It is perhaps too much to expect, nor is it at all desirable, that individual preference should be moulded to one common and fixed standard. To some minds the picturesque, though perhaps undignified paintings of the old Dutch masters, would appeal with greater success than the wondrous light and shade of Turner's pictures. Or, again, the astonishing technicalities and intricacies of German wood engraving may stir up a deeper interest and enthusiasm than the simple yet expressive productions of Thomas Bewick. Yet such a difference of opinion may exist only in individual appreciation or taste. The appreciative faculties in mankind are in the main identical. =An Educative Principle.=--There is in human life an omnipotent and omniscient educative principle which may, to some extent at least, be rendered subservient to the human will, but which in other respects is as certain in its results and impulses as the course of the planets. Those who surround themselves with the beautiful in Nature and in Art, whose minds are constantly in communion with the grand and noble purposes they suggest, are infinitely more sensible to their manifold beauties than those of their fellows who persistently disregard, and even repel, artistic influences. Their appreciation of the full significance of any artistic production is deeper, more sincere, and more equable than is that of those who neglect the aspirations of the finer fibres of their beings, and thus allow their higher faculties to become blunted, and their judgments warped. "Verily unto him that hath shall be given," etc. The most independent and most penetrative imagination is not by any means a free agent. Environment, mental culture, and natural temperament are each controlling influences of variable power; yet there is much truth in the philosophy which declares that "It is as easy to excite the intellectual faculties as the limbs to useful action." =The Artist's Purpose.=--A misconception of the artist's aim almost invariably leads to a condemnation of his work. First of all discover his purpose, and then decide upon the success or non-success of his conceptions. The _style_ of their execution, _i.e._ the manner in which various surfaces and textures are reproduced, is but a means to an end. It is infinitely easier to assimilate a style once its objective has been clearly comprehended. =An Analysis.=--For obvious reasons, then, an analysis of the merits and demerits of the engraver's art is not always a simple matter. His work may be an acceptable pictorial record, though not in any sense a picture from an artistic point of view. On the other hand, it may possess artistic qualities in abundance, and yet be far from a truthful record of an incident or scene.