e
of Science. The architect rather despises the mechanically perfect
brick (very much to the surprise of the manufacturer); and though
the camera can record more than the pencil or the brush, yet the
artist is not trying to see more than he ever did before. There
are, too, many decorative illustrators who, while very distinctly
confessing their indebtedness to old examples; are yet perfectly
eclectic and individual, both in the choice and development of
motive. Take, for example, the very modern subject of the cyclist
by Mr. A. B. Frost, Fig. 61. There are no archaisms in it whatever.
The drawing is as naturalistic and just as careful as if it were
designed for a picture. The shadows, too, are cast, giving an effect
of strong outdoor light; but the treatment, broad and beautifully
simple so as to be reconcilable with the lettering which accompanied
it, is well within conventional lines. That the character of the
technical treatment is such as to place no tax on the mechanical
inventiveness of the processman is not inexcusable archaeology.

[Illustration: FIG. 61 A. B. FROST]

A valuable attribute of this conventional art is, that it puts no
bounds to the fancy of the designer. It is a figurative language
in which he may get away from commonplace statement. What has always
seemed to me a very logical employment of convention appears in the
_Punch_ cartoons of Sir John Tenniel and Mr. Lindley Sambourne.
Even in those cartoons which are devoid of physical caricature (and
they are generally free from this), we see at a glance that it is
the political and not the personal relations of the personae that
are represented; whereas in the naturalistic cartoons of _Puck_,
for example, one cannot resist the feeling that personalities are
being roughly handled.

[Side note: _Relation_]

A chief principle in all decorative design and treatment is that of
Relation. If the space to be ornamented be a book-page the design
and treatment must be such as to harmonize with the printing. The
type must be considered as an element in the design, and, as the
effect of a page of type is broad and uniformly flat, the ornament
must be made to count as broad and flat likewise. The same principle
holds equally in mural decoration. There the design ought to be
subordinate to the general effect of the architecture. The wall
is not to be considered merely as a convenient place on which to
plaster a picture, its structural purpose must be regarded