o 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 at the mouth of the box any while,
by virtue thereof the addercop is overcome and dieth, as it were
suddenly. And this same I have seen proved oft in many and divers
places." Possibly the fact that the addercop is so infrequent an
invader of our modern life accounts for the fact that we are left
inert upon reading so surprising a statement; or possibly our
incredulity dominates our awe.

The art of the lapidary, or science of glyptics, is a most interesting
study, and it would be a mistake not to consider it for a few moments
on its technical side. It is very ancient as an art. In Ecclesiasticus
the wise Son of Sirach alludes to craftsmen "that cut and grave
seals, and are diligent to make great variety, and give themselves
to counterfeit imagery, and watch to finish a work."

Theophilus on glyptics is too delightfully naive for us to resist
quoting his remarks. "Crystal," he announces, "which is water hardened
into ice, and the ice of great age hardened into stone, is trimmed
and polished in this manner." He then directs the use of sandstone
and emery, chiefly used by rubbing, as one might infer, to polish the
stones, probably _en cabochon_ as was the method in his time; this
style of finish on a gem was called "tallow cutting." But when one
wishes to sculp crystal, Theophilus informs one: "Take a goat of two
or three years... make an opening between his breast and stomach, in
the position of the heart, and lay in the crystal, so that it may lie
in its blood until it grow warm... cut what you please in it as long
as the heat lasts." Just how many goats were required to the finishing
of a sculptured crystal would be determined by the elaboration of
the design! Unfortunately Animal Rescue Leagues had not invaded
the monasteries of the eleventh century.

In sculpturing glass, the ingenuous Theophilus is quite at his best.
"Artists!" he exclaims, "who wish to engrave glass in a beautiful
manner, I now can teach you, as I have myself made trial. I have
sought the gross worms which the plough turns up in the ground,
and the art necessary in these things also bid me procure vinegar,
and the warm blood of a lusty goat, which I was careful to place
under the roof for a short time, bound with a strong ivy plant.
After this I infused the worms