t as
the distance recedes (see p. 43). _A plat, plusieurs pointes_--flat
biting, several points, that is to say, one immersion only, but the work
of finer and coarser points is intermingled in the drawing. _Par
couvertures, plusieurs pointes_--stopping out and the work of several
points combined.

PLATE IV. _Fig. 1._ See p. 27. _Fig. 2._ See p. 45. _Figs. 3, 4 and 5._
See p. 46.

PLATE V. _Fig. 1._ Worked with one point; effect produced by stopping
out (see p. 44). _Fig. 2._ Mottled tint in the building, &c., in the
foreground; stopping out before biting, in the sky (see p. 51).

PLATE VI. _Soft-ground etchings._ See p. 52.

PLATE VII. _Dry-point etching._ See p. 53.

PLATE VIII. _A Seville._ A sketch, given as a specimen of printing (see
p. 58).

PLATE IX. _A Anvers._ _Le Haag, Amsterdam._ Sketches from nature, to
serve as examples.

PLATE X. (Frontispiece). _Souvenir de Bordeaux._ To be consulted in
regard to the manner of using the points and partial bitings.

MY DEAR MONSIEUR LALANNE,[B]

[B] This letter preceded also the first edition of 1866.

If there is any one living who can write about Etching, it must
certainly be you, as you possess all the secrets of the art, and are
versed in all its refinements, its resources, and its effects.
Nevertheless, when I was told that you intended to publish a book on the
subject, I feared that you were about to attempt the impossible; for it
seemed as if Abraham Bosse had exhausted the theme two hundred years
ago, and that you would be condemned to repeat all that this excellent
man had said in his treatise, in which, with charming _naivete_, he
teaches _the art of engraving to perfection_.

I must confess, however, that the reading of your manuscript very
quickly undeceived me. I find in it numberless useful and interesting
things not to be found anywhere else, and I comprehend that Abraham
Bosse wrote for those who know, while you write for those who do not
know.

I was quite young, and had just left college, when accident threw into
my hands the _Traite des manieres de graver en taille douce sur l'airain
par le moyen des eaux fortes et des vernis durs et mols_. Perhaps I
might have paid no attention to this book, if I had not previously
noticed on the stands on the _Quai Voltaire_ some etchings by Rembrandt,
which had opened to me an entirely new world of poetry and of dreams.
These prints had taken such hold upon my imagination that I desired to
l