640 MODERN ARCHITECTURE 



century. Society was adjusting itself to new conceptions of govern- 

 ment and new political boundaries. The interests of art were crowded 

 out of the thoughts of men. There was at the same time in progress 

 a profound intellectual revolution. Modern philosophy, modern 

 physical science, modern archaeology, were taking scientific shape, 

 giving rise to new conceptions of the universe. The dethronement of 

 the intellectual authority of hieratic religion, begun by the humanists 

 in the fifteenth century, became complete with the establishment of 

 the theory of evolution. Religion has become so largely a matter 

 of the individual conscience that it has ceased to be an important 

 factor in influencing architectural development in general. 



More directly, though not more profoundly influential in the trans- 

 formation of architectural conditions, were the industrial changes 

 of the same half-century. Steam power and the rise of mechanical 

 manufacture, with its concentration of industry in special localities, 

 and its system of specialized activity which we call the division of 

 labor, completely revolutionized the world's work, substituting the 

 operative for the artist-artisan, and machine-reproduction for indi- 

 vidual design and hand-craft. The rapid growth of international 

 commerce was meanwhile breaking down the boundaries of national 

 and local styles, making every region familiar with the work and 

 taste of all others. The growth of archaeological science, greatly 

 favored by the invention of photography and its application to 

 engraving, was in like manner breaking down the barriers of time, 

 making the works of past ages as familial 1 to our generation as 

 those of its own time. Thus, while artistic taste and feeling were 

 becoming atrophied from disuse, the strongest temptation was 

 supplied to substitute archaeological imitation for original design. 

 Out of this condition arose successively the (ireek and (lothic re- 

 vivals, each hailed in its turn as the sure panacea for the artistic 

 a-nu'iuia of architecture in that day. The beauty of not a few of the 

 individual works which resulted stands in conspicuous contrast with 

 the general artistic destitution of the time. It testifies to the fact 

 that the spark of art is inextinguishable, and that good architec- 

 ture is u-ood in whatever language of stylo it is expressed. 



As if further to confuso the problem of architecture in the middle 

 period of the nineteenth century, the development of iron introduced 

 into construction an entirely new element. The architects, avoiding 

 it. as intractable for (Ireok or (lot hie or lloman design, allowed it to 

 fall into the hands of the engineers, and the magnificent opportun- 

 ity it offered for the creation of a new. living, rational, and artist it- 

 type of building-design, by the vast spans and airv construction 

 it made possible. - -this opportunity passed by unimproved. The 

 Romans taugln the world the majesty of spacious vaulted halls: 

 the medieval builders the solemn u'randeur of lontr and lol'tv vistas; 



