House & Garden 
THB LAW OF CONSONANCE,! REPETITION WITH VARIATION 
THE, DOME, OF THE THE SMALL DOMES 
CATHEDRAL OF 2 PREPARE THE EYEFOfG 
FLORENCE. I THE GREAT DOME 
CORINTHIAN CAPITAL AND 
ENTABLATURE. SHOWING 
CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN 
THEIR) VARIOUS PARTS. 
THE BEAD AND REEL 
ECHO THE EGG AND 
TONGUE 
THE CHANNELED TRI- 
GLYPHS ABOVE ECHO 
THE COLUMNS BELOW 
due to accident or carelessness, Ruskin long 
ago discovered, and the more recent Brooklyn 
Institute surveys under Professor Goodyear 
have amply confirmed his view. Although 
by this means the builders of that day 
produced effects of deceptive perspective, 
of subtle concord and contrast, their hatred 
of monotony and meaningless repetition 
may very well have led them to such 
diversity for its own sake. It certainly 
imparts a sense of vitality to a succession of 
arches, which is lacking in a rigidly equal 
and regular division. 
There is in nature a universal tendency 
towards refinement and compactness of form 
in space, or contrary wise towards increment 
and diffusion ; and this in time manifests itself 
as acceleration or retardation. It is governed, 
in either case, by a known mathematical law, 
like the law of falling bodies. Its operation 
may be traced in the widening circles which 
appear when still water is disturbed, in the 
diminishing spirals of a shell, in the branching 
of a tree and the veinings of a leaf, no less 
than in the decreasing sizes of the pipes of 
an organ, or in the spacing of the frets of a 
guitar. There appears to be no escape 
from this rhythmic diminution. It is in the 
eye itself, for any series of mathematically 
equal units, such, for example, as the 
columns and intercolumniations of a colon- 
THE ELEMENTS OF GOTHIC CO 
AND OF CLASSIC(2) ARCHITECTURE 
nade, become, when seen in perspective, 
rhythmically unequal. The entasis of a 
column is determined by this law; the spiral 
of an Ionic volute, and the annulets of the 
Parthenon caps variously illustrate it. In 
recognition of this principle a building is 
often made to grow lighter and finer from 
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