308 AR]ADNE FLOEENTINA. 



finest and just try to copy the leaves that entangle the head of 

 lo, and her head itself; remembering always that the kind 

 of work required here is mere child's play compared to that 

 of fine figure engraving. Nevertheless, take a small magmf}*- 

 ing glass to this count the dots and lines that gradate the 

 nostrils and the edges of the facial bone ; notice how the 

 light is left on the top of the head by the stopping, at its out- 

 line, of the coarse touches which form the shadows under the 

 leaves ; examine it well, and then I humbly ask of you try 

 to do a piece of it yourself ! You clever sketcher you young 

 lady or gentleman of genius you eye-glassed dilettante you 

 current writer of criticism royalty plural, I beseech you, 

 do it yourself ; do the merely etched outline yourself, if no 

 more. Look you, you hold your etching needle this way, 

 as you would a pencil, nearly ; and then, you scratch with 

 it ! it is as easy as lying. Or if you think that too difficult, 

 take an easier piece ; take either of the light sprays of foliage 

 that rise against the fortress on the right, pass your lens over 

 them look how 7 their fine outline is first drawn, leaf by leaf ; 

 then how the distant rock is put in between, with broken 

 lines, mostly stopping before they touch the leaf-outline ; and 

 again, I pray you, do it yourself, if not on that scale, on a 

 larger. Go on into the hollows of the distant rock, traverse 

 its thickets, number its towers ; count how many lines there 

 are in a laurel bush in an arch in a casement ; some hun- 

 dred and fifty, or two hundred, deliberately drawn lines, you 

 will find, in every square quarter of an inch ; say three thou- 

 sand to the inch, each, with skilful intent, put in its place ! 

 and then consider what the ordinary sketcher's work must 

 appear, to the men who have been trained to this ! 



116. "But might not more have been done by three thou- 

 sand lines to a square inch ? " you will perhaps ask. Well, 

 possibly. It may be with lines as with* soldiers : three hun- 

 dred, knowing their work thoroughly, may be stronger than 

 three thousand less sure of their aim. We shall have to press 

 close home this question about numbers and purpose pres- 

 ently ; it is not the question now. Suppose certain results 

 required, atmospheric effects, surface textures, transparen* 



