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

254

THEARCHITECTURE

OF

HUMANISM

the scene and

the warfare

;

through

the dust of

whichwhatconquered

andestablished

provinceswill

in

the

end bedisclosed,we have

no meanstofore-

see,norwhat

desolation.

When, atsuchamoment,

thecanonsoftheliving

arts are broken, the artistic

energy stands bafHed

andirresolute. Desertedby

tradition,andbewildered

by

the variety of the appeals to which

it is made

subject,

artturnsforthefirsttimetoabstractthought

for guidance, and asks for some clue

through the

labyrinth, some criterion whereby it may estimate

thevalueofstyleswhichithasnever

previouslybeen

necessaryorpossibletocompare.

Speculation, on

its side,

both

metaphysical and

ethical, grown sceptical of its conclusions, yet ever

moresweepinginitsscope,isturningvaguelytothe

field of art,hoping theretolearn suggestionswhich

shouldhelp

it

to

solve

itsproblems,oridealswhich

may

fill

thethronesofitsshatteredgods. Areligion

of beauty musters the unleadered stragglers once

marshalled by a moral code. A metaphysic of

'CreativeEvolution

'

courts

thedespaired-ofmysteries

of Time and

Space with new analogies from art.

Thus,asfromthecrisisincreative

art,soalsoonthe

sideofthoughtwehave

theneed,andthedesire,for

amoreexactanalysisofsesthetic

experience.

Simultaneously with this

desire, and fosteringit,

comes, with the modern

science of

psychology, the