But we can say that it had done certain definite things and was conscious of having done them; that it had long and even literally rested on its laurels.
But suppose that Rome had fallen when she had only half defeated Carthage, or when she had only half conquered Gaul, or even when the city was Christian but most of the provinces still heathen.

Then we should have said, not merely that Rome had not done what she might have done, but that she had not done what she was actually doing.

And that is very much the truth in the matter of the medieval civilisation.
It was not merely that the medievals left undone what they might have done, but they left undone what they were doing.

This potential promise is proved not only in their successes but in their failures.
It is shown, for instance, in the very defects of their art.
All the crafts of which Gothic architecture formed the frame-work were developed, not only less than they should have been, but less than they would have been.

There is no sort of reason why their sculpture should not have become as perfect as their architecture; there is no sort of reason why their sense of form should not have been as finished as their sense of colour.
A statue like the St.George of Donatello would have stood more appropriately under a Gothic than under a Classic arch.
The niches were already made for the statues.