[5] "True," means, etymologically, not "consistent with fact," but "which may be trusted." "This is a true saying, and worthy of all acceptation," &c., meaning a trusty saying,--a saying to be rested on, leant upon. [6] [Greek: Chorous te ônomakenai para tês charas emphyton onoma]. (Dé leg. II. 1.) [7] This being, indeed, among the visiblest signs of the Divine or immortal life. We have got a base habit of opposing the word "mortal" or "deathful" merely to "_im_-mortal;" whereas it is essentially contrary to "divine" (to [Greek: theios], not to [Greek: athanatos], Phaedo, 66), that which is deathful being anarchic or disobedient, and that which is divine ruling and obedient; this being the true distinction between flesh and spirit. [8] [Greek: Pollakis moi phoitôn to auto enypnion en tô parelthonti biô, allot' en allê opsei phainomenon, ta auta de legon, Ô Sôkra tes, ephê, mousikên poiei kai ergazou]. (Phaedo, 11.) CHAPTER II. THE TASK OF THE LEAST. § 1. The reader has probably been surprised at my assertions made often before now, and reiterated here, that the _minutest_ portion of a great composition is helpful to the whole. It certainly does not seem easily conceivable that this should be so. I will go farther, and say that it is inconceivable. But it is the fact. We shall discern it to be so by taking one or two compositions to pieces, and examining the fragments. In doing which, we must remember that a great composition always has a leading emotional purpose, technically called its motive, to which all its lines and forms have some relation. Undulating lines, for instance, are expressive of action; and would be false in effect if the motive of the picture was one of repose. Horizontal and angular lines are expressive of rest and strength; and would destroy a design whose purpose was to express disquiet and feebleness. It is therefore necessary to ascertain the motive before descending to the detail. § 2. One of the simplest subjects, in the series of the Rivers of France, is "Rietz, near Saumur." The published Plate gives a better rendering than usual of its tone of light; and my rough etching, Plate 73, sufficiently shows the arrangement of its lines. What is their motive? To get at it completely, we must know something of the Loire. The district through which it here flows is, for the most part, a low place, yet not altogether at the level of the stream, but cut into steep banks of chalk or gravel, thirty or forty feet high, running for miles at about an equal height above the water. [Illustration: 73. Loire-side.]