From the beginning of human history until the day, relatively speaking, before yesterday, every civilization has given scope to, and thus been the product of, human genius in every one of its manifestations including the representative, the literary, the musical, the architectural, the mechanical and technical arts and the sciences.

Naturally, each of them had its special characteristics and talents with which it became associated and for which it became known: in the case of China, her bureaucratic and military sophistication; in that of Japan, her refined aestheticism and grace of living. Ancient Greece, and later the Germanies, became a synecdoche for philosophic genius; the Italian peninsula from the medieval era forward for its musical and statuary one; and England for her genius for representative self-government. All excelled at engineering: the Greeks who built the Parthenon, the Romans who built the viaducts, the Chinese who built the Great Wall. And the same civilizations that produced the great cathedrals all over Europe also produced the great paintings and sculpture that filled them.

The enthusiasm for technology has virtually crowded out every other form of human creativity

The enthusiasm for technology has virtually crowded out every other form of........

© The Spectator