Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
A PERSIAN PEARL
AND OTHER ESSAYS
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
The reader and observer isconstantly reminded that“there is nothing new underthe sun.” We no soonerfind some rare gem ofthought or expression thanwe discover that it is onlyan old diamond, polished anew, perhaps,and offered as an original stone. Neitherthe reader nor the writer is always awarethat the gem is antique and the setting aloneis new.
The rich mine where the treasure was firstfound was exhausted in a few brief years,and then became like all the dust of all theworlds; but the gem polished and wornby time and use, ever sparkles and shines,regardless of the fact that the miner’s nameis forgotten and his work alone remains.Thus Nature, the great communist, providesthat the treasures of genius, like herown bountiful gifts of sunlight, rain andair, shall remain the common property of