substances, therefore, of some other Class, which, as they in a superficial Manner resembled the Pumice, the indeterminate Manner of writing in those early Times, had given Occasion to be ranked among them. ”

“ And, indeed, there are often Parts of the Prasius, which, when cut, are not distinguishable from genuine Emeralds. The Jasper itself also often emulates the Colour and Appearance of the Prasius and Emerald. Indeed when we consider what has already been observed, in regard to the original Formation of Gems, we cannot wonder if they are often found degenerating in Appearance, or improving into, and much oftener affixed upon, or in some measure blended with the Substance of one another, What the particular Stone here mentioned by the Author was, it is not easy to ascertain ”

“ Reason informs us, that these two, Water and Earth, alone can never have made all the Differences, and Virtues of them; we are compelled therefore to acknowledge a third, as obvious to our Reason as the others to our Senses; an active Something, to give that to the Mass, which Water and Earth alone could not: This unknown Principle is what some Chemists have called Acid, and the Metaphysicians Fire ”

“ The Mass of constituent Matter in them all, is a pellucid crystalline Substance, which is in different Kinds of different Degrees of Hardness, from that of the Diamond to that of the merest shattery Crystal. ”

“ It is a mixt earthy Substance, of a beautiful greenish Blue; and seems composed of arenaceous and ochreous Matter, tinged to that Colour by Particles of Copper, It was first found in Armenia, from whence it has its present Name, and used to be brought from thence; but has since been discovered in Germany, Bohemia, Saxony, and many other Places: Our own Kingdom produces it, and that as good as any in the World, but in what Quantity I cannot say. ”

“ Arabicus, a Stone, which when it has passed the Fire assumes the Form of the Pumice. The Places, indeed, in which Ptimices are produced, seem to testify the Manner of their Formation; for they are principally found about the Craters of the burning Mountains. On the whole, some Kinds of them, perhaps, may be formed by the Action of Fire on Stones of a proper Texture, and others in some other Manner: for there are in Nature many different Ways of Production [30] . ”

“ The Differences afterwards assigned to the different Species of the Pumice, are what may be observed in a greater or lesser degree in the various Kinds we now have brought from Germany, the East Indies, and the burning Mountains; and the Author appears to have been very well acquainted with them: His assigning a greater Degree of the abstergent Quality to that from the Shores than that from the burning Mountains; and a greater than even in that, to those of the Sea, is probably very just, though not now regarded, as the Sea Salt incorporated in the Mass of those, must add much to this Quality. ”

“ The excellent Salmasius, generally so happy in understanding the Antients, and to whom I am obliged, in the Course of this Work, much oftener than to any other Author, is yet guilty of a Mistake in regard to this Stone; and erroneously accuses Pliny of a great Error, in a Thing in which that Author, however often faulty, is perfectly right. Mistakes in the Works of Men of such Eminence as this excellent Critic, ought, above all Things, to be set right; as they otherwise pass with the Generality of Readers as certain and unquestionable Truths. ”

“ The Mineral, called in some Parts of England Mundick, is of this Kind, containing Copper and sometimes other Metals; but the Sulphur is so abundant in these kinds of Ores, that they are not to be fluxed without great Trouble; the Addition of Lime, or some similar Substance, is often necessary to bring them to fuse at all, and at best they are the most troublesome, and least profitable; unless where very rich indeed, of any Ores in the World.
This Author however was not single, though erroneous, in his Opinion of the Pyritæ and Molares melting in the Fire ”

“ The common bastard Emeralds are produced in Places known and well frequented; especially in two; the Copper Mines of [40] Cyprus, and an Island over against Carthage. In this Island the true Emerald is also sometimes found. These are dug out of the Earth as the other; and in Cyprus there are many Veins of them together; few, however, are found there big enough for Seals to be engraved on: the small ones are very numerous, insomuch that they use them for soldering of Gold; which Purpose they serve in the manner of Chrysocolla. ”

“ Amber is naturally invested with a Crust, as the Flints and other natural fossile Nodules are; it is found in this State, in digging, in Prussia, Pomerania, and other Places, and is called Rock Amber. When it has been washed out of its native Place by the Sea, and divested of this Crust, it is called Wash'd Amber, or Smocth Amber. We have of both these Kinds in England; the rough is found in digging to considerable Depths in Clay, but is commonly of an ill Colour, and impregnated with the vitriolic Salts, with which almost all our Clay-pits abound ”

“ What Metal has been concerned in effecting this Change of Colour, is not less easily and certainly discoverable from the Colour itself; than what has influenced the Shape, from the Form. If Lead has furnished the metalline Particles, the Spar is yellow; if Iron, red; if Tin, black; if Copper, it is either greenish or blueish, according to the Quality of the Menstruum Nature has furnished for dissolving the Particles of that Metal, and bringing them into a State of mixing in the Concretion ”