Topaz. A mineral occurring in rhombic prisms, generally yellowish and pellucid, also colorless, and of greenish, bluish, or brownish shades. It sometimes occurs massive and opaque. It is fluosilicate of aluminum, and is used as a gem. It is but little more valuable than the garnet, except occasionally unusual fine specimens.
“If we would hold the true course in love, our first step must be to turn our eyes not to man, the sight of whom might oftener produce hatred than love, but to God, who requires that the love which we bear to him be diffused among all mankind, so that our fundamental principle must ever be, Let a man be what he may, he is still to be loved because God is loved.”
–Calvin, Institutes