00:01Now, this has been standing here for centuries.
00:05The premier work of man, perhaps, in the whole Western world.
00:09And it's without a signature.
00:13Chartres.
00:19A celebration to God's glory and to the dignity of man.
00:25Well, all that's left, most artists seem to feel these days, is man.
00:34Naked.
00:37Poor, forked radish.
00:42There aren't any celebrations.
00:47Ours, the scientists keep telling us, is a universe which is disposable.
00:54You know, it might be just this one anonymous glory.
01:01Of all things, this rich stone forest.
01:05This epic chant.
01:07This gaiety.
01:09This grand, choiring shout of affirmation.
01:13Which we choose.
01:15When all our cities are dust.
01:18To stand intact.
01:20To mark where we have been.
01:22To testify to what we had it in us.
01:27To accomplish.
01:28Our works in stone.
01:33In paint.
01:34In print.
01:35Are spared.
01:36Some of them for a few decades.
01:38Or a millennium or two.
01:40But everything must finally fall in war.
01:43Or wear away into the ultimate and universal ash.
01:48The triumphs and the frauds.
01:51The treasures and the fakes.
01:54A fact of life.
01:55We're going to die.
01:58Be of good heart.
02:01Cry the dead artists out of the living past.
02:05Our songs will all be silenced.
02:12But what of it?
02:17Go on singing.
02:22Maybe a man's name doesn't matter all that much.
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