He preferred nature as he found her; and his wisdom was genius. What we wish chiefly to note is, that here was an artist who used the beauties of enamel for the reproduction of the natural. He not only moulded the clay into the forms of living things, but reproduced the colors of his models. No better examples can be given of Similitude. It hardly seems possible that his was a branch of the same art that we have seen in the East and in Greece. The fact of its being so merely shows the wide scope of ceramic art, and the infinity of the forms it may assume. [Illustration: Fig. 17.--Palissy Dish. (Soltykoff Coll.)] Having chosen representatives of three different components of what we have assumed to be the highest form of art, we may now glance at the end in view, and see to what extent the lower forms may be worthily followed. Let us suppose that a piece of pottery or porcelain has been painted, and that the action of the fire has made the coloring perennial, so that we find on it a portrait or a landscape everlasting as the ware itself. Let us suppose, further, that the tints are natural, that, in short, the portrait is all that we now understand by the word, and that in the landscape nature is displayed as on canvas--then we should have a specimen of the perfect union of the potter’s and painter’s art. The lessening obstructions in the way of such a consummation may be referred to in brief. The colors are mineral, and change by submission to fire, different temperatures producing different tints, even when the same pigment is used. The painter, therefore, in applying the colors, must take into account the change to be effected by the fire in endeavoring to produce a certain result. He has not merely, it will be observed, to lay on given colors, and have them made perpetual by glazing and firing. He must estimate and make allowance for the transformations effected in the process. We are now in a position to realize the difficulty attending the exercise of the combined skill of potter and painter. As a consequence, although many great painters have turned their genius to the decoration of earthen-ware, others have been deterred from doing so by the very facts here mentioned. They are unwilling to submit their work to processes unattended with certainty, and to have their artistic individuality obliterated by the fire. It is clear, therefore, that if by any means doubt can be changed to certainty, and the finish characteristic of the individual artist be preserved, artists of every grade will gladly avail themselves of the opportunity to place their works above the reach of the defacing fingers of Time. The ceramic art would be revolutionized. Artists, being at present less able to follow nature, make a virtue of necessity, and lose themselves among fantasies of tint and form. We find elaborately decorated pieces, the great virtue of the floral ornamentation of which is, that it is--not true, but--new. A new leaf or a novelty in flowers