To turn now to the Celtic style of ornament in MSS. This we find in full development in Ireland as early as the 7th century. The Irish school of book ornamentation was essentially a native school working out its own ideas, created and fostered by the early civilization of the country and destined to have a profound influence on the art of Britain and eventually on that of the continent. It may be described as a mechanical art brought to the highest pitch of perfection by the most skilful and patient elaboration. Initials, borders and full-page designs are made up of interlaced ribbons, interlaced and entangled zoomorphic creatures, intricate knots, spirals, zig-zag ornaments, and delicate interwoven patterns, together with all kinds of designs worked out in red dots--all arranged and combined together with mathematical accuracy and with exquisite precision of touch; and painted in harmonious colours in thick pigments, which lend to the whole design the appearance of enamel. Gold is never used. In the production of his designs the Irish artist evidently took for his models the objects of early metal work in which the Celtic race was so skilled, and probably, too, the classical enamels and mosaics and jewelry which had been imported and copied in the country. The finest example of early Celtic book ornamentation is the famous copy of the Gospels known as the _Book of Kells_, of the latter part of the 7th century, preserved in Trinity College, Dublin: a miracle of minute and accurate workmanship, combining in its brilliant pages an endless variety of design. But, with all his artistic excellence, the Irish artist failed completely in figure drawing; in fact he can hardly be said to have seriously attempted it. When we contemplate, for example, the rude figures intended to represent the evangelists in early copies of the Gospels, their limbs contorted and often composed of extraordinary interlacings and convolutions, we wonder that the sense of beauty which the Irish artist indubitably possessed in an eminent degree was not shocked by such barbarous productions. The explanation is probably to be found in tradition. These figures in course of time had come to be regarded rather as details to be worked into the general scheme of the ornament of the pages in which they occur than representations of the human form, and were accordingly treated by the artist as subjects on which to exercise his ingenuity in knotting them into fantastic shapes. Lindisfarne Gospels.