[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 it.
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