The architecture of humanism; a study in the history of taste

THE ETHICAL FALLACY

141

iwere not necessarily the worst poets whom Plato

jtirbanelyusheredoutofhisRepublic;forthepractical

resultsofanartaredistinctfromitsessentialquality.

;Evenforour

practicewerequire

atheory

ofaesthetic

valueaswellasatheoryofethicalvalue,ifonlyin

ordertogiveit

its

place

withintheethical scheme.

The order of thought should be: what are the

aestheticmeritsofastyle

;

whatistheirsocialvalue

;

how far are these outweighed by their attendant

socialdisadvantages?

But the critics of architecture who

assail

the

Renaissance style are far from proceeding in this

sequence;

nor do they establish their social facts.

We may well doubt whether the inspired Gothic

craftsmanofthatsocialistUtopiaeverexistedinthe

MiddleAges. No

historicalproofofhisexistenceis

advanced. IfwebaseourjudgmentontheChronicle

ofFraSalimbene

ratherthanontheDreamof

John

Ball, which has the disadvantage of

having been

dreamt

fivehundredyearslater,weshall

concludethat

theGothic

craftsman wasmoreprobablyamannot

unlikehissuccessors,who

over-estimatedhisownskill,

grumbledat

hiswages,andtookthings,onthe

whole,

astheycame.

Somestressisnotuntrulylaid upon

his

'

liberty

'

;

aGothiccapitalwas,

nowandthen,

lefttohisindividual

imagination. Buthowminute,

afterall, isthis

elementin thewhole picture. The

stresslaidupon

itspringsfromthat

disproportionate