Polarity in Nature and Art 
I'he Kngl ish words, masculine and feminine, 
are too intimately associated with the idea of 
physical sex to properly designate the terms 
oi this polarity. In Japanese philosophy 
and art the two are called In and To {In, 
feminine : To, masculine). These little 
words, being free from the partial and limited 
vertical reeds which so often grow in still, 
shallow water have their complementary in 
the curved lily-pads which lie horizontally 
upon its surface. Trees such as the pine and 
hemlock, which are excurrent ,—those in 
which the branches start successively from a 
straight and vertical central stem,—are To. 
CORINTHIAN MODILUON 
CLASSIC 
CONSOLE 
A-VO 
IONIC 
CAP W W 
IN 
meanings ol their English correlatives, will 
be found convenient, To to designate that 
which is simple, direct, primary, active, posi¬ 
tive ; and In that which is complex, indirect, 
derivative, passive, negative. 'Things hard, 
straight, fixed, vertical are To : things soft, 
curved, horizontal, fluctuating are In. 
Nowhere are 
the two more 
simply and ade¬ 
quately imaged 
than in the vege¬ 
table kingdom. 
The trunk of a 
tree is To, its 
foliage In; and 
in each stem and 
leaf they are re¬ 
peated. A calla, 
consisting of a 
single straight and rigid spadix embraced by 
a soft and tenderly curved spathe, affords a 
perfect expression of the characteristic differ¬ 
ences between To and In and their reciprocal 
relation to each other. The two are not 
often combined in such simplicity and per¬ 
fection in a single form. 'The straight and 
'Trees such as the elm and willow, which are 
deliquescent, —those in which the trunk splits 
up simultaneously as it were into branches, 
—are In. All tree forms lie in or between 
these two extremes, and leaves are suscep¬ 
tible of a similar classification. 
'The beauty of any architectural form 
depends not 
alone upon 
the perfection 
with which it 
expresses its 
peculiar nature 
and function, 
but upon the 
perfection with 
which it ex¬ 
presses this 
universal nature 
as well. It is 
easy to show in what manner many admirable 
architectural forms have been developed 
simply through necessity, and that every 
increase in their fitness marked a correspond¬ 
ing increase in their beauty ; but there remain 
many others whose undying charm cannot 
be accounted for in any such manner. The 
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