in the natural history of the ancients, the white marble used then, and to this day, for carving statues, &c. and called by us at this time statuary marble.

Too many of the later writers have confounded all the white marbles under the name of the Parian; and among the workmen, this and all the other white marbles have the common name of alabasters; so that it is in general forgotten among them, that there is such a thing as alabaster different from marble; which, however, is truly the case. Almost all the world also have confounded the Carrara marble with this, though they are really very different; the Carrara kind being of a finer structure and clearer white than the Parian; but less bright and splendid, harder to cut, and not capable of so glittering a polish.

The true parian marble has usually somewhat of a faint bluish tinge among the white, and often has blue veins in different parts of it. It is supposed by some to have had its name from the island Paros*, one of the Cyclades in the Ægean Sea, where it was first found; but others will have it to have been so called from Agoracritus Parius, a famous statuary, who ennobled it by cutting a statue of Venus in it.