186 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Paet II. 



ready to aid in the production of objects in common use ; as 

 was the case in Italy also during her most flourishing periods ; 

 and it is of the greatest importance that industrial art should 

 have the benefit of such assistance.] 



Whatever the purpose for which an object was intended, it 

 was never considered unworthy the attention of an artist ; no 

 false pride suggested to him the idea of degradation from such 

 an employment : and it was the work which was honoured 

 and perfected by his talents, not the artist who was lowered 

 by the work. [Nor were the Greeks above adopting from those 

 less refined than themselves, whatever hint could be obtained 

 from their particular style of ornament : beauty was beauty 

 to them wherever it was found; and it only remained to 

 adapt it to their own wants in the most suitable way. 



10. If the advantages arising from this real feeling for the 

 beautiful were better understood at the present day, we should 

 not have decorative art left to the accidental caprices of a mere 

 decorator, nor depend for so many articles of use which ought 

 to be ornamental upon the misguided fancy of an uneducated 

 mechanic ; nor should we have the hideous lamps, the mon- 

 strous tea-urns, or the whole furniture of our tables and of our 

 rooms, which disgrace our civilisation. It is really surprising 

 that among the variety of lamps, tea-urns, inkstands, coffee- 

 pots, cruet-stands, and so-called "ornamental clocks," we 

 can scarcely meet with one which is tolerable in form. But 

 talent will be rare among designers so long as few are able 

 to judge of the effects of their own compositions, or have 

 any notion beyond " copying from the antique," because " it 

 is antique," without entering into the true feeling of the 

 original, or understanding in what its beauty consists. One 

 therefore designs a cup or a tazza, and thinks he has produced 

 a real "Pompeian article," because he has put together a 

 certain number of details : totally unconscious that a mere 

 repetition of ornament is not a design, and that the whole 



