ABSTRACT

I have defined but cursorily the distinction between limestone and marble; since what I have needed to say was largely applicable to both. A polished white marble certainly glitters, but only as a lump of sugar glitters. The diffusion of some light remains, in some cases is even thus enhanced; because however intense the polish, partly because of it, one is conscious of uniform scattered light within the stone, as if it were the air which the stone breathed. Marble is limestone, re-crystallized limestone, limestone that as a result of heat or pressure has suffered re-crystallization, often at the expense of its original structure.1 Pure marble is almost white. Other bright colours in marble are generally due to the presence of metallic compounds; while black marble is the result of decaying vegetation enclosed in the original limestone.2