a
seed, presently it will send out a shoot of your first "commission," and
that will probably lead to two others, or to a larger one; but pray to
be led by small steps; and make sure of firm footing as you go, for
there is such a thing as trying to take a _leap_ on the ladder, and
leaping off it.

So much for the seed of success.

The seed of craftsmanship I have tried to describe in this book.

The seed of ornament and design, it is impossible to treat of here; it
would require as large a book as this to itself: but I will hazard the
devotion of a page each to the A and the B of my own A B C of the
subject as I try to teach it to my pupils, and put them before you
without comment, hoping they may be of some slight use. (See figs. 72
and 73.)

But though I said that nothing will grow but seed, it does not, of
course, follow that every seed will grow, or, if it does, that you
yourself will reap the exact harvest you expect, or even recognise it in
its fruitage as the growth of what you have sown. Expect to give much
for little, to lose sight of the bread cast on the waters, not even sure
that you will know it again even if you find it after many days. You
never know, and therefore do not count your scalps too carefully or try
to number your Israel and Judah. Neither, on the other hand, allow your
seed to be forced by the hothouse of advertising or business pushing, or
anything which will distract or distort that quiet gaze upon the work by
which you love it for its own sake, and judge it on its merits; all such
sidelights are misleading, since you do not know whether it is intended
that this or that shall prosper or both be alike good.

How many a man one sees, earnest and sincere at starting, led aside off
the track by the false lights of publicity and a first success. Art is
peace. Do things because you love them. If purple is your favourite
colour, put purple in your window; if green, green; if yellow, yellow.
Flowers and leaves and buds because you love them. Glass because you
love it. It is not that you are to despise either fame or wealth.
Honestly acquired both are good. But you must bear in mind that the
pursuit of these separately by any other means than perfecting your work
is a thing requiring great outlay of TIME, and you cannot afford to
withdraw any time from your work in order to acquire them.

[Illustration: FIG. 72. Design consists of arrangement. Let us practise
arrangement separately, and on its