Engraving is one of the fine arts and in this beautiful family has been the especial handmaiden of painting. Another sister is now coming forward to join this service lending to it the charm of color. If in our day the "chromo" can do more than engraving it cannot impair the value of the early masters. With them there is no rivalry or competition. Historically as well as æsthetically they will be masters always.
Everybody knows something of engraving as of printing with which it was associated in origin. School-books illustrated papers and shop windows are the ordinary opportunities open to all. But while creating a transient interest or perhaps quickening the taste they furnish little with regard to the art itself especially in other days. And yet looking at an engraving like looking at a book may be the beginning of a new pleasure and a new study.