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

i62

THE

ARCHITECTURE OF

HUMANISM

Thereis,infact,a

true,notafalse,

analogybetween

ethical and aesthetic

values: the correspondence

[between them may even amount

to an identity.

The

'

dignity

'

ofarchitectureisthe same

'

dignity

'

I

thatwerecognise

incharacter. Thus,whenoncewe

havediscerned it aesthetically inarchitecture,there

mayariseintheminditsmoralecho. Buttheecho

is

dependentontheevokingsound

;

andthesound

in this case is the original voice of architecture,

whoselanguageisMass,Space,Line,andCoherence,

j

These arequalities in

architecture which requirea

gift for their understanding and a trained gift for

theirunderstandingaright: qualitiesinwhichmen

I

were

not 'intended

without excessive difficulty to

knowgoodthingsfrombad,'andbynomeanstobe

estimatedbytheself-confident

scrutinyofanethical

conscience

;

qualities, nevertheless, so closelyallied

to certain valueswe attach to life,

thatwhen

once

the aesthetic judgment has

perceived them rightly,

thevitalconscience

mustapprove,andbyapproving

can enrich. To

refuse this enrichment,

or

moral

echo, of

aesthetic'valuesis one

fallacy

;

the fallacy,,

ofthecriticsofFact.

Toimaginethatbecausethe

'

conscience

'

canenrich

thosevalues

it

has,onthat

account, the

slightest power,

with itsown eyes,to

seethem,

isthecontrary,

theEthicalFallacy

of

taste.

Moralitydeepens

thecontent

ofarchitecturalex-

perience. But

architecture

in its turn can extend