ot angry. The man has been preaching what he thought true. Death laughs
at him, but is not indignant with him.

Death comes quietly: _I_ am going to be preacher now; here is your own
hour-glass, ready for me. You have spoken many words in your day. But
"of the things which you have spoken, _this_ is the sum,"--your
death-warrant, signed and sealed. There's your text for to-day.

89. Of this other picture, the meaning is more plain, and far more
beautiful. The husbandman is old and gaunt, and has passed his days, not
in speaking, but pressing the iron into the ground. And the payment for
his life's work is, that he is clothed in rags, and his feet are bare on
the clods; and he has no hat--but the brim of a hat only, and his long,
unkempt gray hair comes through. But all the air is full of warmth and
of peace; and, beyond his village church, there is, at last, light
indeed. His horses lag in the furrow, and his own limbs totter and fail:
but one comes to help him. 'It is a long field,' says Death; 'but we'll
get to the end of it to-day,--you and I.'

90. And now that we know the meaning, we are able to discuss the
technical qualities farther.

Both of these engravings, you will find, are executed with blunt lines;
but more than that, they are executed with quiet lines, entirely steady.

Now, here I have in my hand a lively woodcut of the present day--a good
average type of the modern style of wood-cutting, which you will all
recognize.[R]

The shade in this is drawn on the wood, (not _cut_, but drawn, observe,)
at the rate of at least ten lines in a second: Holbein's, at the rate of
about one line in three seconds.[S]

91. Now there are two different matters to be considered with respect to
these two opposed methods of execution. The first, that the rapid work,
though easy to the artist, is very difficult to the wood-cutter; so that
it implies instantly a separation between the two crafts, and that your
wood-cutter has ceased to be a draughtsman. I shall return to this
point. I wish to insist on the other first; namely, the effect of the
more deliberate method on the drawing itself.

92. When the hand moves at the rate of ten lines in a second, it is
indeed under the government of the muscles of the wrist and shoulder;
but it cannot possibly be under the complete government of the brains. I
am able to do this zigzag line evenly, because I have got the use of the
hand from practice; and the faster it is done, the e