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of our articles of faith; but there are almost no authoritative books
upon the subject of appropriate modern decoration. Our text books are
still to be written; and one must glean knowledge from many sources,
shape it into rules, and test the rules, before adopting them as safe
guides.

Yet in spite of the absence of authoritative teaching, we have learned
that an art dependent upon other arts, as decoration is upon building
and architecture, is bound to follow the principles which govern them.
We must base our work upon what has already been done, select our
decorative forms from appropriate periods, conform our use of colour to
the principles of colour, and be able to choose and apply all
manufactures in accordance with the great law of appropriateness. If we
do this, we stand upon something capable of evolution and the creation
of a system.

In so far as the principles of decoration are derived from other arts,
they can be acquired by every one, but an exquisite feeling in their
application is the distinguishing quality of the true decorator.

There is quite a general impression that house-decoration is not an art
which requires a long course of study and training, but some kind of
natural knack of arrangement--a faculty of making things "look pretty,"
and that any one who has this faculty is amply qualified for "taking up
house-decoration." Indeed, natural facility succeeds in satisfying many
personal cravings for beauty, although it is not competent for general
practice.

Of course there are people, and many of them, who are gifted with an
inherent sense of balance and arrangement, and a true eye for colour,
and--given the same materials--such people will make a room pleasant and
cozy, where one without these gifts would make it positively ugly. In so
far, then, individual gifts are a great advantage, yet one possessing
them in even an unusual degree may make great mistakes in decoration.
What _not_ to do, in this day of almost universal experiment, is perhaps
the most valuable lesson to the untrained decorator. Many of the rocks
upon which he splits are down in no chart, and lie in the track of what
seems to him perfectly plain sailing.

There are houses of fine and noble exterior which are vulgarized by
uneducated experiments in colour and ornament, and belittled by being
filled with heterogeneous collections of unimportant art. Yet these very
instances serve to emphasize the demand for beautiful surroun