Points of View

To the poet, a pearl is a tear of the sea; to the Oriental, it is a drop of dew, solidified; to the ladies, it is a jewel which they wear on their finger, neck and ear. But for the chemist, it is a mixture of phosphate and carbonate of lime with a little gelatin. And for naturalists, it is simply a morbid secretion of the organ that among certain bivalves produces mother-of-pearl.

Jules Verne, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"