The Great Stone Face (Hawthorne)

A rock formation in a nearby notch is imagined, by many locals and visitors, to resemble the shape and features of a human face: The Great Stone Face, then, was a work of Nature in her mood of majestic playfulness, formed on the perpendicular side of a mountain by some immense rocks, which had been thrown together in such a position as, when viewed at a proper distance, to precisely to resemble the features of the human countenance.

In succession, a merchant of immense wealth, a conquering general, a politician renowned for his skilled oratory, and finally a brilliant writer return to the glen.

The writer, who (in contrast to the first three contestants) frankly acknowledges his failure to fulfill the prophecy, caps his visit to the notch by attending one of Ernest's impromptu sunset sermons.

By popular demand, the congregation has asked Ernest to deliver his sacred remarks from a site at the base of the notch where the worshipers can see the Great Stone Face high above.

But Ernest, having finished what he had to say, took the poet's arm, and walked slowly homeward, still hoping that some wiser and better man than himself would by and by appear, bearing a resemblance to the GREAT STONE FACE.

The face of the New Hampshire-born politician and statesman Daniel Webster was often compared with that of the Old Man at that time, and Hummel asserts that the senator and the rock formation are still thought of together in common memory.