reason, be called natural. Man in every part of the world has given vent to his instinctive longing for that which, to him, represents beauty in the embellishment of objects in daily use. It is by the consideration of such facts that we learn to appreciate fully the bearing of pottery upon art and history. Upon this point Dr. Birch says: “By the application of painting to vases, the Greeks made them something more than mere articles of commercial value or daily use. They have become a reflection of the paintings of the Greek schools, and an inexhaustible source for illustrating the mythology, manners, customs, and literature of Greece. Unfortunately, very few are ornamented with historical subjects, yet history receives occasional illustration from them; and the representations of the burning of Crœsus, the orgies of Anacreon, the wealth of Arcesilaus, the tributes of Darius, and the meeting of Alcæus and Sappho, lead us to hope that future discoveries may offer additional examples.” This passage leads directly to the consideration of the permanency of ceramic works as compared with those of other branches of art. The “reflections of the paintings of the Greek schools” have come down to us in all the beauty they possessed on first leaving the artist’s hand. We may allow Mr. Ruskin to state the reverse case, and draw the conclusion. “It is surely,” he says, “a severe lesson to us in this matter, that the best works of Turner could not be shown for six months without being destroyed--and that his most ambitious ones, for the most part, perished before they could be shown. I will break through my law of reticence, however, so far as to tell you that I have hope of one day interesting you greatly (with the help of the Florentine masters) in the study of the arts of moulding and painting porcelain; and to induce some of you to use your future power of patronage in encouraging the various branches of this art, and turning the attention of the workmen of Italy from the vulgar tricks of minute and perishable mosaic to the exquisite subtleties of form and color possible in the perfectly ductile, afterward unalterable clay. And one of the ultimate results of such craftsmanship might be the production of pictures as brilliant as painted glass--as delicate as the most subtle water-colors, and more permanent than the Pyramids.” Both these writers thus refer to permanency as a feature of the potter’s art, which lends it a special importance. Whatever form the art may have assumed, it is, when applied to pottery, practically imperishable. By his allusion to the effect of time and exposure upon the paintings of Turner, Mr. Ruskin invests the results he contemplates with a certain kind of grandeur. He has in view the culminating point of ceramic art, the apex to which the works of the artists of all time lead up step by step. What process he would adopt, or what forms of the art he would discard, we need not now inquire. It