“Though small of body, it contains
The extremes of pleasure and of pains;
Has no beginning, nor no end;
More hollow than the falsest friend.
If it entraps some headless zany,
Or, in its magic circle, any
Have entered, from its sorcery
No power on earth can set them free.
At least, all human force is vain,
Or less than many hundred men.
Though endless, yet not short, nor long;
And what though it’s so wondrous strong,
The veriest child, that’s pleased to try,
Might carry fifty such as I.”

George Herbert—“Holy Mr. Herbert,” as Isaac Walton calls him—has an enigma in which a ring appears. We must confess our inability to solve it, and leave readers to do so. It is entitled—

“HOPE.

“I gave to Hope a watch of mine; but he
An anchor gave to me.
Then an old prayer-book I did present,
And he an optic sent.
With that, I gave a phial full of tears;
But he a few green ears.
Ah, loiterer! I’ll no more, no more I’ll bring:
I did expect a ring.”

§ 24. Rings are sometimes misapplied. In the church of Loretto is the house in which some Catholics say the Virgin mother of Jesus was born, it having occupied a lane in Nazareth where Christ resided, and which, after a long flight of years, was transported by angels to Loretto. It must, as it stood in Nazareth, have resembled a mud cabin. Within it is a miraculous statue of the Virgin and child, in cedar wood. “The Bambino,” says an authoress, “holds up his hand, as if to sport a superb diamond ring on his finger, presented to him by Cardinal Antonelli; it is a single diamond, and weighs thirty grains.”[105]

§ 25. The scenes through which many rings are carried must be as remarkable as those exhibited in “The Adventures of a Guinea,” or “of a Feather.” “My Lady Rochford,” writes Horace Walpole, “desired me t’other day to give her a motto for a ruby ring, which had been given by a handsome woman of quality to a fine man; he gave it to his mistress, she to Lord *****, he to my Lady; who, I think, does not deny that it has not yet finished its travels. I excused myself for some time, on the difficulty of reducing such a history to a poesy—at last I proposed this:

‘This was given by woman to man and by man to woman.’”[106]

It may be well for the author to so far take the part of a jeweller, as to sort his Rings before he exhibits them.

We propose to speak of:

1.—Rings connected with power.

2.—Rings having supposed charms and virtues, or connected with degradation and slavery, or used for sad and wicked purposes.

3.—Rings coupled with remarkable historical characters or circumstances.

4.—Rings of love, affection and friendship.