The Moonstone (Webster's Thesaurus Edition)

682 Pages·2006·7.07 MB·English

by  Wilkie Collins

THE MOONSTONE

Webster's Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Wilkie Collins

PSAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT is a registered
trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE, AP and
Advanced Placement are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither
sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management
Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT is a
registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this
product. All rights reserved.
The Moonstone

Webster's Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Wilkie Collins
PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered
trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and
Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither
sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management
Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a
registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses
this product. All rights reserved.
i i
ICON CLASSICS

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San Diego, CA 92121 USA

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The Moonstone: Webster's Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®, GMAT®, and AP®
English Test Preparation

This edition published by ICON Classics in 2005
Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright ©2005 by ICON Group International, Inc.

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PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered
trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and
Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither
sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management
Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a
registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses
this product. All rights reserved.

ISBN 0-497-25333-X
iii

Contents

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR..........................................................................................1

PROLOGUE THE STORMING OF SERINGAPATAM (1799).................................................3

FIRST PERIOD THE LOSS OF THE DIAMOND (1848)......................................................11

CHAPTER I..............................................................................................................13

CHAPTER II.............................................................................................................17

CHAPTER III............................................................................................................23

CHAPTER IV............................................................................................................31

CHAPTER V.............................................................................................................41

CHAPTER VI............................................................................................................49

CHAPTER VII...........................................................................................................61

CHAPTER VIII..........................................................................................................67

CHAPTER IX............................................................................................................79

CHAPTER X.............................................................................................................87

CHAPTER XI..........................................................................................................101

CHAPTER XII.........................................................................................................121

CHAPTER XIII........................................................................................................133

CHAPTER XIV........................................................................................................141

CHAPTER XV.........................................................................................................151

CHAPTER XVI........................................................................................................167

CHAPTER XVII.......................................................................................................177

CHAPTER XVIII......................................................................................................185

CHAPTER XIX........................................................................................................193

CHAPTER XX.........................................................................................................199

CHAPTER XXI........................................................................................................203

CHAPTER XXII.......................................................................................................215

CHAPTER XXIII......................................................................................................225

SECOND PERIOD THE DISCOVERY OF THE TRUTH (1848-1849)................................239

FIRST NARRATIVE.................................................................................................241

SECOND NARRATIVE............................................................................................331
i v

THIRD NARRATIVE................................................................................................363

FOURTH NARRATIVE.............................................................................................487

FIFTH NARRATIVE.................................................................................................527

SIXTH NARRATIVE................................................................................................549

SEVENTH NARRATIVE...........................................................................................569

EIGHTH NARRATIVE..............................................................................................573

EPILOGUE THE FINDING OF THE DIAMOND...............................................................577

CHAPTER I THE STATEMENT OF SERGEANT CLIFF’S MAN (1849)........................579

CHAPTER II THE STATEMENT OF THE CAPTAIN (1849)........................................581
CHAPTER III THE STATEMENT OF MR. MURTHWAITE (1850) (IN A LETTER TO MR.

BRUFF)..................................................................................................................583

Glossary.......................................................................................................................587
1

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR

Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on
standardized tests, Webster’s paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently
assigned readings in English courses. By using a running thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this
edition of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins was edited for students who are actively building their
vocabularies in anticipation of taking PSAT®, SAT®, AP® (Advanced Placement®), GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT® or similar examinations.1

Webster’s edition of this classic is organized to expose the reader to a maximum number of
synonyms and antonyms for difficult and often ambiguous English words that are encountered in
other works of literature, conversation, or academic examinations. Extremely rare or idiosyncratic
words and expressions are given lower priority in the notes compared to words which are “difficult,
and often encountered” in examinations. Rather than supply a single synonym, many are provided
for a variety of meanings, allowing readers to better grasp the ambiguity of the English language,
and avoid using the notes as a pure crutch. Having the reader decipher a word’s meaning within
context serves to improve vocabulary retention and understanding. Each page covers words not
already highlighted on previous pages. If a difficult word is not noted on a page, chances are that it
has been highlighted on a previous page. A more complete thesaurus is supplied at the end of the
book; Synonyms and antonyms are extracted from Webster’s Online Dictionary.

Definitions of remaining terms as well as translations can be found at www.websters-online-
dictionary.org. Please send suggestions to [email protected]

The Editor
Webster’s Online Dictionary
www.websters-online-dictionary.org
1 P S A T ® i s a r e g i s t e r e d t r a d e m a r k o f t h e College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered
trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and
Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither
sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management
Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a
registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses
this product. All rights reserved.

Wilkie Collins 3

PROLOGUE

THE STORMING OF SERINGAPATAM (1799)

Extracted from a Family Paper

Address these lines—written in India—to my relatives in England.%
My object is to explain the motive which has induced me to refuse the right
hand of friendship to my cousin, John Herncastle. The reserve which I have
hitherto maintained in this matter has been misinterpreted by members of my
family whose good opinion I cannot consent to forfeit. I request them to
suspend their decision until they have read my narrative. And I declare, on my
word of honour, that what I am now about to write is, strictly and literally, the
truth.
The private difference between my cousin and me took its rise in a great
public event in which we were both concerned—the storming of Seringapatam,
under General Baird, on the 4th of May, 1799.
In order that the circumstances may be clearly understood, I must revert for a
moment to the period before the assault, and to the stories current in our camp of
the treasure in jewels and gold stored up in the Palace of Seringapatam.

Thesaurus
declare: (v) advertise, assert, allege, now, until now, thus far, before, stormy, turbulent.
attest, aver, admit, acknowledge, hereunto, to date, still, all the same. suspend: (adj, v) defer, put off; (v)
proclaim, avow; (n, v) affirm, say. jewels: (n) jewelry, gems, wealth, interrupt, stop, adjourn, postpone,
ANTONYMS: (v) conceal, revoke, hoops, Perrie, riches, studs, fortune, hang, dangle, stay, shelve, debar.
suppress, retract, repress, disclaim, fineness, earrings, decoration. ANTONYMS: (v) continue, sustain,
withhold, request, refute, block. revert: (v) lapse, relapse, go back, rise, finish, advance, inaugurate.
forfeit: (n) penalty, deprivation, cost; recur, reverse, regress, reflect, treasure: (n) gem, fortune, riches,
(v) abandon, forgo, relinquish, waive; recover, resume, get back, come back. funds; (n, v) hoard, prize, store; (v)
(n, v) sacrifice, pawn; (adj) confiscate, ANTONYMS: (v) improve, progress. cherish, appreciate; (adj, n) jewel,
lost. ANTONYMS: (n) retention; (v) storming: (n) assault, storm, night precious stone. ANTONYMS: (v)
claim, redeem, receive, maintain. raid, beginning, sortie, onset, dislike, disparage, scorn, neglect; (n)
hitherto: (adv) as yet, yet, so far, up to bravado; (adj) tempestuous, angry, dud, poverty.
4 The Moonstone
II

One of the wildest of these stories related to a Yellow Diamond—a famous
gem in the native annals of India.%
The earliest known traditions describe the stone as having been set in the
forehead of the four-handed Indian god who typifies the Moon. Partly from its
peculiar colour, partly from a superstition which represented it as feeling the
influence of the deity whom it adorned, and growing and lessening in lustre
with the waxing and waning of the moon, it first gained the name by which it
continues to be known in India to this day—the name of the moonstone. A
similar superstition was once prevalent, as I have heard, in ancient Greece and
Rome; not applying, however (as in India), to a diamond devoted to the service
of a god, but to a semi-transparent stone of the inferior order of gems, supposed
to be affected by the lunar influences—the moon, in this latter case also, giving
the name by which the stone is still known to collectors in our own time.
The adventures of the Yellow Diamond begin with the eleventh century of
the Christian era.
At that date, the Mohammedan conqueror, Mahmoud of Ghizni, crossed
India; seized on the holy city of Somnauth; and stripped of its treasures the
famous temple, which had stood for centuries—the shrine of Hindoo pilgrimage,
and the wonder of the Eastern world.
Of all the deities worshipped in the temple, the moon-god alone escaped the
rapacity of the conquering Mohammedans. Preserved by three Brahmins, the
inviolate deity, bearing the Yellow Diamond in its forehead, was removed by
night, and was transported to the second of the sacred cities of India—the city of
Benares.
Here, in a new shrine—in a hall inlaid with precious stones, under a roof
supported by pillars of gold—the moon-god was set up and worshipped. Here,
on the night when the shrine was completed, Vishnu the Preserver appeared to
the three Brahmins in a dream.
The deity breathed the breath of his divinity on the Diamond in the forehead
of the god. And the Brahmins knelt and hid their faces in their robes. The deity

Thesaurus
conquering: (adj) triumphant, sacrosanct, whole, entire, pure; (v) in rapacity: (adj, n) greed, avarice; (n)
winning, overcoming, glorious, petto, clandestine, auricular, close, cupidity, edacity, covetousness,
proud, successful; (n) conquest, privy. rapaciousness, esurience, extortion,
seizure, reverse, subjection, lessening: (n) diminution, cutback, gluttony, voracity; (adj) avidity.
subjugation. alleviation, contraction, abatement, waning: (n) decrease, decline,
conqueror: (n) champion, winner, mitigation, shrinking, reduction, cut; lessening, ebb, failure; (adj) run to
subjugator, vanquisher, hero, (adj) decreasing, diminishing. seed, ripe, mellow, diminishing,
superior, defeater, subduer, invader, ANTONYMS: (n) growth, abating, moribund. ANTONYMS:
colonist, Alexander. ANTONYM: (n) restoration; (adj) increasing. (adj) growing, thriving, waxing,
loser. moonstone: (n) bloodstone, increasing; (n) improvement.
inlaid: (adj) decorated. alexandrite, hematite, jasper, waxing: (n) application, covering,
inviolate: (adj, v) intact; (adj) sacred, sunstone, adularia, felspar, feldspar. coating. ANTONYM: (adj) waning.
Wilkie Collins 5
commanded that the Moonstone should be watched, from that time forth, by
three priests in turn, night and day, to the end of the generations of men. And
the Brahmins heard, and bowed before his will. The deity predicted certain
disaster to the presumptuous mortal who laid hands on the sacred gem, and to
all of his house and name who received it after him. And the Brahmins caused
the prophecy to be written over the gates of the shrine in letters of gold.%
One age followed another—and still, generation after generation, the
successors of the three Brahmins watched their priceless Moonstone, night and
day. One age followed another until the first years of the eighteenth Christian
century saw the reign of Aurungzebe, Emperor of the Moguls. At his command
havoc and rapine were let loose once more among the temples of the worship of
Brahmah. The shrine of the four-handed god was polluted by the slaughter of
sacred animals; the images of the deities were broken in pieces; and the
Moonstone was seized by an officer of rank in the army of Aurungzebe.
Powerless to recover their lost treasure by open force, the three guardian
priests followed and watched it in disguise. The generations succeeded each
other; the warrior who had committed the sacrilege perished miserably; the
Moonstone passed (carrying its curse with it) from one lawless Mohammedan
hand to another; and still, through all chances and changes, the successors of the
three guardian priests kept their watch, waiting the day when the will of Vishnu
the Preserver should restore to them their sacred gem. Time rolled on from the
first to the last years of the eighteenth Christian century. The Diamond fell into
the possession of Tippoo, Sultan of Seringapatam, who caused it to be placed as
an ornament in the handle of a dagger, and who commanded it to be kept among
the choicest treasures of his armoury. Even then—in the palace of the Sultan
himself—the three guardian priests still kept their watch in secret. There were
three officers of Tippoo’s household, strangers to the rest, who had won their
master’s confidence by conforming, or appearing to conform, to the Mussulman
faith; and to those three men report pointed as the three priests in disguise.

Thesaurus
armoury: (n) arsenal, resourcefulness, wrongful, seditious. ANTONYM: rapine: (n) rape, plunder, pillage,
foundry, imagination, metalworks, (adj) orderly. brigandage, robbery, pillaging,
resource, inventory, armament. perished: (adj) decayed, emperished, despoliation, rapacity, raven,
choicest: (adj) optimum, best. rotting, annihilated, fallen, lost, despoilment; (v) razzia.
commanded: (adj) lawful. moldy, nonexistent, putrefied, dead, sacrilege: (n) profanity, profanation,
conforming: (v) conform; (adj) parallel, decomposed. violation, curse, defilement,
like, congruent, according, seemly, presumptuous: (adj) arrogant, sacrilegiousness, impiety, vulgarity;
respectable, relevant, proper; (n) audacious, forward, assuming, (adj, n) blasphemy, desecration; (v)
accordance, matching. insolent, impertinent, assumptive, violate. ANTONYMS: (n) piety,
lawless: (adj) disorderly, illicit, familiar, haughty, proud; (adj, n) respectfulness, reverence,
anarchical, illegitimate, anarchic, bold. ANTONYMS: (adj) respectful, consecration.
unlawful, unruly, illegal, mutinous, shy, timid, humble, modest. temples: (n) brow.