we have made our living. Now, children, which is better, a living in the city, which I must earn for you all, or a living in the country, toward which even Bobsey can do his share? living, and of laying up something for a rainy day. The chief item of profit from our farm, however, is not down in my account-book, but is to be found in your sturdier forms and in Mousie's "A living in the country," was the prompt red cheeks. More than all, we believe that you chorus. are better and healthier at heart than you were a year ago. "Well, children, Mamma and I agree with you," I said. "And there was n't a good opportunity for me to get ahead in the city, or to earn a large salary. Here, by pulling all together, there is almost a certainty of our earning more than a bare "Now for the New Year! Let us make the best and most of it, and ask God to help us." And so my simple history ends in glad content and hope. made smaller than the lower half to correct the fault of the eye, which always slightly exaggerates the former. When the letter is turned over, as in Figure 5, this same trick of the sight makes the difference seem greater than it really is; and, of course, were it of the same width all the way, it would still look uneven. In greater matters, the false report of the eye is greater. If a tapering monument, like that on Bunker Hill or like the Obelisk in Central Park, were made with perfectly straight sides, it would -- FIG. 4. look to us -for, you see, we really can not trust our own eyes-as if it were hollowed in a little; or, as we should say in more scientific language, its sides would appear concave. You can understand therefore that if an architect wished his building to have a certain appearance, he might be forced to build it according to lines that differed from those of his completed drawing; for if it were built exactly as he wished it to appear, it would not, when finished, present that desired appearance. If he wished a pillar to look straight, he must not make it perfectly true, S or it would have the effect of being concave; and similarly, for other shapes and parts I might mention; so that the problem of having buildings look as they should is a far more puzzling matter than one might at first suppose. Those clever Greeks, who did so many marvelous things in art, thought all this out, and made their architecture upon principles so subtle and so comprehensive that we have never been able to improve on them since. Their senses were so well trained, and their taste so perfect, that they would have everything exactly right. There was no S FIG. 5. near enough" in their art. They aimed at perfection, and nothing short of that satisfied them. They found that their beautiful Doric columns, if made with straight sides, had the concave effect of which I have spoken; and so, with the most delicate art in the world, they made the pillar swell a little at the middle, and then it appeared exactly right. A pillar instead of being, for instance, of the shape it was to appear, as shown by the solid lines of Figure 6, would really be more like the form indicated by the dotted lines, -only that I have greatly exaggerated the difference, in order to make it plain. FIG. 6. slight that it can only be detected by delicate measurements; but it added greatly to the beauty of the columns and to their effectiveness. Then the lines which were to look horizontal had to receive attention. If you look at a long, perfectly level line, as the edge of a roof, for instance, it has the appearance of sagging toward the middle. The Greek architect corrected this fault by making his lines rise a little. The front of the Parthenon, at Athens, is one hundred and one feet three and a half inches long, and, in this, the rise from the horizontal is about two and one eighth inches. In other words, there is a curvature upward that makes it a little more than two inches higher in the center than at the ends, and the effect of this swelling upward is to make the line appear perfectly level. In deed, this same Parthenon,-the most beauThis swelling of the column at its middle was tiful building in the world,-when delicately and called entasis. RUINS OF THE PARTHENON-WEST FRONT. Of course it had to be calculated | carefully measured was found to be everywhere made with the greatest nicety, and was actually so very a little incorrect, so that it may appear right, which THE PARTHENON AT ATHENS. col is certainly what made to look broader angled, and lines are to the eye. This is rather a hard subject to explain simply, but if I have succeeded in making it plain. to you, it will give you an idea of the wonderful skill and art of the Greek builders. It is hardly possible to conceive anything more perfect and careful than their work; and the more closely one studies into their art, the more ready is he to wonder at the wisdom and skill of those clever Greeks. |
