Here, for example, in Figs. 158 and 159, facing page ([464]), we have the medial man and the Apollo; even to the eye of the observer, they show a marked similarity in proportions. The medial man is very nearly the portrait of an exceedingly handsome young Roman, studied by Viola; this person possessed a great majority of the mean average measurements; but some of his measurements did not correspond to the normal averages, and accordingly Viola had them corrected by an artist under the guidance of anthropological biometry; and the figure thus corrected is represented in the drawing here given. Well, this drawing corresponds perfectly to the proportions of the Apollo.
Consequently, the mean average measurements do not pass unnoticed; it is not alone the anthropological instrument or mathematical reconstruction that reveals them; when presented to the eye of the intelligent man, they notify him that they exist, they arouse in him an æsthetic emotion, they give him the alluring impression of the beautiful.
When the mean average measurements are found accumulated in large numbers in the same person, they render that person the centre of a mysterious fascination, the admiration of all other men.
Now, this coincidence of the beautiful with the average is equivalent to a coincidence of the beautiful with normality. "This unforeseen demonstration," says Viola, "throws a vivid light upon the hitherto obscure problem of the æsthetic sense.... If a man evolves according to normal laws, his proportions arouse an exceptional æsthetic enjoyment."
Anyone having an eye trained to recognise the beautiful, is able through his æsthetic sensations, to pick out normality from the great crowd of biological errors, which is precisely what the scientist does with great weariness of measurements and calculations. In fact, the great artists recognise the beautiful parts of a number of beautiful individuals, and they unite them all together in a single work of art. The Greeks did this, they reconstructed the medial man, on a basis of actual observation, and by extracting all the normalities, all the measurements most prevalent in individuals, and forming from them a single ideal man. The Greek artists were observers; we might call them the positivists in art. Their art is supreme and immortal, because they simultaneously interpreted what is beautiful and what is true in life.
In short, medial measurements are true measurements, actually existing in individuals. No one can acquire a true æsthetic taste by contemplating works of art. The æsthetic sense is trained and refined by observing the truth in nature and by learning to separate instinctively the normal from the erroneous.
No other form of art reproduces the subject so faithfully as the Greek; medieval and modern artists have incarnated their own personal inspiration, without training themselves to that accurate observation which refines the sense of the beautiful, when we are in the presence of the truth, represented by normality, which is the triumph of life.
Accordingly, we may reconstruct the medial man from the truth as found in nature. Within the wide scale of individual variations we pass from men possessing few medial measurements (ugly men) to men possessing many of them (handsome men), and even a majority of such measurements (extremely handsome). Our sensation in the presence of the ugly man is repulsion, biological pain; in the presence of the handsome man we feel an æsthetic contentment, biological pleasure. In this way we take part in the mysterious failures and triumphs of nature, as children in the great family of life.
Now, as Viola says, the individual variations that group themselves symmetrically around the medial measurement may be divided into groups or types, e.g., central, paracentral and eccentric, both above and below the mean.[49] Such types are considered by Viola chiefly from the pathological point of view, or rather, that of the physical constitution and relative predisposition to disease. It is only the central type that has such perfect harmony of parts as to embody the perfection of strength and physical health; as the type diverges from the centre, it steadily loses its power of resistance and becomes less capable of realising a long life.
