Our method of study has, therefore, reversed
the temporal order; but with intent, for we believe that the nature
of a thing is better revealed in its final than in its rudimentary
form. To complete our survey of the arts, we must, however, give some
consideration to those works in which the unity of the useful and the
beautiful is still preserved; and as an example we have chosen
architecture, the most magnificent of them all.
First, we must clear up what might seem to be an inconsistency in our
thinking. In our definition of art we insisted upon the freedom of
beauty and the contrast between the aesthetic and the practical
attitudes, yet now we are admitting that some things may be at once
useful and beautiful. It would seem as if we must either modify our
definition of art or else deny beauty to such objects as bridges and
buildings. But we cannot do the latter, for the beauty of Brooklyn
bridge or Notre Dame in Paris is a matter of direct feeling, which no
theory can disestablish. And it is impossible to solve the problem by
supposing that in the industrial arts beauty and utility are extraneous
to each other, two separable aspects, which have no intimate connection.
For the fact that a bridge spans a river or that a church is a place
of worship is an element in its beauty. The aesthetic meaning of the
object depends upon the practical meaning. You cannot reduce the beauty
of a bridge or a cathedral to such factors as mere size and fine
proportions, without relation to function.
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