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

THE

BIOLOGICAL

FALLACY

175

rigid,

and

inert. Simplicity

becomesbarren, and a

restrainedtaste,vacant.

Andastheenddrawsnear

this vacancy is set

in all finality on

architecture's

featuresbytheEmpirestyle.

TheRenaissancedies,

its thoughts held

fixed, by a kind of wandering

memory, uponthe classicpastwhence itarose,

and

which, initslastdelusion,it

believesitself tohave

become.

Suchisthethemewhich,in

theirseveralmanners,

ourhistories

repeat.

But

isitnottoogood,alittle,

to be true? Isit not a little like thosestories of

Herodotus that reveal

too

plainly

the propensity

of

myth? Thisperfect imageofthe lifeofman

—

whyshouldwelooktofinditinthehistoryofarchi-

tecture?

This

sequence of three terms

—

growth,

maturity,decay—^isthesequenceoflifeasweseeit

intheorganicworld,andasweknowitin

ourselves.

Toreadthe events ofhistory andthe problemsof

inanimate fact in the terms of our own life, is

a

natural

habit as old as thought

itself.

These are

obvious metaphors, and literature, which has em-

ployedthemfromthebeginning,willnotforegotheir

use.

It isby words like these that the

changes

of

the world will alwaysbe described. But, at least,

itmight

bewellto

makecertainthatthedescription

fitsthefacts. Thecriticismofarchitecture,

withthe

solemn

terminologyof

evolution,nowtoooftenforces

thefacts tofit thispreconceived

description. It is