money and trouble upon matters of decency, great and little; having
made it clear that we really do care about nature even in the
suburbs of a big town--having got so far, we shall begin to think of
the houses in which we live.

For I must tell you that unless you are resolved to have good and
rational architecture, it is, once again, useless your thinking
about art at all.

I have spoken of the popular arts, but they might all be summed up
in that one word Architecture; they are all parts of that great
whole, and the art of house-building begins it all: if we did not
know how to dye or to weave; if we had neither gold, nor silver, nor
silk; and no pigments to paint with, but half-a-dozen ochres and
umbers, we might yet frame a worthy art that would lead to
everything, if we had but timber, stone, and lime, and a few cutting
tools to make these common things not only shelter us from wind and
weather, but also express the thoughts and aspirations that stir in
us.

Architecture would lead us to all the arts, as it did with earlier
men: but if we despise it and take no note of how we are housed,
the other arts will have a hard time of it indeed.

Now I do not think the greatest of optimists would deny that, taking
us one and all, we are at present housed in a perfectly shameful
way, and since the greatest part of us have to live in houses
already built for us, it must be admitted that it is rather hard to
know what to do, beyond waiting till they tumble about our ears.