THE PLEASURE OF VISUAL FORM. 83 



which have determined the structure of our intellectual organ to be 

 what it is. And, in the case of the aesthetic value of the several modes 

 of this unity, the action of the environment becomes apparent. Thus, 

 for example, the natural instinct of the cultivated eye to look for a 

 well-marked contour, as well as for a central element of repose, in a 

 design, may be regarded as the result of ingrained habits, determined 

 by the conditions of a distinct visual grasp and recognition of objects 

 in every-day life. So the desire of the eye for proportion seems to be 

 an outgrowth of a habit of attending to relative magnitude, a habit 

 that is clearly connected with the paramount importance of identifying 

 objects at different distances from the eye ; * and, as I have already 

 had occasion to observe, the popular preference for certain ratios of 

 magnitude may be due to a habit of making the proportions of the 

 human figure, that most impressive and carefully observed form, a 

 special standard of measurement. 



The aesthetic value of symmetry, and more especially bilateral sym- 

 metry, illustrates in a striking way this action of the environment and 

 of habit in determining our most pleasurable modes of activity. Mr. 

 Grant Allen has recently remarked on this fact (" Mind," Number XV.), 

 but without any special reference to bilateral symmetry. Not only do 

 most organic forms present such a bilateral symmetry, but the forms 

 of inanimate nature, as mountain and valley, show this same relation. 

 The very action of the physical forces determining the configuration 

 of the earth's surface tends to produce a bilaterally symmetrical ar- 

 rangement, as we may see by the simple experiment of throwing down 

 a heap of pebbles or sand on the ground. Over and above this the 

 ends of support, and the utilities of life in general, serve to give bilat- 

 eral symmetry a high practical value. Most of the products of the 

 useful arts, from architecture down to the art of constructing common 

 utensils, possess this bilateral symmetry. This prevalence of the rela- 

 tion, in objects of daily perception, would serve to fix a habit of look- 

 ing for symmetry as the normal form of things. In other words, 

 bilateral symmetry would tend to become, to speak after Kant, a sort 

 of a priori form of aesthetic intuition. 



But this direct factor is, after all, only one feature of visual form, 

 which, in concrete aesthetic perception, combines with other indirect 

 or associated elements. Over and above the direct action of the en- 

 vironment, and of customary experience in producing an instinctive 

 preference of the eye for some kinds of activity, there is an indirect 

 action of experience in attaching to certain elements and arrangements 



* I know a child that, when three years old, at once recognized the faces of several 

 relatives by means of a photograph taken eight years before. The photograph was a 

 carte-de-visite group, in which there were just a dozen full-length figures, as well as a good 

 piece of background space. Such a power of appreciating form, shown at so early an 

 age, suggests that there may be an innate disposition to recognize identity by means of 

 equality of relative magnitude. 



