Phantastes, A Faerie Romance

"A lovely story," I said to myself. "This cave, now, with the bushes cut

away from the entrance to let the light in, might be such a place as he

would choose, withdrawn from the notice of men, to set up his block of

marble, and mould into a visible body the thought already clothed with

form in the unseen hall of the sculptor's brain. And, indeed, if I

mistake not," I said, starting up, as a sudden ray of light arrived

at that moment through a crevice in the roof, and lighted up a small

portion of the rock, bare of vegetation, "this very rock is marble,

white enough and delicate enough for any statue, even if destined to

become an ideal woman in the arms of the sculptor."

I took my knife and removed the moss from a part of the block on which

I had been lying; when, to my surprise, I found it more like alabaster

than ordinary marble, and soft to the edge of the knife. In fact, it

was alabaster. By an inexplicable, though by no means unusual kind of

impulse, I went on removing the moss from the surface of the stone;

and soon saw that it was polished, or at least smooth, throughout. I

continued my labour; and after clearing a space of about a couple of

square feet, I observed what caused me to prosecute the work with more

interest and care than before. For the ray of sunlight had now reached

the spot I had cleared, and under its lustre the alabaster revealed

its usual slight transparency when polished, except where my knife had

scratched the surface; and I observed that the transparency seemed to

have a definite limit, and to end upon an opaque body like the more

solid, white marble. I was careful to scratch no more. And first, a

vague anticipation gave way to a startling sense of possibility; then,

as I proceeded, one revelation after another produced the entrancing

conviction, that under the crust of alabaster lay a dimly visible form

in marble, but whether of man or woman I could not yet tell. I worked on

as rapidly as the necessary care would permit; and when I had uncovered

the whole mass, and rising from my knees, had retreated a little way,

so that the effect of the whole might fall on me, I saw before me

with sufficient plainness--though at the same time with considerable

indistinctness, arising from the limited amount of light the place

admitted, as well as from the nature of the object itself--a block of

pure alabaster enclosing the form, apparently in marble, of a reposing

woman.