PEARLS IN MORE RECENT TIMES	331
	task of setting them in a manner befitting their quality and further destiny." But that is only one side of the picture. I would also think of the other side, replacing one vision with a vision somber and distressing in its particulars. I would remember the thou­sands who have been ruined, maimed, defeated, and killed in the pursuit of pearls, through all the ages of their history. Looking at the barbaric splendor of some Cham's or Czar's or Shah's or Rajah's regalia, I would see the swordfish and the shark; looking at a rope of priceless matched pearls, serene in their loveliness, I would think of schemings, betrayals, and murders; looking at a gemmed sword-hilt, or at a jewel with which a monarch's hand once toyed, I would think of the other hands that have had a part in its destiny, hands of fisher­men, traders, go-betweens, craftsmen, courtesans, sycophants, priests, thieves, hands of tempters and tempted, hands of as­sassins and victims, all trafficking in this beauty, innocent in itself and surely meant by God for human pleasure, but seem­ing at the same time to have the evil faculty of betraying men to their own worst selves.