see, in the first place, that the ground, stones, and other coarse
surfaces are distinguished from the flesh and draperies by broken and
wriggled lines. Those broken lines cannot be executed with the burin,
they are etched in the early states of the plate, and are a modern
artifice, never used by old engravers; partly because the older men were
not masters of the art of etching, but chiefly because even those who
were acquainted with it would not employ lines of this nature. They have
been developed by the importance of landscape in modern engraving, and
have produced some valuable results in small plates, especially of
architecture. But they are entirely erroneous in principle, for the
surface of stones and leaves is not broken or jagged in this manner, but
consists of mossy, or blooming, or otherwise organic texture, which
cannot be represented by these coarse lines; their general consequence
has therefore been to withdraw the mind of the observer from all
beautiful and tender characters in foreground, and eventually to destroy
the very school of landscape engraving which gave birth to them.

Considered, however, as a means of relieving more delicate textures,
they are in some degree legitimate, being, in fact, a kind of chasing or
jagging one part of the plate surface in order to throw out the delicate
tints from the rough field. But the same effect was produced with less
pains, and far more entertainment to the eye, by the older engravers,
who employed purely ornamental variations of line; thus in Plate IV.,
opposite Sec. 137, the drapery is sufficiently distinguished from the grass
by the treatment of the latter as an ornamental arabesque. The grain of
wood is elaborately engraved by Marc Antonio, with the same purpose, in
the plate given in your Standard Series.

118. Next, however, you observe what difference of texture and force
exists between the smooth, continuous lines themselves, which are all
really _engraved_. You must take some pains to understand the nature of
this operation.

The line is first cut lightly through its whole course, by absolute
decision and steadiness of hand, which you may endeavor to imitate if
you like, in its simplest phase, by drawing a circle with your
compass-pen; and then, grasping your penholder so that you can push the
point like a plow, describing other circles inside or outside of it, in
exact parallelism with the mathematical line, and at exactly equal
distances. To approa