and hence limited capacities for good. Unless they do plainly tell this it should be easy to see how even the religion they represent might often be misjudged in consequence.

The Grecian style would be more acceptable with many for the purpose if it lent itself more readily to modern churchly expression. But the plan of a Greek temple was so entirely different from that of a Christian Science church plan that it cannot consistently be used as a model for the latter. The arch, the vault and the dome, for instance, were unknown to the Greeks. Their columns and in fact, their entire buildings were enormous in scale compared with what are required nowadays. They did not superimpose one story upon another as is now done, and their temple halls were always entered from the level. What has resulted when the Grecian style has been attempted for Science

FIFTH CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, 228-230 W. 45th STREET, NEW YORK CITY.

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. JOHN GALEN HOWARD, ARCHITECT.

churches is really a nondescript, much more nearly resembling the work of the Romans than that of the Greeks. Some examples of it, skilfully handled, have been effective, but few are readily distinguishable as Christian churches and some are travesties on Greek architecture. (See Encyclopedia Americana, "Architecture," by Russell Sturgis.)

Just where the Renaissance, the Gothic, or some other appropriate style should be used is, perhaps, often a matter of taste, but it also should frequently be governed by environment. The style of most of our business buildings is of either Roman or Greek origin (commonly grouped together under the term "Classic"). Such surroundings, and especially if they include tall officebuildings are apt to overpower the more delicate beauty of Gothic design; and often, in such cases, the Classic would be more appropriate. In New York, for

THIRD CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST {NEW YORK CITY.

roundings, appears quite at home. On the other hand the Gothic seems peculiarly fitted for suburban localities, where its spires may rise clearly above surrounding objects. No one, for instance, would wish to see Salisbury Cathedral removed from the green fields and spreading trees that surround it to the crowded. thoroughfares of that part of London where St. Paul's stands. In such a locality as Salisbury's site, or even in the residence district of a large city where the surrounding buildings are not high, and where there are gardens, trees and lawns, the formal Classic is apt to appear, as compared with Gothic, cold, inhospitable, severe.

Another consideration is geographical location. Some localities have historic traditions or climatic characteristics which not only is it good taste to respect, but skilfully recognizing them often results in buildings that harmonize far better with their environments than do others that have slavishly followed the architecture of dissimilar localities. In warm countries, for instance, no matter what style is followed, because roofs are not

required to shed snow they may be made less steep than those of colder climates and because in such countries protection from the sun's rays is often desirable, cornices should project further. In California, suggestions of the architecture of Spain, Italy and Mexico (where similar climatic conditions prevail) have been so successfully interwoven with some architectural work as to have excited widespread admiration, and even to have given rise to the idea that there is being created there a distinctly local style.

There is a practical side to Christian Science, which finds expression in its church edifices. They are to some extent, not alone places of worship, but also places where its healing work is often discussed. That is, Christian Scientists seem to have more reason than do most people for the informal chat after church meetings. These conditions have been met in many cases by the adoption of a vestibule or foyer enlarged over that usually provided in Christian churches. Oftentimes the basement or ground floor has been used for the purpose, the main auditorium above being approached through it by means of a stair-well or wells, cut through the center of the seating space. A better way of accomplishing the same result is to have the stairways lead into a vestibule above, from which vestibule the auditorium is entered; the object being to have the auditorium and its approach both on the same level. The most effective way is to have the

entrance, the foyer, and the auditorium all on the same floor, but it requires more room, and consequently, sometimes a larger lot and increased expenditure. At least the arrangement by which the stair-wells are cut up through the auditorium floor, should be avoided, as it is an undignified way of entering a large audience room and especially a church.

The church at Concord is a good waymark. It is distinctly a Christian church. That it was done by one of the best firms in the country is attested by their recently winning against several distinguished competitors the commission for planning the Union Theological Seminary of New York. Many other cities also have Science churches that are a credit to them and to Christian Science. Recently there seems to be a desire to return to first principles. Many Scientists, as well as many others who are interested in Christian Science, have not been altogether proud of some of its architecture, and feel that its edifices should look less like library buildings, lecture-halls or banks than many of them do.

Brooklyn is soon to have a good Romanesque church. San Francisco has had plans drawn for a large Gothic edifice, which promises well. It is to be hoped that as Christian Science continues to grow, its architecture, by expressing more clearly a broad Christian character may also grow-in truth and hence in real beauty.

ELMER GREY.

Los Angeles, California.

A

I.

MERICANS as a rule little realize the upward-impelling influence of noble art on man and nation. Indeed, we as a people have been so concerned in subduing the primeval forest, in cultivating the virgin prairie, in wresting from nature her hoarded wealth buried deep in earth or hidden in mountain recesses, and in harnessing the subtle elements that they might do the bidding of commerce and manufacture, that not only our artistic appreciation but our very sense of moral proportion has been dulled. It is only of late that a considerable number of the more thoughtful of our people have come to realize that permanent greatness or enduring civilization demands that excessive devotion to material acquisition or the sordid spirit of money-getting shall give place to the higher demands of life. While there was

a time when the thought of the people necessarily had to be given chiefly to the provision of creature comforts and the acquiring of material means, that day has passed and the hour has arrived when, if the Republic is to take its place among the peoples who build on solid foundations, the material demands must yield to those things which nourish man on the higher plane of his being-to the culture and development of the ethical, esthetic and rational sides of life; to spiritual, artistic and philosophical or scientific advance. Utility is vital to progress, but utility, if made a be-all and end-all, is fatal to true greatness; and the time has come in this great and rich young land when the ideal of justice or the concept of the Golden Rule, with its creed of "all for all," or the greatest good for all, must take the place of the ideal of war or victory at the expense of others' ruin the creed of "every man

for himself"; and this noble ethical concept must be companioned by the cultivation of art or appreciation for the beautiful, in order to satisfy the profound yearnings of man's nature for satisfaction in such a way that the soul shall be nourished.

There is a beauty that exalts and refines, and there is a counterfeit beauty that ministers to the lower side of life, educating men downward rather than upward. The new demand is that we have a noble art for America that shall be instinct with moral idealism; an art that first of all is sincere and true and whose atmosphere shall be wholesome and uplifting as are the glories of nature and the great masters' works of a Phidias, a Michael Angelo, a Raphael, a Bach, or

GILBERT E. PERKINS' RESIDENCE PASADENA, CALIFORNIA. MYRON HUNT & ELMER GREY, ARCHITECTS.

a Wagner; an art that shall be worthy of the masters of other days who wrought the greatest creations in architecture, in sculpture, in painting and in poetry.

II.

For a score of years the editor of THE ARENA has striven to awaken the people to a recognition of the importance of an all-comprehensive and worthy art for the New World; and from time to time we have called attention to the work of typical representatives of the new spiritmen who, like St. Gaudens, Elwell and Partridge in sculpture; J. J. Enneking in painting; Edwin Markham in poetry; and Professor S. S. Curry in oratory or the science of the spoken word, are blazing the way for a greater America.