value, how helpless art is in the Century of Commerce!

In the first place, many and many a beautiful and ancient building
is being destroyed all over civilised Europe as well as in England,
because it is supposed to interfere with the convenience of the
citizens, while a little forethought might save it without trenching
on that convenience; {6} but even apart from that, I say that if we
are not prepared to put up with a little inconvenience in our
lifetimes for the sake of preserving a monument of art which will
elevate and educate, not only ourselves, but our sons, and our sons'
sons, it is vain and idle of us to talk about art--or education
either. Brutality must be bred of such brutality.

The same thing may be said about enlarging, or otherwise altering
for convenience' sake, old buildings still in use for something like
their original purposes: in almost all such cases it is really
nothing more than a question of a little money for a new site: and
then a new building can be built exactly fitted for the uses it is
needed for, with such art about it as our own days can furnish;
while the old monument is left to tell its tale of change and
progress, to hold out example and warning to us in the practice of
the arts: and thus the convenience of the public, the progress of
modern art, and the cause of education, are all furthered at once at
the cost of a little money.

Surely if it be worth while troubling ourselves about the works of
art of to-day, of which any amount almost can be done, since we are
yet alive, it is worth while spending a little care, forethought,
and money in preserving the art of bygone ages, of which (woe worth
the while!) so little is left, and of which we can never have any