In the ancient world, only the Greek School of Art was capable of
such a perfect reproduction of the human form. I have seen no
Egyptian or Assyrian sculpture which approached this in anatomical
accuracy.

Throughout the middle ages till the great Art Revival, no one in
Europe had skill enough for the purpose. It appears, therefore,
that unless we adopt the somewhat strained hypothesis that a highly
civilized society, now utterly extinct, once existed on this
continent, we are forced to search for our sculptor among the
European adventurers who have sought homes in North America during
the last three centuries, as no one, I presume, is prepared to
maintain a that the statue has a Greek or Roman origin, unless, indeed, it
was brought over as an antique by some forgotten amateur of art.

Was it not then as Dr. Boynton suggests, some one from that French
colony, which occupied Salina and Pompey Hill, and Lafayette? Some
one with an artist's soul, sighing over the lost civilization of
Europe, weary of swamp and forests, and fort, finding this block
by the side of the stream solaced the weary days of exile with
pouring out his thought upon the stone. The only other hypothesis
remaining is that of a gross fraud. One need only say with regard
to this that such a fraud would require the genius of a sculptor
joined to the skill and audacity of a Jack Sheppard.

But lastly, what did he intend it to represent? Had he known of
the discovery of America by the northmen, he might have had in his
thoughts some gigantic Brown, or Erio, or Harold. The old northman
is shot through with an Indian's poisoned arrow; his body is dying,
as the tight pressed limbs express; but the strong soul still