172 GRAND STRATEGY OF EVOLUTION 



understanding is the measure of himself, in fractions of 

 the whole, which he himself is compelled to express 

 in architectural terms of history and prophecy, massed 

 in gradient vanishing lines around a centre within him- 

 self where past and future join. 



II. Architecture and Function 



A house, for example, is a sturdy skeleton of walls 

 and beams, rightly resting on and holding up each 

 other. Its base is stable earth; it is held to earth by 

 gravity. Gravity is also the orienting, directive power 

 which chiefly limits and prescribes its architectural 

 plan and the usage of its structures; for acting in rec- 

 tilinear, radial paths, it points the chimneys to the 

 skies, and dictates where cellar, chamber, and attic 

 shall be, and where the exit and entrance. 



Subject to these basic conditions, a house may grow 

 in serviceability, if new constructive elements are 

 rightly added to it. But the extent to which it may be 

 enlarged by man, still serving as a safe and fitting dwell- 

 ing for him, will depend on the kind of materials util- 

 ized, and on the structural plan followed in its con- 

 struction. That is, on the points and angles of addi- 

 tions; on the possibility of uninterrupted renewal, 

 strengthening and remodelling appropriate to its in- 

 creasing size and more varied uses; on its resistance to 

 enemy attacks, to shifting sub-soils, to earthquakes, va- 

 grant storms, and other perturbations of nature's more 

 normal action. Rightly done, a hut may grow into 

 a city of enduring palaces ; otherwise it must forever 

 remain a hut; a temporary shelter, crumbling in ad- 

 versity, perhaps to be at once rebuilt, but always sub- 



