A philosopher and writer has declared that "in our fine arts, not imitation, but creation, is the aim." It is to emphasise a distinction between an imitative and a creative art that the following chapters are offered. "Engraving for Illustration" is pre-eminently a creative art by which the work of the artist is _translated_, "in order to render the effect of his design in such a form as will admit of rapid and effective reproduction." It is, moreover, a popular art with a well-defined educative principle underlying the numerous phases of its manifestation; while, at the same time, its historical and general interest will commend this brief record of its progress and influence to many who are lovers of art for art's sake. J. K. LONDON _June 1903_. ENGRAVING FOR ILLUSTRATION CHAPTER I _ITS INCEPTION_--A THEORY OF EVOLUTION--A DISTINCT PROGRESS "In proportion to his force the artist will find in his work an outlet for his proper character."--Emerson. =Its Inception.=--It was the dawn of a new sense when primitive man first ornamented his weapons, utensils, and the walls of his cave dwellings with incised drawings,--pictorial representations which enabled him to record events or suggest and illustrate thoughts and ideas when his somewhat limited vocabulary failed him. It was a severely utilitarian epoch of the world's history, and the crude yet intensely realistic manifestations of man's artistic desires were the more remarkable that they were wholly dependent upon stern necessity for their realisation. Childlike in their simplicity, yet both graphic and vigorous in expression, these ancient drawings bear testimony to the intense desire of primeval man for some suitable and satisfying form of pictorial expression. Such incised drawings were undoubtedly the earliest forms, which the mind of man suggested and his skill attained, of conveying information and displaying pictorial or ornamental art. They were but crude conceptions of the untutored art of a savage race, yet, with a characteristic quaintness of expression, they abundantly prove the existence of an innate, imitative, and artistic faculty, inspired by an insatiable craving for illustrative delineation. =A Theory of Evolution.=--The antiquity of the engraver's art, then, is exceedingly remote, and its earliest records display frequent evidences of manipulative skill and artistic perception--evidences which are still more convincing when the environment and scanty resources of its exponents are fully appreciated. It was a most unique phase of that process of evolution whereby the social education of the human race was advanced, and through countless ages it has indicated the same onward roll of progressive intelligence.