INTRODUCTION. 



Xlll 



work only, as the head can scarcely enter into the labour. At the same 

 time it is to be observed that it is possible to combine the two methods, as 

 is done in many modern wood engravings. 



It is also proper that in an engraving on wood each line should be cut 

 with definite meaning, without inaccuracy, and also without undue hesitation. 

 It may not by multiplicity or rigidity of line invade too far the province of 

 plate engraving, and thus lose the advantages afforded by wood over metal ; 

 nor of etching by unnecessary looseness or trickily obtained mystery. It 

 must for a basis have open, honest, sound work, such as can only be produced 

 on wood, and not by any other style of engraving. 



It may be thought little to claim for Thomas Bewick's works the correct 

 observance of these conditions ; yet it was as necessary for him to observe 

 them as it must and ever will be for engravers who wish to practise their Art, 

 not as imitating steel-plate work or original drawings in pen and ink on 

 paper, or any other method, but as the distinct and beautiful Art of 

 Engraving on Wood. That Bewick satisfied these provisions will be at once 

 and without debate admitted, and it is only necessary to add a few words on 

 his claim as a master in his profession. 



In the first place we find him as a youth, with fewer advantages for 

 observing artistic labours than are now yearly afforded to thousands of 

 children, able, before he has terminated his seven years' apprenticeship, to 

 produce works very greatly in advance of his master ; in twelve years more 

 to engrave blocks beside which the works of the best contemporaries are 

 meagre and commonplace ; and in another twelve years to render himself, 

 by his truthfully drawn designs, the first engraver in the world. The 

 "Select Fables," the "History of Quadrupeds," and the "History of 

 British Birds " reveal on every page the superiority of his talent in depicting 

 with his pencil and graver the correct form and true spirit of those 

 animals which every one may contemplate with admiration. 



This was a very great change in Wood Engraving. Until his time it had 



