ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 113 



shadow, while ours is in the light of the very present. The princi- 

 ples involved in this native art are applicable to all times and to all 

 kinds of art, as they are based upon the laws of nature. 



Ceramic art presents two classes of phenomena of importance in 

 the study of the evolution of aesthetic culture. These relate, first, 

 to form, and, second, to ornamentation. 



Form in clay vessels embraces useful shapes, which may or may 

 not be ornamental, and aesthetic shapes, which are ornamental and 

 may be useful ; also grotesque and fanciful shapes, that may or may 

 not be either useful or ornamental. The shapes first assumed by 

 vessels in clay depend upon the shape of the vessels employed at the 

 time of the introduction of the art, and ornament is subject to similar 

 laws. 



Form may have three origins : First, adventition or accident ; 

 second, imitation of natural and artificial models ; third, invention. 

 In the early stages of art the suggestions of accident are often 

 adopted by men, and are thus fruitful sources of improvements and 

 progress. By such means the use of clay was discovered and the 

 ceramic art came into existence. The accidental indentation of a 

 mass of clay by the foot or hand, or by a fruit or stone, while serv- 

 ing as an auxiliary in some simple art, may have suggested the 

 means of making a cup, the simplest form of a vessel. 



In time the potter learned to copy both natural and artificial 

 models with facility. The range of models is at first, however, very 

 limited. The primitive artist does not proceed by methods identi- 

 cal with our own. He does not deliberately and freely examine 

 all departments of nature or art and select for models those things 

 most suitable to convenience or agreeable to fancy ; neither does 

 he experiment with the view of inventing new forms. What he at- 

 tempts depends almost absolutely upon what happens to be sug- 

 gested by preceding forms, and so narrow and so natural are the 

 processes of his mind that, knowing his resources, it would be easy 

 to closely predict his results. 



The elements of ornamentation are derived chiefly from two 

 sources — from the suggestions of incidents attending manufacture, 

 and from objects, natural and artificial, associated with the arts. 

 The first articles used by men in their simple arts have had in 

 many cases decorative suggestions. Shells are exquisitely embel- 

 lished with ribs, spines, nodes, and colors. The same is true to a 

 somewhat limited extent of the hard cases of fruit, seeds, &c. These 



