work directly from the book, without cutting or dividing them. 2. THE ART OF BURNISH GILDING.--Make a sizing by boiling the skins of beaver and musk rats, (which may be readily procured at a hat manufactory,) in water, till it is of sufficient strength that by cooling it will become a stiff jelly; strain the liquor while warm, and give your work one coat of it with a brush; when this is dry, add a little fine whiting to the sizing, and give the work one coat of this. Then add as much whiting as will work freely under the brush, and lay on five or six coats of this, allowing each a sufficient time to dry. Smooth the work by wetting it, and rubbing it with a piece of pumice stone, which should be previously cut and fitted to the moulding or other work that is to be gilt; afterward, when the work is dry, rub it with some fine sand paper. Then take some burnish-gold-size (which is composed of pipe-clay, plumbago, beef tallow and castile soap, but may be easily procured ready made,) and dilute it with water till it is of the consistence of very soft putty, and afterward with the above mentioned sizing till it will flow freely from a brush, and give the work three successive coats of this; when the last is dry, dip a camel-hair pencil in a mixture of equal quantities of rum and water, and with it wet a small part of the work, and immediately, while it is flowing, lay on a leaf of gold, brushing it down with a very soft, flat camel-hair brush, with which also, the leaf is usually conveyed from the book to the sizing; proceed thus till the whole is gilt, and let it dry. When the work is sufficiently dry to take a fair polish by burnishing, (which can be only ascertained by applying the burnisher to different parts of the work occasionally while it is drying,) rub over the whole carefully with a flint burnisher, or with the tooth of a wolf or dog, being fixed in a convenient handle, till the whole acquires a brilliant polish, except such parts as are required to remain in a rough-gilt state, which parts are usually flatted by a coat of thin sizing. Such are the principal rules of the art of burnish gilding; but as this business requires some variation of management, according to the state of the weather and other circumstances, it may not be expected that any person should become very expert in the art, without the advantage of some experience and practice.