DIAMOND MYSTIQUE

Soot from a smoky candle - soft, black, opaque, so worthless it is wiped away as a nuisance, this is the element called carbon. The diamond in a queen's tiara - harder than any other natural substance, colorless, transparent, flashing with all the brilliance of fresh dew, so costly it is worth a king's ransom - this also is carbon, nothing more, nothing less. The difference between them is this: soot forms at ordinary temperature and pressure; diamond at a temperature and pressure so high it is equivalent to that existing 150 miles below the earth's surface.

Discovered over two thousand years ago, diamonds were named after the Greek word "adamas" meaning "unconquerable". Because of their natural durability, they came to symbolize courage and invincibility. Some believed that those who gazed inside would gain inner strength. Others saw the diamond as a talisman to ward off evil.

An unknown poet in 2 A.D. wrote, "The evil eye shall have no power to harm him who shall wear the diamond as a charm". The diamond, the most enduring and the hardest natural substance known to man, became a symbol of the eternal love a couple would have for one another. The mysterious inner fire of the diamond was likened to love's passions. In fact, the form is found in nature, resembles two pyramids set base to base and symbolizes an impenetrable bond.