d loveth none but him who dwelleth with Wisdom.

'For she is more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of
the stars; being compared with the light, she is found before it.

'For after this cometh the night,--but no evil can overcome
Wisdom.'

Again:

'The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made
anything from the beginning.

'I was set up from Eternity, and of old before the earth was made.

'The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived; neither
had the fountains of the waters as yet sprung out:

'The mountains with their huge bulk had not yet been established;
before the hills I was brought forth:

'He had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of
the world.

'When He prepared the heavens I was present; when with a certain
law and compass He enclosed the depths:

'When He established the sky above, and poised the fountains of
waters:

'When He compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the
waters that they should not pass their limits: when he weighed the
foundations of the earth.

'I was with Him forming all things: and was delighted every day,
playing before Him at all times;

'Playing in the world: _and my delights were to be with the
children of men_.'--PROVERBS.

As Order has been considered the symbol of Divine Wisdom, Symmetry has
been regarded as the type of Divine Justice. In all beautiful things
there is found the opposition of one part to another, while a reciprocal
balance must be obtained or suggested. In animals the balance is
generally between opposite sides; in the vegetable world it is less
distinct, as in the boughs on the opposite sides of trees; it often
amounts only to a certain tendency toward a balance, as in the opposite
sides of valleys and the alternate windings of streams. In things in
which perfect symmetry is, from their nature, impossible or improper, a
balance must be in some measure expressed before they can be
contemplated with pleasure. _Absolute equality_ is not required, still
less _absolute similarity_.

Symmetry must not be confounded with Proportion. Symmetry is the
opposition of _equal_ quantities; proportion is the due connection of
_unequal_ quantities with each other. A tree, in sending out equal
boughs on opposite sides, is symmetrical; in sending out smaller boughs
towar