First Principles of Symmetrical Beauty (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from First Principles of Symmetrical Beauty

IT is requisite at the outset, to caution the reader against an error that many seem to have fallen into regarding my former works, namely, the supposition, that in attempting to define the laws of symmetry, upon'which the pr1mary beauty of form depends, and'which is the governing principle in ornamental design, I pretend to glve rules for that kind of beauty which genius alone can produce in works of high' art. But I make no such attempt - as well might it be said of the author of an elementary sclloq'l- book, that in attempting to instruct his young readers in the elements of their mother-tongue, he was pretending to teach them rules for, producing poetical conceptions and other creations of the imagination - as that I, in laying before my readers the first principlesfigsymmetry, am giving rules for the exercise of genius in the arts of design. My object has been, and still is, of a less aspiring, and more practical nature, and all that is attempted in this Treatise, is simply to convey as much instruction regarding the nature of symmetrical beauty and its application to art, as the humblest Work on English Grammar conveys regarding the primary elements of written language and their application to literatu1e, consequently it has no more to do With high art than the spelling-book has to' do with poetry.

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