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

THE ETHICAL

FALLACY

135

passing

totheirinnocent

tasksthroughthecourtsof

Hawkesmooror

ofWren,were startled

torecognise

the

Abomination ofDesolation

standing, previously

unnoticed, inthe

place whereit ought

not. Anda

criticism

which would be willing

—

^were they pro-

pitious

—

^to prove a point

of theory by citing the

measurements

ofthe Ark, must nowseem

obsolete

enough.

Butifthetheological

argumenthasceased

to be effective, its

interest for the study of taste

remains immense.

And the fact that,

a hundred

years after Voltaire, one of the

foremost men of

lettersin

Europeshouldhavelookedforarchitectural

guidancein the BookofLamentationsis

onewhich

maywellcontinuetodelightthe

curiosityofanthro-

pologists when the problems ofaesthetichave been

rejectedasunfruitful,orabandoned

assolved.

II

More persuasive than

the theological prejudice,

andmorepermanent,isthepolitical. If,aswehave

said, the romantic fallacy reduced taste to amere

echoofcontemporaryidealism,ifitencouragedmen

tolookinartalwaysforareflectionoftheirexisting

dreams, what must be the verdict on Renaissance

architectureofan age whoseidealism was political

andwhosepoliticalidealwasdemocracy? Forhere

wasanarchitecturerootedinaristocracy,dependent

on the veryorganisation against which society

was