Individualism, on a large scale, of course, had been both tolerated and practised in Gothic architecture, and on this account the buildings of the Middle Ages might be said to breathe a more truly Christian spirit[20] than most of the sculpture and the painting of the same period, which are more hieratic.[21] But it was not until the Reformation began to spread that the most tiresome form of individualism, which we shall call Amateurism,[22] received, as it were, a Divine sanction; and there can be no doubt that it is against this element in modern life that not only Art, but all forces which aim at order, law and discipline, will eventually have to wage their most determined and most implacable warfare. [13] The Judaic story of the fall of man is at bottom an essentially democratic one. This absence of rank in sin had no parallel in the aristocratic Pagan world. Likewise, in the manner of the fall, there is a total absence of noble qualities. "Curiosity, beguilement, seductibility and wantonness--in short, a whole series of pre-eminently feminine passions--were regarded as the origin of evil." See _B. T._, pp. 78, 79. [14] Bury, _History of the Later Roman Empire_, Vol. I, p. 33. [15] _A._, Aph. 43 and 64. [16] _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, No. 435. [17] _Ibid_., No. 522. [18] _W. P._, Vol. II, p. 312: "When it occurs to inferior men to doubt that higher men exist, then the danger is great," etc. See, in fact, the whole of Aph. 874. [19] See _A._, Aph. 49: "The concept of guilt and punishment, inclusive of the doctrine of 'grace,' of 'salvation,' and of 'forgiveness'--lies through and through, without a shred of psychological truth. Sin,... this form of human self-violation _par excellence_, was invented solely for the purpose of making all science, all culture, and every kind of elevation and nobility utterly impossible." [20] Ruskin, _On the Nature of Gothic Architecture_ (p. 7), contrasting the classic and Gothic style, says: "... In the mediæval, or especially Christian, system of ornament, this slavery [_i.e._ the slavery imposed by the classic canon] is done away with altogether; Christianity having recognized, in small things as well as great, the individual value of every soul."