ines
widely spaced and insufficient in number, thus necessitating retouches.
It is essential, therefore, in principle (except in the special cases to
be pointed out hereafter), to give to our work, in its first stages, all
the development that is necessary.

I forgot to tell you that you must provide yourself with a very soft
brush, say a badger, which, from time to time, you must pass lightly
over your plate so as to remove the small particles of varnish raised by
the needle. Otherwise you will not be able to see properly what you have
been doing.

Continue, and follow your own feeling; work away without fear of going
wrong; some of your errors you will be able to remedy. Thus, if you have
made a mistake, you can lay a thin coat of liquid varnish over the
spoiled part by means of a brush; in a few seconds the varnish will have
dried, and you can make your correction. You can employ this method for
the correction of a faulty line, or to restore a place which should have
remained white, but which you have inadvertently shaded.

Here I shall stop for the present, and shall close by saying, May good
luck attend your point, as well as your acid! There is nothing more to
be said to you until after your plate has been bitten.

CHAPTER III.

BITING.

27. =Bordering the Plate.=--This work took some time. Our young student,
impatient to see the transformation wrought by the acid, came back
without keeping me waiting for him.

"Hurry up! A tray, acid, and all the accessories!"

Instead of using a tray, I tell him, we can avail ourselves of another
method, which is used by many engravers, and which consists in bordering
the plate with wax. This wax,[6] having been softened in warm water, is
flattened out into long strips, and is fastened hermetically and
vertically around the edges of the plate, so that, when hardened, it
forms the walls of a vessel, the bottom of which is represented by the
design drawn with the point. To avoid dangerous leaks, heat a key, and
pass it along the wax where it adheres to the plate; the wax melts, and,
on rehardening, offers all possible guarantees of solidity. We now pour
the acid on the plate thus converted into a tray, and as we have taken
care to form a lip in one of the angles made by the bordering wax, it is
an easy matter to pour off the liquid after each biting. This proceeding
is useful in the case of plates which are too large for the tray.
Otherwise, however, I prefer a t