786 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a line forward and backward. Assuming the primary position to be 

 the natural one, we may argue that any movement of the axis of vision 

 from the center of the field excites a tendency to a corresponding 

 movement of return to the central point of repose. Any chain of 

 visible movements, as those of a ballet, and any arrangement of lines 

 will gratify the eye in proportion to the number of such balancing 

 actions of the ocular muscles which it includes. 



It is only one step more to say that a full degree of fluency of 

 movement implies a simple rhythmic order in the successive move- 

 ments. The muscles of the eye being symmetrically formed, it fol- 

 lows that the action of any one will be compensated by the action of 

 another of the same duration (the velocity being supposed to be the 

 same). In this way a certain amount of rhythmic or equal time-order 

 is rendered agreeable by an innate organic arrangement, and quite 

 independently of any conscious perception of time-relations. 



And here we reach the limit of what can be called the organic 

 factor of sensuous gratification in ocular movement, and trench on 

 the properly intellectual enjoyment of perceived relations. The per- 

 ception of 23roportion would no doubt be possible if the eyes were 

 what we have so far imagined them to be — incapable of simultaneous 

 impressions. The moving eye, like the moving limb, can appreciate 

 relations of duration and of distance or time-rhythm and space-rhythm 

 within certain limits. Yet such a coordination of successive elements 

 would be certainly inferior to that of the actual eye, with its capability 

 of simultaneous impressions. It would probably be inferior to the 

 ear's perception of measure. Hence we shall do best to treat of the 

 visual sense of proportion and equality of magnitudes in connection 

 with that more complex organ with which nature has actually endowed 

 us. To the consideration of this higher kind of perception let us now 

 pass. 



Ji. I:jfTELLECTUAL Factor. — In endowing our imaginary eye with 

 an extended retina which allows of simultaneous perception of form 

 relations, we do not get rid of the elementary experiences of move- 

 ment first dwelt on : we only transform them somewhat. There is 

 good reason to think that actual movement enters into our customary 

 perception even of smaller forms much more than is generally sup- 

 posed. It may be added that what we call a simultaneous perception 

 of form is often, as I shall have occasion to show presently, a sequence 

 of simultaneous perceptions. But more than this, one may now con- 

 tend, with a fair degree of confidence, that, even in the perception of 

 form by the resting eye, motor elements are essential ingredients, how- 

 ever much they may be disguised. 



I need not here expound or defend the hypothesis of local signs 

 put forth by Lotze, and accepted with certain modifications by Helm- 

 holtz and Wundt. My concern here is to trace some of the resthetic 

 consequences of this hypothesis. It at once follows from this theory 



