In cases where rhythms, corresponding in character and in direction of movement, are set side by side, one on the right, the other on the left, of a vertical axis, so that they balance, one against the other, and the vertical axis of the balance is the line of the movement, we have the union of all three principles. This idea, also, may be expressed in a logical diagram.
Fig. 2
Examples of this union of the three principles of Order will be given farther on.
BEAUTY A SUPREME INSTANCE
OF ORDER
6. I refrain from any reference to Beauty as a principle of Design. It is not a principle, but an experience. It is an experience which defies analysis and has no explanation. We distinguish it from all other experiences. It gives us pleasure, perhaps the highest pleasure that we have. At the same time it is idle to talk about it, or to write about it. The less said about it the better. “It is beautiful,” you say. Then somebody asks, “Why is it beautiful?” There is no answer to that question. You say it is beautiful because it gives you pleasure: but other things give you pleasure which are not beautiful. Pleasure is, therefore, no criterion of Beauty. What is the pleasure which Beauty gives? It is the pleasure which you have in the sense of Beauty. That is all you can say. You cannot explain either the experience or the kind of pleasure which it gives you.
While I am quite unable to give any definition or explanation of Beauty, I know where to look for it, where I am sure to find it. The Beautiful is revealed, always, so far as I know, in the forms of Order, in the modes of Harmony, of Balance, or of Rhythm. While there are many instances of Harmony, Balance, and Rhythm which are not particularly beautiful, there is, I believe, nothing really beautiful which is not orderly in one or the other, in two, or in all three of these modes. In seeking the Beautiful, therefore, we look for it in instances of Order, in instances of Harmony, Balance, and Rhythm. We shall find it in what may be called supreme instances. This is perhaps our nearest approach to a definition of Beauty: that it is a supreme instance of Order, intuitively felt, instinctively appreciated.
THE ARTS AS DIFFERENT MODES
OF EXPRESSION
7. The Arts are different forms or modes of expression: modes of feeling, modes of thought, modes of action. There are many Arts in which different terms of expression, different materials, different methods are used. The principal Arts are (1) Gymnastics, including Dancing, (2) Music, (3) Speech, spoken and written, (4) Construction with all kinds of materials, (5) Sculpture, including Modeling and Carving, (6) Drawing and Painting. These are the principal Arts, but there are many others, more or less connected with them. Design comes into all of these Arts, bringing Order, in some cases Beauty.