" Science, more
precise and frank than the frankest of poets, tells us that oysters are
afflicted with tapeworms, and to kill the germ of these indecent pests,
enclose them in untimely tombs, which from the human standpoint are among
the most lovely and precious of gems. The assertions of the scientific
are often the reverse of poetical. We are constrained to believe them,
but like our poetical delusions better, and for the origin of the pearl
prefer the quaint fable of the Persians to the unpleasant fact of the
zoologist. A drop of water of ineffable purity falls from heaven to the
sea, an oyster gapes and swallows it, the drop hardens and ripens, and
becomes a pearl; and who is so devoid of the perception of purity, beauty
and worth as to despise a pearl?
Here about, pearls were found. We delight in them, though they prove the
previous existence of a filthy ailment. Any oyster may contain a pearl, a
pearl of great price--a thing of beauty, a joy for ever. Every gold-lip,
every black-lip oyster, is a chance in a lottery. Was there ever a
Beachcomber so pure and elevated of soul as to refuse the chances that
Nature proffers gratuitously? My meagre horde includes pearls of several
tints, black, pink, and white.
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