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THE Holy Scriptures furnish us with at account of the jewels which distinguished the ephod of Aaron. This is described as having a front part and a back part, instead of shoulder-pieces. On the top of each shoulder was an onyx stone set in gold sockets, each having engraved upon it six of the names of the children of Israel, according to the precedence of birth, to memorialize the Lord of the promise made to them (Exod. xxviii. 6, 12, 29). The breastplate, or gorget, ten inches square, was made of the same sort of cloth as the ephod, and doubled, so as to form a kind of pouch, or bag, in which the Urim and Thummim were placed (Exod. xxxix. 9). The external part of this gorget was set with four rows of precious stones--the first row, a sardius, a topaz, a carbuncle, and a diamond; the third, a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst; the fourth, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper--each set in a golden socket, and having engraved on them the name of one of the sons of Jacob.

Among the heathens, from the earliest times, jewels were reckoned among the most grateful offerings to the gods, and therefore dedicated in profusion in their temples. "This custom," observes the Rev. C. W. King, "flourished down to the fall of Paganism, but the donations in the shrines of imperial Rome were of a very different class to the tiny jewels extorted from the devotion of the poverty-stricken natives of Attica. Precious stones in their native state, and engraved gems, still continued to pour into the sacred treasuries. Every example of unusual beauty or rarity became a thankoffering to the patron god of its possessor. Pompey consecrated to Jupiter the rarest specimens of minerals found in the Pontic treasury. Caesar, an enthusiastic gem-collector, gave six caskets of his own choicest intagli to his progenetrix, Venus. The largest block of crystal ever seen (says Pliny) was that dedicated in the Capitol by Livia Augusta. In such form, also, did the gems appear, described by Lucian, in his "Dea Syria," as decorating the celebrated statue of that goddess, Astarte:--"Precious rubies colourless (diamonds), water coloured (beryls), fiery (rubies); the sardonyx stones, hyacinths, and emeralds, brought hither by Egyptians, Indians, Ethiopians, Medes, Armenians, and Babylonians."