E Great Stone Face

E G REAT STO NE FACE AND O T H ER T AL ES O F T H E W HIT E MO U NTAINS BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE W ITH I L LU S TRATI O N S "\ P BOS TON A ND NE W YOR! HOUG HTON MIFFLIN COMPANY acne Bihersibe fi res}: fitambtibge 13 555 ‘ CONTENTS ! 4 INTRODU CTION TH E G REAT STONE FAC E TH E AMBITIOU S G UE S T TH E G REAT CAR BUN C LE S ! ETCHE S FROM MEMORY ILLUSTRATIONS TH E O LD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN S Fro ntisp i ece PROFI LE LA ! E AND EA G LE C LI FF FLUME G ORG E EC O L ! F N C ONI NOTC 8 H A E , RA A H 3 TH E O LD MA N OF THE MOUNTAIN S FROM OUTLOO ! 54 INTRODUCTION TH E first three numbers in this collection are tales o f the White Hills in New Hampshire . The pas sages from S ketenes f ro mMemory Show that Haw thorne had ! isited the mountains in one Of his occasional rambles from home , but there are no entries in his Note Bo o les which give accounts o f such a visit . There is , however, among these notes the following interesting paragraph , written in 1 84 0 and clearly foreshadowing The Grea t Sto n e Fa re ‘ The semblance o f a human face to be formed on o f o r o f the side a mountain , in the fracture a small [ s n a ta av wa r . stone, by a [freak of nature! The o f o r face is an Obj ect curiosity for years centuries, and by and by a boy is born whose features A gradually assume the aspect of that portrait . t some critical juncture the resemblance is found to ’ be perfect . A prophecy may be connected . It is not impossible that this conceit occurred to Hawthorne before he had himself seen the Old o f o r F Man the Mountain , the Profile , in the ran conia Notch which is generally associated in the Th G a t S to n Fa minds of readers with e re e ce. ’ In Th e 4 moitz o a s Guest he has made use o f the incident still told to travellers through the Notch , o f o f the destruction the Willey family in August, viii INTRODUCTION 1 826 wa o . The house occupied by the family s n S the lope of a mountain , and after a long drought there wa s a terrible tempest which not only raised the river to a great height but loosened the surface o f the mountain so that a great landslide took wa s place . The house in the track of the slide, and the family rushed o u t of doors . Had they re mained within they would have been safe, for a ledge above the house parted the avalanche so that it was diverted into two paths and swept past o n . the house either side . Mr . and Mrs Willey, their five children , and two hired men were W crushed under the eight of earth , rocks, and trees . In the Sketches f rom Memory Hawthorne gives an intimation o f the tale which he might write and a rbu l did afterward write of The Grea t C nc e. The paper is interesting as Showing What were the actual experiences o u t o f which he formed his imaginative stories . THE G REAT STONE FACE A ND OTH E R TA L E S O F TH E WHITE M O U NTAIN S THE G REAT STONE FACE O NE su n afternoon , when the was going down , a mother and her little boy sat at the door o f their cottage, talking about the Great Stone Face . They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be seen , though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features . And what was the Great Stone Face ? Embosomed amongst a family o f lofty moun so c o n tains, there was a valley spacious that it ta in e d many thousand inhabitants . Some of these - good people dwelt in log huts, with the black forest o n f all around them , the steep and di ficult hill in sides . Others had their homes comfortable — o n farm houses , and cultivated the rich soil the o r o f O gentle slopes level surfaces the valley . thers, ! again , were congregated into populous illages, where some wild, highland rivulet, tumbling down from its birthplace in the upper mountain region , had been caught and tamed by human cun o f ning, and compelled to turn the machinery - n o f cotton factories . The inhabita ts this valley, o f in short, were numerous, and of many modes o f life . But all them , grown people and children , had a kind Of familiarity with the Great Stone f Face , although some possessed the gi t of distin guishing this grand natural phenomenon more f o per ectly than many f their neighbors . 2 THE GREAT STONE FACE o The Great Stone Face , then , was a work f Nature in her mood Of majestic playfulness, formed on the perpendicular Side o f a mountain by to some immense rocks, which had been thrown a s a gether in such a position , when viewed at s proper distance , precisely to resemble the feature a n of the human countenance . It seemed as if m o r enor ous giant, a Titan , had sculptured his o wn likeness o n the precipice . There was the o f broad arch the forehead, a hundred feet in height ; the nose, with its long bridge ; and the vast lips, which , if they could have spoken , would have rolled their thunder accents from o n e 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 gigantic rocks, piled in chaotic o n h w e . R o ruin upon another etracing his steps, ever, the wondrous features would again be seen ; and the farther he withdrew from them , the more like a human face, with all its original divinity intact, did they appear ; until, as it grew dim in the distance, with the clouds and glorified vapor o f the mountains clustering about it, the Great Stone Face seemed positively to be alive . It was a happy lo t for children to grow up to manhood o r womanhood with the Great Stone Face before their eyes, for all the features were noble, and the expression was at once grand and o f sweet, as if it were the glow a vast, warm heart, THE GREAT STONE FACE 3 ff that embraced all mankind in its a ections, and had room for more . It was an education only to f look at it . According to the belie Of many people, the valley owed much of its fertility to this benign aspect that was continually beaming over it, illuminating the clouds, and infusing its tender ness into the sunshine . As we began with saying, a mother and her b o sa t - little y at their cottage door, gazing at the ’ Great Stone Face, and talking about it . The child s name was Ernest . ‘ ’ Mother, said he, while the Titanic visage ‘ o n e fo r smiled him , I wish that it could sp ak , it looks SO very kindly that its voice must needs be see pleasant . If I were to a man with such a face, ’ I should love him dearly . ‘ ’ o ld a n If an prophecy should come to pass, ‘ swered his mother, we may see a man , some time ’ or other, with exactly such a face as that . ‘ ? ’ What prophecy do you mean , dear mother ‘ eagerly inquired Ernest . Pray tell me all about it ! ’ So his mother told him a story that her o wn mother had told to her, when she herself was no t O f younger than little Ernest ; a story, things that were past , but of what was yet to come ; a story, nevertheless, so very Old, that even the f Indians, who ormerly inhabited this valley, had a s heard it from their forefathers, to whom , they ffi a rmed, it had been murmured by the mountain 4 THE GREAT STONE FACE streams, and whispered by the wind among the - tree tops . The purport was, that , at some future day, a child should be born hereabouts, who was destined to become the greatest and noblest per so n a e g of his time , and whose countenance , in manhood, should bear an exact resemblance to - the Great Stone Face . Not a few Old fashioned o f people , and young ones likewise, in the ardor their hopes , still cherished an enduring faith in this Old prophecy . But others, who had seen more of the world, had watched and waited till they were weary, and had beheld no man with such a face , nor any man that proved to be much o r greater nobler than his neighbors, concluded it to be nothing but an idle tale . At all events, the o f n o t great man the prophecy had yet appeared . ‘ ! ’ O mother, dear mother cried Ernest, clapping ‘ I his hands above his head, do hope that I shall ’ live to see him ! His mother wa s an affectionate and thoughtful woman , and felt that it was wisest not to discour 80 age the generous hopes Of her little boy .

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