ared to that of fine figure engraving.
Nevertheless, take a small 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, pass your lens 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!

116. "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 aim. We shall have to
press close home this question about numbers and purpose presently;--it
is not the question now. Suppose certain results required,--atmospheric
effects, surface textures, transparencies of shade, confusions of
light,--then, 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."

Here is one just finished,--or, at least, finished to the eyes of
ordinary mortals, though its fastidious mast