474 MISCELLANEOUS RECOLLECTIONS-I 



There seemed no possibility even of suspending the 

 judgment of the great majority who saw the statue. As 

 a rule, they insisted on believing it a &quot;petrified giant, &quot; 

 and those who did not dwelt on its perfections as an 

 ancient statue. They saw in it a whole catalogue of fine 

 qualities ; and one writer went into such extreme ecstatics 

 that he suddenly realized the fact, and ended by saying, 

 &quot;but this is rather too high-flown, so I had better con 

 clude. &quot; As a matter of fact, the work was wretchedly 

 defective in proportion and features; in every charac 

 teristic of sculpture it showed itself the work simply of 

 an inferior stone-carver. 



Dr. Boynton, a local lecturer on scientific subjects, gave 

 it the highest praise as a work of art, and attributed it 

 to early Jesuit missionaries who had come into that re 

 gion about two hundred years before. Another gentle 

 man, who united the character of a deservedly beloved 

 pastor and an inspiring popular lecturer on yarious 

 scientific topics, developed this Boynton theory. He at 

 tributed the statue to &quot;a trained sculptor . . . who had 

 noble original powers; for none but such could have 

 formed and wrought out the conception of that stately 

 head, with its calm smile so full of mingled sweetness 

 and strength.&quot; This writer then ventured the query, 

 &quot;Was it not, as Dr. Boynton suggests, some one from 

 that French colony, . . . some one with a righteous 

 soul sighing over the lost civilization of Europe, weary 

 of swamp and forest and fort, who, finding this block 

 by the side of the stream, solaced the weary days of 

 exile with pouring out his thought upon the stone? &quot; l 

 Although the most eminent sculptor in the State had 

 utterly refused to pronounce the figure anything beyond 

 a poor piece of carving, these strains of admiration and 

 adoration continued. 



There was evidently a &quot;joy in believing&quot; in the marvel, 

 and this was increased by the peculiarly American su 

 perstition that the correctness of a belief is decided by 



1 See the Syracuse daily papers as above. 



