erve what a different state of mind the two artists must be
in on such conditions;--one, never in a hurry, never doing anything that
he knows is wrong; never doing a line badly that he can do better; and
appealing only to the feelings of sensitive persons, and the judgment of
attentive ones. That is Holbein's habit of soul. What is the habit of
soul of every modern engraver? Always in a hurry; everywhere doing
things which he knows to be wrong--(Tenniel knows his light and shade to
be wrong as well as I do)--continually doing things badly which he was
able to do better; and appealing exclusively to the feelings of the
dull, and the judgment of the inattentive.

Do you suppose that is not enough to make the difference between mortal
and immortal art,--the original genius being supposed alike in both?[U]

96. Thus far of the state of the artist himself. I pass, next to the
relation between him and his subordinate, the wood-cutter.

The modern artist requires him to cut a hundred and fifty-seven lines in
the wig only,--the old artist requires him to cut forty-five for the
face, and long hair, altogether. The actual proportion is roughly, and
on the average, about one to twenty of cost in manual labor, ancient to
modern,--the twentieth part of the mechanical labor, to produce an
immortal instead of a perishable work,--the twentieth part of the labor;
and--which is the greatest difference of all--that twentieth part, at
once less mechanically difficult, and more mentally pleasant. Mr. Otley,
in his general History of Engraving, says, "The greatest difficulty in
wood engraving occurs in clearing out the minute quadrangular lights;"
and in any modern woodcut you will see that where the lines of the
drawing cross each other to produce shade, the white interstices are cut
out so neatly that there is no appearance of any jag or break in the
lines; they look exactly as if they had been drawn with a pen. It is
chiefly difficult to cut the pieces clearly out when the lines cross at
right angles; easier when they form oblique or diamond-shaped
interstices; but in any case some half-dozen cuts, and in square
crossings as many as twenty, are required to clear one interstice.
Therefore if I carelessly draw six strokes with my pen across other six,
I produce twenty-five interstices, each of which will need at least six,
perhaps twenty, careful touches of the burin to clear out.--Say ten for
an average; and I demand two hundred and fifty