Transcribed from the 1872 William Hunt and Company edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org _THE PROPORTIONS OF TRUTH_. * * * * * BY THE REV. EDWARD HOARE, M.A. _Vicar of Trinity Church_, _Tunbridge Wells_, _and Honorary Canon of Canterbury_. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * LONDON: WILLIAM HUNT AND COMPANY, HOLLES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE; AND ALDINE CHAMBERS, PATERNOSTER ROW. PRICE THREEPENCE. * * * * * _The Proportions of Truth_. * * * * * BY THE REV. EDWARD HOARE, M.A., _Vicar of Trinity Church_, _Tunbridge Wells_, _and Honorary Canon of Canterbury_. * * * * * The Proportions of Truth. AMONG the many wise sayings of Paschal there is one that deserves our most attentive study: viz., that few heresies have their origin in simple error, but that all that have ever attained to power have originated in the exaggeration of truth. Without that element of truth there would be no power in the error. This principle is in perfect harmony with all we see around us. In everything there are certain proportions, and nothing can compensate for their loss. In art the painter may mix his colours in the most perfect combination; he may bring out each feature with all the power of a Rembrandt, but if the head is twice too large for the body, or the nose for the face, his beautiful painting becomes nothing better than a ridiculous caricature. In nature God has fitted the parts of each tree in beautiful proportion. Each part—the root, the stem, the branch, the leaf,—does its work in perfect harmony. And many a beautiful tree bears nothing, simply because an ignorant gardener, by what he calls pruning, has disturbed the proportions of its parts. In music it is the same, and Shakespeare knew it when he wrote, “How sour sweet music is When time is broke, and no proportion kept.”