Value Added

No one knew what the stones like squatting frogs signified. There they were, fuming in rows, out of the ground; every critic had his explanation or hers. But—we had to remember—they came to nothing, every one; those large stones out of the earth served the systems of those who considered them, as explaining something about the past it was important for the explainer to explain. And yet no one had any idea truly; there was no basis in fact for any view of them, and they remained like their origins—or like smiling Olmec babies, sweet but ominous figures come from the earth to reproach us, almost cheerfully, for our ignorance—a mystery, just as the probe of our feelings came up with nothing.