Quality, Beauty, Truth and Knowledge are all relative and abstract terms whether they are used in reference to architec- ture or morals. It is not a question of right or wrong, but the method of argument and the degree of plausibility. II an individual can convince the multitude that his way of thinking is more right than any other way then his authority will become a general standard until he is superseded by a stronger personality armed with greater powers of persuasion. All those elements of the completed building when taken together are totalling to the word architecture, but their place is neither settled nor maintained upon the grounds of pure logic. It may be logical to say that beauty is but skin deep, but it is also logical to say the same of ugliness. The constant stripping down to essentials is no proof of aesthetic under- standing the sense of purpose is not the final demand of a cultivated mind. Because the perfections of the past may fail modern utilitarianism we cannot assume they have outlived their own purpose. The lessons are always there to be learned and the cultural threads are still awaiting a continuance of the fabric. If the culmination of classic motive was represented by the Renaissance it suffered no shame from the functional beauty of the gothic...... the architectures of Florence, Milan and Venice are able to live easily and quietly together.
To shed a painfully acquired inheritance in one generation may lend speed to the preliminary strides of the novice, but, that quality of mind so essential to the creation of good works, has departed and has taken with it the only hope of a secure culture.
Let the Modernist be as expressive as he will providing he has thoroughly understood and assimilated all those prin- ciples which guided the masters. When he has examined those immutable laws governing the great works and when he has progressed beyond mere examinational demands, then and then only is the modernist qualified to proceed his chosen way. He is then free to create and develop himself with the confidence which only emerges through knowledge a knowledge not only of his profession, but of those things which make the inner life of man both tolerable and pleasant.
Complexes, phobias, superstitions and popular fancies merely change throughout the ages. No matter how ably a Rationalist may analyse and explode a current theory, he only destroys in order to offer a new logic or system of beliefs to be also annihilated in its turn. Tradition has accepted and also rejected innovation, but the change and improvement has been gradual.
Indeed, the mere steadiness of tradition has given it the contempt of familiarity, but, like the motor car it is no less unique because of its familiarity. The phenomenon of cred- tion is still inexplicable whether it is housed in an Egyptian Hall of Mystery or a modern Bio-Chemistry laboratory.
X
1.725 x 32 425 26.125 X 6.350
938-25 x 1075.32=
+
170X250
365
$125-10%
1.4753 X
29.5
62.125
.0237
365
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