52 Bisect Architecture, 



said, " there is nothing new under the sun;" accordingly we 

 here find the good old practice revived, usual in the days of 

 Gerarde, Parkinson, and their predecessors, of employing 

 wood-engravings instead of copper, and incorporating them 

 with the type in the body of the page. Wood-engravings 

 possess many advantages ; neat and beautiful in themselves, 

 they are produced at a comparatively cheap rate ; and the 

 blocks, moreover, not being subject to the corltinual we^r and 

 tear pi'oduced by the polishing and whiting-besmeared hand 

 of the printer, endure long, and afford, without suffering im- 

 pair, a very large number of impressions — larger than copper- 

 plates, or even, we believe, than steel. We infinitely prefer 

 xylographic to metallic prints, unless the latter be executed 

 in the very first style of excellence. And here we would, 

 in a kindly spirit, entreat all printers to do justice to the 

 artists whose works are placed in their hand, by paying a 

 little attention,— ^<r/r« attention, if need be, — to the manner in 

 which they pass the blocks through the press, and previously 

 prepare them for the operation. It is grievous to see, what 

 frequently it is our fate to see, the effect of a beautiful wood- 

 engraving entirely marred for want of care in striking off* the 

 copies. Hence we are sometimes presented either with faint 

 and indistinct impressions o\\ the one hand (as is the case with 

 some of those in the volume before us), or on the other, with 

 black and blotted ones ; the one arising fron^- a deficiency, the 

 opier from a superabundance^'of ink vrith which the blocks 

 are charged, or from some otfcr n^ismaijagerftent iii''|)assing 

 thena through the press. But to, return: tKe low pi-fee at 

 which the present volume is offered to th^pi|il51ic would abso- 

 lutely disarm us of all severity of cri^cism towards its eriibel- 

 lishments, eveh were it otherwise deserved. The wbocJ-ciits 

 before us, though not of the first ordeir of merit, — liow,ihdeed 

 could tliat be expected ?~ai'e yet, m most instances^ re§()ect~ 

 able a,t least, and often good, We particularly adniire' the 

 figure of th^ caterpillar and Gocpon of the iZiczac iTa9th 

 at p. 172.5...the caterpillar of the Goat moth h^t'p. 189.J and 

 the Capricorn beetle at p. ^40. In some few i^ristarices we 

 must withhold even our qualified approbation :' for exfeple, 

 the figure of Hesperi/2 malvae, at p. 169., is positively 'bad ; 

 we do not know from what old author it has been copied — 

 we say copied^ because we are confident it resembles nothing 

 in nature, arid appears to us better suited to have found a 

 place in the rude pages of Thomas Mouffet, the learned 

 author oi Insectorum Theatrum^ printed in 1634, than in those 

 of a modern work of the nineteenth century. For the credit 

 of the book we heartily wish the cut had been omitted. We 



