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

i66 THE

ARCHITECTURE OF

HUMANISM

was alive. Style itself, and not

the succession of

styles, engrossed

men's thought. The sequence, as

a sequence, was not studied.

But when, in the

nineteenthcentury, thesequence

wascutshortand

a period of

*

revivals

' wasinitiated, the standards

of taste weremultiplied and

confused

;

pastthings

became

contemporary with present. Sequence—the

historicalrelationofstyleto

style—nowwasstudied,

when sequence itselfhad ceased tobe.

Ifthedif-

ferent

stages of

a

historical evolution are brought

simultaneouslytolife—^ifonlytothe

lifeofchattering

spectres—style no longer can affirm its

rights un-

questioned. Claims that once

were owned must

then beadjusted,challenged andcompared.

When

architecture,once a cleardirectingvoice,isheard

to

speak

'

with tongues' forgotten and confused, men

must hearken for interpretation, and

find it, then,

inthesoundofeverypassinggustofthought.

Threesuchsounds

inthewindwerethosewehave

examined,eachofthembornefromasource

remote

from architecture itself. Poetical enthusiasm, the

zeal

andcuriosityofscience,theawakenedstirofa

socialconscience,arevoicesinthecriticism

ofarchi-

tecturestill

tobe

discerned. Butthephilosophyof

evolution—vastinitssweep,universalinits

seeming

efficacy,andnowlessaninstrumentof sciencethan

anatural process of the unconsciousmind

—

^was

a

steadier wind more strong than these. What

has