No. 5.] THE ARCHITECTURAL IDEA. 5 11 fected by their bodily presence? How do I perceive different materials, weights, textures, sizes? The whole question of absolute size is open. How am I affected by latent forces? If 'the arch never sleeps,' how does the presence of these forces in every different type of arch affect my perception of it? What is the modification caused, for instance, by the known but hidden presence, or the advertised function, of the flying buttress? What is the secret of our distaste for iron architecture? What is the constitution of the inner harmonies of bridges cantilever, masonry, suspension, the new flattened curves, plastic and otherwise?
Of course I realize fully that I have only scratched the surface; these are but suggestions. I believe, however, that it is by advancing in the direction here indicated, with the determination to get an exhaustive psychological study of the perceptual experience of architectural forms, that the way will open to complete definition of the architectural idea, that element in the full harmony of architectural beauty, the content of that beauty in unity of which we are all immediately and irresistibly conscious.
Ethel Puffer Howes.
