![]() ![]() Architecture does not advance only architect by architect, but also civilization by civilization.” Perhaps it takes a century for someone to invent the buttress, but once it is invented, only weeks for other architects to observe it and understand it well enough to incorporate into their own buildings. We progress not only by studying the works of Vitruvius, but by pushing beyond him. The flying buttress, stained glass, the pointed arch. The greatest building that can ever be designed is the one that would take seventy years of studying architecture to master God has drawn a line in the sand forever closing off buildings grander than these.” The art of architecture is limited by the human lifespan. “Then,” said the Alchemist, “we have discovered something surprising. Peter’s, it would never have gotten designed.” If you needed more than seventy years of studying architecture to design St. The human lifespan is three score and ten. “Would you believe me if I said it was two hundred years?” “How should I know? Twenty years? Thirty?” Peter’s Basilica, or the Pantheon, or Chartres Cathedral, or something new that combines the virtues of all three.” “Some grand building, a palace or temple?” An aqueduct, every bit the equal of the Romans’. “And suppose you want to build something more complex. This time I didn’t bother protesting that I didn’t know. How long would you have to study architecture under Vitruvius before you could do it?” “So imagine,” continued the Alchemist, “that you wanted to build the simplest of structures. It was a power belonging to him alone, only partially transferable. It wasn’t a secret which he hid from other men to remain above them. If I trained with Caesar for years, some of his skill at reading a battlefield might rub off on me I might dimly see the outlines of his genius. It is not unteachable, but neither can it be taught. Vitruvius could see a great basilica in his mind’s eye, every wall and column snapping into place. Caesar could glance at a battlefield and know precisely which lines were reliable and which were about to break. But above those are higher skills, skills we cannot name or appreciate. One can write down the structure of a certain arch, or the tactical considerations behind a certain strategy. “Knowledge,” said the Alchemist, “is harder to transmit than anyone appreciates. It couldn’t just be the difficulty of memorizing books. Caesar had written down everything he could about war. “You are a man of war,” repeated the Alchemist. I would want to build a wall, and I wouldn’t even know what things to consider when building a wall, and I would have to search the whole book for them each time.” It wouldn’t be…indexed properly in my head. I will let you carry the book with you as you build the castle.” “Because you’d have to memorize it all,” I finally concluded. Why couldn’t a great architect write his knowledge down in a book? And why couldn’t I read it and become as good as he? “Because…you wouldn’t…” I had been annoyed when he first asked, but now I found the question interesting, at least amusing. “You can’t just read a book and know architecture.” Are you so slow a reader, that it would take you ten years to read a thousand pages?” Some are five hundred pages long, others a thousand. “Why so? There are books of architecture, some of them written by men far greater than the planner of this castle. So how long would you have to study, before you were an architect?” Finally he asked: “How long would you have to study architecture before you could build a castle like this one?” I worried I’d broken him, that he was some kind of intricate clockwork machine and I’d yelled too loud and shifted a gear out of place. “Why is a few weeks subtracted from your studies more important than the prince’s life?” I demanded, staring straight into his creepy too-still eyes. Finally he gave me the same answer he had given the king’s courier: the alchemists’ studies could not be interrupted. I could tell he was faking his eyes stayed still the whole time. The Alchemist pretended to read the parchment. So here I was, come to make the request again, more formally but less politely. ![]() And the alchemists’ guild had refused, saying their studies could not be interrupted. So the king had demanded that all the guild’s top alchemists come to the palace and try to save his son’s life. But he had let on that there were other alchemists in the guild, greater alchemists, who knew far more than he. The King had asked for an alchemist, and been given one. The doctors, astrologers, witches, and other assorted wise people of the kingdom could not save him. I took the summons and set it on the table between us. ![]() And the gold the alchemists paid the taxmen smelled funny and made crackling noises. I did, but no amount of staring could make my eyes settle on the color of the liquid in the flask.
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