THE PEARL OYSTER. 915 



ates itself, and, lo ! the creature covers it with this sub- 

 stance to ease off its unkind tooth, and converts it into a 

 pearl. 



That is the way they are made, these wondrous gems ! 

 And very beautiful is the thought that the most highly 

 prized of gems should be but the effect of a creature to ease 

 off a sorrow. Everyone knows Shakespeare's wondrously 

 fine reflection upon the uses of sorrow and adversity, 



which, 



" Like the toad, ugly and venomous, 



Bears yet a precious iewel in its head." 



The precious jewel of the toad, which some critics 

 and commentators have endeavoured to prove its glittering 

 eye, has long been exploded. Our old alchemists believed 

 in the toadstone : we do not. The fable remains in its 

 pristine beauty ; but here is one truth equally beautiful, 

 that the adversity of the oyster turns to a jewel so costly 

 and glorious, that monarchs reckon it amongst the records 

 of their houses and conquered provinces. May we ever 

 turn our sorrows and troubles to as good an account ; may 

 we ever continue to do so, for assuredly some men do. 

 The best of men are those who are tried bv affliction and 



J 



trouble, or those who have some deep and secret care, 

 which they hide in their hearts, and which makes them 

 wiser and better. Shelley has a theory that poets are made 

 somewhat after the fashion of pearls, or that, at any rate, 

 their poetry is so produced. He sings 



" Most wretched men 

 Are cradled into poetry by wrong ; 

 They learn in suffering what they -teach in song." 

 We have very little doubt but that the true poetry, 

 from which the world learns anything worth learning, is so 

 produced. (d) 



(d) " The Oyster," &c. 



