the
mouth is placed on the central line of the face; they have rounded or
angular forms according as they have been built to express strength, a
virile idea, or grace, a feminine one; lastly, they have proportion, for
there is a harmonious relation between their apparent members, and a
mutual dependence which subordinates the variety of the parts to the
unity of the whole, and which constitutes the necessary conditions of
the beautiful in art.

The interior is not subjected to the necessity for duplicate members, to
regularity of facade, nor to unity of appearance. Thus when the artist
who has designed the monument performs its autopsy,--so to say,--we see,
as in the human body, unequal dimensions, irregular shapes, disparities
which resemble disorder to the eye, but which constitute the
individuality of the edifice. Within reigns relative beauty, free, with
fixed rule; without reigns a necessary beauty subjected to its own laws.

In man, character is the soul's expression. In architecture, character
is the moral physiognomy oL a building. As a portrait without character
is but a vain shadow of the person represented, so a monument which does
not appeal to the intelligence, which evokes no thought, is merely a
pile of stones, a body without a soul. The soul of architecture is the
thought it expresses.

Character tends towards beauty in man as well as in his works. If we
glance at human society, we see faces which appear to be nothing more
than a sketch. Parsimonious nature has given them only sufficient life
to move in a narrow circle; they are mere individuals; they represent
nothing but themselves. However, in the midst of the crowd, some men are
noticeable for an abundance of vitality, whom favorable events have
developed along their natural tendencies: they impersonate many
individuals in one; their unity is equal to numbers; for good or evil,
they have a character. In proportion as an individuality becomes more
enriched, more pronounced, it attains character; in proportion as
character loses its roughness it becomes beauty. This is also true of
architecture.

STEEN STEENSEN BLICHER

(1782-1848)

Among the men nearest to the heart of the Danish people is Steen
Steensen Blicher, who was born in 1782 on the border of the Jutland
heath with which his name is so inseparably linked. The descendant of a
line of country parsons, he was destined like them to the ministry, and
while awaiting his appointmen