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The possibilities of balanced arrangement being so extensive, susceptible
in fact of the most eccentric and fantastic composition, it follows: that
its adaptability to all forms of presentation disarms argument against it.
In almost every case, when the work of an accomplished painter fails to
convince, through that completeness which of all qualities stands first,
when, after the last word has been said by him, when, nature, in short,
has been satisfied and the work still continues in its feeble state of
insurrection, which many artists will confess it frequently requires years
to quell, it is sure proof that way back in the early construction of such
a picture some element of unbalance had been allowed.

THE NATURAL AXIS

In varying degrees pictures express what may be termed a _natural axis,_
on which their components arrange themselves in balanced composition.
This axis is the visible or imaginary line which the eye accepts
connecting the two most prominent measures or such a line which first
arrests the attention. If there be but one figure, group or measure, and
there be an opening or point of attraction through the background
diverting the vision from such to it, then this line of direction becomes
the axis. The axis does not merely connect two points within the picture,
but pierces it, and the near end of the shaft has much to do with this
balance.

Balance across the centre effects the unity of the picture in its
limitations with its frame. Balance on the axis expresses the natural
balance of the subject as we feel it in nature when it touches us
personally and would connect our spirit with its own.

We discern the former more readily where the subject confronts us with
little depth of background. We get into the movement of the latter when
the reach is far in, and we feel the subject revolving on its pivot and
stretching one arm toward us while the other penetrates the visible or the
unknown distance.

Balance constructed over this line will bring the worker to as unified a
result as the use of the steelyard on the central vertical line.

In this method there is less restraint and when the axis is well marked it
is best to take it. Not every subject develops it however. It is easily
felt in Clairin's portrait of _Sarah Bernhardt,_ the _"__Lady with
Muff,__"_ _"__The Path of the Surf,__"_ and in the line of the _horse,
Indian, and sunset_. When the axis is found, its f