In this case we have not only symmetrical balance on a vertical axis but movement, in the upward and rapid convergence of the sides BA and CA toward the angle A. The question may be raised whether the movement, in this case, is up from the side BC to the angle A or down from the angle A toward the side BC. I think that the reader will agree that the movement is from the side BC into the angle A. In this direction the eye is more definitely guided. The opposite movement from A toward BC is a movement in diverging directions which the eye cannot follow to any distance. As the distance from BC toward A decreases, the convergence of the sides BA and CA is more and more helpful to the eye and produces the feeling of movement. The eye finds itself in a smaller and smaller space, with a more and more definite impulse toward A. It is a question whether the movement from BC toward A is rhythmical or not. The movement is not connected with any marked regularity of measures. I am inclined to think, however, that the gradual and even change of measures produces the feeling of equal changes in equal measures. If so, the movement is rhythmical.
When the movement of the eye in any convergence is a movement in regular and marked measures, as in the example which follows, the movement is rhythmical, without doubt.
Fig. 182
The upward movement in this outline, being regulated by measures which are marked and equal, the movement is certainly rhythmical, according to our understanding and definition of Rhythm. Comparing [Fig. 181] with [Fig. 182], the question arises, whether the movement in [Fig. 182] is felt to be any more rhythmical than the movement in [Fig. 181]. The measures of the movement in [Fig 181] are not marked, but I cannot persuade myself that they are not felt in the evenness of the gradation. The movement in [Fig. 181] is easier than it is in [Fig. 182], when the marking of the measures interferes with the movement.
Fig. 183
In this case we have another illustration like [Fig. 182], only the measures of the rhythm are differently marked. The force of the convergence is greatest in [Fig. 181]. It is somewhat diminished by the measure-marks in [Fig. 182]. It is still further diminished, in [Fig. 183], by the angles that break the measures.
Fig. 184