306 ARIADNE FLOEENT1NA. 



bility lies upon you in your youth, to determine, among reali- 

 ties, by what you will be delighted, and, among imaginations, 

 by whose you will be led. 



LECTURE IV. 



THE TECHNICS OF METAL ENGEAVING. 



113. WE are to-day to examine the proper methods for the 

 technical management of the most perfect of the arms of pre- 

 cision possessed by the artist. For you will at once under- 

 stand that a line cut by a finely-pointed instrument upon the 

 smooth surface of metal is susceptible of the utmost fineness 

 that can be given to the definite work of the human hand. In 

 drawing with pen upon paper, the surface of the paper is 

 slightly rough ; necessarily, two points touch it instead of one, 

 and the liquid flows from them more or less irregularly, what- 

 ever the draughtsman's skill. But you cut a metallic sur- 

 face with one edge only ; the furrow drawn by a skater on 

 the surface of ice is like it on a large scale. Your surface is 

 polished, and your line may be wholly faultless, if your hand 

 is. 



114. And because, in such material, effects may be pro- 

 duced which no penmanship could rival, most people, I fancy, 

 think that a steel plate half engraves itself ; that the work- 

 man has no trouble with it, compared to that of a pen 

 draughtsman. 



To test your feeling in this matter accurately, here is a 

 manuscript book written with pen and ink, and illustrated 

 with flourishes and vignettes. 



You will all, I think, be disposed, on examining it, to ex- 

 claim, How wonderful ! and even to doubt the possibility of 

 every page in the book being completed in the same manner. 

 Again, here are three of my own drawings, executed with the 

 pen, and Indian ink, when I was fifteen. They are copies 

 from large lithographs by Prout ; arid I imagine that most of 

 my pupils would think me very tyrannical if I requested them 



