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"In good sooth," says De Boot, "I am fain to confess that supernatural effects are after this fashion produced, God having permitted that it should be so. But, as I have already said, this is done by evil spirits, who take up their abode in the substance of the precious stones, constrained thereunto by the vain credulousness of man, and by a pagan impiousness; taking undue advantage of the stone, to the end that they may conceal or annihilate its natural faculties, rendering them unrecognizable, and substituting in their place false ones, and by these means leading man to vanities and superstitions, making him forsake the true worship of God, subjecting him to their will, and losing his soul to all eternity. Those, therefore, who would attract good spirits to inhabit their gems, and benefit by their presence in them, let them have the martyrdom of Our Saviour, the actions of His life, which teach virtue by example, graven upon their jewels; and let them often contemplate them piously; without doubt, with the grace of God and the assistance of good spirits, they will find, that not in the stone only, or the graven image, but from God, are its admirable qualities."
In Gargantua's noble letter to his son, Pantagruel, on the thirst for knowledge, he is recommended to give himself "curiously," amongst other matters, "to all the metals that are hid in the bowels of the earth, together with the precious stones that are to be seen in the east and south of the world." |
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Precious Stones Vol 11
>> Early Beliefs About Precious Stones and Evil
| <<Plato's Idea of the Origin of Precious Stones | Satires and Writings that Ridicule the Pursuit of Precious Stones>> |