302 ARIADNE FLORENTINA. 



102. The three pieces of woodcut from his Fables (the two 

 lower ones enlarged) in the opposite plate, show his utmost 

 strength and utmost rudeness. I must endeavour to make 

 you thoroughly understand both : the magnificent artistic 

 power, the flawless virtue, veracity, tenderness, the infinite 

 humour of the man ; and yet the difference between England 

 and Florence, in the use they make of such gifts in their chil- 

 dren. 



For the moment, however, I confine myself to the examina- 

 tion of technical points ; and we must follow our former con- 

 clusions a little further. 



103. Because* our lines in wood must be thick, it becomes 

 an extreme virtue in w r ood engraving to economize lines, not 

 merely, as in all other art, to save time and power, but because, 

 our lines being necessarily blunt, we must make up our minds 

 to do with fewer, by many, than are in the object. But is this 

 necessarily a disadvantage ? 



Absolutely, an immense disadvantage a woodcut never can 

 be so beautiful or good a thing as a painting, or line engraving. 

 But in its own separate and useful way, an excellent thing, be- 

 cause, practised rightly, it exercises in the artist, and sum- 

 mons in you, the habit of abstraction ; that is to say, of decid- 

 ing what are the essential points in the things you see, and 

 seizing these ; a habit entirely necessary to strong humanity ; 

 and so natural to all humanity, that it leads, in its indolent 

 and undisciplined states, to all the vulgar amateur's liking of 

 sketches better than pictures. The sketch seems to put the 

 thing for him into a concentrated and exciting form. 



104. Observe, therefore, to guard you from this error, that 

 a bad sketch is good for nothing ; and that nobody can make 

 a good sketch unless they generally are trying to finish with 

 extreme care. But the abstraction of the essential particulars 

 in his subject by a line-master, has a peculiar didactic value. 

 For painting, when it is complete, leaves it much to your own 

 judgment what to look at ; and, if you are a fool, you look at 

 the wrong thing ; but in a fine woodcut, the master says to 

 you, " You shall look at this or at nothing." 



105. For example, here is a little tailpiece of Bewick's, to 



