e
between the balancing parts. Stand before a mirror; hold your arms in
precisely the same position at each side, your head upright, your body
straight; divide your hair exactly in the middle and get it as nearly as
you can into exactly the same shape over each ear; and you will see the
effect of accurate symmetry: you will see, no less, how all grace and
power in the human form result from the interference of motion and life
with symmetry, and from the reconciliation of its balance with its
changefulness. Your position, as seen in the mirror, is the highest type
of symmetry as understood by modern architects.

199. In many sacred compositions, living symmetry, the balance of
harmonious opposites, is one of the profoundest sources of their power:
almost any works of the early painters, Angelico, Perugino, Giotto,
etc., will furnish you with notable instances of it. The Madonna of
Perugino in the National Gallery, with the angel Michael on one side and
Raphael on the other, is as beautiful an example as you can have.

In landscape, the principle of balance is more or less carried out, in
proportion to the wish of the painter to express disciplined calmness.
In bad compositions, as in bad architecture, it is formal, a tree on one
side answering a tree on the other; but in good compositions, as in
graceful statues, it is always easy and sometimes hardly traceable. In
the Coblentz, however, you cannot have much difficulty in seeing how the
boats on one side of the tower and the figures on the other are set in
nearly equal balance; the tower, as a central mass, uniting both.

3. THE LAW OF CONTINUITY.

200. Another important and pleasurable way of expressing unity, is by
giving some orderly succession to a number of objects more or less
similar. And this succession is most interesting when it is connected
with some gradual change in the aspect or character of the objects. Thus
the succession of the pillars of a cathedral aisle is most interesting
when they retire in perspective, becoming more and more obscure in
distance: so the succession of mountain promontories one behind another,
on the flanks of a valley; so the succession of clouds, fading farther
and farther towards the horizon; each promontory and each cloud being of
different shape, yet all evidently following in a calm and appointed
order. If there be no change at all in the shape or size of the objects,
there is no continuity; there is only repetition--monoto