s, save painting and sculpture of an
academic kind, were little considered, and there was a tendency to
look on "design" as a mere matter of _appearance_. Such
"ornamentation" as there was was usually obtained by following in a
mechanical way a drawing provided by an artist who often knew little
of the technical processes involved in production. With the critical
attention given to the crafts by Ruskin and Morris, it came to be seen
that it was impossible to detach design from craft in this way, and
that, in the widest sense, true design is an inseparable element of
good quality, involving as it does the selection of good and suitable
material, contrivance for special purpose, expert workmanship, proper
finish and so on, far more than mere ornament, and indeed, that
ornamentation itself was rather an exuberance of fine workmanship than
a matter of merely abstract lines. Workmanship when separated by too
wide a gulf from fresh thought--that is, from design--inevitably
decays, and, on the other hand, ornamentation, divorced from
workmanship, is necessarily unreal, and quickly falls into
affectation. Proper ornamentation may be defined as a language
addressed to the eye; it is pleasant thought expressed in the speech
of the tool.

In the third place, we would have this series put artistic
craftsmanship before people as furnishing reasonable occupation for
those who would gain a livelihood. Although within the bounds of
academic art, the competition, of its kind, is so acute that only a
very few per cent. can fairly hope to succeed as painters and
sculptors; yet, as artistic craftsmen, there is every probability that
nearly every one who would pass through a sufficient period of
apprenticeship to workmanship and design would reach a measure of
success.

In the blending of handwork and thought in such arts as we propose to
deal with, happy careers may be found as far removed from the dreary
routine of hack labour, as from the terrible uncertainty of academic
art. It is desirable in every way that men of good education should be
brought back into the productive crafts: there are more than enough of
us "in the city," and it is probable that more consideration will be
given in this century than in the last to Design and Workmanship.

W. R. LETHABY.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

It is hoped that this book will help bookbinders and librarians to
sele