be acquainted with) to make a Trial of this famous Rubie in the Night, and
in a Room well Darkn'd, but not only could not discern any thing of Light,
by looking on the Stone before any thing had been done to it, but could not
by all my Rubbing bring it to afford the least Glimmering of Light.

[26] Boetius de Boot. Gem. & Lapid. Histor. Lib. 3. Cap. 8.

[27] Musæi Wormiani. Cap. 17.

But, Sir, though I be very backward to admit strange things for truths, yet
I am not very forward to reject them as impossibilities, and therefore I
would not discourage any from making further Inquiry, whether or no there
be Really in _Rerum natura_, any such thing as a true Carbuncle or Stone
that without Rubbing will shine in the Dark. For if such a thing can be
found, it may afford no small Assistance to the Curious in the
Investigation of Light, besides the Nobleness and Rarity of the thing it
selfe. And though _Vartomannus_ was not an Eye witness of what he relates,
that the King of _Pegu_, one of the Chief Kings of the _East-Indies_, had a
true Carbuncle of that Bigness and Splendour, that it shin'd very
Gloriously in the Dark, and though _Garcias ab Horto_, the _Indian_
Vice-Roys Physician, speaks of another Carbuncle, only upon the Report of
one, that he Discours'd with, who affirmed himself to have seen it; yet as
we are not sure that these Men that gave themselves out to be Eye-witnesses
speak true, yet they may have done so for ought we know to the contrary.
And I could present you with a much considerabler Testimony to the same
purpose, if I had the permission of a Person concern'd, without whose leave
I must not do it. I might tell you that _Marcus Paulus Venetus_[28] (whose
suppos'd Fables, divers of our later Travellours and Navigatours have since
found to be truths) speaking of the King of _Zeilan_ that then was, tells
us, that he was said to have the best Rubie in the World, a Palm long and