could be brought to
realise that a work which was to be repeated, say a thousand times, was
worthy of as much attention as his ancestors gave to a single copy!

On the principle that "everything worth doing is worth doing well," and
on the assumption that the processes in common use--[I purposely omit
mention here of the older systems of drawing on transfer paper, and
drawing on waxed plates, without the aid of photography, which have been
dealt with in previous books]--are worth all the care and artistic
knowledge which can be bestowed upon them, we would press, upon young
artists especially, the importance of study and experiment in this
direction. As there is no question that "the handwork of the artist" can
be seen more clearly through mechanical engraving than through wood
engraving, it behoves him to do his best. And as we are substituting
process blocks for wood engraving in every direction, so we should take
over some of the patience and care which were formerly given to book
illustrations.

We cannot live, easily, in the "cloistered silence of the past," but we
can emulate the deliberate and thoughtful work of Mantegna, of Holbein,
of Albert Duerer, and the great men of the past, who, if they were alive
to-day, would undoubtedly have preferred drawing for process to the
labour of etching and engraving; and, if their work were to be
reproduced by others, they would have perceived, what it does not
require much insight in us to realise, that the individuality of the
artist is better preserved, by making his own lines.

To do this successfully in these days, the artist must give his best and
most deliberate (instead of his hurried and careless) drawings to the
processes; founding his style, to a limited extent it may be, on old
work, but preserving his own individuality.

But we must not slavishly copy sketches by the old masters, _which were
never intended for reproduction_. We may learn from the study of them
the power of line to express character, action, and effect, we may
learn composition sometimes, but not often from a sketch.

[Illustration: "A PLOUGHBOY." (G. CLAUSEN.)]

As to copying the work of living artists, it should be remembered that
the manner and the method of a line drawing is each artist's property,
and the repetition of it by others is injurious to him. It would be an
easy method indeed if the young artist, fresh from the schools, could,
in a few weeks, imitate the mannerism, say of Si