Cambridge (England) -- Pictorial works; University of Cambridge -- Pictorial works
No building, indeed, in either university suggests in the same way and
in the same degree that delightful mental combination of form and space
which is the mark of the “Cambridge mind” in science if it is not so in
literature. As we pass into the great court the buildings we see neither
shut out the light nor hem in the thoughts. The enclosure they suggest
is that formal enclosure of point and line which enables us to make
propositions about infinity. Of all scholastic buildings in the world
the great court of Trinity is that which best suggests the majesty and
spaciousness of learning. Here one receives an impression of adequacy,
balance, clearness, spaciousness, elevation, serenity, a certain high
power of the imagination--the mathematical qualities, the qualities of
the seeker after truth: an impression of the simple force of what is
simply clear, the simple grandeur of that which can dispense with the
mysterious; of the dignity which accompanies those who have looked upon
things as
[Illustration: OLD GATEWAY AND BRIDGE
These buildings form part of St. John’s College, and look on to the
river. The Tower of the College Chapel is seen in the background.]
they are in themselves, and have nothing adventitious to offer, yet what
they offer holds a curious power of satisfying.
Does a man see all this as he walks into Trinity and learn from it the
lesson which Cambridge spreads before him, or does he take it with him
under the gateway and let Trinity Great Court represent for him what he
already knows of Cambridge? What does it matter whether it suggests so
much or is allowed to represent so much?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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