the light of considerable experience.

A certain amount of success has undoubtedly attended the progress of the
new system, but it must always be more or less at a disadvantage;
firstly, by reason of its divided aims; secondly, because the system is
more theoretic than practical, and is often based on the false
assumption that "design" may be learned without attaining a mastery over
technique, and _vice versa_.

Until students become disillusioned on this latter point, and are at the
same time permitted to follow their natural bent with as little
interference as possible from the exigencies of public taste, uniformity
of aim will be impossible, and consequently the system must remain
artificial. It can never, under any circumstances, entirely replace that
more natural one adopted by our ancestors. How can its methods compare
for a moment with the spontaneous and hearty interest that guided the
tools of those more happily placed craftsmen, whose subjects lay around
them, of daily familiarity; whose artistic language was ready to hand
and without confusion, affording an endless variety of expression to
every new and individual fancy. Many of these craftsmen were, owing to
their invigorating surroundings, gifted with a high poetic feeling for
their art--a quality which gives to their work a transcendent value that
no learning or manual cleverness could supply. They acquired their
technical knowledge in genial connection with equally gifted members of
other crafts, and in consequence expressed themselves with corresponding
and justly proportioned skill in execution.

Conditions that can not be altered must be endured while they last, but
the first step toward their improvement must be made in gaining a
knowledge of the facts as they are. This will be the surest foundation
upon which to build all individual effort in the future.

Who that has felt the embarrassing doubts and contradictory impulses,
peculiar to modern study, can have failed to look disconsolately away
from his own surroundings to those far-off times when craft knowledge
was acquired under circumstances calculated to awaken the brightest
instincts of the artist? The imaginary picture calls up the ancient
carver at his bench, cheerfully blocking out images of leaves and
animals in his busy workshop, surrounded with the sights and sounds of
country life. His open door frames a picture of the village street,
alive with scenes of neighborly interest. From the