rs refused to publish his works at their own
charges, and so set him upon some plan for doing without their aid.
In the first place, Aloys invented a certain kind of ink, which would
resist the action of the acid that is usually employed by engravers,
and with this he made his experiments upon copper-plates, as long as he
could afford to purchase them. He found that to write upon the plates
backwards, after the manner of engravers, required much skill and many
trials; and he thought that, were he to practise upon any other
polished surface--a smooth stone, for instance, the least costly article
imaginable--he might spare the expense of the copper until he had
sufficient skill to use it.

One day, it is said, that Aloys was called upon to write--rather a
humble composition for an author and artist--a washing-bill. He had
no paper at hand, and so he wrote out the bill with some of his
newly-invented ink upon one of his Kelheim stones. Some time afterwards
he thought he would try and take an IMPRESSION of his washing-bill:
he did, and succeeded. Such is the story, which the reader most likely
knows very well; and having alluded to the origin of the art, we shall
not follow the stream through its windings and enlargement after it
issued from the little parent rock, or fill our pages with the rest of
the pedigree. Senefelder invented Lithography. His invention has not
made so much noise and larum in the world as some others, which have an
origin quite as humble and unromantic; but it is one to which we owe no
small profit, and a great deal of pleasure; and, as such, we are bound
to speak of it with all gratitude and respect. The schoolmaster, who
is now abroad, has taught us, in our youth, how the cultivation of
art "emollit mores nec sinit esse"--(it is needless to finish the
quotation); and Lithography has been, to our thinking, the very best
ally that art ever had; the best friend of the artist, allowing him
to produce rapidly multiplied and authentic copies of his own works
(without trusting to the tedious and expensive assistance of the
engraver); and the best friend to the people likewise, who have means of
purchasing these cheap and beautiful productions, and thus having their
ideas "mollified" and their manners "feros" no more.

With ourselves, among whom money is plenty, enterprise so great, and
everything matter of commercial speculation, Lithography has not been
so much practised as wood or steel engraving; which