importance of the Hand.

74. Of the hand as a Servant, observe,--not of the hand as a Master. For
there are two great kinds of manual work: one in which the hand is
continually receiving and obeying orders; the other in which it is
acting independently, or even giving orders of its own. And the
dependent and submissive hand is a noble hand; but the independent or
imperative hand is a vile one.

That is to say, as long as the pen, or chisel, or other graphic
instrument, is moved under the direct influence of mental attention, and
obeys orders of the brain, it is working nobly;--the moment it moves
independently of them, and performs some habitual dexterity of its own,
it is base.

75. _Dexterity_--I say;--some 'right-handedness' of its own. We might
wisely keep that word for what the hand does at the mind's bidding; and
use an opposite word--sinisterity,--for what it does at its own. For
indeed we want such a word in speaking of modern art; it is all full of
sinisterity. Hands independent of brains;--the left hand, by division of
labor, not knowing what the right does,--still less what it ought to do.

76. Turning, then, to our special subject. All engraving, I said, is
intaglio in the solid. But the solid, in wood engraving, is a coarse
substance, easily cut; and in metal, a fine substance, not easily.
Therefore, in general, you may be prepared to accept ruder and more
elementary work in one than the other; and it will be the means of
appeal to blunter minds.

You probably already know the difference between the actual methods of
producing a printed impression from wood and metal; but I may perhaps
make the matter a little more clear. In metal engraving, you cut
ditches, fill them with ink, and press your paper into them. In wood
engraving, you leave ridges, rub the tops of them with ink, and stamp
them on your paper.

The instrument with which the substance, whether of the wood or steel,
is cut away, is the same. It is a solid plowshare, which, instead of
throwing the earth aside, throws it up and out, producing at first a
simple ravine, or furrow, in the wood or metal, which you can widen by
another cut, or extend by successive cuts. This (Fig. 1) is the general
shape of the solid plowshare: but it is of course made sharper or
blunter at pleasure. The furrow produced is at first the wedge-shaped or
cuneiform ravine, already so much dwelt upon in my lectures on Greek
sculpture.

[Illustration: FIG. 1]

77.