The Principles of Ornament

As Examiner on the Principles of Ornament at the Science and Art Department, I found there was no good English text-book on the subject, so the necessary information could only be picked up by extensive reading and independent observation, and these are not to be expected from young students. Certain parts of the subject have been admirably treated by Moody in his Lectures and Lessons on Art,—in fact I know of no book where the subjects treated show such keen observation and profound knowledge, but they are embedded in lectures on other subjects, and the book has no index. Having written the original Syllabus on the Principles of Ornament, I was disposed to write a text-book, had not other avocations prevented me. Last year Mr. Ward’s book on The Elementary Principles of Ornament was sent me, and though it was a useful book and had a glossary, it contained some doubtful passages, and being printed from a course of lectures it was a little too discursive. In writing the new Syllabus this year I could not recommend it for a text-book as it stood, but as I thought it would be unfair to Mr. Ward for me to write a text-book after


 the trouble he had taken, I consented to edit a new edition. I may here say that I have left Mr. Ward’s musical comparisons as I found them, and have not revised his views on Ogham, and Runic, nor those on the symbolic ornament of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Siamese, Burmese, Japanese, Hebrews, Buddhists, and Brahmins.