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aged by the appreciation of a highly civilized people, may become a positive movement for the highest possible architectonic achievements.

The progress of Architecture, as an embodiment of the practical and æsthetic requirements of the people, follows closely the traditions and general development of the nation; and it is with reference to these traditions and contemporary development that the architectural state should be considered to critically determine its true meaning and value. The thoughts, habits, and wants of a people are more clearly reflected in its architecture than in any other art. Even written history, compared to architecture, very imperfectly transmits to posterity the life and thought of nations. It is through architectural remains principally that we obtain trustworthy evidences of the general condition of even pre-historic people; a fact which proves Architecture to be literally and romantically the most constructive and enduring of the arts. People of past greatness retain a peculiar pride in the architectural monuments which in eloquent silence attest to traditional glory, and which are often the source of inspiration and incentive for renewed creative efforts.

The American architect is, comparatively speaking, under no immediate traditional influences in the evolution of his art. Whatever inspiration he has he receives from a cultured observation of past and contemporary history of foreign architecture. His sympathies move along an intermediate path between a praiseworthy patriotism and a reverence for foreign history with which he is unconsciously affiliated. Such a dual inward state, combined with the external requirements and mental conditions of the society in which he lives, gives him the artistic versatility and mechanical ingenuity with which he generally characterizes his work. In a narrow sense the American architect follows no school, while in a broad sense he is at home with any school. Consequently our architecture is, so to speak, a gorgeous whole made up of fine heterogeneous parts. In composition it lacks uniformity of motive, in design it is clever, and in the whole it betrays an exuberance of spirits leading to the picturesque a little farther than is consistent with the fundamental principles and methods of construction which underlie the

sober and legitimate development of the architectural scheme. So indefinite an architectural character reflects an indefinite social character. It betrays a fast developing social mind and an equally fast developing environment in process of adjusting themselves to each other.

But, the tendency of our architects to a more serious treatment of the subject of their art, and the corresponding tendency of the public to be pleased with such a treatment, point to a degree of correspondence already attained between the mental and material circumstances of our social organism, and to the fact that we, as a people, have reached a stage of anthropographical growth at which we begin to appreciate and satisfy the higher and nobler wants of the mind through the developed material resources which in their undeveloped state, in the preceding stages of progress, necessarily engrossed our attention to the exclusion of the cultivation and indulgence of the contemplative faculties. To the general intellectual and material prosperity of the country succeeds thus an artistic and scientific movement which eventually perpetuates itself in civil architecture and the allied arts. In its utilitarian and æsthetic aspects, an advanced state of architecture is contemporary with an advanced state of civilization. Architecture is in fact the art of edification. It is the monumental materialization of the associations of life which find their efficacy in the humanizing feelings and motives of the race. It expresses, records, and renders impressive our sentiments, thoughts, and activities in home-surroundings, in seats of learning, in halls of legislation, justice, and commercial intercourse. It edifies our feelings in temples of the Muses, and solemnizes our worship in temples of religion. In general, it refines and elevates sense and mind in the midst of the influences and motives of consortion.

That we are approaching such an advanced state of civilization as will bring about an advanced state of architecture can scarcely be doubted in view of the recognized traits of our people. There is in them a good will, and even enthusiasm, for intellectual improvement, a versatility which disposes the mind to appreciate the true and the beautiful in life and thought, and a consciousness of that which should be appreciated and assimilated, which consciousness is a preliminary condition to

an inward sympathy for that which should be konwn, valued, and applied. Such traits are preliminary conditions to a highly developed social organism, the refined, moral, intellectual, æsthetic, and material resources of which will be symbolized and proclaimed in a definite and dignified national school of Architecture.

A tendency to a definite architectural movement is, as we have indicated, already apparent in a better comprehension and treatment of the architectural subject, and in a disposition of the cultured public to encourage and support such a tendency. It is also manifest in the earnest desire of the practicing architects to foster the interests of their profession by organization, in the multiplication of technical periodicals and increase of popular literature on matters architectural, in the establishment of chairs of Architecture in our leading educational institutions and in other ways.

It is directly manifested in our more recent architecture, particularly in the ecclesiastical and suburban branches which are comparatively free from the drawbacks and limitations of the street-branch. In our recent buildings we notice a tendency to breadth of proportion, structural motive, and grouping of parts into an organic whole animated with expressive decoration. In the interiors we detect traces of a refined feeling of design, elegance of simplicity, and meaning of form in contrast to the tawdry and vulgar compositions of earlier days. So good a tendency, favored by the ever-improving intellectual and æsthetic conditions of society, and strengthened in impetus and effect by the finer feeling and training, and consequent improved efficiency of the architectural profession, will sooner or later assume the character and force of a positive movement leading to results which will mark great and permanent national progress.

E. GANDOLFO.

UNIVERSITY TOPICS.

SERMON OF PRESIDENT DWIGHT PREACHED IN THE
UNIVERSITY CHAPEL ON THE FIRST SUNDAY
OF THE ACADEMICAL YEAR.*

Psalm xvi. 6: The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. So says the Psalmist of himself. We who are assembled here this morning as a peculiar community may take his words upon our lips, and may bear with us the thought that to us also the same blessing has been given. And on a day like this, which opens a new life to some of us and begins a new year for all of us, it may be especially fitting that we should call to mind the distinctive privileges which belong to our membership of the University and the obligations to duty and service which they bring upon us. In this way the Christian teaching of thankfulness and devotion may present itself impressively, as it is suggested by our condition and by the hour.

Among the peculiar privileges of our life here, the first which will naturally occur to us is that which pertains to the intellectual character of the place and its work. The person who enters the University determines his course for the future. In the act of uniting himself with it, as we may say, he establishes a purpose which may have been wavering or uncertain before, and turns his life permanently away from the more outward sphere to the more inward one. He has now decided to be an educated man, and whatever may open to him as his special calling in the coming years-even if he devotes himself to trade, or to any of the more active occupations which offer themselves to his choice-he will, because of this decision, be a different man from what he could have been otherwise; he will have an intellectual element in his living unknown to the generality of those about him.

The special blessing connected with this intellectual element lies, in the first place, in the pleasure and satisfaction which the

*This sermon, which was preached on the first Sunday of the academical year (Sept. 23, 1888), is printed here at the special request of some who listened to it.

As we

mind always has in acquiring knowledge. Our business is to be learners, and the paths of learning open widely before us. give ourselves earnestly and faithfully to this business, we are continually gaining new measures of knowledge. With each new measure, we have a sense of new power. We have, also, a vision of larger possibilities. And with the new power and the greater possibilities there comes into the soul of the true and ardent man increased enjoyment of the highest and noblest kind. To know year than we did last year; to be sure of knowing more at the end of another year than we do to-day; is not only the prerogative of the student, but his delight, an experience of his inmost life which abides with him most happily and hopefully.

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I cannot but think however, that, great as is this satisfaction in our increasing knowledge, there is a still greater one connected with our peculiar life-and that is, the satisfaction involved in the fact that, as educated men, we become men of thought. The solitary hours, when one is alone with himself, are the hours in which we have the deepest need. At other times, we may find our wants supplied by what those around us can furnish. But in these seasons we are dependent on our own resources. The necessity of our life therefore is, that these should not fail, if we are to attain that rich happiness which belongs to our best condition. Now the final aim of the University, in all that it does for those who enter within its walls, is to make them thus men of thought. For this all studies are designed; to this end inspirations and impulses are set in motion; to effect this the influences from the past are preserved and cherished; and in order that this may be accomplished the place itself, as it were, breathes into every one, as far as may be possible, its own elevating and quickening spirit. So true is this, that the student who begins his life here and opens his mind at once to the influences which come upon him, will find, even from the outset, the stirrings of higher and better thought; and, when he comes to the end of his course and thinks of what it has given him, he will recognize in this gift that which most fully repays him for his efforts and most completely satisfies him as a man. It is not so much what we have learned and what we know-great as is the blessing thus afforded us-as what we think, that leads us in after years to look back upon the time spent here as a golden period. It is a golden period in its richer fruitage of our thinking, because the seed of our thinking and our power of thought is planted here.

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