stand,
will be found useful in enabling us to do this. (_Plate 1, fig. 3._)

The eye must be all observation, and the mind all reflection; and it can
scarcely fail to become influenced by the advantages to be derived from
this practice.

It is to the almost thinking sensibility, subtleness, and feeling of the
beautifully and wonderfully constructed human _hand_, that every thing
done with _it_, so far outstrips all _mechanical_ means of imitating it!
It is with this _solely_ and alone, that _fine Art_ is, ever was, and
ever will be, identified.

'The cleverness and sensibility of the hand,' says a beautiful and
masterly writer in the Quarterly Review, 'is quite as essential as
inventive genius.' Speaking of our showy and elaborate park-gates at
Hyde Park Corner, 'what men call the police station--in the language of
the gods, the triumphal arch!' and, comparing it with the bronze
net-work and foliage of Verrochio, 'which seems to grow and spring like
_living_ vegetation,' he says, 'these are capital _Brummagem_, and
nothing more.' 'Grasped by the man, the tool becomes a part of himself;
the hammer is pervaded by the _vitality_ of the _hand_. But in the work
produced by the _machinery_ of the founder there can be nothing of all
this _life_! What does it give you? Correct, stiff _patterns_, all on
the surface. Whatever is reproduced in form or colour by _mechanical_
means, is _moulded_--in short, is perpetually branded by
mediocrity--_Brummagem art_! And, like the music ground by the
barrel-organ, you never hear the _soul_ of the performer--the expression
and feeling, qualities, without which, harmony palls upon the ear.'

'Even in engraving, the best judges all declare that, so far from
benefiting art, the harm it has done has been incalculable, substituting
a general system of _plagiarism_ in place of _invention_.'

'What will not be the result of the means of multiplying the metallic
basis, and fixing the fleeting sunbeam, which are now opening upon us by
means of chemical science? Steam-engine and furnace, the steel plate,
the roller, the press, the _Daguerreotype_, the voltaic battery and the
lens, are the antagonist principles of _art_; and so long as they are
permitted to rule, so long must art be prevented from ever taking root
again in the affections of mankind. It may continue to afford enjoyment
to those who are severed in spirit from the multitude; but the masses
will be quite easy without it.' 'Whilst we