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

THE

ROMANTIC FALLACY

53

the'expression'of'ignorantandmonkishbarbarians,'

came to 'suggest' the idealised

Goth

—

'firm in

his

faith and noble in his aspirations'

—

^whoinspired

the enthusiasm of Coleridge

; and the

forms ofan

architecture

which later came to be admired as

the lucid expression of constructive mathematics

wereabout

thistime

commonlypraisedasthearchi-

tecturalimageofprimevalforests. Somemindsfind

intheworkofthemediaevalbuilderstherecordofa

rude and

unrestingenergy

; others valueit asthe

evidenceofadreamingpiety. Now,itisan

'

expres-

sionofinfinity

made

imaginable

'

;

next,

theembodi-

mentof

'

inspired

'

democracy. It

is

clearthatthere

isnolimittothiskindofwriting,andwehaveonly

to followthe

romantic criticismthrough itsdiverse

phases to feel convinced of its total lack of any

objective significance. Any characteristic, real or

imagined,ofamixedsetofnorthern

races,duringa

periodofseveralhundredyears,isdiscoveredat

will

in these cathedrals

of the twelfth and thirteenth

centuries,althoughitismorethandoubtful

howfar

suchcharacteristicsarecapableofbeingembodied

in

architecture,

or, if embodied,how far we,with

our

modern habits of

thought, can extract them

un-

falsified, or, if extracted,how fartheyare

relevant

tothe quality

of thework. Thewhole

process is

purely literary, its charm

is in the literary value

of the idea

itself, or in the act and process

of