ISLAND OF PAROS. 137 
might be conjectured from the ochreous colour CHAP. 
by which all the exterior surface of the marble v 
is now invested. We seemed, therefore, to 
view the grotto exactly in the state in which it 
had been left by the Antients : all the cavities, Marvellous 
. Skill of the 
cut with the greatest nicety, shewed to us, by Antients 
the sharpness of their edges, the number and !" g the" 
the size of all the masses of Parian marble which Quarries - 
had been removed for the sculptors of Antient 
Greece. If the stone had possessed the soft- 
ness of potter's clay, and had been cut by wires, 
it could not have been separated with greater 
nicety, evenness, and economy. The most 
evident care was everywhere displayed that 
there should be no waste of this precious 
marble : the larger squares and parallelograms 
corresponded, as a mathematician would ex- 
press it, by a series of equimultiples with the 
smaller, in such a manner that the remains 
of the entire vein of marble, by its dipping 
inclination, resembled the degrees or seats of 
a theatre. It was impossible to view such a 
source of materials which had exercised the 
genius of the best Grecian sculptors, without 
fancying that we could ascertain the different 
works for which the several masses had been 
removed. " Here," said we, " were slabs for 
metopes and tri glyphs ; there, were blocks for 
altars and Doric capitals ; here was an Apollo; 
