PROBLEMS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE 649 



and will more completely do in the years to come. It will do this not 

 by developing any fixed and narrow range of forms which can be labeled 

 "style of the twentieth century" and catalogued in a dozen lines, 

 like the historic styles of the past; but by such a straightforward, 

 rational, and artistic treatment, both structural and decorative, of 

 modern architectural problems, as shall speak clearly of the age and 

 time which produced them, through an endless variety of forms and 

 details, derived no matter whence, no matter how, so long as they 

 fit the requirements of the building and endow it with an expressive 

 beauty and grace. When school and office cease to apply the mean- 

 ingless shibboleths of particular style-formulae, and when we cease 

 to judge designs, or to make designs, by the rules of obsolete styles, 

 while, on the other hand, we refuse with equal consistency to turn 

 our backs on the past and exalt eccentricity into the throne that 

 belongs to beauty, insisting always on fundamental beauty and good 

 taste, our architecture will be a truly free and living art, possessed of 

 the only qualities of style worth possessing, whether ancient labels 

 fit or not. We must cease blind imitation as well as blind innovation, 

 and make the highest attainable beauty the object of our pursuit. 



And what of inspiration? Whence shall we draw the breath that 

 shall kindle within us the flame of artistic enthusiasm? Religion 

 cannot give it, because religion is no longer mistress of architecture; 

 her throne is in the heart of the individual. Commerce cannot give 

 it, for commerce is predominantly selfish. The collective passions of 

 the future must supply it; but what are they to be? Intellectual 

 culture, human brotherhood, patriotism, the worship of the past, 

 altruism? Who can tell? The finest architectural works of recent 

 years in this country are libraries, college buildings, museums, and 

 expositions. This fact surely has some significance. And yet we must 

 admit that modern architecture lacks enthusiasm. To raise it to the 

 level of the great ages of architecture requires more than brains and 

 money: both of these it has in greater abundance than ever before. 

 It needs the fire of a burning passion, a great enthusiasm, an over- 

 whelming emotion, a soaring imagination. Whence these are to come 

 it is not for us to say. We can only hope the future will be less 

 materialistic and selfish than the recent past, and that every one who 

 enters upon this noble profession may cultivate within his own heart 

 the wanning fire of enthusiasm, kindling it at whatever artistic 

 shrine gives forth the purest and the brightest flame. 



