DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18825#0284
LEC. VIII.] PROPORTIONS OF THE FIGURE. 1Q5
gancies and delights of society, esteemed a mere
blank ? Forbid it heaven !—I confess, in the man-
ners of some men there is a redundant proportion of
brute, but that they are therefore more laudable, is
not I believe generally understood ; on the contrary,
were it possible to reclaim them by proper repre-
sentation, it would be time well bestowed by any
Metaphysician, ancient, or modern.
Not to digress further from the immediate subject
of this discourse, we proceed, according to our plan,
to consider the proportions, and some of the proper-
ties of the figure.
I design, first, to notice the method of measuring
the figure, which is bv a scale either—of heads,—
or of faces. We usually consider a figure as being,
in height, seven heads and an half, or ten faces; for,
a head containing four measures of the nose, -of
which a face contains but three, it is evident, that
ten faces, or seven and a half heads, are exactly
equal in length.
We formerly measured the head by a part of it-
self, the nose ; we desire also to measure the figure
by apart of itself: for this purpose some have se-
lected the foot, measured along the sole from the heel
to the end of the toes; and hence our ordinary mea-
sure of a foot had its rise : indeed, the natural stan-
dard for measures of length, seems to be some part
selected from the human figure : the cubit, if the
cubit was originally', (as is thought,) the lengtli of the
fore arm and hand extended, seems a clear instance ?
and the idea of measuring by the foot seems to be
no less natural and easv.
J
C c 2 VlTKUVIUS
gancies and delights of society, esteemed a mere
blank ? Forbid it heaven !—I confess, in the man-
ners of some men there is a redundant proportion of
brute, but that they are therefore more laudable, is
not I believe generally understood ; on the contrary,
were it possible to reclaim them by proper repre-
sentation, it would be time well bestowed by any
Metaphysician, ancient, or modern.
Not to digress further from the immediate subject
of this discourse, we proceed, according to our plan,
to consider the proportions, and some of the proper-
ties of the figure.
I design, first, to notice the method of measuring
the figure, which is bv a scale either—of heads,—
or of faces. We usually consider a figure as being,
in height, seven heads and an half, or ten faces; for,
a head containing four measures of the nose, -of
which a face contains but three, it is evident, that
ten faces, or seven and a half heads, are exactly
equal in length.
We formerly measured the head by a part of it-
self, the nose ; we desire also to measure the figure
by apart of itself: for this purpose some have se-
lected the foot, measured along the sole from the heel
to the end of the toes; and hence our ordinary mea-
sure of a foot had its rise : indeed, the natural stan-
dard for measures of length, seems to be some part
selected from the human figure : the cubit, if the
cubit was originally', (as is thought,) the lengtli of the
fore arm and hand extended, seems a clear instance ?
and the idea of measuring by the foot seems to be
no less natural and easv.
J
C c 2 VlTKUVIUS