184.9.J 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



19 



French Revolution, nor does it take its aim from this ; it hegan 

 before, and has long been vrorking ; and revolution and reaction 

 are amona; its phenomena, not among its causes, nor is its shape 

 taken from one side. The Puseyite, who leans towards Rome, and 

 his foeman, who would rush further from it, are both under the 

 same spell ; the same yearning for higher motives, and for a better 

 sphere of action, is the influence operating with each. The 

 Times and the A^orthern Star may be opjiosing forces, hut they 

 result in impressing the same direction on the public mind ; both 

 agree that what now is, is wrong ; both that something is to be 

 done, though neither knows well what that is. Look at art: can 

 we anywhere find satisfaction with the present, or anything but 

 looking back to Greece or the middle ages, or looking on to a 

 hereafter — misty and mis-shapen .-' There are plenty of preachers 

 against us ; but few show us what to do, or anything which if 

 shown is worthy of adoption. 



There was much the same seeming in the fifteenth century, the 

 sixteenth, the seventeenth, and the eighteenth ; but, as already 

 said, never had the minds of men so wide a field whereon to strive 

 together — never before was the whole world so moved — never be- 

 fore did the lot of so many millions tremble in the beam. The 

 fall of tlie Roman empire may have been felt by the tribes who 

 fed their flocks under the Great AVall of China — from the Pacific 

 to the Atlantic — fi-om the ley Sea to the Mediterranean ; hundreds 

 of tribes may have shifted their liomes, and whole nations may 

 have been brought upon the stage of history : but this, the events 

 of which exercised the greatest physical influence, will give no pa- 

 rallel to that which now looms before us — nay, has already set in, 

 in mighty outlines. The great French Revolution did nothing 

 like this will do, because that was narrower in its bearings. 



Each, however, is a part of the same system of progress: — each 

 a sequence of those which went before — this, too, of the others ; 

 but each has its own likeness, as well as that of its fathers — each 

 has had its own philosophy. That of the last century, as said by 

 Mr. Fergusson, though beginning in the inductive philosophy of 

 Bacon, was divided into two narrow schools. The sectarian party 

 fought not for truth, but for the safety of what they thought to 

 be the dogmas of their system. Hence, being often wrong, they 

 were often beaten by their foemen. These, again, had set up a 

 system, in which they not only threw over all the sectarian views 

 of the others on religion, hut left out religion altogether. They, 

 too, did not fight for truth, but to set aside religion, and to up- 

 hold a system of morphology, in which tlie present was e\'olved, 

 by a series of regular changes, from the rudest elements, without 

 any interference of design. A scheme was made out for nature or 

 creation, on what were supposed the simjjlest philosophical prin- 

 ciples, and nature was never to be thought to wander from them. 

 Each side was always winning, but the other never thought itself 

 beaten. 



With these two schools we have still to deal : but there is now a 

 third, which is likely to exercise great influence, as particularly 

 representing the phenomena of the epoch ; more material in its 

 bearing, narrower in its sympathies, less symmetrical in its com- 

 position — and yet of higher aim. AVhewel, Ilerschel, Whately, 

 Prichard, Babbage, and Brougham, may he looked upon as having 

 led the way to what has resulted in this new form, but without 

 agreement and without design ; while as yet no great teacher has 

 sprung up to give a name to the new section. Its teachings are 

 most to be found in the press of England and the United States ; 

 and, therefore, they have already exercised a powerful but silent 

 impression on the public. The newspaper writer of this century 

 will perhaps fulfil the task of the encyclopaedist of the last — and, 

 assuredly, with much greater might. The Times, with no definite 

 end, has perhaps, alone, already done more to revolutionize the 

 nineteenth century than all the encyclopsedists of France and Ger- 

 many did for the eighteenth. 



To those accustomed to rail at the nineteenth century, and par- 

 ticularly the systematic supporters of the morphological school, 

 nothing will give wider scope than this philosopliy, witliout agree- 

 ment in its teachers or its teachings ; no certainty of aim, or far- 

 seeing object — nay, not the same object. It is patchwork, confes- 

 sedly, to suit an emergency, made for its day, acknowledged to be 

 perishable, and expected to be destroyed. Its great point of dis- 

 tinction does not seem to be open to these reproaches ; but there is 

 little else but what is. By making theology and religion an essen- 

 tial part of this philosophy, its votaries give a greater field for 

 its support ; for though they cannot satisfy tlie sectarian, who 

 wishes his sect only, they enlist men of all forms of worship ; and 

 the zealous Protestant may as consistently enrol himself, as the 

 Jew or tlie Mahommedan. The adoption of this principle is, in 

 reality, the key to the apparent inconsistencies. The object of 



the inquirer is not to attribute a sectarian or morphological mo- 

 tive, but to seek for the evidences of design, and examine its tend- 

 encies, believing that notliing has been done without an object and 

 an aim. Hence the apparent conservative tendency, so far as con- 

 cerns what already exists — hence the revolutionary tendency, if 

 we may so term it, as to the future. A man is to be found like 

 Mr. Fergusson or tlie writers of the Times, denouncing social evils 

 one moment, and the next appealing to the existence of the dis- 

 tinctions of rich and poor, high and low, as established facts. 

 There is, nevertheless, nothing inconsistent in this or such a sys- 

 tem, though by the morphologists it will be denied to be philoso- 

 phical. Jilr. Fergusson cannot avoid gi\ing a note to attack Li- 

 berty, Equality, and Fraternity; and theTimes has baffled many of 

 its readers by following such a course for months. The morpholo- 

 gists believe that everything in nature is regular and systematic : 

 the others, that this regularity and system are governed by laws 

 much more complicated tlian those the narrow capacity of the mor- 

 phologists has assigned. 



It is but another development of this principle to find the strong 

 agreement of the new school in Anglo -Saxonism. In the message 

 of President Pcdk, in the leaders of the Times or the Chronicle, in 

 the " True Priiu-iples of Beauty in Art" of Mr. Fergusson, 

 and with Mr. Hyde Clarke, in 'the "Popular Atlas," Anglo- 

 Saxonism is the key or cuckoo note. This is sure to bring down 

 severe criticism, and to pro\'oke no gentle feeling, for it savours 

 most strongly of illiberality, as such matters have hitherto been un- 

 derstood. As certainly as morphologists have had their chief seat 

 in France and Germany, so must the others be narrowed to 

 England and the United "States ; for it is not likely that others 

 will take u\} a system which argues an inferiority of nature and 

 destiny in their races. It seems most decidedly "to give up to 

 party what was meant for mankind." The ground upon wliich it 

 is done is this: the English have, from a handful of men in a nook 

 of Jutland, become a mighty peojile — the dwellers in the orbis (titer 

 of Britain, in North America, and in Australia, and the holders of 

 the greatest kingdom. The design has been that they should do 

 this, and they are doing it — ergo,they are to do this until some new 

 law is put upon tliem.* 



It must, however, be said for the Anglo-Saxonists or Englishists, 

 that many hold out that other races can be brought up to tlieir 

 model of perfection. The Times is always inculcating this for the 

 behoof of the Celts, though we are not s>n-e but some of the 

 others teach that it is the destiny of what they call the inferior 

 races to die ofl" before the superior influence of the others. 



We cannot help remarking that this Englishism comes with sin- 

 gular significancy in the present day. A war of races has been 

 proclaimed — the mighty Italian people, the great Teutsh or Ger- 

 manic people, the Scandinavian hive, and Panslavonia have set up 

 their flags : others are to follow. \Vhat is the destiny of Eng- 

 lishism ? 



Mr. Fergusson brings this dogma to bear to illustrate the pro- 

 spects of art in England. He relies on the capacity of our people 

 in the former time and in the present time, to attain distinction in 

 the arts ; if there were but the will to do so, or the right way be 

 set about. 



The new school having once brought morals and religion within 

 the pale of philosophy, are for applying them everywhere ; in poli- 

 tics, in art — nay, in meclianics. They wish to give earnestness to 

 even the lowest walk of life. On every branch of science and of 

 art, these views are brought to bear; and it is by the practical de- 

 velopment of them tliat a scheme of philosophy is worked out, 

 really different from those wliich have been before laid down. 

 Adopting Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, and Newton, and yet often re- 

 jecting each ; learning from Bentham, La Place, Cuvier, and Lyell, 

 without agreeing with them ; a new monument is being heaped up, 

 for wliich the workmen labour with earnestness, such as has never 

 before been surpassed, and for which each lays down his contribu- 

 tion without any regard to its ultimate shape. 



The only acknowledged end is to do good to society — to carry 

 out the progressive tendencies of the human race, which the mor- 

 phologists likewise hold: but there is no acknowledged way of 

 doing this. Mr. Fergusson, in reference to re-modelling art, says 

 (p. 161), "It may be asked, if I propose to throw over all prece- 

 dent, and to abandon at once all Grecian pillars and Gothic pinna- 

 cles, and all the classical and mediasval details which now make 

 up the stock in trade of an architect, what would I propose to 

 substitute in their place.'' The answer is a simple, though scarcely 



* Perhaps we ouj^tit to say EnKli&hisin, not Anglo-Saxonisni, according to some of 

 these writers. Tiie " Ptip'.ilar Atl;is," ivhicli is as much written under the new inspira- 

 tion as the ** True Principles of Keauty," gives a lull development of Englishism in all 

 its beatings, statistically and minologically, most of which is so far from the comraou 

 statement of historical facts, that it must lead to much controversy. 



4* 



