Conformity of Customs with Ideas—Nudity—Olympic Games—The Gods perfect Human Figures.
Birth of Sculpture; Statues of Athletes and of Gods—Why Statuary sufficed for the Artist's Conceptions—Immense Number of Statues.
The Civilization of the Middle Ages, and Gothic Architecture.
Decline of Antique Society—Invasions of Barbarians—Feudal Excesses—Universal Misery.
Distaste for Life—Exalted Sensibility—The Passion of Love—Power of the Christian Religion.
Birth of Gothic Architecture—The Cathedral—Universality of Gothic Architecture.
French Civilization in the Seventeenth Century, and Classic Tragedy.
The Courtier—Ruling Taste—Tragedy—The Aristocratic Sentiments of Society—Importation of French Tragedy into other European Countries.