206 TROPIC DAYS 



less, and of large size, it may be of almost inestimable 

 worth. 



Does the proud beauty who glories in the possession 

 of a pearl condescend to imagine that she flaunts on her 

 bosom just so many tombs containing the dust of the 

 germs of a parasite ? Does she not rather love to 

 think of the gems as emblems of almost celestial purity, 

 and to dwell on the fable of the Persians rather than 

 the audacious modern fact ? 



Addison has set the fable in imperishable gold: A 

 drop of water fell out of a cloud into the sea, and finding 

 herself lost in such immensity of fluid matter, broke out 

 into the following reflection: "Alas! What an incon- 

 siderable creature am I in this prodigious ocean of waters ; 

 my existence is of no concern to the universe; I am 

 reduced to a kind of nothing, and am less than the 

 least of the works of God." It so happened that an 

 oyster which lay in the neighbourhood chanced to gape 

 and swallow it up in the midst of this its humble soliloquy. 

 The drop, says the fable, lay a great while hardening 

 in the shell, until by degress it was ripened into a pearl, 

 which, falling into the hands of a diver after a long 

 series of adventures, is at present that famous pearl 

 which is affixed on the top of the Persian diadem. 



Though one may count his pearls by the score, the 

 hoard may be valueless. Upon such examples enter- 

 taining, if not valuable, experiments may be made 

 without affectation or giving hostages to fortune. In 

 all the little deformed specimens thus dissected the 

 core has been found to consist of a foreign substance, 

 generally what seemed under a microscope of limited 

 power a speck of dirt. The heart of one was a blob of 

 mud, which gave off a most baleful vapour. This was 

 the result of the house-cleaning of a common, edible 

 rock oyster, and the pearl, dirty green and lustreless, 



