LIFE is action; its result is evolution, and out of this ceaseless activity comes man's universal impulse to create. Mental life is constantly changing. Environment also is subject to constant variation; hence man's needs are continually presented in different forms. Because of these conditions, both physical and mental, man's creative impulse finds its natural outlet in the satisfaction of these needs. He is impelled by his instinctive appetites to provide for himself food, drink, shelter and air. By his mental desires he is urged to create such things as will satisfy his aesthetic sense or his appetite for beauty, which is as universal an instinct in man as are the physical appetites.

As states of civilization have changed and different conditions have evolved different needs man has adapted his creative work to the approximate satisfaction of these needs, so that in all times the works of man have spoken eloquently of his ideals, his interests, his necessities and his desires.

This makes art objects, so-called, of vital human interest to him who sees them as man's psychological expression. The objects of art that remain express two distinct elements in man's life - fitness for use and beauty. Their adaptability to our needs may or may not be expressed in their fitness for their own time, but the degree of beauty they reveal is perceptible now and will be forever, for the quality of beauty is eternal.

There are two ways of looking at a period in art: first, from the viewpoint of its fitness, or the fitness of its various objects to fulfill the requirements of modern comfort and convenience. While an art object may have adequately expressed this fitness to the generation in which it was created, it is often quite impossible to satisfy our conception of fitness with the same object. Its adaptation without loss of character is the problem of modern usage.

Looking at it from the second viewpoint, an art period must be considered with regard to its value or its power as a decorative expression in the furnishing of a modern house.

A due regard to these distinctions will ensure such a choice and arrangement of furnishings of any period as will not only conform to modern conditions, but will form with these conditions a harmonious unit. This subject will be further considered in Part III.

History is a record of life. It is a record not only in words but in stone, metal, wood and other materials, and takes the form of architecture, sculpture, ornament, furniture, clothes and the like. We learn much of how the Romans lived from the fragments of architecture which are left. More eloquent than words are Greek sculpture, the Gothic Cathedral and the French palaces. In no way can the ideals and practices of a people be so definitely embodied as in those objects which they in their time create to represent their various needs and desires. To regard history, then, as a mere matter of word record is to miss entirely the intimate relation that exists between art objects and the people who create them. This viewpoint of periods as a historical expression is important and will be considered throughout this work.

A period in art may be described as a period of time in which one dominant influence controlled the various expressions of some nation's life interest. Perhaps no one person more completely dominated the art of any period than did Louis XIV in France. The political situation which he created, the religious ideas which he promulgated, and the social regime which grew out of his ideas and practices found their concrete expression in the gorgeous, pageant-like forms characterizing the period of Louis XIV. This expression was by no means a crystallized fact in the early days of the reign of this sovereign, neither did it remain intact until the day of his death. It was modified by outside influences, which perhaps for the time being were stronger even than his or those of his associates who dominated the royal thought. There is always the transition from the last period to the one under consideration, and the transition from the considered one to the one which follows. Each of these will be marked by conflicting ideas.

In the study of periods it is most desirable that one should have the clearest possible conception of the idea for which the period stands when it is at its highest degree of perfection. Study all kinds of objects made during those periods for the discovery of common elements. Analyze those elements for ideas or qualities which they represent and then interpret all other parts of the period and all associated periods by these quality ideas, rather than by set dates, set terms, or crystallized forms.

In discussing a period one must always consider all that has gone before, that is, all influences that are hereditary and that have affected the local period by contact. Then there are national characteristics influencing the period creation, individual preferences and desires which are associated with the dominating person or persons of that period, and the general needs of the civilization which, after all, furnish the keynote to the art of every well-defined period.

It is better in this brief discussion to take the broadest possible conception of period art and to try to establish in a limited way a relationship between man, his ideas or aims, and the materials with which he expresses these. This will establish at least a fundamental working basis for period study and further investigation.

Eliminating Asiatic influences, there have been, broadly speaking, three great manifestations or types of expression out of which have been formulated lesser ones at various times under local conditions.' Each of these three dominating influences has in turn been preponderant in the various periods. These three influences may be named, for the sake of clearness, the Classic or Hellenic, the Gothic or Christian, and the Humanistic or Materialistic Natural.