114. Is not this an edge-tool we have got hold of, unawares? and a subtle one too; so delicate and cimeter-like in decision. For note that even Joan of Arc's armor must be only sculptured, _if she has it on_; it is not the honorableness or beauty of it that are enough, but the direct bearing of it by her body. You might be deeply, even pathetically, interested by looking at a good knight's dinted coat of mail, left in his desolate hall. May you sculpture it where it hangs? No; the helmet for his pillow, if you will--no more. You see we did not do our dull work for nothing in last Lecture. I define what we have gained once more, and then we will enter on our new ground. 115. The proper subject of sculpture, we have determined, is the spiritual power seen in the form of any living thing, and so represented as to give evidence that the sculptor has loved the good of it and hated the evil. "_So_ represented," we say; but how is that to be done? Why should it not be represented, if possible, just as it is seen? What mode or limit of representation may we adopt? We are to carve things that have life;--shall we try so to imitate them that they may indeed seem living,--or only half living, and like stone instead of flesh? It will simplify this question if I show you three examples of what the Greeks actually did: three typical pieces of their sculpture, in order of perfection. 116. And now, observe that in all our historical work, I will endeavor to do, myself, what I have asked you to do in your drawing exercises; namely, to outline firmly in the beginning, and then fill in the detail more minutely. I will give you first, therefore, in a symmetrical form, absolutely simple and easily remembered, the large chronology of the Greek school; within that unforgettable scheme we will place, as we discover them, the minor relations of arts and times. I number the nine centuries before Christ thus, upwards, and divide them into three groups of three each. {9 A. ARCHAIC. {8 {7 ---- {6 B. BEST. {5 {4 ---- {3 C. CORRUPT. {2 {1 Then the ninth, eighth, and seventh centuries are the period of archaic Greek art, steadily progressive wherever it existed. The sixth, fifth, and fourth are the period of Central Greek art; the fifth, or central, century producing the finest. That is easily recollected by the battle of Marathon. And the third, second, and first centuries are the period of steady decline.