THEIR UNCONSCIOUS GROWTH. 427 



tion to be that men intentionally gave to their buildings 

 the leading characteristics of neighbouring objects. But 

 this is not what is meant. I do not suppose that they did 

 so in times past, any more than they do so now. The hy 

 pothesis is, that in their choice of forms men are uncon 

 sciously influenced by the forms encircling them. That 

 flat-roofed, symmetrical architecture should have originated 

 in the East, among pastoral tribes surrounded by their 

 herds and by wide plains, seems to imply that the builders 

 were swayed by the horizontality and symmetry to which 

 they were habituated. And the harmony which we have 

 found to exist in other cases between indigenous styles and 

 their localities, implies the general action of like influences. 

 Indeed, on considering the matter psychologically, I do not 

 see how it could well be otherwise. For as all conceptions 

 must be made up of images, and parts of images, received 

 through the senses as it is impossible for a man to con 

 ceive any design save one of which the elements have come 

 into his mind from without ; and as his imagination will 

 most readily run in the direction of his habitual percep 

 tions ; it follows, almost necessarily, that the characteristic 

 which predominates in these habitual perceptions must im 

 press itself on his design. 



