In this case we feel that the group of dots is unbalanced in character and unstable in its position or attitude. It is easy, inevitable indeed, to imagine the group falling away to the right. This is due, no doubt, to the visual habit of imagining a base-line when it is not drawn. Our judgments are constantly made with reference to the imagined standards of verticality and horizontality. We seem to be provided with a plumb-line and a level without being conscious of the fact.
Fig. 37
In this case there is a suggestion of falling down to the left due to the feeling of instability. A symmetrical framing holding the eye at the center of equilibrium would prevent the feeling of movement, provided the framing were sufficiently strong in its attractions. In the examples I have given ([Fig. 36] and [Fig. 37]) we have movement, but no Rhythm.
39. There is another type of movement which we must consider,—the type of movement which is caused by a gradual crowding together of attractions.
Fig. 38
There is nothing in this series of dots but the harmony of corresponding attractions and intervals repeated in a harmony of direction. If, instead of the repetition of equal intervals, we had a regular progression of intervals, either arithmetical or geometrical, we should feel a movement in the direction of diminishing intervals.
Fig. 39