Excerpt from A Guide to Gothic Architecture Architecture is progressive, and must keep pace with the development of the wants, faculties, and sentiments of mankind. The Decorative Arts arise from, and Should properly be attendant upon archi tecture. Antiquarianism and ecclesiology are among the phases of architectural study. The former is a mere branch of secular learning; the latter devotes its energies to the reverent serving and adorning of churches in the best and fittest manner possible. Decoration embraces all the arts of design. It is the 0 ice of architecture to illustrate the forces by which construction is maintained; and as a master of fine arts it presses into its service all others which can aid towards that, its one great central purpose. These forces are as a stream of life in the dull blocks through which they flow. 'architecture gives form and feature to them as things of vitality which we can then fix upon and delight in and thus a building clothed in the elements of its own life rises into being, a creature of living art, a thing of beauty. With the theory of architecture thus understood, the ancillary arts of sculpture, wall painting, stained glass, tapestry and so forth cluster around it with all their music of form and colours. It is thus that the arts of design step in. Their business is to interpret all that, to give it emphasis, to spread a sense of ease, happiness, and completeness everywhere. Then comes colour to add riches and plenty to what the other arts have begun, and to perfect those evidences of life and thought and movement which they draw out. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.