Sed iis fidem non habuit. And a later Author, the Diligent and Judicious Johannes de Laet in his Chapter of Carbuncles and of Rubies, has this passage. Quia autem Carbunculi, Pyropi & Anthraces a veteribus nominantur, vulgo creditum fuit, Carbonis instar in tenebris lucere, quod tamen nulla gemma hastenus deprehensum, licet a quibusdam temere jactetur. And the recentest Writer I have met with on this Subject, Olaus Wormius, in his Account of his well furnish’d Musaeum, do’s, where he treats of Rubies, concurr with the former Writers by these Words.[27] Sunt qui Rubinum veterum Carbunculum esse existimant, sed deest una illa nota, quod in tenebris instar Anthracis non luceat:  Ast talem Carbunculum in rerum natura non inveniri major pars Authoram existimant.  Licet unum aut alterum in India apud Magnates quosdam reperiri scribant, cum tamen ex aliorum relatione id habeant saltem, sed ipsi non viderint. In confirmation of which I shall only add, that hearing of a Rubie, so very Vivid, that the Jewellers themselves have several times begg’d leave of the fair Lady to whom it belong’d, that they might try their choicest Rubies by comparing them with That, I had the Opportunity by the Favour of this Lady and her Husband, (both which I have the Honour to 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] Musaei 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