APPENDIX. 387 



their power in a general reaction of the public mind from the 

 insipidit}' of the lower school of line engraving, brought on it 

 by servile persistence in hack work for ignorant publishers. 

 The last dregs of it may still be seen in the sentimental land- 

 scapes engraved for cheap ladies' pocket-books. But the 

 woodcut can never, educationally, take the place of serene and 

 accomplished line engraving ; and the training of young ar- 

 tists in whom the gift of delineation prevails over their sense 

 of colour, to the production of scholarly, but small plates, 

 with their utmost honour of skill, would give a hitherto un- 

 conceived dignity to the character and range of our popular 

 literature. 



3. Vigorous mezzotints from pictures of the great masters, 

 which originally present noble contrasts of light and shade. 

 Many Venetian works are magnificent in this character. 



4. Original design by painters themselves, decisively en- 

 graved in few lines (not etched) ; and with such insistance by 

 dotted work on the main contours as we have seen in the ex- 

 amples given from Italian engraving. 



5. On the other hand, the men whose quiet patience and 

 exquisite manual dexterity are at present employed in pro- 

 ducing large and costly plates, such as that of the Belle Jar- 

 diniere de Florence, by M. Boucher Desnoyers, should be 

 entirely released from their servile toil, and employed ex- 

 clusively in producing coloured copies, or light drawings, 

 from the original work. The same number of hours of la- 

 bour, applied with the like conscientious skill, would multiply 

 precious likenesses of the real picture, full of subtle veracities 

 which no steel line could approach, and conveying, to thou- 

 sands, true knowledge and unaffected enjoyment of painting ; 

 while the finished plate lies uncared for in the portfolio of 

 the virtuoso, serving only, so far as it is seen in the print- 

 seller's window by the people, to make them think that sacred 

 painting must always be dull, and unnatural. 



I have named the above engraving, because, for persons 

 wishing to study the present qualities and methods of line- 

 work, it is a pleasant and sufficient possession, uniting every 

 variety of texture with great serenity of unforced effect, and 



