International studio (24.1904/1905(1905))

The Capitol at Richmond, Virginia

with the characters of many historic phases and
human moods.
Of just such composite nature are many of the old
minor churches of Cologne itself. Almost uncon-
sciously as one stands within them or without, the
eve reads the human history of national vicissitudes
and development of the race and the mind feels the
impress of divers individualities expressed from
column and shaft, finial and crocket. In contem-
plating the perfection of the cathedral at Cologne,
while the purely aesthetic side of one’s nature is
completely satisfied,
the many other re-
ceptivities remain un-
filled. There is in
the cathedral pile no
evidence of the
human ebb and flow,
striving and struggle,
to arouse the sym-
pathy of one’s imag-
ination, as one looks
with admiration at
the perfection of the
work. It is as though
a god, made not as
men are made, had
brewed some Thebes-
like magic from which
had sprung that spot-
less, immaculate con-
ception. But upon
the human sideofme,
as I compare the ca-
thedral with its sur-
rounding churches, I
am left, I confess it,
almost cold! As I
look at any one of
those old structures,
I feel my heart go
out in keen sympathy and interest to the past
lives of the divers builders who, with brain and
hand, have imbued the various parts of the work
with the intenseness of their nervous touch. Con-
tinually, the varying styles of different portions
exhibit signs of individuality of character in separ-
ate lives, incidental tendencies of particular epochs,
distinct phases in the upward course of evolving
civilization.
This point of view, it seems to me, must always
enter into a full and proper judgment of architec-
tural work, where the human influence emanating
from the conception and execution of the structure,

contributes in a greater degree than any other single
consideration, to the real value of the building as a
complete work of art.
To carry the question from extraneous generali-
ties to particular instances at home, I can think of
no more striking example to illustrate my principle
than the buildings of Harvard College at Cam-
bridge, Mass. Most of us have seen the collection
of structures comprising the various parts of the
college, and have compared the old with the new.
To me it has always seemed that the old brick-built
“Massac huse t ts
Building^” now given
up to class rooms and
lecture rooms, is the
most beautiful of any,
and that the modern
buildings (mostly of
classic design) are
not to be compared
with it as vital archi-
tectural monuments.
For there the fine
o 1 d Massachusetts
building stands, as it
were a living ambas-
sador from the “Be-
yond,” where rest the
builders and founders
whose stern lives and
unflagging energies
formed the charac-
teristics that stand
to-day for the typical
early American set-
tler —- characteristics
in which the rare
qualities of truth and
straightness, strength
and singleness, honest
self-respect and
sturdy humility, were combined in just proportions.
Could any structure in the world so perfectly reflect
these qualities ? You may give me your Temples of
Neptune and of the Acropolis, your Karnaks and
your Kremlins, your Colosseums and your Alham-
bras, your Notre Dames and your Westminsters,
and I will say that not one of these has greater claim
to reverence as a human architectural monument
and as evidence of the workings of God in man,
than our little Massachusetts building. From the
human standpoint, at least, what greater function
have the arts than that they should be the evidence
of the high water mark of human excellence; con-


DAUGHTER OF POWHATAN

XXVI