constant counting of numbers and adjusting to spaces. The most
fundamental and constant elements embodied in textile art and
available for the expression of embellishment are the minute steps of
the intersections or bindings; the most necessary and constant
combination of these elements is in continuous lines or in rows of
isolated figures; the most necessary and constant directions for these
combinations are with the web and the woof, or with their
complementaries, the diagonals. If large areas are covered certain
separation or aggregation of the elements into larger units is called
for, as otherwise absolute sameness would result. Such separation or
aggregation conforms to the construction lines of the fabric, as any
other arrangement would be unnatural and difficult of accomplishment.
When the elements or units combine in continuous zones, bands, or rays
they are placed side by side in simple juxtaposition or are united in
various ways, always following the guide lines of construction through
simple and complex convolutions. Whatever is done is at the suggestion
of technique; whatever is done takes a form and arrangement imposed by
technique. Results are like in like techniques and are unlike in
unlike techniques; they therefore vary with the art and with its
variations in time and character.

All those agencies pertaining to man that might be supposed important
in this connection--the muscles of the hand and of the eye, the cell
structure of the brain, together with all preconceived ideas of the
beautiful--are all but impotent in the presence of technique, and, so
far as forms of expression go, submit completely to its dictates.
Ideas of the beautiful in linear geometric forms are actually formed
by technique, and taste in selecting as the most beautiful certain
ornaments produced in art is but choosing between products that in
their evolution gave it its character and powers, precisely as the