The great difference between Greek and Etruscan work, is not well shown in the present very inadequate drawings. The spirit is always lost in copying, and at no time am I a good copyist; but they will serve to indicate the forms to look for in the British Museum collection, where the varieties should be carefully studied. The Etruscan work has perhaps a larger and broader type-the Greek is far more subtle and refined.

FIG. 52.-Modern aigrette.

The earring (in the Russian collection), fig. 48, is one of the most graceful I have seen in such early work.

I have included two designs, figs. 53 and 54, for brooches, form Holbein's sketches-fanciful and pretty, but he made many more intricate and ambitious.

Compare the good old designs -in which the setting is always adapted to the gems, not the

gems, as now, sacrificed to the setting-with the comparatively

modern design for an aigrette by Paul Birckenhultz, fig. 52, the lower part of which is exceedingly graceful and beautiful, the pearls safely secured, and the cherub

head delicately handled, but the upper portion hard, heavy, and trenching on various modern defects.

Appropriate Patterns.

The class of patterns adapted for certain materials, is a subject too large for me to enter on at length in a book of this kind; but a few general rules may be useful to those who have never considered the subject at all. The ornament of an object which is required to be strong, should express strength; if possible, it should.

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give an appearance of additional strength to what it would have had if undecorated. In the art (often extremely beautiful) of various savage tribes, we may see this principle expressed in the ornament of their paddlehandles, door-posts, &c.—the rings or stripes in the pattern run in such a manner as to strengthen not weaken the form. Flat surfaces are not treated in the same manner as cylindrical ones, perpendicular objects have their own class of ornament as opposed to horizontal or leaning objects.

The natural sense of what is fit and appropriate, unconfused by rules of art, thus leads to what we call 'high art.'

The ornament of a large plain surface should be skilfully balanced so as to correct the tendency of the eye to run in any one direction. In such ornaments as trimmings, the form of the body they surround should be considered; round forms ought never to be made to look square, or angular forms round.

Geometrical patterns are eminently suited to woven materials, whose nature and form they express; waved patterns, or shaded ones, should be admitted only where there is some possibility of natural movement, from fold, breeze, or billow entering in-e.g. a curtain, cloak, or loose garb; not a stuffed chair or a carpet. Patterns of beetles and snails are out of place wherever they would

not be naturally admitted alive-such as on a dinner or tea. service. Metallic ornament can only artistically describe living forms when they are treated purely conventionally. A wall ought never to simulate a landscape, after the debased Italian fashion-nor to represent trellis and sky like some modern wall-papers. It is false art, because it outrages nature, and is inconsistent; what comfort could there be in a house whose sides were open to the weather

Good Taste.

Some people instinctively surround themselves with right colours and appropriate forms. Without being always beautiful such persons always look attractive-to an artistic eye they are positive wells of refreshment. They are never seen slovenly, or tumbled, or in ungainly attitudes and foolish situations. The appropriate comes naturally to them, the beautiful is their own. Others must study it.

The greatest mistake a wife can make is to neglect her appearance; it is a direct surrender of a magic wand, without which a woman may still have charms, but most often punishes herself too severely, and sees her error too late.

In a mother it is a mistake, too, for form and colour having a definite effect on minds of a certain constitu