PHOTOGRAPHY: ; 



TWO LECTURES. 



BY CAPT. ABNET, R.E., F.R.S. 



LECTUEE I. 



IN Fe"nelon's fables, under the title of Voyage Suppose, 1690, 

 a visit to the Isle of Wonders is described, and in that book 

 we read 



" There was no painter in that country, but if anybody 

 wished to have the portrait of a friend, of a picture, a beautiful 

 landscape, or of any other object, water was placed in great 

 basins of gold or silver, and then the object desired to be 

 painted was placed in front of that water. After a while 

 the water froze and became a glass mirror, on which an in- 

 effaceable image remained." 



Such was a fancy which, though then of a most improbable 

 nature, presented itself to the mind of a French king's tutor 

 some hundred years ago. In its broad aspect it became a 

 reality when the first Daguerrean image was obtained ; 

 though accomplishment was, in a measure, effected in the 

 early asphaltum prints of Niepce. It is with the realisation 

 of this dream that we have to deal this morning; with that 

 realisation which has furnished people, to be numbered by 

 thousands, with the means of subsistence, and has created 

 fortunes in some few instances ; and which, has put a new 

 power into the hands of men of science in their investi- 

 gations. 



S> B 



