64 MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN 



the same method to the other orders, and again 

 found the proportions accurately given. Numbers 

 of diagrams were prepared ; but the discovery was 

 never given to the world, perhaps because of the 

 dissensions that arose between the authors. For 

 Dr. Bell believed that ' these intersections were in 

 some way connected with, or symbolical of, the 

 antagonistic forces at work ' ; but his pupil and 

 helper, with characteristic trenchancy, brushed 

 aside this mysticism, and interpreted the discovery 

 as ' a geometrical method of dividing the spaces or 

 (as might be said) of setting out the work, purely 

 empirical, and in no way connected with any laws 

 of either force or beauty.' ' Many a hard and 

 pleasant fight we had over it,' wrote Jenkin, in 

 later years ; ' and impertinent as it may seem, the 

 pupil is still unconvinced by the arguments of the 

 master.' I do not know about the antagonistic 

 forces in the Doric order ; in Fleeming they were 

 plain enough ; and the Bobadil of these affairs 

 with Dr. Bell was still, like the corrector of Italian 

 consuls, ' a great child in everything but informa- 

 tion.' At the house of Colonel Cleather, he might 

 be seen with a family of children ; and with these, 

 there was no word of the Greek orders ; with these 

 Fleeming was only an uproarious boy and an enter- 

 taining draughtsman ; so that his coming was the 

 signal for the young people to troop into the play- 

 room where sometimes the roof rang with romping. 



