THE VIRTUES OF ARCHITECTURE 63

§ 4. We have, then, two qualities of buildings for subjects of separate inquiry: their action, and aspect, and the sources

they think no determination necessary. Accordingly they are punished in one of two ways: if their employments and manner of life put the subject out of their thoughts, they lose the sense of beauty, or confuse it with usefulness, and become in this respect like peasants who for the most part think a well ploughed field the fairest sight in creation; and these may be sensible and good men, only they remain deprived of one of their best faculties. If, however, their position in life obliges them to think of the subject-while yet they never care to discover what is truly good and right in the matter-they are necessarily led by fashion into affectation, into pretending to like what they do not; and from this pretending it, into a veritable, though servile, liking it, because it is fashionable, and so gradually into endless wildernesses of false taste and vain imagination. From which, extrication is evermore impossible; the taste being utterly perverted, so that truly beautiful things give it delight no longer.

“Nay, it may perhaps be answered me, there are surely many persons who like what is lovely-flowers and skies and hills, who have never taken any pains in the matter. Yes, assuredly: persons to whom God has been very good, and whom he has filled with the love of his work as if it were their Life; so also he has made some men so naturally kind that they are led by impulse to the benevolent acts which another man only undertakes on spur of conscience. But this never for one instant would be alleged as a reason why the practice of benevolence should not be recommended as definite duty, and even in persons so happy in natural temper as we have supposed, the character would gradually deteriorate unless the acts to which they were urged by impulse were also in a measure undertaken with clear understanding of their relation to the Laws of Duty, and performed with distinct reference to those laws. And thus also even in those persons whose natural love of the Beautiful is true and strong, there will be found much imperfection, much inconsistency, much positive error, unless their enjoyment be regulated by some definite acknowledgment of the laws which have been appointed for their guidance. Of these laws there is no abstruse nor lengthy code. They impress themselves in the form of instincts on the heart and eye at every instant of our lives in which we will take the trouble to refer to them faithfully. All that is necessary is this faithful reference, a belief that there is indeed a right and wrong in the matter, and an honest desire to be right. Not to be a person of acknowledged taste. Not to be a connoisseur of pictures, or an authority upon architecture. But to be right in one’s own choice and delight; to know the sign manual of Divinity; to see God’s writing upon the torn leaves of the earth-to delight in it to the full-up to the measure of the capacity he has given us-and to be able to cast aside at once all forgeries of it. To know the men whom he has made more seeing than ourselves, and to cast out those who pretend to see-and do not. This is worth doing-even now when there is much to be done. Worth doing; if for no other reason, yet because it may as easily be done as not-nay, more easily. It is a hard thing to be a connoisseur of pictures-to know who paints cold and who paints hot-who paints thick and who paints thin-who dropped brushes and who picked them up. Hard work that for memories that do not well hold small things. But easy enough to know good painting in the essence and fire of it; and to know lovely things in the heart of them; and to know good architecture in the far away gleam of it-even when its towers stand without foundations in the grey mist of the morning;-easy enough to do that, if we will but take the pains to ask ourselves what is right-and to answer manfully and truly.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]