CHAP. XLVII. Strange Stones, and of Admirable Figures, or Signatures.
As the Psalmist saith of the Heavens, That they declare the Glory of God, and the Firmament shews his handy-work; —there is neither Speech nor Language where their Voice is not heard; So I may say of the very Stones of the Earth, that if all the other Preachers of Nature were suspended from their Office, and commanded to be silent, the very Stones would speak and declare the Wisdom and Power of their Creator: And it is not in my opinion credible, that the variety which appears in these works of Nature is altogether accidental or f••rtuitous, but the effect of a wise Pro∣vidence, which leads on all things to their end; and which makes nothing, but to some purpose.
I shall take notice of their Figures, called by some Gamahes, from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chamai••u, from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chemaia, as Gaffarel thinks, signifying, as the waters of God; because, saith he, you shall see some Agats streaked in such a manner, as that they perfectly represent the figure of Waters: The Word God being added according to the Hebrew Idiotisim, which speaking of any thing excellent, usually add the Holy Name after it, as the Paradise of God for an excellent Garden; the Army of the Lord, for a great Army; the Cedars of God, for tall Cedars, &c. Some of these Figures or Gamahes are Natural, others Accidental, others Artificial: The two former ate either embossed, (rising up) or hollowed, (engraved) or only painted.
Among the Painted ones, the Agats are well known. That of King Pyrrhus, where the nine Muses richly apparell'd were represented Dancing with Apollo in the midst of them, playing upon a Harp, seems mighty strange, and served to puzzle Cardan; and yet is swallowed glibly by Gaffarel. Card. de Subl. 1.7. Gaffarel, unheard of Curios. part. 3. c. 5. That which M. de Brev••s reports, That he saw in his Voyages into the Levant, of a Crucisix represented on a Marble-Stone; and the other at St. George's in Venice, where the Figure of a Crucifix was represented on Marble, with so much Life, as that you might distinguish in it, the Nails, Wounds, and drops of Blood, and in a word, all the particulars, that the most curious Painter could have expressed: As also another of a Death's-Head, so exactly drawn upon an Altar of Jasper, co∣loured Marble, in the same Church at Venice; seem to me to have been made by the Art of the Painter; though Gaffarel believes them to be meerly Natural; and therefore breaks out, upon the mention of them, into those Words, How prodigiously full of Wonder the Effects of Na∣ture are, which shews herself admirable in all her Ways! Gaffar. Ibid.
I dare hardly impose upon my Readers Faith, that which he relates afterwards of a kind of Stones found in Mauritania, which naturally represent all the Words of the Ave-Maria, written at length: As for Example, In one you shall have Ave-Maria, in another Gratia Plena, in others Dominus Tecum. That is more Credible, which he reports of a company of little Flint-Stones, that had been presented to the late King of France, that by the Letters naturally figured on them, did make up his Name at large. Ibid.
In the Imperial Repository at Vienna, is a large Stone of Agate on the outside, and a Bed of large Amethysts naturally in the middle of it, which is an extraordinary and pleasant Rarity. Dr. Brown's Trav. p. 148.
Selenites, the Moon-Stone, represent the Image of the Moon in all its Phases.
Asteria, or Star-Stone, is formed like a Star, the Thunderstone, &c.