and tend to produce the precise classes of results
that we, at this stage of culture, are inclined to attribute to
esthetic influence. If, in the making of a vessel, the demands of use
are fully satisfied, if construction is perfect of its kind, if
materials are uniformly suitable, and if models are not absolutely
bad, it follows that the result must necessarily possess in a high
degree those very attributes that all agree are pleasing to the eye.

In a primitive water vessel function gives a full outline, as capacity
is a prime consideration; convenience of use calls for a narrow neck
and a conical base; construction and materials unite to impose certain
limitations to curves and their combinations, from which the artist
cannot readily free himself. Models furnished by nature, as they are
usually graceful, do not interfere with the preceding agencies, and
all these forces united tend to give symmetry, grace, and the unity
that belongs to simplicity. Taste which is in a formative state can
but fall in with these tendencies of the art, and must be led by
them, and led in a measure corresponding to their persistency and
universality. If the textile art had been the only one known to man,
ideas of the esthetic in shape would have been in a great measure
formed through that art. Natural forms would have had little to do
with it except through models furnished directly to and utilized by
the art, for the ideas of primitive men concentrate about that upon
which their hands work and upon which their thoughts from necessity
dwell with steady attention from generation to generation.

RELATIONS OF FORM TO ORNAMENT.

It would seem that the esthetic tendencies of the mind, failing to
find satisfactory expression in shape, seized upon the non-essential
features of the art--markings of the surface and color of
filaments--creating a new field in which to labor and expending their
energy upon ornament.

Shape has some direct relations to ornament, and these relations may
be classified as follows:

First, the contour of the vessel controls its ornament to a large
extent, dictating the positions of design and setting its limits;
figures are in stripes, zones, rays, circles, ovals, or
rectangles--according, in no slight measure, to the character of the
spaces afforded by details of contour. Secondly, it affects ornament
through the reproduction and repetition of features of form, such as
handles, for ornamental purposes. Thirdly,