298 ARIADNE FLORENTINA. 



feelings of sensitive persons, and the judgment of attentive 

 ones. That is Holbein's habit of soul. What is the habit of 

 soul of every modern engraver? Always in a hurry ; every- 

 where doing things which he knows to be wrong (Tenniel 

 knows his light and shade to be wrong as well as I do) con- 

 tinually doing things badly which he was able to do better ; 

 and appealing exclusively to the feelings of the dull, and the 

 judgment of the inattentive. 



Do you suppose that is not enough to make the difference 

 between mortal and immortal art, the original genius being 

 supposed alike in both ? * 



96. Thus far of the state of the artist himself. I pass next 

 to the relation between him and his subordinate, the wood- 

 cutter. 



The modern artist requires him to cut a hundred and fifty- 

 seven lines in the wig only, the old artist requires him to 

 cut forty-five for the face, and long hair, altogether. The 

 actual proportion is roughly, and on the average, about one 

 to twenty of cost in manual labour, ancient to modern, the 

 twentieth part of the mechanical labour, to produce an immor- 

 tal instead of a perishable work, the twentieth part of the 

 labour ; and which is the greatest difference of all that 

 twentieth part, at once less mechanically difficult, and more 

 mentally pleasant. Mr. Otley, in his general History of En- 

 graving, says, " The greatest difficulty in wood engraving oc- 

 curs in clearing out the minute quadrangular lights ; " and in 

 any modern woodcut you will see that where the lines of the 

 drawing cross each other to produce shade, the white inter- 

 stices are cut out so neatly that there is no appearance of any 

 jag or break in the lines ; they look exactly as if they had 

 been drawn with a pen. It is chiefly difficult to cut the 

 pieces clearly out when the lines cross at right angles ; easier 

 when they form oblique or diamond-shaped interstices ; but 



* In preparing these passages for the press, I feel perpetual need of 

 qualifications and limitations, for it is impossible to-surpass the humour, 

 or precision of expressioiial touch, in the really golden parts of Tenniel's 

 works ; and they may be immortal, as representing what is best in their 

 day. 



