If it
was intended to be exhibited, it was also designed to assume some
position, either an erect or recumbent one. The reasons for
keeping it in that position would have been provided by the sculptor,
by either making a pedestal for it to stand upon, a tablet for it
to lie on, or forming the body on the stone out of which it was cut,
so that it would lie upon a flat surface. Nothing of this kind is
visible. There is nothing about the figure remaining except what
belongs to a man who has lain down alone in solitude and agony to
die and has died, and the story of whose death has been preserved
by the miraculous agencies of nature.
Second, if designed by man as the representation of man, the head
would have been covered with hair, the most beautiful ornament of
the human body, yet no trace of hair is found on this subject.
Third, it has been claimed that the material of this figure is
gypsum taken from the hills of Onondaga county. The evidence of
our most experienced quarrymen is that a block of gypsum of
sufficient size to make this figure was never found in this region.
Fourth, if this figure was sculptured from marble or stone, its
body, head and limbs would be solid. Yet the orifices in its
wasted rectum and other parts of its body, and the resounding
noise occasioned by striking upon it proves that it is hollow
internally.
Fifth, No statue was ever sculptured in this or a similar position.
The position is precisely that which a person would assume who was
suffering an agony which was to result in death.
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