figure engraving. Nevertheless, take a strong magnifying
glass to this--count the dots and lines that gradate the nostrils and
the edges of the facial bone; notice how the light is left on the top of
the head by the stopping at its outline of the coarse touches which form
the shadows under the leaves; examine it well, and then--I humbly ask of
you--try to do a piece of it yourself! You clever sketcher--you young
lady or gentleman of genius--you eye-glassed dilettante--you current
writer of criticism royally plural,--I beseech you--do it yourself; do
the merely etched outline yourself, if no more. Look you,--you hold your
etching needle this way, as you would a pencil, nearly; and then,--you
scratch with it! it is as easy as lying. Or if you think that too
difficult, take an easier piece;--take either of the light sprays of
foliage that rise against the fortress on the right, put your glass over
them--look how their fine outline is first drawn, leaf by leaf; then
how the distant rock is put in between, with broken lines, mostly
stopping before they touch the leaf outline, and--again, I pray you, do
it yourself; if not on that scale, on a larger. Go on into the hollows
of the distant rock--traverse its thickets--number its towers--count how
many lines there are in a laurel bush--in an arch--in a casement: some
hundred and fifty, or two hundred, deliberately drawn lines, you will
find, in every square quarter of an inch;--say three thousand to the
inch,--each with skillful intent put in its place! and then consider
what the ordinary sketcher's work must appear to the men who have been
trained to this!

57. "But might not more have been done by three thousand lines to a
square inch?" you will perhaps ask. Well, possibly. It may be with lines
as with soldiers: three hundred, knowing their work thoroughly, may be
stronger than three thousand less sure of their game. We shall have
to press close home this question about numbers and purpose
presently;--it is not the question now. Supposing certain results
required,--atmospheric effects, surface textures, transparencies of
shade, confusions of light,--more could _not_ be done with less. There
are engravings of this modern school, of which, with respect to their
particular aim, it may be said, most truly, they "_cannot_ be better
done."

58. Whether an engraving should aim at effects of atmosphere, may be
disputable (just as also whether a sculptor should aim at effects of
per