(Let us unite souls, receive this pledge of faith, grasp the right hand.)
We can hardly imagine a more perfect token of love, affection or friendship than this of right hands clasped and the names of giver and receiver. We commend it to loving friends and jewellers.
This joining of right hands appears upon ancient English marriage-rings. Here is one, with its motto, The Nazarene:
A silver wedding-ring, dug up at Somerton Castle, Lincolnshire, has a poesy very common in former times:
“I love you, my sweet dear heart.
Go I pray you please my love.”[366]
There is a marriage gold ring of the time of Richard the Second of England, having a French motto, translated, Be of good heart, and bearing the figure of St. Catharine with her wheel, emblematical of good fortune, and St. Margaret, to whom Catholics address their devotions for safe delivery in childbirth.[367] The author has seen an old American ring, in the possession of a young man, whose grandfather presented it on his wedding day to his wife. It has a piece of jet set in it and is cut into raised angular facets. On the inside is engraved:
“First love Christ, that died for thee,
Next to him, love none but me.”