DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4423#0070
THE APPARENT PROPORTIONS. w
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
It is only by continued researches that we arrive at any knowledge of the general laws of
nature; the laws that have been discovered either in Chemistry or in Astronomy have been
obtained by deducing general principles from a few well observed facts.
The eye alone could never convey any idea of the definite proportions that exist between
the elements composing any given substance, nor could the eye discover in the movement of
the Planets, the proportions that exist in each orbit between the areas described and the time
of describing them; when by investigation we obtain a knowledge of these laws, and are able
mentally to perceive the harmony and the exact proportions in which the several parts of the
Universe are linked together, we feel an intellectual pleasure, arising perhaps from an original
impression on our own minds of what appear to be the essential attributes of a perfect work:
certain it is, that we feel a pleasure in the discovering of exact proportions and perfect
mathematical forms in any portion of nature, and, such being the constitution of our minds,
it is natural to us, in the conception of any work of Art possessing the three dimensions of
length, breadth, and depth, to conceive the design perfect both in proportion and in form.
To be perfect in proportion, the several parts composing the design should all apparently
combine in definite and exact proportions according to some general principles of arrangement.
To be perfect in form, every fine, both straight and curved, in the design should be conceived
to be traced with mathematical accuracy.
But a work of Art is not merely a mental conception; it must be executed: and the
Art is to convey our own impression with mathematical precision to the minds of all who
contemplate it through the medium of the executed work, the eye being the channel through
which the idea of the Architect must pass from the executed work to the minds of others.
Now a principle in Euclid's " Theory of Apparent Magnitudes " (see his work upon
Optics) is that we judge of the magnitude of an object altogether by the magnitude of the
optical angle. This principle is true when limited to the several magnitudes composing a work
of Architecture, viewed, as the work must be, from some fixed point, and at a sufficient distance
for the eye to embrace the whole extent of the design.
From this fixed point the magnitudes of the several members of the work are measured
by the visual angles, and if these apparent magnitudes, measured in degrees and minutes upon
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
It is only by continued researches that we arrive at any knowledge of the general laws of
nature; the laws that have been discovered either in Chemistry or in Astronomy have been
obtained by deducing general principles from a few well observed facts.
The eye alone could never convey any idea of the definite proportions that exist between
the elements composing any given substance, nor could the eye discover in the movement of
the Planets, the proportions that exist in each orbit between the areas described and the time
of describing them; when by investigation we obtain a knowledge of these laws, and are able
mentally to perceive the harmony and the exact proportions in which the several parts of the
Universe are linked together, we feel an intellectual pleasure, arising perhaps from an original
impression on our own minds of what appear to be the essential attributes of a perfect work:
certain it is, that we feel a pleasure in the discovering of exact proportions and perfect
mathematical forms in any portion of nature, and, such being the constitution of our minds,
it is natural to us, in the conception of any work of Art possessing the three dimensions of
length, breadth, and depth, to conceive the design perfect both in proportion and in form.
To be perfect in proportion, the several parts composing the design should all apparently
combine in definite and exact proportions according to some general principles of arrangement.
To be perfect in form, every fine, both straight and curved, in the design should be conceived
to be traced with mathematical accuracy.
But a work of Art is not merely a mental conception; it must be executed: and the
Art is to convey our own impression with mathematical precision to the minds of all who
contemplate it through the medium of the executed work, the eye being the channel through
which the idea of the Architect must pass from the executed work to the minds of others.
Now a principle in Euclid's " Theory of Apparent Magnitudes " (see his work upon
Optics) is that we judge of the magnitude of an object altogether by the magnitude of the
optical angle. This principle is true when limited to the several magnitudes composing a work
of Architecture, viewed, as the work must be, from some fixed point, and at a sufficient distance
for the eye to embrace the whole extent of the design.
From this fixed point the magnitudes of the several members of the work are measured
by the visual angles, and if these apparent magnitudes, measured in degrees and minutes upon