al sculpture of all
sorts and all grades; of vegetable, animal and human subjects; in low
relief, in high relief and in the round; in detached work and
associated groups--or no architecture for us. I say, then, that as
things are constituted, the architects are not particularly to blame
for not having achieved much in the way of decorative art, either on
the exteriors of their great buildings or in the beauty of their
interiors. Not much to blame; but yet they are so far to blame as that
no one else is to do this work if they do not. The architects and the
artists who are associated with them in the work of supplying us with
what we call decorative arts of all sorts, form the only class of the
community to whom the rest of the community can look to for
advancement in this direction. It is probable, then, that what such an
associate has to do is two-fold; or rather it has two things to do:
One is to study the beautiful art of the past, and to study it
patiently and lovingly, feeling confident of this that the interests
of the pursuit grow more absorbing every day; and the other is to
watch the arts of the present, and to keep an open and perspective
mind with regard to them, feeling sure of this that they will grow
more complex and interesting every day, and that now and again some
chance of something good will appear, here and there, giving us great
opportunities to help, if we are clever enough to perceive them.

The study of the arts of the past is more entrancing every day because
we are so much better informed, because we are daily better informed
about them. Archaeology, having gone through a long apprenticeship, is
doing wonders today; and, although ancient buildings are suffering
from the accursed restorer, they are also more thoroughly known, more
rightly judged, more sympathetically analyzed than ever before; while
monuments other than buildings, those, that is, that are not open to
the attacks of the restorer, are preserved in practical safety, and
they also are minutely and honestly studied in a way of which our
ancestors knew nothing. There is, therefore, more pleasure to be got
out of the study of ancient art today than ever before, and that
condition of things is a permanent one. Our children will have even
better opportunities than we.

And, as for the arts of the present, the arts that are being produced
around us, they are to be looked at as calmly and temperately; with,
on the other hand, as little a