great into touch with the commonplace, that delineates the forces which arise to their greatest grandeur only in a man here and there, that enables us to contrast the best in us with the poverty of him, and then we may do intelligent homage. To know that the greatest men of earth are men who think as I do, but deeper, and see the real as I do, but clearer, who work to the goal that I do, but faster, and serve humanity as I do, but better—that may be an incitement to my humility, but it is also an inspiration to my life.
| THE SCALLOP (Pecten irradians). |
By FRED MATHER.
WHETHER we follow the old spelling of "escalop," the modern form of "scallop," now used by naturalists, or write it "scollop," after the manner of the fishermen, we find all three modes sanctioned by the dictionaries. Near the seacoast this mollusk is a great favorite, rivaling the clam and the oyster, and by many persons preferred to either. The home demand is so great that the "scollop" is not sent far inland, and it is a matter of surprise how little is popularly known of the animal of which a portion is seen in our seaboard markets during the fall and winter months by those who sell and those who eat them.
For many centuries the beautiful form of the scallop shell has been a favorite with artists, who have used it as an ornament in sculpture, pottery, and in designs of many kinds, and it is found on the armorial bearings of families whose ancestors had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land or to Spain:
For the scallop shows in a coat of arms
That, of the bearer's line,
Some one in former days hath been
To Santiago's shrine.
The shell is not found on the Atlantic coast of Europe, but is common on the shores of Judea and other parts of the Mediterranean; hence its possession was evidence of the pilgrimage, and the Crusaders always wore the shell on their hats after returning. Fuller says: "The scallop shell (I mean the nethermost of them, because most concave and most capacious) was often the cup and dish to the pilgrims in Palestine; their arms they always charged therewith." The delicate shell has commended itself to makers of toilet and other articles for ladies' use, such as pincushions, made either in one valve or between both shells; needlebooks and many other things are made from them, but they are too frail for some uses that shells have been put to, such as scrapers, scoops, and dishes, yet from their employment by cooks to serve a peculiar
