elements, or consciously imitated as they are now by Manchester
designers and manufacturers, to be sold again in textile form to their
original owners, as it were, in the far East. Truly, a strange turn of
the wheel.

[Ornamental Units]

The range of choice in ornamental units is, indeed, embarrassingly large
for the modern designer, and a careful and tasteful selection becomes of
more and more importance. It is not the number of forms you can combine,
or because they are of Persian or Chinese origin, that your work will be
artistic, but the judicious and inventive use made of the elements of
your design. Ready-made units, such as the Oriental forms I have
mentioned, are no doubt easier to combine, to make an effect with,
because a certain amount of selection has already been done. In fact,
with such forms as the Persian or Indian palmette, we are dealing with
the results of centuries of ornamental evolution, and with emblems
immemorially treasured by ancient races. It behoves us, if we are called
upon to recombine them, to treat them with sympathy, refinement, and
respect, and to let them deteriorate as little as possible, for the
spirit of an important ornamental form is like a gathered flower--it
soon withers and becomes limp.

[Illustration (f057): Sketches to Show Use of Counterbalance, Quantity,
and Equivalents in Designing.]

[Equivalents in Form]

It is the _spirit_, after all, that is the important thing to preserve,
in decorative design, however widely we may depart from the _letter_
sometimes. This is a difficult quality to define, but I should say it
chiefly consists in a nice attention to the character of form, the
elastic spring of curves, an understanding of the construction and
proportions, and grasp of the effect. In designing we constantly feel
the need of repeating certain masses with variations or balancing them
by equivalents, or the necessity of leading up to certain main forms by
subsidiary forms, and to carry out their lines in other parts of the
composition. In designing figures or emblems, for instance, within
inclosed spaces, such as shields or cartouche shapes, forming leading
elements in a design, it requires much invention and ornamental feeling
so to arrange them that, while different in subject or meaning, and
differently spaced, they shall yet properly counterbalance each oth