He who would search for pearls must dive below.
The American poet, William Russell Lowell (father of the Supreme Court Justice of the same name), wrote in his copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
These pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were bred,
Each softly lucent as a rounded moon;
The diver Omar plucked them from their bed,
Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread.
Other Stones
The other stones, though less esteemed in lore and letters, have many claims to beauty. One shining specimen may adorn a jewel; or several of a kind, or combinations of various stones, may create effects that rival those of the gems. The four native stones among the five gems are usually translucent, while most of the other stones are opaque. A transparent or translucent stone, if it is cut as a prism or if its crystalline structure is right, may break light into rainbow hues, and, catching these rays, may shoot them around in varying interplays of sparkle and color. The opaque stones, on the other hand, often smooth of surface, are colored in ways that seem to snare the light and send it out with added power and color. Special characteristics add to the beauty of many of these stones, the main varieties of which we shall now glance at, in alphabetical order.