that should stand out, now recedes into the background and 

 vice versa. The impression of a vertical symmetrical figure thus 

 would result from the circumstance that the right eye sees 

 the right part of the figure in just the same way as the left eye 

 sees the left part of it. The effect of vertical symmetry of this 

 kind would really be an intensifying of the single impression, and 

 would therefore be immediately noticed by us. 



However, the question seems to be much more complicated than 

 Mach supposes. For it is wellknown that also in the case of persons 

 born blind, often a rather developed sense for symmetry has been 

 observed, which evidently seems to have developed in connection 

 with their sense for touch. It thus appears highly probable that the 

 peculiar preference for vertical symmetry is intimately connected 

 with the movement of the extremities 1 ), and would thus finally 

 be explained by the vertical symmetry of the body as a whole. 

 Mach himself brings forward against his own explanation of the 

 above mentioned preference for vertical symmetrical figures, an 

 argument which seems unjustified in this connection, by pointing 

 to the fact that our hearing-apparatus too has a vertical plane of 

 symmetry, and notwithstanding this the melody and its ' 'mirror- 

 image" as played on a suitably arranged piano, will absolutely 

 differ from each other acoustically. For the right ear does not hear 

 the sound-waves in any way other than the left ear does, so that 

 the comparison with the case of visual observation is evidently 

 a wrong one. 



However, the explanation which connects the established prefe- 

 rence -for vertical symmetrical figures with the vertical symmetry 

 of the body and the movement of the extremities, cannot be 

 considered to give a final explanation of the aesthetic action of 

 the symmetrical arrangement in general. In fig. 2 on page 3 we 

 have a symmetrical figure which does not possess any planes 

 of symmetry whatsoever; notwithstanding this, the aesthetic im- 

 pression is undeniably present here. This leads to the conclusion 

 that this action is merely caused by the fact of the regular repetition 

 as such. In my opinion the influence of this is a double one. For 

 in the first place this repetition helps to intensify the primary 



*) Mach suggests that our ability to discern right and left, might perhaps be 

 based upon a slight asymmetry of our senses of motion; cf. : "Die Analyse der 

 Empfindungen", 2e Aufl., (1900), pag. 82. 



