ARCHITECTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT. 201 



in an unsettled condition and was infested with freebooters. A 

 change passed over society; laws were enforced, police regula- 

 tions made, society became settled and calm, fortifications dis- 

 appeared, and in their place arose chateaux and pleasant villas 

 that were admirably suited to a free and peaceful life. Each 

 style, in fact, originated in the various operations of natural con- 

 ditions ; each form had an evolution of its own, that had as defi- 

 nite and as readily ascertained causes as those which produced 

 the evolution of any other form of culture. Reason and common 

 sense, usefulness and intention, were the great factors on which 

 all architecture rested ; and when these things were neglected 

 when an arbitrary decree of fashion or the development of a new 

 " taste " became the criterion by which all buildings were judged 

 architecture fell. This calamity occurred with the introduc- 

 tion of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century, and its results 

 are still apparent. 



Natural conditions are apt to be forgotten in this busy life of 

 ours. We have no time to spend in applying the problems of 

 perspective to architecture as did the ancient Greeks when they 

 used curved lines instead of straight, in order to correct the dis- 

 tortion caused by distance. Our crowded cities, where land has 

 reached fabulous prices per foot, afford no opportunity for taking 

 advantage of the conveniences of an ample site. But, though we 

 may not be able to concern ourselves with such matters, there 

 are a multitude of other details that can be attended to which are 

 now more or less neglected, and which, were they intelligently 

 treated, would remove much of the present reproach from our 

 architecture. 



For many hundred years architecture has been occupied with 

 solving problems presented by Nature. In earlier times life was 

 comparatively simple, and artificial needs were few and easily 

 satisfied. Now, however, we have countless mechanical contriv- 

 ances that have entered closely into our lives, and the problems 

 of architecture take a different range. Steam and electricity 

 have revolutionized society. They have brought the furthermost 

 parts of the earth into intimate connection. Our lives are one 

 continuous hurry, and the laggard is soon left behind in the rapid 

 march of progress. In the cities land is scarce and valuable, and 

 room is only to be had by expanding upward instead of later- 

 ally. Inventive genius has supplied us with elevators, steam 

 heat, electric light. Questions of public safety, correct sanita- 

 tion, guards against fire, protection against burglary, safe means 

 of rapid ingress and egress, have formed other conditions. The 

 spread of manufactures, the making of artificial building materi- 

 als, as iron and glass, have given us new forces. New methods 

 of business and the constant and rapid introduction of new occu- 



TOL. XXXV III. 14 



