ABSTRACT
The strict issue of reviving the styles of the distant past is no longer one of serious consequence. But the peculiar traditions of imitation and modification of the styles of the past, which eclecticism inherited from the earlier Classical and Mediaeval Revivals, have not been easily forgotten. Modern architecture has nothing but the healthiest lessons to learn from the art of the further past, if that art be studied scientifically and not in a spirit of imitation. Metal had begun to be used incidentally in architecture before the end of the eighteenth century. Henceforth it achieved a place of increasing importance, even in buildings of the most traditional design. Behind the conventional story of nineteenth century revivals and eclecticism there are two further histories of architecture. One deals with the science of building alone. The other history deals with the development of the art of architectural design regardless of specific imitations.
