primitive creature, sallied forth from his cave, and with his gnarled stick struck down the ferocious Ichthyosaurus, or Plesiosaurus, or Hypothenuse, and dragged it to his cave where he gnawed in isolation and at leisure the raw flesh from; the broken bones. But in order to be unmolested during the progress of this delectable function our cave man must needs close the entrance to his cavernous retreat with huge stones. Thus he provided against intrusion upon his meal by relatives or friends of his own or of the provender. It was enough for this particular—or, more properly, this especial—cave man that the barricade be strong and capable of withstanding assault from without. The stones must be large and heavy and were selected without regard to form or appearance. Function was the main thing with this type of cave man; form mattered little. You see “form followed function” even in those days; that is, function was primary—form was secondary, with this especial cave man, who represented the great majority. This was so with regard to his habitation—it was so even with regard to his wife.
Our cave man, tired, with his strenuous hunting, killing and dragging in of food, not to say the irksome removal and replacing of the stony barricade, needed some other of his kind to tear the carcass asunder and lay it before him on the rocky floor of his cave. So he sought a wife, as no male would slavishly serve him. Again he sallied (quite appropriate this time—to sally) forth and pounced upon the first female of the species who happened in sight, knocked her down with his gnarled stick, and dragged her to his cave by the hair of her head. Thence on she was his dutiful wife. The man never regarded her form ; he took, regardless of “form,” the first female who appeared, and made her to “function” as his wife. So this particular man was not over-particular as regards form and the amenities. He was only particular to follow customs. In fact he set that custom of mob movement. He was first in establishing mob psychology.
ISTow this man stands as quite representative of the non-aesthetic type.
But in a nearby cave dwelt a man of the type from which architects are made. He, too, sought safety in a barricaded enclosure. He, too, walled up the mouth of his cave. He, however, selected the stones not only to function as a barricade but also to give him pleasure as he viewed the wall from without and within. He also dispatched his game with a bludgeon, but it was a rather pleasingly formed bludgeon more in the nature of a club. He carried the carcass to a cave, on the walls of which he had carve-n likenesses of the animals he went forth to hunt—the Ichthyosaurus, the Plesiosaurus, the Hypothenuse, and others. (You see geometry early got into the aesthetic
as well as into the engineering game.) He daintily severed the parts and spitted them over a fire, which, though it took such expenditure of time and energy to make, was in itself a beautiful as well as a useful thing. He, too, sought a wife— and he, too, sallied forth. But he did not knock down with his club the first fat female he met; he sized them all up from the dainty French heel to the becoming coiffure crowning a winsome head with a face which was not besmudged with powder and rouge; and having made his inspection and selection he encircled the lithe figure of his choice with his powerful arms and carried her easily to his cave and set her up as queen of his realm. He helped her to prepare the feast.
How there you behold the beginnings of the architect. He did not belittle the utility and the necessity of his barricade, his house wall, but he was not content to have it just a wall, it must be seemly. He recognized the necessity for a suitable weapon, but he was not content with one which was not at the same time a beautiful implement. He was not content to gorge himself and snore the resting time away; he carved emblems and symbols of the chase upon the walls of his cave—and spread rugs of skins over the floors. He was not satisfied just to gnaw the flesh from broken bones—he cooked the flesh and together the man and his wife served it and partook of it in dainty fashion—that is—dainty for a cave architect. Here was a particular man—an individualist—the type from which artists are made, men who produce real architecture—men who were selective in their tastes and not led astray by the mob spirit nor by self-imposed custom, nor by stale tradition.
How this man was representative of the type of a rather small minority.
There was a larger number but still much in the general minority who appreciated in a way the efforts of our aesthetic cave men and looked upon them with favoring eye. Many of the smallest coterie gave pleasing form to their “safety first” walls, selecting and placing the stones according to their individual tastes and predilections. Several of this group became quite expert in designing and constructing their walls which had to be removed and reconstructed so many times before the barred doorway was invented; so that others with aesthetic and cultural leanings, but whose technical skill was more effective in the chase than in wall building, called upon those who had become proficient in the latter art to build or to assist in building their walls, exchanging for this service flesh or hides according to the needs or wants of the artist.
Up to this point it is quite apparent that the expert wall builder, the embryo architect of that far day, who gave his protecting walls character and individuality, and the stony units propor