nal value of the Design method is almost universally
recognized in the art departments of our public schools and in our art
schools, and it is probable that when its aims and methods are better
understood by our college faculties, its disciplinary, cultural, and
informative value will be more widely recognized in the college of
liberal arts, and that it will take equal rank with theme and report
writing as a means of cultivating a taste for literature, with the
practice of harmony and counterpoint as a means of appreciating music,
and with laboratory work in acquiring knowledge of a science.

=Art history as a means of inculcating principles of art=

Next, consider art history as a means of inculcating the principles of
art. It is evident that the emotions or feelings of the artist and the
methods he employs to express them may be studied in such masterpieces
as the _Hermes_ of Praxiteles and the _Lincoln_ of St. Gaudens. In
either he may observe the application of the principles of balance,
mass, repose, harmony, and the analysis of character. In either he may
study the technique which involves the material of the statues, the
tools employed, and the manner of working.

There is, however, great advantage in considering such examples in
their place in the evolution of art, and their significance in their
relation to the social and political development of the human race--in
other words, in studying systematically the history and development of
art.

Instruction in history of art is not without its pitfalls. It is too
apt to lapse into a mere listing of names and dates of artists and
their work, with the introduction of interesting biographical details
and some discussion limited to the subjects treated in selected
examples. It is often too much concerned with _who_, _when_, and
_where_ and not sufficiently with _why_ and _how_. A person may
possess a large fund of the facts of art history and yet have but
little understanding or appreciation of the aims and underlying
principles of art production. It should never be forgotten that for
the college student the history of art is merely a convenient scheme
or system upon which to base discussions of the principles of art as
involved in the works themselves, an outline for the study of the
artistic affiliations of any artist with the great company of his
antecedents, his contemporaries, and his successors. The instructor
should never regard practice or history as ends in