252
THE ARCHITECTURE
OF HUMANISM
in effect, the
treatise
of Aristotle
remains, of all
efforts
inaestheticcriticism, themost
penetrating
in
itsinsight, the
mostwiseinitsmethodofapproach.
At once concrete and philosophical, it
does
not
confusethehistoryofartwith itsessence, butsees
these in
theirduerelation
;
and, fromthisstudyof
the drama, written in the fourth century B.C., the
critic,evenof architecture,
mightstillderiveaperti-
nent guidance forhisthought. Butthe
treatise of
Aristotle
is isolated, and
it
is fragmentary: andit
suffersinevitablyfromtheprimitivecharacterof
its
psychology. And at no time since the Greek did
these favourableconditions
recur; art
and
thought
pursued their separate paths, the former becoming
less delicatelyself-sensitive, the latter less impar-
tially curious, and both,gradually, as the closely-
knitlifeoftheancientstategaveplacetothelooser
webof the modern,strayed,more and more,into a
mutuallyexclusiveisolation.
Thus,between artandman's
thoughtaboutit,a
gulf widened,which neitherrequired,norwas able,
tobebridged.
II
Itisonlyinourown time
thatthe need topene-
tratethis
problemhasarisen
;
andwiththeneedthe
means.
Art, as we have said, by
its own activity
can
create its canons and
traditions. If, by the