o was gentle
and guileless; the chalcedony, as an emblem of charity, was ascribed to
Joseph, who was so merciful and pitiful to his brethren, and to St.
James the Great, the first of the Apostles to suffer martyrdom for the
love of Christ; the jasper, emblematical of faith and eternity, was the
attribute of Gad and of St. Peter; the sard, meaning faith and
martyrdom, was given to Reuben and St. Bartholomew; the sapphire, for
hope and contemplation, to Naphtali and St. Andrew, and sometimes,
according to Aretas, to St. Paul; the beryl, meaning sound doctrine,
learning, and long-suffering, to Benjamin and to St. Thomas, and so
forth. There is, indeed, a table of the harmony of gems and their
application to patriarchs, apostles, and virtues, drawn up by Madame
Felicie d'Ayzac, who has written an elaborate paper on the figurative
meaning of gems."

"The avatar of some other Scriptural personages might be equally well
carried out by these emblematical minerals," observed the Abbe Gevresin.

"Obviously; and as I warned you, the analogies are very far-fetched. The
hermeneutics of gems are uncertain, and founded on mere fanciful
resemblances, on the harmonies of ideas hard to assimilate. In mediaeval
times this science was principally cultivated by poets."

"Against whom we must be on our guard," said the Abbe Plomb, "since
their interpretations are for the most part heathenish. Marbode, for
example, though he was a Bishop, has left us but a very pagan
interpretation of the language of gems."

"These mystical lapidaries have on the whole chiefly applied, their
ingenuity to explaining the stones of the breastplate of Aaron, and
those that shine in the foundations of the New Jerusalem, as described
by St. John; indeed, the walls of Sion are set with the same jewels as
the High Priest's pectoral, with the exception of the carbuncle, the
ligure, agate, and onyx, which are named in Exodus, and replaced in the
Book of Revelation by chalcedony, sardonyx, chrysoprase, and jacinth."

"Yes, and the symbolist goldsmiths wrought diadems, setting them with
precious stones, to crown Our Lady's brow; but their poems showed little
variety, for they were all borrowed from the _Libellus Corona Virginis_,
an apocryphal work ascribed to St. Ildefonso, and formerly famous in
convents."

The Abbe Gevresin rose and took an old book from the shelf.

"That brings to my mind," said he, "a hymn in honour of the Virgin
composed in rhyme by Conrad