Paradise Within

In James Michener’s novel about South Africa, there is a scene in which some people are digging in yellow clay, near the surface of the soil. In the yellow clay they discover some diamonds and they rejoice in their new-found wealth. They continue scratching around in the yellow clay and, for a considerable period of time, find even more diamonds. Then, one of them suggests digging deeper. As they break through the layer of yellow clay, they enter a layer of blue clay where the diamonds are so plentiful that their earlier finds seem puny. In the blue clay, they discover more diamonds in one day than they had found in a whole year of digging in the yellow clay.…