betrothal-rings were made of gold, and it is on these I venture now to make a few remarks. To enter broadly into the history of finger-rings would be but to traverse the works of the Rev. C. W. King (“Antique Gems and Rings”) and Mr. William Jones (“Finger-ring Lore”), both of whom have dealt exhaustively with the subject; to attempt anything of this kind is not my intention. Mr. King tells us (in his beautiful work just alluded to) that “Gold was before the introduction of coinage much in use among the Egyptians, and circulated in the form of a ring, and the Egyptian on his marriage placed one of these rings of gold on his bride’s finger in token of his intrusting her with all his property”; and Clemens remarks “that the early Christians saw no harm in following this custom.” In our own marriage ceremony the man places the same plain gold ring on his bride’s finger when he says, “With all my worldly goods I thee
