So God has now restored her to her shell.
Far more crude, but possibly equally pathetic, is that old epitaph from Yorkshire, England:
In shells and gold pearls are not kept alone,
A Margaret here lies beneath a stone.
In the seventeenth century, Pierre de Rosnel wrote in a burst of enthusiasm:
The pearl is a jewel so perfect that its excellent beauty demands the love and esteem of the whole universe. Suidas expresses himself in regard to it thus: “The possession of the pearl is one of love’s greatest delights; the delight of possessing it suffices to feed love.” In a painting, Philostratus, who had the same ideas, has represented cupids with bows enriched with pearls; and the ancients were all agreed to dedicate the pearl to Venus. Now, to my thinking, the reason for their so doing was, that inasmuch as this goddess of love, the fairest of all divinities, is descended from heaven and is formed of the sea, so in like manner the pearl—the loveliest of all gems—is formed in the sea and is the offspring of the dew of heaven. But he that would learn more of the excellence of the pearl, let him inquire of the ladies, who will relate much more in its praise than I can write, and who will doubtless confess that nothing else so well adorns them.[[350]]
Emblematic as the pearl is of maidenly purity and sweetness, it is deemed especially appropriate as a wedding gift. This use dates from the earliest dawn of Hindu civilization, when the beloved Krishna drew it from the sea to decorate his beautiful daughter on her nuptial day. And among the Hindus not uncommonly the presentation of a virgin pearl and its piercing forms part of the marriage ceremony. In most of the European royal weddings in recent years, pearls have been prominent among the bridal gifts; nor have they been overlooked among the presents to American brides, including one much in the public print about 1906, for whom a necklace of them was selected by a neighboring republic as an appropriate present.
The dedication of the pearl to love and marriage appears to have been recognized by the artistic Greeks. One of the choicest engravings preserved from classic times is a magnificent sardonyx showing the marriage of Cupid and Psyche, in which the lovers are united by what some authorities consider a string of pearls—emblematic of conjugal bonds—by means of which the god Hymen leads them to the nuptial couch.[[351]] This engraved gem now forms one of the choicest objects in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, having been purchased at the sale of the Marlborough gems, London, 1898, at a cost of about $10,000.
And yet in Western countries the ill omen of pearls as bridal ornaments has been widely recognized, these determining the tears that will be shed in the married life. As Milton says, referring to the Marchioness of Winchester:
And those pearls of dew she wears,