ings.
This is true also of those special editions which are sumptuously
printed in small numbers, and are the delight of lovers of books.

Etching has thus taken a position in modern art which cannot fail to
become still more important. "Everything has been said," wrote La
Bruyere, concerning the works of the pen, "and we can only glean after
the poets." The literature of two centuries has given the lie to the
assertion of the celebrated moralist, and it may also be affirmed that
etching has not yet spoken its last word. Not only has it no need of
gleaning after the old masters, but it may rather seek for precious
models in the works of our contemporary etchers. In their experience may
be found fruit for the present as well as useful information for the
future.

[Illustration: AN ETCHER'S STUDIO.

From the Third Edition of Abraham Bosse's "Treatise," Paris, 1758.]

A TREATISE ON ETCHING.

CHAPTER I.

DEFINITION AND CHARACTER OF ETCHING.

1. =Definition.=--An etching is a design fixed on metal by the action of
an acid. The art of etching consists, in the first place, in drawing,
with a _point_ or _needle_, upon a metal plate, which is perfectly
polished, and covered with a layer of varnish, or ground, blackened by
smoke; and, secondly, in exposing the plate, when the drawing is
finished, to the action of nitric acid. The acid, which does not affect
fatty substances but corrodes metal, eats into the lines which have been
laid bare by the needle, and thus the drawing is _bitten in_. The
varnish is then removed by washing the plate with spirits of
turpentine,[2] and the design will be found to be engraved, as it were,
on the plate. But, as the color of the copper is misleading, it is
impossible to judge properly of the quality of the work done until a
_proof_ has been taken.

2. =Knowledge needed by the Etcher.=--The aspirant in the art of
etching, having familiarized himself by a few trials with the appearance
of the bright lines produced by the needle on the dark ground of smoked
varnish, will soon go to work on his plate confidently and
unhesitatingly; and, without troubling himself much about the uniform
appearance of his work, he will gradually learn to calculate in advance
the conversion of his lines into lines more or less deeply bitten, and
the change in appearance which these lines undergo when transferred to
paper by means of ink and press.

It follows from this that the etcher must, from