Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/781

 1750-1900] American architecture. 749 in the country has combined with various new conditions of life to demand from trained architects something like actual novelties things for which there is no precise precedent elsewhere ; and American archi- tects, though generally trained in European schools, have shown, in adapting themselves to these conditions, great and increasingly flexible intelligence. In accordance with the new demands of their country, they have developed various types of building which are, at this moment, at least so far successful, that to an American who visits Europe contemporary architecture in the old world is apt to appear comparatively lifeless. Recent private houses in America display an opulent spaciousness, and at the same time an intelligent adaptation to the conditions of the life that they are designed to serve, which are seldom apparent in modern private houses in Europe. American churches are comparatively un- important, conventional, and inconspicuous ; for the moment, the most earnest enthusiasm of American ideals is somewhat distracted from religion. On the other hand, the schools, the libraries, and the hospitals of America, together with the civic buildings which are rising every- where, show increasing dignity, beauty, and impressiveness. At the same time, the commercial conditions of the country, which require, in the larger cities, light and strong structures of great height, have encouraged new methods of construction, in which steel frames are masked by a screen of ornamental masonry, which promise ultimately to achieve a peculiar grandeur of architectural effect. It seems more than possible that, before long, the decorative arts of painting and of sculpture may adapt themselves to these new architectural conditions. The same tendency towards flexible adaptation of effort to practical necessity which has displayed itself in American architecture may be said, on the whole, to characterise American science. It is a commonplace that Americans are apt inventors ; and it appears to be an acknowledged fact that the economic success of the Unites States has been most pronounced in the industries which can be most readily advanced by labour-saving mechanical devices. American machinery is far more remarkable than American handiwork. The temper of the country still recoils from that kind of patient self-effacement without which the highest personal skill is out of the question. Accordingly, though Americans have been by no means neglectful of pure science, the ablest minds in the United States have always been, and still are, for the most part, directed rather towards the needs of applied science, and the consequent rewards which they offer. From Franklin's time to our own, there have been in America plenty of applications of scientific knowledge, and more than a few extensions of such know- ledge in directions where this extension may prove of practical or of humanitarian use. But America has still to wait for a thinker who shall CH. XXIII.