Page:Landscape Painting by Birge Harrison.djvu/187

THE ARTS AND CRAFTS individual or a nation can hope to attain to eminence in art, or even in the "arts and crafts"—and that path always leads direct to nature. We may study the antiques, and joy in them, and fill our souls with their beauty, but for our inspiration we must ever hark back to nature and get as near her heart as ever we can. She has a special message of beauty for every sincere questioner, and the message she gives to me will differ from that which she holds for you, and the message she delivers to the Dutchman will not be the same as that which she gives to the Spaniard.

The decorative art of the Japanese is nature as the Japanese see it; the decorative art of the Hindoos is nature as that strangely subtle and occult people see it; the decorative art of the Moors was nature as the Saracens saw it; and the decorative art of America must be [143]