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

256 THEARCHITECTURE

OF HUMANISMf^

moraltastealonelayreadyformulated,itmadeth^m

do aesthetic service. The ethical fallacy was the

result. Itjudged

architectureas alivingthing,

by

organicprinciplestowhichit is'notsubject,

and

so

misreaditshistory. It judgeditasadeadconven-

tion

;

and then couldbrookno deviationfrom

the

academiclaw,norrealisethat thecodemightsome-

timesbeunfitting. Butneithertheromanticnor

the

mechanicalnortheethicalnor the

evolutionarynor

the academic criticism have the courage of their

claims,orcarrythemsofarastheymustbe

carried,

if

admitted at all. The facts of architecture were

drilled relentlessly to fit their principles

; but the

principlesalsowerepared

tofitthefacts. Thecon-

fusionofthemindisbutthegreater,butthebank-

ruptcyofthe intellectualist

solution is thusinpart

disguised.

Forall thewhile anunconscious,scarce

admitted,senseoftastewasguidingthese

blindargu-

ments,

and saved them fromthe ditch whither,

in

logic,theywouldsoonhaveled.

It is this

purepsychologyoftaste,empirical and

tentative, but self-dependent, that the

criticism of

architecturemostimmediately

needs:apsychologyof

architecturalforms,
disengagedfroma
prioridograzs;

an
objectivescience,recognised,
explored,enforced.

Psychological

sciencehas,itistrue,

beenactive

;

butnotinarchitecture.

The scienceofthelibrary

—of the laboratory,

even, where

the psychologist