The Order of Rhythm
4. By the Order of Rhythm I mean changes of sensation; changes in muscular impressions as we feel them, in sounds as we hear them, in sights as we see them; changes in objects, people, or things as we know them and think of them, changes which induce the feeling or idea of movement, either in the duration of Time or in the extension of Space; provided that the changes take place at regular and marked intervals of time or in regular and marked measures of space. By regular intervals and measures I mean equal or lawfully varying intervals and measures. I do not mean, by Rhythm, changes simply, inducing the sense or idea of movement: I mean, by Rhythm, a regularity of changes in a regularity of measures, with the effect of movement upon our minds.
Rhythms in Time differ from Rhythms in Space, inasmuch as the movement in Time is in one direction, inevitably. It lies in the duration and passing of time, from which nothing escapes. The movement in space, on the contrary, may be in any one of many possible directions. A movement in different directions, particularly in contrary directions, amounts to a negation of movement. In any space-rhythm, therefore, the direction in which the rhythm leads us, the direction in which we follow it, must be unmistakable.
5. Of these three principles of Order, the first and foremost, the most far-reaching and comprehensive, is the principle of Harmony. We have Harmony in all balances, and we have it also in all rhythms. It is, therefore, undesirable to think of the three principles as coördinate. It will be better to think of the principle of Harmony first, and then of two other principles, those of Balance and of Rhythm, as lying within the range of Harmony but not coextensive with it. We might express the idea in a logical diagram.
Within the field of Harmony we have two distinct modes of Order—Balance and Rhythm; but we have Harmony beyond the range of Balance and beyond the range of Rhythm.
In cases where rhythms, corresponding in character and in direction of movement, are set side by side, one on the right, the other on the left, of a vertical axis, so that they balance, one against the other, and the vertical axis of the balance is the line of the movement, we have the union of all three principles. This idea, also, may be expressed in a logical diagram.
Examples of this union of the three principles of Order will be given farther on.