He did not wish to know who had erected it.

As soon as its pride is flattered, mankind tries immediately to solidify it.

Then Humanity intervenes with a broader vision that changes the original significance of the work, enlarges it and strips it of its first egotistical import.

The Greek statues, models of the highest beauty, had been originally mere images of the temple, donated by the piety of the devotees of those times.
Upon evoking Roman grandeur, everybody sees in imagination the enormous Coliseum, circle of butcheries, or the arches erected to the glory of the inept Caesars.

The representative works of nations have two significations--the interior or immediate one which their creators gave them, and the exterior or universal interest, the symbolic value which the centuries have given them.
"This Arch," continued Tchernoff, "is French within, with its names of battles and generals open to criticism.