DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41191#0040
Lecture IV. people to keep alive an interest in the art & records
Architecture ofthepastamidstthepresentconditions of a sordid
and History, and heart-breaking struggle for existence for the
many, and a languid sauntering through life for
the few. But when society is so reconstituted that
all citizens will have a chance of leading a life made
up of due leisure and reasonable work, then will
all society, and not our ‘Society' only, resolve to
protectancientbuildingsfromall damage, wanton
or accidental, for then at last they will begin to un-
derstand that they are part of their present lives,
and part of themselves. That will come when the
time is ripe for it; for at present even if they knew
of their loss they could not prevent it, since they
are living in a state of war, that is to say, of blind
waste.
SurelyweofthisSocietyhavehadthistruthdriven
home practically often enough, have often had to
confess that if the destruction or brutification of an
ancient monument of art 8C history was 'a matter
of money/ it was hopeless striving against it. Do
not let us be so feeble or cowardly as to refuse to
face this fact, for, for us also, although our function
in forming the future of society may be a humble
one, there is no compromise. Let us admit that
we are living in the time of barbarism betwixt two
periods of order, the order of the past SC the order
of the future, Sc then, though there may be some
of us who think (as I do) that the end of that bar-
barism is drawing near, and others that it is far
32
Architecture ofthepastamidstthepresentconditions of a sordid
and History, and heart-breaking struggle for existence for the
many, and a languid sauntering through life for
the few. But when society is so reconstituted that
all citizens will have a chance of leading a life made
up of due leisure and reasonable work, then will
all society, and not our ‘Society' only, resolve to
protectancientbuildingsfromall damage, wanton
or accidental, for then at last they will begin to un-
derstand that they are part of their present lives,
and part of themselves. That will come when the
time is ripe for it; for at present even if they knew
of their loss they could not prevent it, since they
are living in a state of war, that is to say, of blind
waste.
SurelyweofthisSocietyhavehadthistruthdriven
home practically often enough, have often had to
confess that if the destruction or brutification of an
ancient monument of art 8C history was 'a matter
of money/ it was hopeless striving against it. Do
not let us be so feeble or cowardly as to refuse to
face this fact, for, for us also, although our function
in forming the future of society may be a humble
one, there is no compromise. Let us admit that
we are living in the time of barbarism betwixt two
periods of order, the order of the past SC the order
of the future, Sc then, though there may be some
of us who think (as I do) that the end of that bar-
barism is drawing near, and others that it is far
32