ger one, and but
poorly expresses the necessity for intimate sympathy between each
surface so "thrown about." It is precisely in the observance of this
last quality that effects of richness are produced. You can hardly have
too much monotony of surface, but may easily err by having too much
variety. Therefore, whatever system of light and shade you may adopt, be
careful to repeat its motive in some sort of rhythmic order all over
your work; by no other means can you make it rich and effective at a
distance.

It is well every now and then to put your work up on a shelf or ledge at
a distance and view it as a whole; you will thus see which parts tell
and which do not, and so gain experience on this point. Work should also
be turned about frequently, sidewise and upside down, in order to find
how the light affects it in different directions. Of course, you must
not think that because your work may happen to look well when seen from
a little way off that it does not matter about the details, whether they
be well or poorly carved. On the contrary, unless you satisfy the eye at
both points of view, your work is a partial failure. The one thing is as
important as the other, only, as the first glance at carved work is
generally taken at some little distance, it is the more immediately
necessary to think of that, before we begin to work for a closer
inspection. First impressions are generally lasting with regard to
carved work, and, as I have said before, beauty of detail seldom quite
atones for failure in the arrangement of masses.

The rounded forms in this design may give you a little trouble, but
practise, and that alone, will enable you to overcome this. Absolute
smoothness is not desirable. Glass-papered surfaces are extremely ugly,
because they obtrude themselves on account of their extreme smoothness,
having lost all signs of handiwork in the tool marks. We shall have
something to say presently about these tool marks in finishing, as it is
a very important subject which may make all the difference between
success or failure in finishing a piece of work.

CHAPTER XII

ORIGINALITY

Dangers of Imposing Words--Novelty more Common than Originality--An
Unwholesome Kind of "Originality."

I told you that I should have something to say about originality. Almost
every beginner has some vague impression that his first duty should be
to aim at originality. He hears eulogiums passed upon the individuality