as a
representation of the most beautiful statue in the British Museum, may
well arouse any artist's wonder what kind of "diletto" in antiquity it
might be, from which the Society assumed its name.

107. The third book above named as a typical example of right work in
line, the "Description de l'Egypte," is one of the greatest monuments
of calm human industry, honestly and delicately applied, which exist in
the world. The front of Rouen Cathedral, or the most richly-wrought
illuminated missal, as pieces of resolute industry, are mere child's
play compared to any group of the plates of natural history in this
book. Of unemotional, but devotedly earnest and rigidly faithful labor,
I know no other such example. The lithographs to Agassiz's "poissons
fossiles" are good in their kind, but it is a far lower and easier kind,
and the popularly visible result is in larger proportion to the skill;
whereas none but workmen can know the magnificent devotion of
unpretending and observant toil, involved in even a single figure of an
insect or a starfish on these unapproachable plates. Apply such skill to
the simple presentation of the natural history of every English county,
and make the books portable in size, and I cannot conceive any other
book-gift to our youth so precious.

108. II. Wood-cutting and etching for serious purpose.

The tendency of wood-cutting in England has been to imitate the fineness
and manner of engraving. This is a false tendency; and so far as the
productions obtained under its influence have been successful, they are
to be considered only as an inferior kind of engraving, under the last
head. But the real power of wood-cutting is, with little labor, to
express in clear delineation the most impressive essential qualities of
form and light and shade, in objects which owe their interest not to
grace, but to power and character. It can never express beauty of the
subtlest kind, and is not in any way available on a large scale; but
used rightly, on its own ground, it is the _most purely intellectual_ of
all Art; sculpture, even of the highest order, being slightly sensual
and imitative; while fine wood-cutting is entirely abstract, thoughtful,
and passionate. The best wood-cuts that I know in the whole range of Art
are those of Duerer's "Life of the Virgin;" after these come the other
works of Duerer, slightly inferior from a more complex and wiry treatment
of line. I have never seen any other work in wood de