How far they succeeded has been already made the matter of inquiry.

The most serious condemnation of art in this third period is that it halted between two opinions, that it could not be sincere.

But this double-mindedness, as I have tried to show, was necessary; and therefore to lament over it is weak.

What the Renaissance achieved for the modern world was the liberation of the reason, the power of starting on a new career of progress.

The false direction given to the art of sculpture at one moment of this intellectual revival may be deplored; and still more deplorable is the corresponding sensual debasement of the race who won for us the possibility of freedom.