witnessed the production of the most stately needle-point laces, the
transformation of Venetian point, and the growth of Points d'Alencon,
d'Argentan, de Bruxelles and d'Angleterre.

The king, aided by Colbert, determined to make France the centre, if
possible, for lace manufacture, sending for this purpose both to Venice
and to Flanders for workers. The studio of the Gobelins supplied
designs. The dandies had their huge rabatos or bands falling from
beneath the chin over the breast, and great prelates, like Bossuet and
Fenelon, wore their wonderful albs and rochets. It is related of a
collar made at Venice for Louis XIV. that the lace-workers, being unable
to find sufficiently fine horse-hair, employed some of their own hairs
instead, in order to secure that marvellous delicacy of work which they
aimed at producing.

In the eighteenth century, Venice, finding that laces of lighter texture
were sought after, set herself to make rose-point; and at the Court of
Louis XV. the choice of lace was regulated by still more elaborate
etiquette. The Revolution, however, ruined many of the manufactures.
Alencon survived, and Napoleon encouraged it, and endeavoured to renew
the old rules about the necessity of wearing point-lace at Court
receptions. A wonderful piece of lace, powdered over with devices of
bees, and costing 40,000 francs, was ordered. It was begun for the
Empress Josephine, but in the course of its making her escutcheons were
replaced by those of Marie Louise.

M. Lefebure concludes his interesting history by stating very clearly his
attitude towards machine-made lace. 'It would be an obvious loss to
art,' he says, 'should the making of lace by hand become extinct, for
machinery, as skilfully devised as possible, cannot do what the hand
does.' It can give us 'the results of processes, not the creations of
artistic handicraft.' Art is absent 'where formal calculation pretends
to supersede emotion'; it is absent 'where no trace can be detected of
intelligence guiding handicraft, whose hesitancies even possess peculiar
charm . . . cheapness is never commendable in respect of things which are
not absolute necessities; it lowers artistic standard.' These are
admirable remarks, and with them we take leave of this fascinating book,
with its delightful illustrations, its charming anecdotes, its excellent
advice. Mr. Alan Cole deserves the thanks of all who are interested in
art for bringing this book before the public in so attractive and so
inexpensive a form.

Embroidery and Lace: Their Manufacture and History from the Remotest
Antiquity to the Present Day. Translated and enlarged by Alan S. Cole
from the French of Ernest Lefebure. (Grevel and Co.)

THE POETS' CORNER--VIII

(Pall Mall Gazette, November 16, 1888.)

A few years ago some of our minor poets tried to set Science to music, to
write sonnets on the survival of the fittest and odes to Natural
Selection. Socialism, and the sympathy with those who are unfit, seem,
if we may judge from Miss Nesbit's remarkable volume, to be the new theme
of song, the fresh subject-matter for poetry. The change has some
advantages.