DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41191#0010
Lecture IV*
Architecture
and History*
ceasing instruction, nay education,to the passing
generations, not only telling us what were the as'
pirations of men passed away, but also what we
may hope for in the time to come*
You all know what a different spirit has anh
mated history in these latter days from that which
used to be thought enough to give it interest to
thinking men* Time was, and not so long ago,
when theclever essay writer(ratherthan historian)
made his history surrounded by books whose
value he weighed rather by the degree in which
they conformed to an arbitrary standard of literary
excellence,thanbyanyindicationstheymightgive
of being able to afford a glimpse into the past* So
treated, the very books were not capable of yield'
mg the vast stores of knowledge of history which
they really possessed, if dealt with by the historical
method* It is true that for the most part these
books were generally written for other purposes
than that of giving simple information to those
to come after; at their honestest the writers were
compelled to look on life through the spectacles
thrust on them by the conventional morality of
their own times; at their dishonestest, they were
servile flatterers in the pay of the powers that
were* Nevertheless, though the art of lying has
always been sedulously cultivated by the world,
and especially by that part of it which lives on
the labour of others, it is an art which few people
attain to in its perfection, & the honestman by the
Architecture
and History*
ceasing instruction, nay education,to the passing
generations, not only telling us what were the as'
pirations of men passed away, but also what we
may hope for in the time to come*
You all know what a different spirit has anh
mated history in these latter days from that which
used to be thought enough to give it interest to
thinking men* Time was, and not so long ago,
when theclever essay writer(ratherthan historian)
made his history surrounded by books whose
value he weighed rather by the degree in which
they conformed to an arbitrary standard of literary
excellence,thanbyanyindicationstheymightgive
of being able to afford a glimpse into the past* So
treated, the very books were not capable of yield'
mg the vast stores of knowledge of history which
they really possessed, if dealt with by the historical
method* It is true that for the most part these
books were generally written for other purposes
than that of giving simple information to those
to come after; at their honestest the writers were
compelled to look on life through the spectacles
thrust on them by the conventional morality of
their own times; at their dishonestest, they were
servile flatterers in the pay of the powers that
were* Nevertheless, though the art of lying has
always been sedulously cultivated by the world,
and especially by that part of it which lives on
the labour of others, it is an art which few people
attain to in its perfection, & the honestman by the