While the pearl does not have the brilliance and fire of a well-cut precious stone, it has a soft glow unique among gems, and an amazing variety of glints and shadings around its basic hue, from the purest white to the darkest black. Most desired of its dark shades is the “mordoré,” a greenish coppery iridescence over black. This, however, is so rare that not more than four necklaces of such pearls are known. More frequent among the valued shades are the cream and the light pink pearl. A pearl is in its very being a symbol, the triumphant growth of beauty from disease. It marks the victory over drawbacks and handicaps, the building of one’s treasure out of one’s disadvantages. From its gentle color and its smooth shape, the pearl came to be the symbol of modesty and purity. It was endowed with many powers. It brought succor in times of distress. It cemented friendships, out of first likings fashioning firm ties. It strengthened a weak heart and a weak memory. It gave maids courage to resist, and men stoutheartedness to overcome, evil. Especially in the Orient, where it was first widely known, there have been many uses of the pearl. It was combined in jewels, used alone in many-stranded chains, woven into garments, woven in or hung upon tapestries that decked the walls of palaces. It was embroidered not only on women’s garments, but on priestly and ceremonial robes. There can hardly be a treasure in which the precious stones are not accompanied by pearls. The soft lustre of the pearl, and its natural shape, inevitably linked it with the teardrop. Indeed, what are pearls but the crystalline tears of the angels, weeping over man’s indiscretions? The Romantics suggested that the pearl may sometimes bring tears. The materialists retorted that the tears were of vexation, shed by those that could not afford the pearls. But every morning of a clear June day, the teardrops are on every blade of grass, the glistening dew that is the brief land-pearl. Hand in hand All over the land Lover leads his girl; Merrily wedded, Cosily bedded: June’s for the shimmering pearl. _July: Ruby_ The glowing ruby should adorn Those who in warm July are born; Then they will be exempt and free From love’s doubt and anxiety. With July, the heat of the sun begins to burn into bright flame the colors of approaching autumn. The range of red is in the ruby, from pale pink to that deep shade known as pigeon-blood. Rarest of all stones, the flawless ruby was endowed with the mightiest powers. The ancients, feeling its hidden forces, called it “the stone of life.” The wearer of the ruby had naught but courage in his heart; he knew no fear. Well might this be, for in his mind the ruby rendered him invincible. The Russian Czar, Peter the Great, who scorned jewelry, always carried loose rubies in his pocket; he held one clenched in his fist when he gave orders for the exploits that justify his name.