Hevific of Reviews, 20/S/06 



Leading Articles, 



295 



WHY CERTAIN AGES PRODUCE CERTAIN STYLES 

 Oh ARCHITECTURE. 



A long, thoughtful, and well-written paper in the 

 Edinburgh Review, entitled '" Thought in Architec- 

 ture," gives a theory why the Middle Ages produced 

 the Gothic style of- architecture, why the Romans 

 built as they did — ^in fact, generally, why every 

 peculiar style of architecture has its peculiarities, 

 and why the style of one age is not that of another. 



■' Mediaeval architecture is based on the idea of 

 vertical expansion, classic architecture on the idea 

 of lateral expansion. The desire of the one is to 

 rush up; of the other to spread." Can we say that 

 the tendencies of architecture stand for certain ten- 

 dencies in human nature ? Yes, on the whole, is 

 the answer. 



The Middle Age, with its love of action and be- 

 lief in its all-sufficiency, is the time of the birth of 

 Pointed architecture. Chivalry^ and romance, poetry, 

 the Crusading frenzy and Gothic architecture one 

 after the other emanated from France- -the im- 

 pulse, that is, to consecrate and idealise a love of 

 action ; idealised energy, in fact. Gothic architec- 

 ture was the typical child of the mediaeval age, an 

 age poor in thought and rich in energ}. And 

 Gothic architecture, says this writer, must there- 

 fore have the defects of its age: — 



Only what can be got out of life can be put into art. The 

 energy which characterises mediaeval life we find in the 

 architecture. If lack of thought equally characterises that 

 life we shall find that in the architecture too. 



The Doric temple, the laterally expanding in 

 stvle, " the supreme example of horizontal architec- 

 ture, is essentially the product of an age of thought," 

 of an age just as fully charged with thought as the 

 mediaeval age is charged with energ)\ Classic 

 architecture, as developed under Rome, had many 

 bad qualities, but one fine quality — its spacious and 

 ample proportions ; " proportions in which are 

 measured for us the qualities of the classic mind 

 and which produce upon us something of the same 

 calming effect which contact with the classic mind 

 itself produces." The connection between spacious- 

 ness in architecture and a free play of the mind is 

 still more plainly shown by the Italian Renaissance. 

 In fact — 



We shall find that the accessibility or inaccessibility of 

 various parts of Europe at various times to ideas is mea- 

 sured for us in the readiness of architecture in those parts 

 to expand, or in its refusal to expand. 



Why is early Victorian art a byword — not of that 

 which' is good? After the French Revolution, says 

 the writer, England was thrown violently back upon 

 herself; she distrusted France,.. always receptive of 

 ideas, more than ever ; she " contracted," as it 

 were, and her insular prejudices and limitations 

 reasserted themselves with vigour : — 



This isolation took effect in many ways. It showed itself 

 In the dulness and ponderous self-satisfaction of early Vic- 

 torian society and early Victorian art. It showed itself, 

 even, in the nature of the revolt against that dulness, a 



revolt which, far from interesting itself in contemporary 

 European life and thought, busied itself in the resuscita- 

 tion of the pre-Raphaelites. But, above alj. this isola- 

 tion, ihis 8e\erance from the life and thought of Europe, 

 showed itself in a passionate revival of Gothic architec- 

 ture. 



Many of the ideas in this article, with its insist- 

 ence on the limitations of Gothic architecture, will 

 not please Ruskinites, for Ruskin, we are reminded, 

 said that Gothic is the most perfect style of build- 

 ing that ever has existed or ever can exist. Never- 

 theless, it is an article full of ideas, of thought, and 

 as such interests, whether one agrees or not. 



The British Museum : 



Some Suggested Improvements. 



The Edinburgh Review claims that — 



At no time during the last forty years has greater zeal 

 or skill been shown in the management of the British 

 Museum tiian can be claimed for it in 1905. Its usefulness 

 increases every year. The number of visitors to the read- 

 ing-room in 1904 was, in round numbers, 226,000, against 

 188,500 in 1899; 22,000 applied for papers in the newspaper 

 room in 19U4, against 19,000 five years previously; and in 

 the same period the number of learned studying the cool 

 backwater of the Oriental room mounted up from 2862 to 

 3595. The daily average of readers in the reading-room 

 is returned at 742. and each of them was supplied with 

 more than seven volumes. Ihe number of volumes replaced 

 in the general library after use in this room is given as 

 894,627, ;uid 663,738 were kept from day to day in the presses 

 for the use of particular readers. Every day a ton weight 

 of publications is received in the building; but fortunately 

 tlie authorities are now provided with ample space for 

 housing the accessions of many years yet to come. In 

 1904, there were printed for the general catalogue 33,121 

 titles. 742 index slips, and, as we have already mentioned, 

 8489 titles for a catalogue of the Thomason tracts. 



In 1881 the trustees resolved upon the production of a 

 printed catalogue, and the officials at the Treasury were 

 persuaded to provide the requisite funds. Nearly twenty 

 years were spent on the lattonr, and in the autumn of 1900 

 the last volume of the old manuscript catalogue was dis- 

 carded for its printed substitute. It was estimated by that 

 time that the printed volumes contained close on 4,500,000 

 entries. 



The index under the letter S, thanks to Shakes- 

 peare and Smith, is most voluminous: — 



P reaches the same total of volumes as S, but the struggle 

 for equality is not genuine, inasmuch as under that letter 

 are included the twenty-one volumes grouped together under 

 the artificial heading of periodicals. Eighty-three volumes 

 are required for letter M, seventy-seven are demanded by 

 L, and seventy-six are perforce conceded to letter B; but 

 the former of the last two includes the entries under the 

 composite titles of " Liturgies " and " London," and in the 

 latter case nineteen volumes are filled with the description 

 of the matchless collection of Bibles. 



One reason for the defects in local books lies in the fact 

 that the postage of the volumes, which the country pub- 

 lisher is bound, under the provisions of the Copyright Act, 

 to present to the British Museum, proves a wearisome im- 

 post. The authorities at the Post Office should be induced 

 to convey to Great Russell-street, free of charge, all parcels 

 of books labelled as sent under this Act. Another improve- 

 ment would be eagerly welcomed. This would be the insti- 

 tution of a reading-room for foregin periodicals and trans- 

 actions, in which the student might be enabled to see the 

 latest issues before they were sent for binding. 



Anyone wishing to understand the causes which 

 led to the Chine.se boycott of American goods will 

 find in the Atlantic Monthly a paper by John W. 

 Foster setting forth the shameless disregard of 

 treaty contract and of ordinary humanity shown by 

 the Americans in dealing with the Chinese in the 

 United States 



