lines on a given
space without thought of whether such multiplicity of lines adds
anything to the expression of the picture or the beauty of the
engraving. How much of talent is here thrown away! How much of force
that should have helped towards growth is wasted in this slave's play
for a prize not worth having--the fame of having well done the lowest
thing in the engraver's art, and having for that neglected the study
of the highest! For it is the lowest and the last thing about which an
artist should concern himself, this excessive fineness and minuteness
of work.... In engraving, as in other branches of art, _the first
thing is drawing, the second drawing, the third drawing_."

This is the professional view, ably expressed, of a matter which has
been exercising many minds of late; and is worth quoting, if only to
show the folly of imitating a system acknowledged by experts to be
founded on false principles.

But there is another view of the matter which should not be lost sight
of. Whatever the opinion of the American system of illustration may be,
there is, on the other side of the Atlantic, an amount of energy,
enterprise, cultivation of hand and eye, delicacy of manipulation, and
individual industry, cleverly organised to provide a wide continent with
a better art than anything yet attempted in any country. Some fine
engravings, which the Americans have lately been distributing amongst
the people, such, for instance, as the portraits (engraved from
photographs from life) which have appeared in _Harper's_ and the
_Century_ magazines, only reach the cultivated few in Europe in
expensive books. It is worth considering what the ultimate art effect of
this widespread distribution will be. The "prairie flower" holds in her
hand a better magazine, as regards illustrations, than anything
published in England at the same price; and a taste for delicate and
refined illustration is being fostered amongst a variety of people on
the western continent, learned and unlearned. That there is a want of
sincerity in the movement, that "things are not exactly what they seem,"
that something much better might be done, may be admitted; but it will
be well for our illustrators and art providers to remember that the
Americans are advancing upon us with the power of capital and
ever-increasing knowledge and cultivation. In the _Century_ magazine,
ten years ago, there was an article on "The Pupils of Bewick," with
ill