spur, and the art of engraving and printing from incised plates
originated in their workshops. They were intimately connected with the
artists of their day; and the greatest among them did not disdain to
furnish designs for their artisans. Hence the great variety and flow of
fancy exhibited in their works. This intercommunication benefited both
parties, and should be a lesson to modern exclusiveness, as it is a sort
of key to the reason why the artistic beauty of the past eclipses much
of the artisan's work of the present age; and why also it displays an
abundance of creative ingenuity, which can scarcely be compatible with
the narrow studio a modern workshop has made itself. The early
intercourse of young Duerer with art and artists, spurred him on to
desire to occupy himself in greater works than he could find himself
employed upon in his father's house. He had learned nearly all he could
learn there, and had diligently acquired the power to execute good works
as a goldsmith by the time he had reached his sixteenth year; but he was
wearied with the task of copying, and wished to join the ranks of the
master spirits of whom he occasionally caught a glimpse in the hours of
business. He also would be an artist, and communicated his higher
aspirations to his father. The elder Duerer had worked his way patiently
on by a slow and steady course, and could not understand why his son,
now a good workman, with a fair prospect of equally succeeding in trade,
should not be content to do as he had done. He had also that unpoetic
thrifty style of looking at the whole question, which led him to
consider his son as making a total wreck of the many years' study which
he had already gone through to fit him for the goldsmith's trade; and he
was, consequently, much displeased. He considered the question in the
light of a positive loss for an uncertain gain, and somewhat rudely
dismissed it from his mind. Like the majority of men, he could not bear
that his son should shape himself a new course by the aid of the strong
will of his own genius, when he considered the old course the best. He
had rested on the hope of his son's aid, which he saw he was well able
to give him; and the prospect of his quietly succeeding him as a thrifty
goldsmith of Nuernberg he thought enough to satisfy the most ardent hope.
It was long before he could patiently listen to his son's contrary mode
of reasoning, and it was not until the young Albert, by reiterated
a