of some one or other, and tries hard to invent new forms of expression
or peculiarities of style, only resulting, in most cases, in new forms
of ugliness, which it seems is the only possibility under such conscious
efforts after novelty. The fact is that it takes many generations of
ardent minds to accomplish what at first each thinks himself capable of
doing alone. True originality has somewhat the quality of good wine,
which becomes more delightful as time mellows its flavor and imparts to
it the aroma which comes of long repose; like the new wine, too,
originality should shyly hide itself in dark places until maturity
warrants its appearance in the light of day. That kind of originality
which is strikingly new does not always stand the test of time, and
should be regarded with cautious skepticism until it has proved itself
to be more than the passing fashion or novelty of a season. There is a
kind of sham art very conspicuous at the present time, which was at
quite a recent date popularly believed to be very original. It seems to
have arisen out of some such impatient craving for novelty, and it has
been encouraged by an easy-going kind of suburban _refinement_, which
neither knows nor cares very much what really goes to the making of a
work of art. This new art has filled our shops and exhibitions with an
invertebrate kind of ornament, which certainly has the doubtful merit of
"never having been seen before." It has evidently taken its inspiration
from the trailing and supine forms of floating seaweed, and revels in
the expression of such boneless structure. By way of variety it presents
us with a kind of symbolic tree, remarkable for more than archaic
flatness and rigidity. Now, this kind of "originality" is not only
absolutely valueless, but exceedingly harmful; its only merit is that,
like its ideal seaweed, it has no backbone of its own, and we may hope
that it will soon betake itself to its natural home, the slimy bottom of
the ocean of oblivion.

Meantime, the only thing we are absolutely sure of in connection with
that much-abused word "originality" is this, that no gift, original or
otherwise, can be developed without steady and continuous practise with
the tools of your craft.

CHAPTER XIII

PIERCED PATTERNS

Exercise in Background Pattern--Care as to Stability--Drilling and
Sawing out the Spaces--Some Uses for Pierced Patterns.

The present exercises may be described as a kind of