PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED 



of items are all taken up and repeated in 

 the body as nerve and muscle tensions ; but 

 they are at the same time blended into one 

 complex of experience, — into one single 

 result, — the total effect of the picture. 

 Now, when these various tensions, pulling 

 in all directions, balance one another, there 

 is produced a state of nervous and mus- 

 cular equilibrium or rest. And it is pre- 

 cisely this state of equilibrium in a highly 

 excited muscular and nervous system that 

 gives the organic effect of beauty. And 

 the beautiful object is the one which will 

 produce all these tensions in the highest 

 degree and which will at the same time 

 produce them with such place and direction 

 that they will all fall into a state of 

 perfect equilibrium. 



As it is a matter of considerable im- 

 portance, especially to the artist (painter, 

 architect, or landscape gardener), to know 

 by what means the effect of beauty is 

 realized, it may pay us to look at the whole 

 subject for a few minutes from another 

 point of view. My students come to my 

 classes in landscape gardening without any 

 previous preparation in psychology, and I 

 am accustomed to present this matter to 



279 



