"When, after all the fighting was over, the victors found what treasures they had won were the echoes of a higher culture. Any treasures were one-offs and always pointed back to those who had crafted them, their irreplicable spirit which -- while the techniques could be unravelled and learnt -- would never be resident in the craftsman's hands through technique-alone, but in the mind and ...heart of the one who conceived of such beauties.
This was a victory, to be certain -- to have overthrown their occupiers -- without a doubt a free people could and should be proud at their accomplishment, but the ephemera of such grace and genius would be a high bar to reach and in a silent dying laughter of the vanquished, the question:
Will You Ever Truly Be Worthy of Our Parting Gift?"
