Page 254

254                                      ETOHING.
and accuracy of execution, and in various other ways assisting to a knowledge
and command of
the principles of design, the art and practice of Etching deserves much higher
estimation, and
earlier trial by learners, than it is generally imagined to merit.  The process
is most simple. Any
one who can draw can etch; and in many respects it may be even easier to
produce a finished
and effective result by the etching-point than by either the pen or penciL
   2. An etching is but a drawing made with steel points or needles, set
in convenient handlea
(which are held and managed as a pen or pencil), upon a plate of metal over
which there has
been previously laid a black varnish, or ground.   The metal, laid bare by
these points in lines
                marked with great distinctness, from the strong contrast
                of the bright metal against the dark ground, affords the
                artist the utmost advantage, in both the progress of his
                work and in forming a correct judgment of its effect-
                notwithstanding that the lines appear light and the ground
                dark. This, in some respects like drawing upon a slate,
                may be found at first embarrassing, but with a little prac-
                tice as perfect a command of lines,thus expressed, is ac-
quired as it they were shown in black.  The drawing completed, over the whole
is poured a corro-
ding acid, which takes effect upon the metal exposed by the lines of the
drawing, and is resisted by
the ground in such parts as remain untouched.  The process of corrosion being
properly conducted,
the ground is then removed, and the lines of the drawing are found to be
eaten, or, as it is tech-
nically termed, "bitten in" the metal, to a depth ~apable of holding
printers' ink.  The plate is
then covered with such ink, which is wiped off in a manner to leave all the
lines full, while such
parts as were protected from the action of the acid by the ground, or varnish,
remain clean.     By
means of i rolling-press the plate, thus charged with the design, delivers
it with the utmost fidelity
to paper, and with a capacity of repetition to thousands of perfectly similar
impressions, according
to the character of the work, and the nature of the metal employed.
   3. That an art so simple in its process should not be more generally practised
than it is, by
both artists and amateurs, can only be accounted for by the unnecessary amount
of ditlicultiea
which is commonly imagined to be involved in its successful management, while
there is nothing,
in truth, therein, to place proficiency beyond the reach of easy attainment
by any one skilful in
drawing, and especially with the pen.   To artists the etching-needle supplies
a means of meeting,
in a most efficient manner, the extensive requirement which exists for design
in literary illustra-