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Page 66
And of that to which we were blinded, not all was unworthy: nay the
most of it was deep-rooted in men's souls, and was a necessary part
of their Life upon the Earth, and claims our reverence still: let
us add this knowledge to our other knowledge: and there will still
be a future for the arts. Let us remember this, and amid simplicity
of life turn our eyes to real beauty that can be shared by all: and
then though the days worsen, and no rag of the elder art be left for
our teaching, yet the new art may yet arise among us, and even if it
have the hands of a child together with the heart of a troubled man,
still it may bear on for us to better times the tokens of our
reverence for the Life of Man upon the Earth. For we indeed freed
from the bondage of foolish habit and dulling luxury might at last
have eyes wherewith to see: and should have to babble to one
another many things of our joy in the life around us: the faces of
people in the streets bearing the tokens of mirth and sorrow and
hope, and all the tale of their lives: the scraps of nature the
busiest of us would come across; birds and beasts and the little
worlds they live in; and even in the very town the sky above us and
the drift of the clouds across it; the wind's hand on the slim
trees, and its voice amid their branches, and all the ever-recurring
deeds of nature; nor would the road or the river winding past our
homes fail to tell us stories of the country-side, and men's doings
in field and fell. And whiles we should fall to muse on the times
when all the ways of nature were mere wonders to men, yet so well
beloved of them that they called them by men's names and gave them
deeds of men to do; and many a time there would come before us
memories of the deed of past times, and of the aspirations of those
mighty peoples whose deaths have made our lives, and their sorrows
our joys.
How could we keep silence of all this? and what voice could tell it
but the voice of art: and what audience for such a tale would
content us but all men living on the Earth?
This is what Architecture hopes to be: it will have this life, or
else death; and it is for us now living between the past and the
future to say whether it shall live or die.
Footnotes:
{1} Delivered before the Trades' Guild of Learning, December 4,
1877.
{2} Delivered before the Birmingham Society of Arts and School of
Design, February 19, 1879.
{3} Now incorporated in the Handbook of Indian Art, by Dr. (now Sir
George) Birdwood, published by the Science and Art Department.
{4} These were originally published in Fun.
{5} Delivered before the Birmingham Society of Arts and School of
Design, February 19, 1880.
{6} As I corrected these sheets for the press, the case of two such
pieces of destruction is forced upon me: first, the remains of the
Refectory of Westminster Abbey, with the adjacent Ashburnham House,
a beautiful work, probably by Inigo Jones; and second, Magdalen
Bridge at Oxford. Certainly this seems to mock my hope of the
influence of education on the Beauty of Life; since the first scheme
of destruction is eagerly pressed forward by the authorities of
Westminster School, the second scarcely opposed by the resident
members of the University of Oxford.
{7} Since perhaps some people may read these words who are not of
Birmingham, I ought to say that it was authoritatively explained at
the meeting to which I addressed these words, that in Birmingham the
law is strictly enforced.
{8} Not QUITE always: in the little colony at Bedford Park,
Chiswick, as many trees have been left as possible, to the boundless
advantage of its quaint and pretty architecture.
{9} A Paper read before tile Trades' Guild of Learning and the
Birmingham Society of Artists.
{10} I know that well-designed hammered iron trellises and gates
have been used happily enough, though chiefly in rather grandiose
gardens, and so they might be again--one of these days--but I fear
not yet awhile.
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