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

THE ROMANTIC FALLACY

39

the

creation of architecture, the fallacies we shall

trace to it
are still abundantly present,in its

criticism.
'T-

/Romanticism may

be said to consist in a

highl

development
ofpoeticsensibilitytowardstheremote;

assuch. Itidealisesthe distant,

both

of timeand

place;itidentifiesbeautywithstrangeness. Inthe

curiousand theextreme, which aredisdained by a

classicaltaste, andin the obscuredetailwhich that

tasteistooabstracttoinclude,itfindsfreshsources

of

inspiration^ Itismost

oftenretrospective,

turning

away fromthe present, howevervaluable, as being

familiar. It is always idealistic, casting on the

screen of an imaginary past the projection

of its

unfulfilleddesires. Itsmosttypicalformisthecult

of

the.extinct, 'in its essence,

romanticism is not

favourabletoplasticform. Itistoomuch

concerned

with the vague and the remembered to find its

naturalexpressioninthewholly

concrete. Romanti-

cismisnotplastic

;

neitherisitpractical,nor

philo-

sophical, nor scientific.

Romanticism is poetical.

Fromliteratureitderivesits

inspiration

;

hereisits

strength

;

and

hereitcan best expressitsmeaning.

In

other

fields—as in music—ithas

indeedattained

to

unimagined beauties; butalways

within certain

limits and upon fixed

conditions. For here, on

a

borrowed

ground, if,it fail to

observe the laws

which music, or

architecture, or life, as

concrete