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

i64

THEARCHITECTURE OF

HUMANISM

Of

those values

the

arts, enduring

from the

past,

retaintheimpress.

Withoutthearchitecture

—

^togetherwiththepoetry

and other arts

—

of

the

Greeks, we should

havea

poorer conception, even morally, of the possible

scopeand valueofbalanceand restraint

;

without

thearchitecture ofthe eighteenthcentury,

apoorer

sense,evenmorally,of

the possiblescopeandyaltie

of coherence—of a fastidious standard consistently

imposed

;

without the architecture

of the Renais-

sance,afarpoorersenseofthehumanistconviction

:

the conviction that every value is

ideally a good

tobe utterlyexplored,

andnotindolentlymisprized

—the conviction which spurred the Renaissance

buildei-s, as it spurred their painters

and their

thinkers,to

attempt,inasuddenandardentsequence,

theextremest polesofoppositedesign,

and ineach

attempt todiscern for

a briefinstant the supreme

andperfecttype

: ahumanistpassionwhichmadeof

architecturethecounterpartofallthe

moodsofthe

spirit,andwhile, Cortez-like,

itlaidopentheround

horizon

of possible achievement, never disowned

allegiance to apast which

it deemed greaterthan

itself.