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III
ORIGIN OF PEARLS
Heaven-born and cradled in the deep blue sea, it is the purest of gems and the most precious.
S. M. Zwemer.
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T
HE origin of pearls
has been a fruitful subject of speculation and discussion among
naturalists of all ages, and has provoked many curious explanations.
Most of the early views— universally accepted during those centuries
when tradition had more influence than observation and experiment—have
no standing among naturalists at the present time. And although much
information has been gained as to the conditions accompanying their
growth, and many theories are entertained, each with some basis in
observed fact, science does not yet speak with conclusive and
unquestioned authority as to the precise manner of their origin and
development.
Owing
to the chaste and subdued beauty of pearls, it is not strange that
poets of many countries have founded their origin in tears—tears of
angels, of water-nymphs, of the lovely and devoted. Sir Walter Scott in
"The Bridal of Triermain" refers to—
The pearls that long have slept, These were tears by Naiads wept.
In one of his most lovely and consoling thoughts, Shakspere says :
The
liquid drops of tears that you have shed, Shall come again, transform'd
to orient pearl, Advantaging their loan with interest Of ten times
double gain of happiness.
And we quote from Rückert's "Edelstein und Perlen" :
I was the Angel, who of old bowed down
From Heaven to earth and shed that tear, Ο Pearl,
From which thou wert first-fashioned in thy shell.
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