e man's and a fool's; and
consider what heavy responsibility lies upon you in your youth, to
determine, among realities, by what you will be delighted, and, among
imaginations, by whose you will be led.

FOOTNOTES:

[Q] By Mr. Burgess. The toil and skill necessary to produce a facsimile
of this degree of precision will only be recognized by the reader who
has had considerable experience of actual work.

[R] The ordinary title-page of Punch.

[S] In the lecture-room, the relative rates of execution were shown; I
arrive at this estimate by timing the completion of two small pieces of
shade in the two methods.

[T] John Bull, as Sir Oliver Surface, with Sir Peter Teazle and Joseph
Surface. It appeared in Punch, early in 1863.

[U] In preparing these passages for the press, I feel perpetual need of
qualifications and limitations, for it is impossible to surpass the
humor, or precision of expressional touch, in the really golden parts of
Tenniel's works; and they _may_ be immortal, as representing what is
best in their day.

[V] From Bewick's AEsop's Fables.

[W] See _ante_, Sec. 43.

LECTURE IV.

THE TECHNICS OF METAL ENGRAVING.

113. We are to-day to examine the proper methods for the technical
management of the most perfect of the arms of precision possessed by the
artist. For you will at once understand that a line cut by a
finely-pointed instrument upon the smooth surface of metal is
susceptible of the utmost fineness that can be given to the _definite_
work of the human hand. In drawing with pen upon paper, the surface of
the paper is slightly rough; necessarily, two points touch it instead of
one, and the liquid flows from them more or less irregularly, whatever
the draughtsman's skill. But you cut a metallic surface with one edge
only; the furrow drawn by a skater on the surface of ice is like it on a
large scale. Your surface is polished, and your line may be wholly
faultless, if your hand is.

114. And because, in such material, effects may be produced which no
penmanship could rival, most people, I fancy, think that a steel plate
half engraves itself; that the workman has no trouble with it, compared
to that of a pen draughtsman.

To test your feeling in this matter accurately, here is a manuscript
book written with pen and ink, and illustrated with flourishes and
vignettes.

You will all, I think, be disposed, on examining it, to exclaim, How
wond