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Show thus the only form of art expression to be considered for a democracy, and, I will go so far as to say, the truest of all forms. 0 I submit that the buildings here illustrated have for the greatest part been con- S ceived and worked in their conclusion in the Gothic spirit in this respect as well as in respect to the tools that produced them, the methods of work behind them, and, finally, in their organic nature considered in themselves. These are limitations, unat- tractive limitations; but there is no project in the fine arts that is not a problem. With this idea as a basis, comes another conception of what constitutes a building. The question then arises as to what is style. The problem no longer remains a mat- ter of working in a prescribed style with what variation it may bear without absurdity if the owner happens to be a restless individualist: so this question is not easily answered. HAT is style? Every flower has it: every animal has it: every individual worthy the name has it in some degree, no matter how much sandpaper may have done for him. It is a free product,--a by-product, the result of an organic working out of a project in character and in one state of feeling. An harmonious entity of whatever sort in its entirety cannot fail of style in the best sense. In matters of art the individual feeling of the creative artist can but give the color of his own likes and dislikes, his own soul to the thing he shapes. He gives his individuality, but will not prevent the building from being characteristic-of those it was built to serve, because it necessarily is a solution of conditions they make, and it is made to serve their ends in their own way. In so far as these conditions are peculiar in themselves, or sympathy exists between the clients and the architect, the'building will be their building. It will be theirs much more truly than though in ignorant selfhood they had stupidly sought to use means they had not conquered to an end imperfectly foreseen. The architect, then, is their means, their technique and interpreter: the building, an interpretation if he is a true architect in Gothic sense. If he is chiefly concerned in some marvelous result that shall stand as architecture in good form to his credit, the client be damned, why that is a misfortune which is only another species of the unwisdom of his client. This architect is a dangerou, man, and there are lots of his kind outside, and some temptations to him inside, the ranks of the Gothic architects, But the man who loves the beautiful, with ideals of organic natures if an artist, is too keenly sensible of the nature of his client as a fundamental conditionin his, problem to cast him off, although he may give him something to grow to, something in, which he may be a little ill at ease at the outset. In this lies temptation to abuses. Where ignorance of the nature of the thing exists or where there is a particular character or preference, it is to a certain extent the duty of an |