Tremendous Trifles

The Tower

I have been standing where everybody has stood, opposite the great

Belfry Tower of Bruges, and thinking, as every one has thought

(though not, perhaps, said), that it is built in defiance of all decencies

of architecture. It is made in deliberate disproportion to achieve

the one startling effect of height. It is a church on stilts.

But this sort of sublime deformity is characteristic of the whole fancy

and energy of these Flemish cities. Flanders has the flattest and most

prosaic landscapes, but the most violent and extravagant of buildings.

Here Nature is tame; it is civilisation that is untamable.

Here the fields are as flat as a paved square; but, on the other hand,

the streets and roofs are as uproarious as a forest in a great wind.

The waters of wood and meadow slide as smoothly and meekly

as if they were in the London water-pipes. But the parish

pump is carved with all the creatures out of the wilderness.

Part of this is true, of course, of all art. We talk of wild animals,

but the wildest animal is man. There are sounds in music that are

more ancient and awful than the cry of the strangest beast at night.

And so also there are buildings that are shapeless in their strength,

seeming to lift themselves slowly like monsters from the primal mire,

and there are spires that seem to fly up suddenly like a startled bird.

. . . . .

This savagery even in stone is the expression of the special spirit

in humanity. All the beasts of the field are respectable; it is only

man who has broken loose. All animals are domestic animals; only man

is ever undomestic. All animals are tame animals; it is only we who

are wild. And doubtless, also, while this queer energy is common to

all human art, it is also generally characteristic of Christian art

among the arts of the world. This is what people really mean when

they say that Christianity is barbaric, and arose in ignorance.

As a matter of historic fact, it didn't; it arose in the most

equably civilised period the world has ever seen.

But it is true that there is something in it that breaks

the outline of perfect and conventional beauty, something that dots

with anger the blind eyes of the Apollo and lashes to a cavalry

charge the horses of the Elgin Marbles. Christianity is savage,

in the sense that it is primeval; there is in it a touch

of the n****r hymn. I remember a debate in which I had praised

militant music in ritual, and some one asked me if I could

imagine Christ walking down the street before a brass band.

I said I could imagine it with the greatest ease; for Christ

definitely approved a natural noisiness at a great moment.

When the street children shouted too loud, certain priggish

disciples did begin to rebuke them in the name of good taste.

He said: "If these were silent the very stones would cry out."

With these words He called up all the wealth of artistic

creation that has been founded on this creed. With those words

He founded Gothic architecture. For in a town like this,

which seems to have grown Gothic as a wood grows leaves,

anywhere and anyhow, any odd brick or moulding may be carved off

into a shouting face. The front of vast buildings is thronged

with open mouths, angels praising God, or devils defying Him.

Rock itself is racked and twisted, until it seems to scream.

The miracle is accomplished; the very stones cry out.

But though this furious fancy is certainly a specialty of men among

creatures, and of Christian art among arts, it is still most notable

in the art of Flanders. All Gothic buildings are full of extravagant

things in detail; but this is an extravagant thing in design. All

Christian temples worth talking about have gargoyles; but Bruges

Belfry is a gargoyle. It is an unnaturally long-necked animal, like

a giraffe. The same impression of exaggeration is forced on the mind

at every corner of a Flemish town. And if any one asks,

"Why did the people of these flat countries instinctively raise

these riotous and towering monuments?" the only answer one can

give is, "Because they were the people of these flat countries."

If any one asks, "Why the men of Bruges sacrificed architecture

and everything to the sense of dizzy and divine heights?"

we can only answer, "Because Nature gave them no encouragement

to do so."

. . . . .

As I stare at the Belfry, I think with a sort of smile of some

of my friends in London who are quite sure of how children will

turn out if you give them what they call "the right environment."

It is a troublesome thing, environment, for it sometimes works

positively and sometimes negatively, and more often between the two.

A beautiful environment may make a child love beauty;

it may make him bored with beauty; most likely the two effects

will mix and neutralise each other. Most likely, that is,

the environment will make hardly any difference at all.

In the scientific style of history (which was recently fashionable,

and is still conventional) we always had a list of countries

that had owed their characteristics to their physical conditions.

The Spaniards (it was said) are passionate because their country

is hot; Scandinavians adventurous because their country is cold;

Englishmen naval because they are islanders; Switzers free

because they are mountaineers. It is all very nice in its way.

Only unfortunately I am quite certain that I could make up quite

as long a list exactly contrary in its argument point-blank

against the influence of their geographical environment.

Thus Spaniards have discovered more continents than Scandinavians

because their hot climate discouraged them from exertion.

Thus Dutchmen have fought for their freedom quite as

bravely as Switzers because the Dutch have no mountains.

Thus Pagan Greece and Rome and many Mediterranean peoples have

specially hated the sea because they had the nicest sea to deal with,

the easiest sea to manage. I could extend the list for ever.

But however long it was, two examples would certainly stand up in it

as pre-eminent and unquestionable. The first is that the Swiss,

who live under staggering precipices and spires of eternal snow,

have produced no art or literature at all, and are by far

the most mundane, sensible, and business-like people in Europe.

The other is that the people of Belgium, who live in a country

like a carpet, have, by an inner energy, desired to exalt their

towers till they struck the stars.

As it is therefore quite doubtful whether a person will go specially

with his environment or specially against his environment,

I cannot comfort myself with the thought that the modern

discussions about environment are of much practical value.

But I think I will not write any more about these modern

theories, but go on looking at the Belfry of Bruges. I would

give them the greater attention if I were not pretty well

convinced that the theories will have disappeared a long time

before the Belfry.