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

62 THE

ARCHITECTURE OF

HUMANISM

ative

elementisnotfixedororganisable;

itdoesnot

containthetrueintentionortypicalvalueoftheart,

andcannot

befittedtocontain

them.

X

Nowsincelanguage,meaning,andassociationplay

solargeapartinourpracticallife,andformthevery

textureofour thought,therehasbeen littledanger

atanytime

thatthesignificanceofliteraryartshould

beoverlooked. Therehasneverbeen—saveperhaps

to a slight degree in the eighi^enth century—^an

'architecturalfallacy'

inliterature,thoughithasoften

been thecase that theminorelementofvalue

—

the

sensuouselement of

literature—^is totallyforgotten.

Butthissame

habitualpreoccupation with 'signifi-

cance

'

which has

kept

literature

vitalhas,

in

archi-

tecture,ledus

to

lay

undueweightonwhatisthere

the

secondary element, and

to neglect its direct

Value,its
immediateandtypical
appeal. This,then,

isthe

'

literaryfallacy

'

in

architecture; Itneglects

thefactthatinliterature

meaning,or fixedassocia-

tion,istheuniversal

term

;

whilein

architecturethe

universal

termisthesensuous

experienceofsubstance

andofform,

j

/TheRomantic

Movementisaphase,

precisely,of

thisliterary

preoccupation. Itis the

most extreme

example

of the triumph

of association

over direct

experiences which
the history of
culture contains.

Itsinfluence

upontastecan never

bequiteundone

;

norneed wewish it.

Romanticism,

asa conscious