ition of the
several sides and angles, technically termed facets, of a
well-polished diamond. It is now intended to be fashioned into a
brilliant; that is, to have the form of two flattened pyramids joined
at the base, the upper pyramid much flatter than the lower one. In
England, the art of diamond-cutting has ceased to exist, but in
Holland it still maintains its ancient pre-eminence; and from thence
the cutters of the Koh-i-noor have been brought to perform an
operation, which, taking into consideration the size of the stone, had
never previously been accomplished in this country.

It is not known, with any degree of certainty, whether the ancient
inhabitants of the East had any knowledge of the art of
diamond-cutting; but it is at the same time very clear, that the
nations of the West knew nothing of it till a very late period. Even
to the latter part of the fifteenth century, the diamond was
appreciated principally for its supposed talismanic properties and its
hardness; and as that hardness prevented its hidden beauties from
being brought to light by cutting and polishing, it was regarded more
as a rare cabalistic curiosity than a precious ornament. Some
diamonds, however, whose natural form and polish were more favourable
to the development of their clouded brilliancy, foretold the splendour
they would display were it possible to cut and polish them as other
gems. Numerous attempts were made to attain this desired end, but all
in vain, until, about 1460, Louis de Berghen, a young jeweller of
Bruges, succeeded in cutting the first diamond.

The invention of the art of diamond-cutting has, like many others,
whether mythically or not, been mixed up with a love-story. Berghen,
it is said, was a poor working-jeweller, who had the audacity to fall
in love with his wealthy master's daughter. The young lady was
favourable to his suit; but on proposing to her father, the old man
reproached him for poverty, and sneeringly said, in allusion to the
supposed utter impossibility of the feat: 'When you can cut a diamond,
you may marry my daughter, but not before.' These discouraging words
induced a train of reflection in the mind of the young man. He
considered how other hard substances were cut; iron, he mentally
cogitated, is cut by steel. 'What is steel,' he exclaimed, a light
breaking upon him, 'but iron?--the diamond, then, may be cut by a
diamond.' Laying out all his available means in the purchase of two
small diamond