cies of reed growing in the river
Nile. The bud or flower suggested the capital of the column; the stalk, the
shaft; and the bulbous root, the pedestal. The blue vault of the sky
undoubtedly suggested the dome, etc.

The following are a few of the leading principles of ornamental art as set
forth by Owen Jones in his _Grammar of Ornament_, a fine work,
magnificently illustrated, whose perusal could hardly fail to delight the
most indifferent:

"All good ornamental art should possess fitness, proportion, harmony, the
result of all which is repose."

"Construction should be decorated. Decoration should never be purposely
constructed."

"All ornament should be based upon geometrical construction."

"Harmony of form consists in the proper balancing and contrast of the
straight, the inclined, and the curved."

"In surface decoration all lines should flow out of a parent stem. Every
part, however distant, should be traced to its branch or root. Natural
law."

"All junctions of curved lines with each other, or with straight lines,
should be tangential to each other. Natural law."

"Natural forms, as subjects of ornament, should not be imitated, but should
be conventionalized."

HISTORIC ORNAMENT.

The origin of all attempts at decorating or beautifying objects lies in the
universal love of mankind for the beautiful. Once the necessaries of life
provided for, man instinctively, the world over, turns his attention toward
gratifying this feeling, by improving and decorating the forms around
him--his arms, utensils, dwelling, or his own person. The history of every
nation proves this, and no matter how rude, and even ugly, their efforts
may seem to us, we are bound to recognize in them the same motives that
actuated the builders of the Parthenon or of St. Peter's at Rome. This
awakening and gratification of the aesthetic sense seems to be the first
advance from a condition of mere animal existence, in which food, shelter,
and comfort are the only considerations, to tastes and desires that are
higher and, consequently, more impersonal.

The term historic ornament is applied to the various styles of ornamental
art which have flourished at various periods in the world's history, from
the Egyptian, dating from the 14th century B.C., to those that exist at the
present day. Their number is, consequently, almost unlimited, and we will
confine ourselves to the consideration of a few of the principal ones
only--those that h