lse; and many other
architectural effects can be interpreted in the same way.

Empathy can perhaps explain the appeal of the _big_ in art and nature.
In spite of the warnings put forth against thinking of mere bigness as
great or fine, we must admit that size makes a very strong appeal to
something in human nature. The most perfect miniature model of a
cathedral, however interesting and attractive as it rests on the table
before you, fails to make anything like the impression that is made by
the giant building towering above you. Big trees, lofty cliffs, grand
canyons, tremendous waterfalls, huge banks of clouds, the illimitable
expanse of the sea, demonstrate cogently the strong appeal of the big.
Perhaps the big is not necessarily grand, but the grand or sublime
must be big or somehow suggest bigness. The question is, then, what it
is in us that responds to the appeal of the big.

{516}

Perhaps it is the submissive tendency that is aroused. This great
mountain, so far outclassing me that I am not tempted in the least to
compete with it, affords me the joy of willing submission. The escape
motive may come in along with submissiveness--at the first sight of
the mountain a thrill of fear passes over me, but I soon realize that
the mountain will not hurt me in spite of its awe-inspiring vastness;
so that my emotion is blended of the thrill of fear, the relief of
escape, and the humble joy of submission. That is one analysis of the
esthetic effect of bigness.

Empathy suggests a very different analysis. According to this,
projecting myself into the mountain, identifying myself with it, I
experience the sensation of how it feels to be a mountain. It feels
big--I feel big. My mastery impulse is gratified. To decide between
these two opposing interpretations ought to be possible from the
behavior or introspection of a person in the presence of some big
object. If he feels insignificant and humble and bows reverently
before the object, we may conclude that the submissive tendency is in
action; but if the sight of the grand object makes him feel strong and
fine, if he throws out his chest and a gleam comes into his eye, then
everything looks like the mastery motive. Quite possibly, the effect
varies with the person and the occasion.

We have to think of art as a great system or collection of inventions
that owes its existence to its appeal to human nature, and that has
found ways, as its history has progressed, of making