Publisher's Synopsis
One afternoon, when the sun was going down, a mother and her little boy sat at the door of theircottage, talking about the Great Stone Face. They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainlyto be seen, though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features. And what was the GreatStone Face? Embosomed amongst a family of lofty mountains, there was a valley so spacious that itcontained many thousand inhabitants. Some of these good people dwelt in log-huts, with the blackforest all around them, on the steep and difficult hillsides. Others had their homes in comfortablefarm-houses, and cultivated the rich soil on the gentle slopes or level surfaces of the valley. Others, again, were congregated into populous villages, where some wild, highland rivulet, tumbling downfrom its birthplace in the upper mountain region, had been caught and tamed by human cunning, and compelled to turn the machinery of cotton-factories. The inhabitants of this valley, in short, were numerous, and of many modes of life. But all of them, grown people and children, had a kindof familiarity with the Great Stone Face, although some possessed the gift of distinguishing thisgrand natural phenomenon more perfectly than many of their neighbors.The Great Stone Face, then, was a work of Nature in her mood of majestie playfulness, formedon the perpendicular side of a mountain by some immense rocks, which had been thrown togetherin such a position as, when viewed at a proper distance, precisely to resemble the features of thehuman countenance. It seemed as if an enormous giant, or a Titan, had sculptured his own likenesson the precipice. There was the broad arch of the forehead, a hundred feet in height; the nose, withits long bridge; and the vast lips, which, if they could have spoken, would have rolled their thunderaccents from one end of the valley to the other. True it is, that if the spectator approached too near, he lost the outline of the gigantic visage, and could discern only a heap of ponderous and giganticrocks, piled in chaotic ruin one upon another. Retracing his steps, however, the wondrous featureswould again be seen; and the farther he withdrew from them, the more like a human face, with all itsoriginal divinity intact, did they appear; until, as it grew dim in the distance, with the clouds andglorified vapor of the mountains clustering about it, the Great Stone Face seemed positively to bealive.It was a happy lot for children to grow up to manhood or womanhood with the Great Stone Facebefore their eyes, for all the features were noble, and the expression was at once grand and sweet, asif it were the glow of a vast, warm heart, that embraced all mankind in its affections, and had roomfor more. It was an education only to look at it. According to the belief of many people, the valleyowed much of its fertility to this benign aspect that was continually beaming over it, illuminating theclouds, and infusing its tenderness into the sunsh
