judgment to separate what is good from the indifferent or really bad in
these collections, for all are usually present. There is inequality in
artistic powers, in technical skill, and a distinction of yet greater
importance, which lies in the significance the works bear as records of
the inner life of their creators. Artists, carvers in particular, are
the true scribes and historians of their times. Their works are, as it
were, books--written in words of unconscious but fateful meaning. Some
are filled with the noblest ideals, expressed in beautiful and serious
language, while others contain nothing but sorry jests and stupidities.

As all the works of the past, whether good or bad, are the achievements
of men differing but little from ourselves, save in the direction of
their energies and in their outward surroundings, there is surely some
clue to the secret of their success or failure, some light to be thrown
by their experience upon our own dubious and questioning spirit.

What better could we look for in this respect than a little knowledge of
the lives led by the carvers themselves, a mental picture of their
environment, an acquired sense of the influence which this, that, or the
other set of conditions must have imposed upon their work. With a little
aid from history in forming our judgments, their works themselves will
assist us--so faithful is the transcript of their witness--for, with
more certainty than applies to handwriting, a fair guess may be made by
inference from the work itself as to the general status and ideals of
the workman. The striking analogy between its salient characteristics
and the prevailing mood of that ever-changing spirit which seeks
expression in the arts, is nowhere more marked than in the work of the
carver.

CHAPTER XVII

STUDIES FROM NATURE--FOLIAGE

Medieval and Modern Choice of Form Compared--A Compromise
Adopted--A List of Plant Forms of Adaptable Character.

It is high time now that we had some talk about the studies from nature
which are to furnish you with subjects for your work. I shall at present
deal only with studies of foliage, as that is what you have been
practising, and I wish you to carry on your work and studies as much as
possible on the same lines.

Between the few abstract forms, representing a general type of foliage,
so dear to the heart of the medieval carver, and the unstinted variety
of choice displayed in the works of Grinling Gibbo