ROSS DESIGN AS A SCIENCE. 371 



one, intentionally. It would not happen by accident. Now draw five 

 scjuares in a scale, so that they shall be as 1 to 2, to 4, to 8, to 16, to 32, 

 in the proportions of their measures. This is easily done by drawing the 

 second on the diagonal of the first, the third on the diagonal of the sec- 

 ond, and so on. Observe the difference between the five related and the 

 five unrelated measures ; the harmony of the related measures. Arrange 

 the related measures in a row at equal intervals apart, the smallest first 

 and the largest last, and observe how you have in your arrangement not 

 only a harmony of measures which the scale-relationship gives, but you 

 have, also, in the connection of the measures, a rhythmic relationship. 

 The eye is led from measure to measure, just as it was led in the scale of 

 values from value to value. By rearranging the rhythm of the measures, 

 the movement can be made to change its direction and also its shape. By 

 bringing the squares close together the movement becomes abrupt. 

 Separating the squares by a larger interval, you can make the move- 

 ment more gradual. 



There is another point of view from which the measure must be con- 

 sidered. Every measure is a force of attraction, and the amount of this 

 attraction is determined (other things being equal) by the measure 

 itself. A large measure attracts more attention than a small one. The 

 measure of two attracts twice as much attention as the measure of one. 

 We have in our scale of measures, therefore, a scale of visual attractions 

 proportioned as 1 to 2, to 4, to 8, to 16, to 32. Break up the scale and 

 scatter the squares over your paper and observe that the eye is no longer 

 led in a rhythm, but is held at rest by the opposition of attractions at the 

 point which is their centre of equilibrium. When the problem is, to find 

 this point, we must remember the law of balance : that equal attractions 

 (measures in this case) balance at equal distances on a straight line con- 

 necting their centres, and that unequal attractions balance in the same 

 way but at distances inversely proportional to them. In balancing tones 

 we considered the element of contrast, measures being equal. In balanc- 

 ing measures we consider what they amount to respectively. The centre 

 of equilibrium may be indicated by a point, or more satisfactorily by a 

 symmetrical outline enclosing all the balanced measures and having 

 with them a common centre. When the measures are accidental and 

 unrelated, as they were before we brought them into scale-relationship, 

 they are nevertheless attractions which hold the eye at their centre, and 

 the centre can be found, approximately, by means of a small unit of 

 measurement taken as a common divisor. The centre can be approxi- 

 mately ascertained by visual feeling, but we are talking about a scientific 



