Men follow their noses, it is said. I have wondered why the Greek did
not follow his nose in architecture,--did not copy those arches that
spring from it as from a pier, and support his brow,--but always and
everywhere used the post and the lintel. There was something in that
face that has never reappeared in the human countenance. I am thinking
especially of that straight, strong profile. Is it really godlike, or
is this impression the result of association? But any suggestion or
reminiscence of it in the modern face at once gives one the idea of
strength. It is a face strong in the loins, or it suggests a high,
elastic instep. It is the face of order and proportion. Those arches are
the symbols of law and self-control. The point of greatest interest is
the union of the nose with the brow,--that strong, high embankment;
it makes the bridge from the ideal to the real sure and easy. All the
Greek's ideas passed readily into form. In the modern face the arches
are more or less crushed, and the nose is severed from the brow,--hence
the abstract and the analytic; hence the preponderance of the
speculative intellect over creative power.