effect. Much confusion arises from the fact that
sometimes all the states of a plate under discussion are not known to each
critic. The whole matter of states is a confusing one. The old idea was
that Rembrandt produced various states in order to make more money. But
it seems plain now that when Rembrandt changed a plate it was for much
better reasons than the making of a few guilders. We know, for instance,
that the "Jan Six" plate was changed twice to make needed corrections, and
that the second state of the first portrait of his mother simply carries
out the original design. On the other hand, it obviously could not have
been Rembrandt who made the third state of the "Jan Lutma," with its hard,
ruled lines and great unnecessary window.

If in the days of hardship, when his son, Titus, peddled his etchings from
door to door, he could have foreseen the great army of admirers who three
centuries later should outbid each other at auctions, and make war in
print over his experimental plates, his failures and his trial-proofs--now
often exalted into "states"--the very irony of the thing would surely have
brought him genuine satisfaction and relaxation.

Rembrandt has said of himself that he would submit to the laws of Nature
alone, and as he interpreted these to suit himself, he cannot be said to
have painted, or etched, or done anything in accord with our
interpretation of recognized or well-grounded laws. With him it was
instinct, pure and simple, from youth to old age. He had no secret process
of painting or etching; but he had an amazing genius for both.

One October day in 1669 an old man, lonely and forgotten, died in
Amsterdam. They buried him in the Wester Kerk and, that he might not be
confounded with some other old man, they wrote in the "Livre Mortuaire" of
the Kerk, "Tuesday, 8th oct., 1669, rembrant van rijn, painter on the
rozengraft, opposite the doolhof. leaves two children."

Of material things he left little; but the two children: Cornelia, his
fifteen year old daughter, and Titia, the posthumous, infant child of
Titus, would keep his name alive! Less than a score of years and the
family record comes to an abrupt end. No one to-day may claim descent
from Rembrandt, but his name has not perished from the earth, nor his
influence abated among the sons of men. His name took on new life when he
laid it aside; his influence strengthened when he ceased personally to
exercise it. Who of us is not