In course of this fourfold analysis, it is plain that we have reached
the very converse--or at all events the [Page: 90] complement--of that
geographical determinism with which we started, and that we have
returned to a view corresponding to the popular one (of "People,
Affairs, Places," p. 69), which we then set aside for the reasons given.
The "great man theory" of history, at best less crudely stated, thus
reappears; in short, to the initial thesis we have now the distinct
antithesis. It is time, therefore, to bring these together towards the
needed synthesis. Hence to the page (p. 77) on which was summarised the
determinist view of Town and School, we now require the complemental
statement upon page (p. 87) of Cloister and City proper. Nor must we be
content, with too many controversialists hitherto, to keep in view only
one at a time; but by folding back the pages of print between these two
half-schemes, as the book lies open, to take in both together.
We may thus finally compress the essentials of this whole paper into a
simple formula--
TOWN | CITY
|
FOLK | POLITY
|
WORK | CULTURE
| | ^
PLACE | | | ART
-----------------|----|----|----------------------
LORE | | | IMAGERY
v | |
LEAR | IDEA
|
LOVE | IDEAL
|
SCHOOL | CLOISTER
or most briefly--
| TOWN | CITY ^
| -------+--------- |
v SCHOOL | CLOISTER |
[Page: 91]--noting in every case the opposite direction of the arrows.
The application of this formula to different types of town, such as
those already indicated in the former instalment of this paper (Vol. I.,
p. 107) or in the present one, will not be found to present any
insuperable difficulty. It must, however, be kept clearly in view that
the city of each day and generation subsides or decays more or less
completely into the mere town anew, as the cloister into the schools.
The towns and cities of the world are thus classifiable in terms of
their past development and present condition.