PEARLS IN LITERATURE
to lie in the bosom of woman, or to symbolize her character and beauty, as the chaste and dainty pearl.
This
high atmosphere of precious supremacy and reverence, which surrounds
the gem now as it has for more than twenty centuries, is a legacy of
Rome. The east loved pearls as beautiful and precious trinkets; while
Rome gave to them imperial honors and drew around them the mystic
circle of patrician favor. And since that day, in every land where an
aristocracy existed or came into existence, pearls have been the
familiars of the exclusive.
This natural fitness of the gem for refined associations is recognized by Emerson in his
"Friendship." He says:
*
Thou foolish Hafiz! Say! do churls Know the worth of Oman's pearls? Give the gem which dims the moon To the noblest, or to none.
It
is a late echo of the scriptural saying, "Cast not your pearls before
swine." No modern poet shows more knowledge of the nature, or a more
just appreciation of the delicate beauty of the gem than Emerson. In
his "May Day,"
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