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Who can frame thy brilliant symmetry?

By Jim Chen

Kelly J. Bozanic, a student blogger at Red Lion Reports, has posted a truly beautiful item called More than skin deep:

Beauty speaks to the genetic disposition of an individual, and [a recent University of New Mexico] study suggests that intelligence can be accurately predicted solely based on appearance. . . . What makes an individual objectively attractive has occupied our minds for centuries. Countless previous studies of what constitutes beauty have found that symmetry is the key factor; the most recognizable illustration of this is Leonardo Da Vinci?s Vitruvian Man. The Golden Ratio, Fibonacci Sequence and Divine Proportion all indicate the same thing: There is a formula for symmetry in nature and those who closely follow this formula are beautiful.

Ah, symmetry. The prospect that symmetry reflects not only beauty but also intelligence strikes a fearful chord. Perhaps no work has captured this fear as vividly as William Blake, The Tyger, Songs of Experience (ca. 1794):

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night. What Immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire? And what shoulder, and what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart begin to beat, What dread hand? and what dread feet? What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? When the stars threw down their spears, And water'd heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the lamb make thee? Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the forests of the night. What Immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright

Full post as published by Jurisdynamics on February 27, 2008 (boomark / email).