This
statement at once arouses a keen interest, for in those days great gems
came from unexpected sources and by unlikely hands and coming seldom,
excited desire to an extent unknown in these abundant times. Glancing
at the mirrored pearls in her own hair the lady says:
Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth, thou traveller
gray and old— And name the price of thy precious gem, and my page
shall count thy gold.
Here
is the golden opportunity of the zealot. From its place of concealment
beneath the tempting wares in his pack he takes a shabby little book
and gives it to her saying:
Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price, may it proove as
such to thee, Nay—keep thy gold—I ask it not; for the Word of God
is free!
Nor does the religious mind of Whittier fail to remember the gates of pearl, for in "Ego" he speaks of
The pearl gates of the Better Land.
Carlyle makes reference to the gem in a line
greater in conception and more poetic than most
of those which occur in the rhymes of the
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