did not come into use until well after 1800), and effects were too heavy. They 

 used distemper — powdered color mixed with glue and water, with chalk added to 

 give body. This was sometimes applied with woodblock or stencil but most often 

 it was simply painted in by hand over a blockprinted outline. Often the painting 

 was done directly on the wall after the paper was hung. These wallpapers were 

 weak when examined critically, but nobody worried as long as a light bright pastel 

 effect was obtained. Jackson's vigorous drawing and woodcutting were out of 

 place in this field. They were, like his tonal exactitude that made holes in die wall, 

 a distraction and an offense against interior decoration. 



Jackson's business, therefore, did not prosper. In a last effort to stir up public 

 interest he published, in 1754, his well-known little book. An Essay on the Inven- 

 tion of Engraving and Printing in Chiaro Oscuro, illustrated with eight prints in 

 "proper colours." It sold for two shillings and sixpence. The style was rather florid 

 but his arguments were presented with such vigor that it is easy to see why cridcs 

 have found it difficult to refrain from quoting at length. The main body of text is 

 only eight pages long, with an additional eight pages of subsidiary descriptive 

 material attached to the pictures. 



On the title page appeared his favorite passage from Pascal, used previously 

 on the title page of the Enquiry: "Ceux qui sont capables d'inventer sont rares: 

 ceux qui n'inventent point sont en plus grand nombre, et par consequent les plus 

 forts." The first few pages of the Essay enlarge on this theme: 



It has been too generally the Fate of those who set themselves to the Inventing 

 any Thing that requires Talents in the Discovery, to apply all dieir Faculties, ex- 

 haust their Fortune, and waste their whole Time in bringing that to Perfection, 

 which when obtained. Age, Death, or Want of sufficient Supplies, obliges them to 

 relinquish, and to yield all the Advantages which their Hopes had flattered them 

 with, and which had supported their Spirits during their Fatigues and Difficulties, 

 to others; and thus leave behind them an impoverish'd Family incapable to carry 

 on their Parent's Design, and too often complaining of the projecting Genius of 

 that Father who has rum'd them, tho' he has enriched the Nation to which he 

 belonged, and to which of Consequence he was a laudable Benefactor. 



He proceeds in this bitter vein for a time, then brings into the open the main pur- 

 pose of the book: 



43 



