TROUT.] NATURAL HISTORY. 317 



Topaz. 



[Sir Topas, the curate's name in " Twelfth Night " (iv. 2) 

 may be derived from this stone.] 



TOPAZ was first found in an island of Arabia, in which 

 island when the Troglodytes were diseased with hunger and 

 tempest, they digged up roots of herbs, and they found this 

 stone therewith. And if thou wipe this stone, thou darkest 

 it, and if thou leavest him to his own kind, he is the more 

 clear. And in treasury of kings nothing is more clear nor 

 more precious than this precious stone, for clearness thereof 

 taketh to himself the clearness of other precious stones that 

 be about him, and he followeth the course of the moon, 

 and as the moon is more full or less, so his effect is more 

 or less, and helpeth against the passion lunatic [perhaps this 

 is the reason of the curate's name in Twelfth Night ^ iv. 2], 

 and stauncheth blood, and suageth fervent water, and 

 suffereth it not to boil. It suageth both wrath and sorrow, 

 and helpeth against evil thoughts and frenzy, and against 



Bartholomew (Berthelet\ bk. xvi. 96. 



IF you wish that boiling water should overflow as soon 

 as the hand is dipped into it, take the stone which is called 

 Topaz ; for it has been proved in our time that if the 

 stone be placed in boiling water, it makes it flow away, so 

 that if the hand be dipped into it, the stone may be 

 drawn out at once and this Parisius one of our brethren 

 performed. Jlbertus Magnus, " Of the Virtues of Stones." 



IF the whites of many hens' eggs be taken, after a month 

 ey become glass, and hard as stone ; and from this, first 

 bbed with saffron or red earth, the false Topaz is made. 



Ibid., " Of the Wonders of the World." 



Trout. 



TWELFTH NIGHT, ii. 5, 25. 



THIS fish of nature loveth flattery ; for, being in the 

 water, it will suffer itself to be rubbed and clawed, and so 



