6 BOOKS OF SECRETS. 



wished to acquire these "secrets" had to serve an apprenticeship to the 

 master, and be initiated by him. That it was personal one can com- 

 prehend, for when the productions of different men, with the same 

 material and with the same processes for the same ends are compared, the 

 difference in the results is sufficiently marked. The work of Peter Vischer, 

 for example, or of Benvenuto Cellini, or of Bernard Palissy, stands out 

 conspicuously among that of their contemporaries, to go no farther, 

 through their " secret," or personal skill and knowledge. 



Even after the processes had been published and the "secrets" 

 divulged, it did not follow by any means that anyone, still less everyone, 

 could carry out the directions accurately, not to speak of the results 

 achieved by their authors. Something more is wanted than the written 

 or spoken word, for as Opie showed long ago the brains and conscience 

 of the artist are not negligible components of success. 



By degrees, presumably, the "secrets" oozed out and were disseminated 

 among the craftsmen and were finally collected and published. They 

 retained their distinctive name, however, for though now displayed to 

 common view, they had been " secrets " once and might bear that title still. 



My acquaintance with these books began when I was engaged with a 

 different subject, and I was disposed at first to resent their intrusion, but 

 as their numbers increased and the use made of them in the past became 

 more obvious by the variety of topics dealt with and the number of 

 editions, they acquired a practical importance and a bibliographical 

 interest, not to say significance, and I drifted into the examination of 

 them, without anticipating in what it might uhimately involve me. That, 

 however, is the usual course of research and one of its charms, and I have 

 yielded to it. So starting witii a score or two of treatises and editions, 

 I have been led on to an examination and recording of books of which 

 previously I had no knowledge, and which, so far as I know, have never 

 been brought together and catalogued before. After all, the number of 

 them which have passed through my hands is but a small one, a couple 



