but proceeds from certain ones which are focal and commanding to others
which are of lesser interest. And the dominant elements are not only
superior in significance; they are, in addition, representative of the
whole; in them, its value is concentrated; they are the key by means
of which its structure can be understood. They are like good rulers
in a constitutional state, who are at once preeminent members of the
community and signal embodiments of the common will. Anything which
distinguishes and makes representative of the whole serves to make
dominant. In a well-constructed play there are one or more characters
which are central to the action, in whom the spirit and problem of the
piece are embodied, as Hamlet in _Hamlet_ and Brand in _Brand_; in every
plot there is the catastrophe or turning point, for which every
preceding incident is a preparation, and of which every following one is
a consequent; in a melody there is the keynote; in the larger
composition there are the one or more themes whose working out is the
piece; in a picture there are certain elements which especially attract
the attention, about which the others are composed. In the more complex
rhythms, in meters, for example, the elements are grouped around the
accented ones. In an aesthetic whole there are certain qualities and
positions which, because of their claim upon the attention, tend to make
dominant any elements which possess them. In space-forms the center and
the edges are naturally places of preeminence. The eye falls first upon
the center and then is drawn away to the boundaries. In old pictures,
the Madonna or Christ is placed in the center and the angels near the
perimeter; in fancy work it is the center and the border which women
embroider. In time, the beginning, middle, and end are the natural
places of importance; the beginning, because there the attention is
fresh and expectant; towards the middle, because there we tend to rest,
looking backward to the commencement and forward to the end; the end
itself, because being last in the mind, its hold upon the memory is