DIMENSIONS: FORM / Guide
"A guideline is a protection against the arbitrary. It is the crucial test by which any work done ardently gains legitimacy. It is the student's way of checking his answers, the logician's proof of his thesis.
"A guideline is a spiritual appeasement that leads to a search for ingenious and harmonious relations. It confers eurhythmy to the work.
"A guideline gives the work a mathematical aspect and a benign sense of order. Setting a guideline determines the fundamental geometry of the work, defining, therefore, one of it fundamental impressions. Setting a guideline is one of the decisive moments of inspiration, one of the main operations of architecture." Le Corbusier, Vers une architecture . [A portion of a chapter devoted to guidelines]
R E F E R E N C E S
Guide - v.t. 1. to assist [a person] to travel through, or reach a destination in, an area in which he does not know the way. 2. to accompany [a sightseer] to show him points of interest. 3. to force [a person, object, or animal] to move in a certain path. 4. to supply [a person] with advice or counsel. 5. to supervise [someone's actions or affairs] in an advisory capacity. -n. 6. a person who guides, esp. one hired to guide travelers, tourists, hunters, etc. 7. a mark, tab, or the like, to catch the eye and thus provide quick reference. 8. a guidebook. 9. a guide-post. 10. a contrivance for regulating progressive motion or action: a sewing-machine guide. 11. a spirit believed to direct the uterances of a medium. 12. Mil. a member of a group marching in formation who sets the pattern of movement or alignment for the rest. [ME guide(n) < OF guid(er) < Gmc; cf. OE wítan to look after].
-Syn. 1. pilot, steer, escort. Guide, Conduct, Direct, Lead imply showing the way or pointing out or determining the course to be taken. Guide implies continuous presence or agency in showing or incdicating a course: to guide a traveler. To Conduct is to preced or escort to a place, sometimes with a degree of ceremony: to conduct a guest to his room. To Direct is to give information for guidance, or instruction or orders for a course of procedure: to direct someone to the station. To Lead is to bring onward in a course, guiding by contact or by goinh in advance; hence, figuratively, to influence or induce to some course of conduct: to lead a procession ; to lead astray. 5. regulate, manage, govern. 6. pilot, director, cond uctor. 7. sigh, signal, key. -Ant. 1. follow.
[Urdang, Laurence, ed. Random House Dictionary of The English Language. New York: Random House, 1968.]
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