The specific features of this organic, divinely inspired architecture of the Golden Age cannot of course be discerned by any one, any more than the manner in which the Great Mystery will present itself anew to consciousness.  The most imaginative artist can imagine only in terms of the already-existent; he can speak only the language he has learned.  If that language has been derived from mediaevalism, he will let his fancy soar after the manner of Henry Kirby, in his Imaginative Sketches; if on the contrary he has learned to think in terms of the classic vernacular, Otto Rieth’s Architectur-Skizzen will suggest the sort of thing that he is likely to produce.  Both results will be as remote as possible from future reality, for the reason that they are so near to present reality.  And yet some germs of the future must be enfolded even in the present moment.  The course of wisdom is to seek them neither in the old romance nor in the new rationalism, but in the subtle and ever-changing spirit of the times.

[Illustration:  PLATE IX.  ARCHITECTURAL SKETCH BY OTTO RIETH]

The most modern note yet sounded in business, in diplomacy, in social life, is expressed by the phrase, “Live openly!” From every quarter, in regard to every manner of human activity, has come the cry, “Let in the light!” By a physical correspondence not the result of coincidence, but of the operation of an occult law, we have, in a very real sense, let in the light.  In buildings of the latest type devoted to large uses, there has been a general abandonment of that “cellular system” of many partitions which produced the pepper-box exterior, in favour of great rooms serving diverse functions lit by vast areas of glass.  Although an increase of efficiency has dictated and determined these changes, this breaking down of barriers between human beings and their common sharing of the light of day in fuller measure, is a symbol of the growth of brotherhood, and the search, by the soul, for spiritual light.

Now if this fellowship and this quest gain volume and intensity, its physical symbols are bound to multiply and find ever more perfect forms of manifestation.  So both as a practical necessity and as a symbol the most pregnant and profound, we are likely to witness in architecture the development of the House of Light, particularly as human ingenuity has made this increasingly practicable.

Glass is a product still undergoing development, as are also those devices of metal for holding it in position and making the joints weather tight.  The accident and fire hazard has been largely overcome by protecting the structural parts, by the use of wire glass, and by other ingenious devices.  The author has been informed on good authority that shortly before the outbreak of the war a glass had been invented abroad, and made commercially practicable, which shut out the heat rays, but admitted the light.  The use of this glass would overcome the last difficulty—­the