The Pearl, its story, its charm, and its value

by Wallis Richard Cattelle

Sprinckled with perle.

There is a passing breath of spice-laden gales and the wonder magic of ships in far-off seas, carrying to perils and adventure men seeking the treasures of strange lands, while he tells in Virgil's Gnat of the shepherd's content:

Ne ought the whelky pearles esteemeth hee,

Which are from Indian seas brought far away.

Poets are reminded not only of the teeth and neck of beauty by the luster of the pearl but of the forehead also. Whittier like Tennyson gives to woman a brow of pearl. In "Memories" the girl has—

Eyes glad with smiles, and brow of pearl,

and in "Stanzas," he places the beauty of flesh above that of the dainty jewel thus:

O'er a forehead more pure than the Parian stone—

Shaming the light of those Orient pearls

Which bind o'er its whiteness thy soft wreathing curls.