Book excerpt: Friedrich Schiller, the great German classical poet and friend of the American Revolution, assigned to art the task of ennobling the spirit of Man, especially at those times when political circumstances are most unfavorable, men most degraded, and when the qualities of genius are most urgently required to find a way to avert political catastrophe. Reading Schiller’s poetry, as well as his historical, philosophical, and aesthetic works, has precisely the effect on the sensitive reader of which Schiller informed us--to produce in the reader an ennobling power which then continues to exist long after the reading is done. This is volume 3 of the four volume collection of translations. Volume 3 includes Schiller Institute English translations of the following: The Virgin of Orleans--a drama about the life of Joan of Arc Introduction to The History of the Revolt of the Netherlands Against Spanish Rule Homage to the Arts The Diver Philosophical Letters On the Sublime On Naive and Sentimental Poetry