102 THE ARCHITECTURE
OF HUMANISM
thathedoesnotbasehis case
onauthority,buton
the merits of his definition: that
his argument
is,
onthecontrary,apriori,andthathe
cites
Greekand
mediaeval
architecturemerelyasanillustration. Can
we
say
that
the illustrationis a fairone? Isit
a
sufficientdescriptionoftheGreekandGothicstyles
ofarchitecturetosaythattheyare
'
good
construc-
tion,truthfullyexpressed
'
? Isitevenan
accurate
description
?
Are
they, inthefirstplare,
'
goodconstruction
'
?
Now, fromthe purelyconstructive pointof view—
thepointof
view,thatistosay,ofanengineer
—
good
construction consists in obtaining the necessary
results, with complete security and the utmost
economy of
means.
But whatare the 'necessary'
results? InthecaseoftheGreekandGothicstyles,
theyaretoroof
achurch oratemple ofacertain
grandeur and proportion
;
but the grandeur and
proportion were determined not on practical but
aesthetic
considerations. And what is the greatest
economyofmeans? Certainlynotthe Doricorder,
which provides a support immeasurably in excess
of
whatisrequired. CertainlynottheRomanesque,
orearliestGothic, whichdoes thesame,and which
delightsus
fortheveryreasonthatit doesso. Greek
and mediaeval construction, therefore, is not purei
construction,
but construction foran aesthetic
pur-
pose, and it is not, strictly
speaking,
'
good
'con-
