subject is thus seen to embrace all that, in industrial art, marks the advance of civilization; and decoration may be taken as a true exponent, in every stage of its development, of the progress of society; for the comforts and the elegancies of life are ever found to grow together.

Inasmuch, therefore, as ornamentation enters so largely into the daily life of civilized society as to be every where recognized, studied, admired, and practiced, it would seem not only appropriate, but very desirable, that its elementary principles, at least, should find a place at the beginning of every system of public instruction-and, where they properly belong, in the study and practice of Industrial Drawing.

England is so decidedly a manufacturing country, that art education has there long been deemed a national necessity and it is not only thought important that the manufacturer should understand the laws of beauty, and the principles of design, in order that his products may command a ready market, but that the artisan also-the mere workman in art-shall possess something of the skill which comes from educated taste. More than thirty years ago a British Association for the Advancement of Art, composed of the chief nobility, capitalists, bankers, merchants, and manufacturers of the kingdom, sent out the declaration and appeal, that, without a pre-eminence in the arts of design, British manufacturers could not retain, and must eventually lose, their superiority in foreign markets. But the English government remained, for years, deaf to the warning; and at the great Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations, held in London in 1851, England found herself almost at the bottom of the list in respect to excellence of design in her art manufactures-only the United States, among the great nations, being below her. This discovery aroused the English government to a realizing sense of the vast importance of the highest and most widely diffused art education for a manufacturing people; and the result was the speedy establishment of an Educational Department of Science and Art, from which Schools of Design have radiated all over the country. In these and other schools, even ten years ago, two thousand students were in training as future teachers

of art, and fifteen thousand pupils were receiving an art education; while in the parish and public schools more than fifty thousand children of the laboring and poorer classes were receiving more or less instruction in elementary drawing. In the higher art schools the pupils are taught not only the practice, but the principles also, of ornamental design; they are shown how all assemblages of ornamental forms are arranged in geometrical proportions: how curves must flow, the one into the other, without break or interruption; and they are taught to analyze and interpret the characteristic ideas of various styles and schools of art, such as we have given a brief synopsis of under the heading of "Ornamental Art among Different Nations, and in Different Periods of Civilization." The wisdom of England's course was very apparent at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, when it was seen that England had risen, in a period of sixteen years, from a position among the lowest, to one foremost among the nations in art manufactures-showing the effects of the art education which she had so sedulously fostered. As humiliating as it is to our national pride, truth compels us to add, in the language of another-"The United States still held her place at the foot of the column." In England, in 1870, besides the attention given to drawing in the public schools and in evening classes, there were more than twenty thousand students in the art schools, and more than thirty thousand in the schools of industrial science; and it is reported that, in the two following years, the numbers in both were doubled.

A notable illustration of the commercial value of the beautiful in art is afforded in the colossal growth of the earthenware trade in England, which started into sudden notoriety when the young sculptor, Flaxman, was employed to model, from fine specimens of antique sculpture, those beautiful urns, vases, goblets, and other articles for table service and other domestic uses, long known as the Wedgewood ware. The clay pits of Staffordshire were turned into gold mines, and made a source of national wealth, when the proprietors employed good artists to draw designs and select antique models for their workmen; and it has been

stated by competent judges that, through the establishment of Art Museums and Schools of Design, and the influences exerted thereby, combined with popular instruction in industrial drawing, England has added fifty per cent. to the value of her manufactured products during the past twentyfive years. And, turning to the Continent, we find it is the art instruction imparted in the schools and in the manufactories of France, showing how colors are distributed, balanced, and harmonized, both in nature and in art, that has given to the silk fabrics of Lyons, the Gobelin tapestry, and to other national products, their world-wide renown for harmony and beauty. In France, education in science and art is now placed by law in the same rank as classical education.

In our own country public attention is now being turned, in a very marked manner, to the subject of art education: and in Massachusetts, after the subject had been agitated by the leading manufacturers and merchants, laws have been passed securing to pupils instruction in elementary drawing in every public school in the state; making "industrial or mechanical drawing" free to persons over fifteen years of age either in day or evening classes, in cities and towns that have a population above ten thousand; and a State Director of Art Education has been appointed to supervise the system; but, generally, throughout our schools, what little imperfect instruction in art has been given has thus far been confined, mostly, to the mere copying of pictures-and, where it has gone beyond that, to the education of artists rather than of artisans. It is seldom addressed, as it should be, to the principles and practice of ornamental design; to the harmonies of color, form, and proportion; and to such representations of objects as are most needed by workingmen in the arts. This kind of art knowledge and practice would not only be of interest, but of utility to all; and the mechanic who could make the best use of it in his line of business would ever have a decided advantage over all competitors. An incident bearing upon this point is related by the State Director of Art Education for Massachusetts, to the effect that, "some years ago a class of thirteen young men spent all their leisure time in studying

drawing, and that now, at the time of writing, every one of them holds some important position, either as manufacturer or designer." And if we would build up our manufactories on a broad scale, so as to bring their products into successful competition with those of England and France, we must not rely upon a few imported draughtsmen and designers, and vainly hope that uneducated artisans will work out foreign patterns with taste and beauty; but we must lay the foundations of art superiority broad and deep in the art education of all mechanics, and in the educated tastes of the people. Then draughtsmen and designers will spring up wherever needed; and the workmen in our shops and manufactories, understanding the principles of their several trades and professions, will be all the more skilled in the practice of them. And what we need for this is not merely a few Schools of Design, and Art Museums, valuable as these may be, but the introduction of the principles of design, and the practice of art representation, into the education of the people at large.

But here the practical question is suggested: How shall we introduce Industrial Drawing into our schools, so that all our youth may profit by it, when so many other important studies are crowding for admission, and our teachers have already quite as much as they can attend to? We reply, Alternate it with the writing-lessons; and experience fully proves that better penmanship will be attained thereby, while the drawing, and the knowledge which it introduces, will be a positive gain, without any attendant loss. Long ago, said that veteran educator, Horace Mann, "I believe a child will learn both to draw and write sooner, and with more ease, than he will learn writing alone."

In conclusion, we commend this whole subject of Industrial Art Education as worthy the earnest consideration, not only of all educators, but also of all mechanics and artisans, and of all who appreciate the vast proportions which our manufacturing interests are destined to assume in the not far distant future.

II.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ART.

THERE are two kinds of beauty in Ornamental Art: the one is the beauty of design and execution, arising from the exhibition of skill on the part of the designer and artisan; the other is the beauty of character, which arises from the expression of thought or soul in the object itself. The beauty of the former is fully realized only by those who are proficients in the art, and ceases to be felt when the art has made a farther progress. The beauty of the latter, inasmuch as it appeals to the sensibilities of all, is universally felt, although in a different degree by different individuals, and is by far the most lasting; and the former should ever be subordinate to it. The difference between the two kinds of beauty is best illustrated in architecture, of which ornament is the very soul and spirit. All that utility requires in the structure, skill may accomplish by the aid of mere rule and compass; but the ornamentation shows how far the architect was, at the same time, an artist.

PROPOSITION I.-A CARDINAL PRINCIPLE.

All decoration should exhibit a fitness or propriety of things, just proportions, and harmony of design.

All ornaments should harmonize in expression with the expression designed to be given to the objects to which they are affixed. Thus there are art objects of convenience and use, of sublimity, of splendor, of magnificence, of gayety, of delicacy, of melancholy, etc.; and the ornaments affixed to each should fully harmonize with its character. Any fabric to be ornamented should, in the first place, be suited to its proposed uses; and then, in strict keeping with the main design, must be the decoration which adorns its surface. Hence, to cover an oil-cloth, or a chair cushion, with