332 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECrs JOURNAL. 



[NoVEMBEB, 



pos.fihle exhtence of a line perpendicular to a given line, drawn 

 through a given point ; and much ingenious reasoning may be 

 wasted in pri>\ ing that possibility. Yet to make the mere possi- 

 bility (nay, the very necessity) of such a line existing, a condition 

 in tlie hypothesis of a theorem or a datum in a problem, would be 

 contrary to the general practice of geometers. Euclid, at any 

 r'Ate, art ually finiln this perpeiidhndar be^hre he makes the leant use of 

 it. Mr. Browning does not even now profess to have placed his 

 fourth proportional in the same category. M'hat we stated is 

 therefore not yet invalidated ; and our objection retains all its 

 force — even did we grant, wliicli we are not prepared to do, that 

 his proof of the possible existence of this fourth magnitude is free 

 from paralogism. 



2. This obviously stands or falls with the preceding, if viewed 

 under one aspect — that of jilecing our conceptions of things abso- 

 Intclij (the fourth propcu-tional, for instance,) in the same category 

 witli our rojicejitious of the reliitiu)is of actual tilings to one another. 

 The difference between these classes of " conceptions " is, philoso- 

 phically, veiy great. 



It would almost seem that Mr. Browning considers that words 

 are not si/mhols. M'^e are really unaware of any " mental concep- 

 tion" which can l/e expressed in "general symbols," and which 

 cannot be expressed in a verbal form. We fear Mr Browning is a 

 little confused in his views of the objects, and of mental influences 

 and uses, of symbols. 



3. We really cannot see the force of the objection made to the 

 "symbolical form " in which we exhibited Mr. Browning's defi- 

 nition, so long ae he is unable to affirm that one form of it is not 

 essentially different from the principle of that definition — mostly 

 " verbal," as he says. We intended no travestie of his views ; but 

 it does happen to place the question under an aspect very incon- 

 venient for j\lr. Brovvning to deal with. We still think tliat who- 

 ever reads his verbal definition with our symbolical expression of 

 it, will not only acquit us of " unfairness," but be compelled to 

 admit that a more accurate symbolical exhibition of it could not 

 be devised. 



Did we believe Mr. Browning to be capable of intentionally 

 trifling with us, we should be disposed to suspect he intended to do 

 so, in what he here says I'especting " symbols of ratio." It is here 

 that the inconvenience of our symbolical version of Mr. Brown- 

 ing's definition is felt by him. He says, in his letter, that " sym- 

 l)ols which hitherto have been used to represent fractions and 

 whole numbers, will be regarded as sijntljols of ratio in the sense pre- 

 vinushj defined." Of these same symbols he says in his book, 

 " these not being numerical symbols, but symbols of ratio, to 

 which at present arithmetical rules do not apply." Ifhe deny that 

 liis definition involves number, what can the word "fraction" 

 mean? If it be admitted to involve an arithmetical idea, how 

 does he deprive the symbol of ratio of its arithmetical character.'' 

 He must disentangle himself from this dilemma before we can 

 ])roceed another step, and answer the question whether his defi- 

 nition be intended to be arithmetical or not. This was the 

 ground of our former objection ; and, for aught that Mr. Brown- 

 ing has shown, that objection still remains in aU its force.— Ed.] 



THE LAWS OF FORM IN ARCHITECTURE AND 

 ARCHITECTURAL DECORATION. 



1. Form and Sound — can their lienuty be dependent on the same 

 Physical Lav\s? A Critical Ini/uiry dedicated to the President, 

 Council, and Members of the Royal Scotch Society of Arts. By 

 Thomas Pirdie. Edinburgh : A. & C. Black, 1849. 



2. An Impulse to Art; or Ancient Greek Practical Principles for 

 Volutes and Lines of Beauty innunierahle. By Joseph Jopling, 

 Architect. London: Published by tlie Author, 1849. 



Mr. D. R. Hay has praiseworthily devoted himself to tlie subject 

 of decoration, and more particularly to the finding out and striking 

 out of the great laws which govern it. His industry in the publi- 

 cation of many works, we have had occasion to praise, and likewise 

 his spirit of research; but his latter works, although beginning 

 with the most tempting promise, have been carried to a heighth of 

 idealism and mysticism which has much detracted from their useful 

 character. They have not, however, come before us, and although 

 we were desirous of making some remarks on their obvious tend- 

 ency to mislead the student, we have not till now had the oppor- 

 tunity. The development of the simple numerical law of colour, 

 following in the steps of Field, was useful; but the ambition of 

 the author has failed to keep him up in soaring higher. We must 

 conclude that Mr. Hay did not adequately appreciate the result of 

 liis own labours, or he would not so liave miscalculated his powers. 



The application of the numbers 3, 5, and 8, to j'ellow, red, and 

 blue, was good as a formula in mixing and placing colours, but the 

 knowledge of it did not suffice to make a lad a colourist. The 

 determination of three d(miinant sounds in music will not make a 

 composer. Why, then, should Mr. Hay suppose that the elimina- 

 tion of three simple elements of form would make a designer ? 

 The three elementary colours result from light — by their synthesis 

 they make the two modes of white and black. They combine 

 together, and make secondaries and tertiaries. Mr. Hay's elemen- 

 tary forms do not admit of a similar synthesis and combinations. 

 Indeed, no practical result could be expected from an inquiry so 

 conducted. 



We take a diff^erent ground from the writer of the 'Critical In- 

 quiry,' and we therefore contend a priori that there can be no 

 complete comparison between shape and sound, or shape and colour. 

 Points of resemblance there may be, and must be, but identity 

 there cannot be. The objects of sight, hearing, and taste are 

 brought witliin the appreciation of the same nervous centre, but 

 objects of colour, shape, sound, and taste are of different origin. 

 Things seen have three modifications — shape, light-shade, colour. 

 Wliat have things heard, tasted, or smelt? 'I'hings touched have 

 several modifications. Colours, as the elementary constituents of 

 one object — light— have a greater degree of simplicity; but shapes 

 are not the elementary constituents of one object : and even the 

 researches of the crystallographer do not show that circles are 

 generated from squares, or ellijises from triangles — the research is 

 useless. Colour is the limited attribute of one class, — heat is a 

 limited attribute, — sound is a limited attribute : but form is un- 

 limited. Whatever the shades of difference, and they are slight, 

 there is a oneness, a greater sameness, spreading through the 

 works and schools of painting from all time, than there is of those 

 of architecture. To quote loosely, — 



O ! nimium fuvlunali, si sua n6rint bona ; 



how happy would architects be if they did but avail themselves of 

 the resources of their art. The schools of architecture have great 

 and essential differences, — how unlike are the Parthenon and the 

 Alhambra, York Minster and a Teocalli ! To compare the modi- 

 fications of I'orm with those of colour is truly magiui componere 

 parvis — a giant is matched with a dwarf, and the former is thereby 

 dishonoured. 



Because nature in simple things is simple, and because the capa- 

 city of man is limited, so is there a school of philosophy which 

 toils to bring all things down to simplicity, — as if the attributes of 

 nature were to be so limited. The universe is reduced to homo- 

 geneous atoms; man is developed from a zoophyte, a cryptogam, or 

 a non-fossiliferous rock; the solar system is traced to circles and 

 spheres; all nature is brought down to one socialist standard. 

 These are various forms of humbug which figure in the garb of 

 philosophy, and by the teaching of which art is more or less hurt- 

 fully affected. 



To bound the field of artistic exertion is to bound the artist's 

 powers : give him the ambition of a Phidias to reach even to 

 heaven, and he will strive for godlike works; but the strength of 

 a Sampson, while yoked in a mill-track, will only grind the same 

 meal and bran. We tlierefore earnestly deplore those works which 

 have the tendency of limiting the circumscriptions of ai-t, and feel 

 the greater interest in books, like those of Mr. Jopling, which 

 teach the infinite variety of the resources of art. Mr. Jopling 

 steadfastly contends that circles and ellipses are not the be-all and 

 end-all of art, but that the number of beautiful curves is endless, 

 and the mode of executing them easy.* It is evident he is no 

 patron of the pseudo-geometrical decoration of the great hall of 

 the Society of Arts. 



Mr. Purdie was not able to listen calmly to Mr. Hay's papers 

 on 'Form and Sound,' read before the Scotch Society of Arts, and 

 he therefore claimed the right to review them at length in other 

 papers before the Society; and this being demurred to, he has 

 rushed into print. Tlie metapliysics of the subject he has treated 

 rather loosely, and left many points unelucidated; but he has con- 

 tested, with great success, the practical application of Mr. Hay's 

 doctrines. 



Of late, strong testimonials have been given by men of high 

 standing and pretensions, to Mr. Hay's scheme for mapping out 

 the human figure; and if we believed what we read, we could hold 

 no doubt of its entire success as a substitute for the study of ana- 

 tomy. Painters of the ]>resent day are lazy enough as it is, and 

 they may not be disinclined to avail themselves of a method which 

 promises to revive Albert Durer's empirical proportions, and Sir 



* We learo that the Board of Trade, through the Instrutnentaiity of Mr. Stafford 

 Nonhcote, ]iave ordered several copies of the * Impulse to Art,' f^r the Schools ot' 

 Design. 



