|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 63
When a man turned the wheel, or threw the shuttle, or hammered the
iron, he was expected to make something more than a water-pot, a
cloth, or a knife: he was expected to make a work of art also: he
could scarcely altogether fail in this, he might attain to making a
work of the greatest beauty: this was felt to be positively
necessary to the peace of mind both of the maker and the user; and
this is it which I have called Architecture: the turning of
necessary articles of daily use into works of art.
Certainly, when we come to think of it thus, there does seem to be
little less than that immeasurable contrast above mentioned between
such work and mechanical work: and most assuredly do I believe that
the crafts which fashion our familiar wares need this enlightenment
of happiness no less now than they did in the days of the early
Pharaohs: but we have forgotten this necessity, and in consequence
have reduced handicraft to such degradation, that a learned,
thoughtful, and humane man can set forth as an axiom that no man
will work except to earn leisure thereby.
But now let us forget any conventional ways of looking at the labour
which produces the matters of our daily life, which ways come partly
from the wretched state of the arts in modern times, and partly I
suppose from that repulsion to handicraft which seems to have beset
some minds in all ages: let us forget this, and try to think how it
really fares with the divers ways of work in handicrafts.
I think one may divide the work with which Architecture is
conversant into three classes: first there is the purely
mechanical: those who do this are machines only, and the less they
think of what they are doing the better for the purpose, supposing
they are properly drilled: the purpose of this work, to speak
plainly, is not the making of wares of any kind, but what on the one
hand is called employment, on the other what is called money-making:
that is to say, in other words, the multiplication of the species of
the mechanical workman, and the increase of the riches of the man
who sets him to work, called in our modern jargon by a strange
perversion of language, a manufacturer: {13} Let us call this kind
of work Mechanical Toil.
The second kind is more or less mechanical as the case may be; but
it can always be done better or worse: if it is to be well done, it
claims attention from the workman, and he must leave on it signs of
his individuality: there will be more or less of art in it, over
which the workman has at least some control; and he will work on it
partly to earn his bread in not too toilsome or disgusting a way,
but in a way which makes even his work-hours pass pleasantly to him,
and partly to make wares, which when made will be a distinct gain to
the world; things that will be praised and delighted in. This work
I would call Intelligent Work.
The third kind of work has but little if anything mechanical about
it; it is altogether individual; that is to say, that what any man
does by means of it could never have been done by any other man.
Properly speaking, this work is all pleasure: true, there are pains
and perplexities and weariness in it, but they are like the troubles
of a beautiful life; the dark places that make the bright ones
brighter: they are the romance of the work and do but elevate the
workman, not depress him: I would call this Imaginative Work.
Now I can fancy that at first sight it may seem to you as if there
were more difference between this last and Intelligent Work, than
between Intelligent Work and Mechanical Toil: but 'tis not so. The
difference between these two is the difference between light and
darkness, between Ormuzd and Ahriman: whereas the difference
between Intelligent work and what for want of a better word I am
calling Imaginative work, is a matter of degree only; and in times
when art is abundant and noble there is no break in the chain from
the humblest of the lower to the greatest of the higher class; from
the poor weaver's who chuckles as the bright colour comes round
again, to the great painter anxious and doubtful if he can give to
the world the whole of his thought or only nine-tenths of it, they
are all artists--that is men; while the mechanical workman, who does
not note the difference between bright and dull in his colours, but
only knows them by numbers, is, while he is at his work, no man, but
a machine. Indeed when Intelligent work coexists with Imaginative,
there is no hard and fast line between them; in the very best and
happiest times of art, there is scarce any Intelligent work which is
not Imaginative also; and there is but little of effort or doubt, or
sign of unexpressed desires even in the highest of the Imaginative
work: the blessing of Equality elevates the lesser, and calms the
greater, art.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|