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And those very hollow parts of the earth,
though filled with water and air, exhibit a certain species of color,
shining among the variety of other colors, so that one continually
variegated aspect presents itself to the view. In this earth, being
such, all things that grow grow in a manner proportioned to its
nature--trees, flowers, and fruits; and again, in like manner, its
mountains and stones possess, in the same proportion, smoothness and
transparency and more beautiful colors; of which the well-known stones
here that are so highly prized are but fragments, such as sardin-stones,
jaspers, and emeralds, and all of that kind. But there, there is nothing
subsists that is not of this character, and even more beautiful than
these.
"But the reason of this is, because the stones there are pure, and not
eaten up and decayed, like those here, by rottenness and saltness, which
flow down hither together, and which produce deformity and disease in
the stones and the earth, and in other things, even animals and plants.


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