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Page 52
Is that, indeed, too extravagant a hope? Have you not heard how it
has gone with many a cause before now? First few men heed it; next
most men contemn it; lastly, all men accept it--and the cause is
won.
THE PROSPECTS OF ARCHITECTURE IN CIVILISATION {11}
'--the horrible doctrine that this universe is a Cockney Nightmare--
which no creature ought for a moment to believe or listen to.'--
THOMAS CARLYLE.
The word Architecture has, I suppose, to most of you the meaning of
the art of building nobly and ornamentally. Now I believe the
practice of this art to be one of the most important things which
man can turn his hand to, and the consideration of it to be worth
the attention of serious people, not for an hour only, but for a
good part of their lives, even though they may not have to do with
it professionally.
But, noble as that art is by itself, and though it is specially the
art of civilisation, it neither ever has existed nor never can exist
alive and progressive by itself, but must cherish and be cherished
by all the crafts whereby men make the things which they intend
shall be beautiful, and shall last somewhat beyond the passing day.
It is this union of the arts, mutually helpful and harmoniously
subordinated one to another, which I have learned to think of as
Architecture, and when I use the word to-night, that is what I shall
mean by it and nothing narrower.
A great subject truly, for it embraces the consideration of the
whole external surroundings of the life of man; we cannot escape
from it if we would so long as we are part of civilisation, for it
means the moulding and altering to human needs of the very face of
the earth itself, except in the outermost desert.
Neither can we hand over our interests in it to a little band of
learned men, and bid them seek and discover, and fashion, that we
may at last stand by and wonder at the work, and learn a little of
how 'twas all done: 'tis we ourselves, each one of us, who must
keep watch and ward over the fairness of the earth, and each with
his own soul and hand do his due share therein, lest we deliver to
our sons a lesser treasure than our fathers left to us. Nor, again,
is there time enough and to spare that we may leave this matter
alone till our latter days or let our sons deal with it: for so
busy and eager is mankind, that the desire of to-day makes us
utterly forget the desire of yesterday and the gain it brought; and
whensoever in any object of pursuit we cease to long for perfection,
corruption sure and speedy leads from life to death and all is soon
over and forgotten: time enough there may be for many things: for
peopling the desert; for breaking down the walls between nation and
nation; for learning the innermost secrets of the fashion of our
souls and bodies, the air we breathe, and the earth we tread on:
time enough for subduing all the forces of nature to our material
wants: but no time to spare before we turn our eyes and our longing
to the fairness of the earth; lest the wave of human need sweep over
it and make it not a hopeful desert as it once was, but a hopeless
prison; lest man should find at last that he has toiled and striven,
and conquered, and set all things on the earth under his feet, that
he might live thereon himself unhappy.
Most true it is that when any spot of earth's surface has been
marred by the haste or carelessness of civilisation, it is heavy
work to seek a remedy, nay a work scarce conceivable; for the desire
to live on any terms which nature has implanted in us, and the
terrible swift multiplication of the race which is the result of it,
thrusts out of men's minds all thought of other hopes, and bars the
way before us as with a wall of iron: no force but a force equal to
that which marred can ever mend, or give back those ruined places to
hope and civilisation.
Therefore I entreat you to turn your minds to thinking of what is to
come of Architecture, that is to say, the fairness of the earth
amidst the habitations of men: for the hope and the fear of it will
follow us though we try to escape it; it concerns us all, and needs
the help of all; and what we do herein must be done at once, since
every day of our neglect adds to the heap of troubles a blind force
is making for us; till it may come to this if we do not look to it,
that we shall one day have to call, not on peace and prosperity, but
on violence and ruin to rid us of them.
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