The Argosy — page 74: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Or spe le Sil ld Wie by, ALEXANDER H.,Jarr, LL.D., F.RSiE. ) Be one of the finest passages in the “Paradise Lost,” Milton painted the throne on which Satan sat, ‘‘ by merit raised to that bad eminence,” as outshining the “ wealth of Ormuz and of Ind,” and described the gorgeous East as with richest hand showering on her kings “ barbaric pearl and gold.” What might seem at the first glance somewhat out of keeping, on a more close examination only attests the exactitude of Mailton’s knowledge. For it might be asked why pearls are here alone associ- ated with gold? Are there not rubies and emeralds, opals and diamonds, and sapphires, and the topaz, the beryl and the chalce- dony, and the turquoise, and the onyx, and the jaspar, and the carbuncleP? These are all more gorgeous than the pearl; and if the marks of barbaric taste are, as is usually assumed, flash of colour, and variety, and radiance, then surely is the pearl the very last of gems to be so chosen out and celebrated. Barbaric pearl and gold! : At first sight the words seem to be contradictory ; in the sub- dued colour and modest purity of the pearl there is nothing of *“* barbaric gorgeousness.” In most regions of the East, however, and particularly in Persia, in ancient times the pearl was ranked the first of all gems; and no end of legend and myth was associ- ated with it. Even in India, which furnishes a partial exception, as putting first the diamond, the Hindoos endowed Vishnu with the special honour of having created pearls ; and all their gods are so richly decorated with pearls as to have awakened in the minds of many travellers no little surprise and admiration. Egyptians, Babylonians and Assyrians, as well as Persians, held them in the highest esteem, and the ancient Mexicans were in no whit behind in their appreciation and reverence. ‘The palace of Montezuma, we read, was studded with pearls and emeralds, and the Aztec kings possessed specimens of pearls of the utmost value, got, as is believed, from the pearl fisheries of Panama. In the barbaric East, therefore (for India was even in those days hardly barbaric), the pearl took precedence of all other precious stones ; and Milton was quite right when he spoke of the gorgeous East, with richest hand showering on her kings “ barbaric pearl and gold.” The ancients do not seem to have had any clear conception of the natural process by which pearls are produced, and it is possible enough that they would have rejected it even had it been made known to them. Greeks and Romans, so far as we can ascertain, were COMIC OOO SS (C(O)