1 64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



represents the creative force of Jehovah. Infinite Deity is not reduced 

 to the figure of a man, but divine power is expressed in transcending 

 harmony of line and movement. The head is great, but it would 

 hardly satisfy us as a symbol of the Creator; the body is super-human, 

 but physical strength can never mean God: the effect on us is rather 

 in the uniting of these elements, and above all, of the lines of the 

 figures and draperies, into a symphonic pattern of crashing harmonies. 



Let us see just what this means within ourselves, see how we react 

 to harmony of design. The mechanical process of eye and brain we 

 may leave to the psychologist, but we can recognize a certain sensa- 

 tion which we have before all things we call beautiful. It need not 

 trouble us if we can not agree on a definition of the word " beautiful." 

 We may not be able to bound the town we were brought up in, but we 

 know the look of it. We know that the appearance of a flower, a 

 Persian rug, or a great picture, entirely apart from any meaning or 

 association, produces in us a feeling of pleasure which for the moment 

 drives out of us physical fatigue, desire or any sense of limitation. 

 Beauty of design has been called " supreme order," and harmony, if 

 not the only principle involved, is by far the most important. " The 

 Creation of the Sun and Moon" is an example of such beauty, and an 

 analysis of the picture is helpful. 



The sweeping line of the Creator's figure gives the theme of the 

 composition. Around it is a system of repetitions of that theme, in 

 different lengths and positions. The movement through this group and 

 through the. seraph is a larger development of the same curve. About 

 the seraph is another system of lines, partial repetitions of the 

 drapery fold from the left foot under the arm and continued over the 

 back. The little folds over the seraph's back are angular, but each dis- 

 cord is repeated in slight variation so that we feel a clear relation be- 

 tween them. The great black line of Jehovah's arms is in discordant 

 contact with the movement of the body, but the shock is a repetition of 

 the crossings of the drapery about the figure, and the line is echoed in 

 certain opposite diagonals. But what of it? Surely esthetic pleasure 

 is not to be had in such dry analysis of line. Certainly not ; the analy- 

 sis is but a slow and painful following of what the eye feels at once, — 

 a simple relationship of many elements. Harmony is an extraordinarily 

 simple relationship of parts, and our experience of it is an unwonted 

 feeling of clear vision. 



It might seem at first, then, that two or three squares set side by 

 side would constitute the most perfect harmony. They would do so 

 only in the sense that an octave is the .most perfect harmony in music. 

 Such an arrangement would not be extraordinarily simple, but ordinary 

 in the last degree ; the eye sees it with habitual recognition. But if 

 those squares should change their proportions so that two of them 



