namely, its power to blend with the rest of the book.
Illustration is like décor in the ballet, one of several arts
planned by a team of artists. Dance, drama, music and
design together make a spectacle in which each has its
share. Similarly, type, paper, binding and illustrations
must all contribute to the art of the book.

While we are chiefly concerned with the illustration of
imaginative literature, there are many books--perhaps they
should be called books with illustrations rather than illus-
trated books--which cannot be altogether overlooked,
especially in any survey of British illustration, for they are
a characteristic product of the Englishman's traditional
respect for the appearance of a book, whatever its subject
may be. So there have been many scientific textbooks,
trade catalogues or works on natural history, travel, art
and archæology in which the illustrations are primarily a
factual extension of the text, but which at the same time
are a source of æsthetic pleasure. For instance, Audubon's
princely elephant folio on the Birds of America, the un-
ashamedly romantic Temple of Flora and a score of lesser
natural history books, Ruskin Seven Lamps of Architecture
and Modern Painters, the catalogue of Sir Henry Thompson's
blue and white porcelain illustrated by Whistler, or--when
we come to modern technical illustration based on photo-
graphy--a series such as the Shell Guides. All these have
information as their chief aim, but are lovely and exciting
to look at.

In the literary arts of poetry, prose and fiction the
illustrator no longer aims at mere dispassionate visual
description. In poetry, illustration is often altogether
redundant. The lyric, concise in expression and compact
in form, stands complete in itself. No distraction is tolerable.
In narrative prose and fiction, however, the artist has a
wide choice of pictorial incidents and descriptive scenes
which, enlivened with a pictorial commentary which
suggests another train of thought, he can interpret in
images of his own choice. Successful interpretation implies
the need for a reflection of the author's style. This may

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