THE PLEASURE OF VISUAL FORM. 81 



freedom and variety, usually contents itself with symmetry in one 

 direction, namely, bilateral symmetry. "Why symmetry in an horizon- 

 tal direction should please rather than in a vertical or any other direc- 

 tion will be explained further on. 



It may still be objected that I am confounding art and science, and 

 giving to unity and regularity an exaggerated aesthetic importance. 

 This objection will, I think, be largely obviated by the observation, 

 which I have hitherto postponed, that the uniting element is often 

 present in an ideal manner only, suggested to the mind rather than 

 directly presented. Thus the continuity of a form has sometimes to 

 be appreciated by help of an ideal completion. For example, a cres- 

 cent may please the eye because it is so easily expanded by the imagi- 

 nation into a whole circle. Much more frequently does the central 

 element of a design need to be supplied by the mind of the spectator. 

 The beauty of an undulating and of a spiral curve rests' in part on a 

 vague representation of the central axis, about which its seemingly 

 free movements arrange themselves in so simple an order. In many 

 symmetrical arrangements, too, as those of the human figure, the cen- 

 tral element to which all relations are more or less consciously referred 

 has to be put into the figure by the mind. 



The value of such subjectively restored elements of unity is seen in 

 a striking way in the fact that the feeling for order and unity may be 

 satisfied when there is only an approximation to a regular arrange- 

 ment. Xhe eye, like the ear, can easily bear departures from rigid 

 regularity, if only it is able in a rough and general way to group the 

 details under relations of equality and symmetry. This it does in 

 those freer forms of sculpture and painting which mark a high devel- 

 opment of art. Provided this departure of form does not appear to 

 the eye as an error, as a failure to reach perfect exactness that is to 

 say, provided it is seen to be intended and is felt to be justified the 

 fact of approximation yields an appreciable enjoyment. The visual 

 imagination here supplements the visual sense, and sees a rightness 

 where the latter alone would see but error. 



It is easy to see, by help of this principle, that all the visual arts 

 seek in some degree to satisfy the eye's feeling for form. In some 

 arts, as painting, the element of form is no doubt a good deal subor- 

 dinated to the exigencies of imitation, and of a wide picturesque 

 variety of detail. Even in sculpture, perfect regularity of form is in 

 the higher stages of art development sacrificed in favor of variety of 

 treatment and natural ease. In truth, the progress of art is largely a 

 progress in freedom of treatment, as we may see by comparing the 

 rigid symmetry of Cimabue with the graceful ease of Raphael, or the 

 stiff regularity of early Greek sculpture with the freedom of the later 

 and better work. Yet, while the principles of form become less con- 

 spicuous, they are not wholly abandoned. A Madonna of Raphael 

 may suggest the pyramidical form which an earlier altar-piece so 



VOL. XTII. 6 



