332 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



by the moderns : theirs being of a pale green color intermixed with 

 yellow, whereas, ours is blue, pink, or white. The ancient topaz, 

 which is said to have derived its name from an island in the lied 

 Sea, is probably the same with our chrysolite. 



As most of these stones are only mentioned in the description of 

 the high priest's breastplate (Exod. xxviii. 17, &c.), and in that of 

 foundation of the church (Isa. liv. 11, 12), and of the heavenly Je- 

 rusalem (Rev. xxi. 1921), it can excite no surprise that we are 

 unable to ascertain the precise qualities which they severally pos- 

 sessed. It has, indeed, been thought by some writers, that ths 

 apostle in describing the foundations of the new Jerusalem had an 

 eye to the pectoral of the high priest, and that he enumerates the 

 stones in the same order as Moses had done. This, however, is 

 by no means probable, and every attempt hitherto made to trace 

 the connexion between them has utterly failed. In opposition to 

 that excessive love of spiritualizing every passage and thing occur- 

 ring in the Bible, and which finds in each of these stones some re- 

 condite and important meaning, Bishop Lowth has justly observed, 

 that 'they seem to be general images to. express beauty, magnifi- 

 cence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the idea of the 

 Eastern nations ; and to have never been intended to be strictly 

 scrutinized, or minutely and particularly explained, as if they had 

 each of them some precise moral and spiritual meaning. 



