conventionalized, or reduced to regular, symmetrical, geometric outlines,
but any and all designs, whether the unit of repetition be geometric or
conventional, must be founded upon geometric construction. This refers to
the regularity, repetition, and distribution of parts; so that every good
design, if reduced to its principal lines of construction, would exhibit
but a few geometric lines and inclosing spaces. Many designs are not only
geometric in their basis or plan, but make use of geometric figures as the
units or materials of design. Such designs, however, rank lower than those
in which natural forms conventionalized are taken as the subjects of
repetition; and as the ornament rises in the scale toward perfection, even
the geometric basis becomes less and less apparent, and sinks into a
decidedly subordinate position; so that in many of the most perfect
specimens it can be traced only in a few leading lines of the composition.
Its presence, however, is necessary, and is the foundation, if not the most
important element, of beauty in the design.


RELATION BETWEEN NATURE AND ORNAMENTAL ART.

While the natural world, including leaves, flowers, animals, etc., is the
greatest source of ornament, it is generally the opinion of the best
authorities, derived from the study of the best styles and by a
consideration of the principles of fitness and propriety which underlie the
entire physical and moral world, that natural forms in ornamental and
decorative art should not be literally copied or imitated. That is the aim
of painting, sculpture, and the other representative arts, where the object
is to present something to the eye which will suggest at once the actual
presence of the object. To produce that effect, the object, whether animal
or vegetable, is represented as much as possible in the actual
circumstances of its existence, surrounded by the necessary conditions of