Exp.  V. Curve IV.  See Fig. 12, IV.

    Curve in.

    (a) F. (80x10), V. Curve.

    C puts V. always further than F. and, even for F. 200, has
    V. 230, X. O puts V. farther up to F. 120, then puts it
    nearer than F., and always refuses to choose for F. 200.

    (b) F. Curve, V. (80x10).

    C always puts V. nearer than F. O puts V. farther for F.
    40 and F. 80, beyond that, nearer than F.; but refuses to
    choose once each for F. 40, and F. 200.

The same principles of choice appear. C maintains the mechanical choice, and O reverses it only beyond (a) F. 120, and up to (b) F. 120, to fill space well, showing his preference for the mechanical choice by changing into it at an unusually early point.

Exp.  V. Curve V. See Fig. 12, V.

    Curve in.

    (a) F. (80x10), V. Curve.

    C puts V. farther than F., except for F. 200, V. 125 and X.
    O also, changing as usual at F. 120 to V. nearer than F.

    (b) F. Curve, V. (80x10).

    O puts V. always farther than F. O has V. farther for F.
    40 and F. 80, then nearer than F. Refuses to choose for F.
    200.  Results exactly parallel with those of Curve IV.

Comparing all the results of this whole series of experiments on the suggestion of movement, we may conclude that movement, whether suggested by a whole line or part of a line, produces in terms of mechanical balance the same effect that the balanced object would produce after the completion of the suggested motion.  This tendency to balance, it appears, lies at the basis of our preference; it often gives way, however, before considerations of space-filling, when the figure which on the scheme of mechanical balance is weaker, gains interest and so ‘heaviness’ by being brought nearer the center.

D.  Experiments on Interest.

By intrinsic interest is meant the interest which would attach to an object quite apart from its place in the space composition.  In a picture it would be represented by the interest in an important person, in an unusual object, or in an especially beautiful object, if that beauty were independent of the other forms in the picture—­as, for instance, a lovely face, or a jeweled goblet, etc.  When the question of the influence of interest on composition came to be discussed, it was found very difficult to abstract the form of the object from the content presented; still more difficult to obtain an effect of interest at all without the entrance of an element of form into the space arrangement.  Disembodied intellectual interest was the problem, and the device finally adopted seemed to present, in as indifferent a form as possible, a content whose low degree of absolute interest was compensated for