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

THE ROMANTIC

FALLACY

75

association

of architecture

with poetical ideas. As

that,

indeed, it began.

But we shall

underrate its

force,

and falsely analyse its

ground, ifwe donot

recognise in it, also,

an association of architecture

with

ethicalideas. The

poetryof Naturefurnished

theimageryof

thegospeloffreedom. TheRomantic

Movement,

with itstheoryofNatural

Rights,gave

to Natureademocratic

tinge. Thecult of Nature

haditssay

onconduct:itwasapolitical

creed. It

was more

;

for, in proportion as

orthodoxy waned

andromanticismgathered

force,aworshipofNature

—

^for such, in fact, it was—supplanted the more

definiteandmetaphysical

belief. A

kind

ofhumility,

which

once had flowed in fixed, Hebraic channels,

found outlet in self-abasement before the majesty,

thewildness

andtheinfinitecomplexityofthephysical

creation. Ofallthechangesinfeelingwhichmarked

thenineteenthcentury,none

perhapswasprofounder

or

moreremarkablethanthis,andnonemoredramatic

initsconsequencesforart. Theinstinct

ofreverence,

ifscience

dislodged

it from the

supernatural world,

attacheditselftothenatural. Thissentiment,which

for

the

agnostic mind wasa

substitutefor religion,

becameforthe orthodoxalsothefavouriteattitude

ofitspiety. Avaguepantheismwascommonground

between the

Anglican

Wordsworth, the rationalist

Mill, and the revolutionaryShelley. Nature, un-

adorned,
was

divineherself

—

or,

atthe

least,

wasGod's