[Illustration] A PERSIAN PEARL AND OTHER ESSAYS BY CLARENCE S. DARROW [Illustration] CHICAGO C. L. RICKETTS MDCCCCII ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1899 Clarence S. Darrow ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS 1 A Persian Pearl 9 2 Walt Whitman 43 3 Robert Burns 77 4 Realism in Literature and Art 107 5 The Skeleton in the Closet 139 A · PERSIAN · PEARL [Illustration] A PERSIAN PEARL The reader and observer is constantly reminded that “there is nothing new under the sun.” We no sooner find some rare gem of thought or expression than we discover that it is only an old diamond, polished anew, perhaps, and offered as an original stone. Neither the reader nor the writer is always aware that the gem is antique and the setting alone is new. The rich mine where the treasure was first found was exhausted in a few brief years, and then became like all the dust of all the worlds; but the gem polished and worn by time and use, ever sparkles and shines, regardless of the fact that the miner’s name is forgotten and his work alone remains. Thus Nature, the great communist, provides that the treasures of genius, like her own bountiful gifts of sunlight, rain and air, shall remain the common property of all her children while any dwell upon the earth. Current literature seems to point to the ascendancy of what is often termed the “pessimistic school.” In one sense this philosophy uncrowns man and places him in his proper relation to the great universe, of which he is so small a part; but while it makes less of man, it expects less from him, and covers his deeds with that cloak of charity, which is the legitimate garment of the great Unknown. But these modern reflections on life and its problems, its purposes and lessons, are far from new. Without venturing a guess as to their origin or age, we take up that old Persian Pearl,—the “Rubaiyat,” and find on its musty pages the great thoughts and searching questions, which have ever returned to man since the intellect was born, and which will still remain unanswered when the last word shall have been spoken, and the race have run its course.