The colour-printing of these insects is a miracle of art, says M. de Goncourt, and there is nothing comparable to it in Europe. Of the methods by which these colour prints are brought to such a height of perfection, it is almost impossible to speak authoritatively. They are the result of a threefold combination: of a paper marvellously prepared from the bark of the shrub, _Kozo_, diluted with the milk of rice flour and a gummy decoction extracted from the roots of the hydrangea and hibiscus; of dyes, into the secret of whose alchemy no modern artist can penetrate, it being safe to say the early “Tan-ye” and “Beni-ye” prints can never be reproduced; of the application of those colours by the master engraver’s fingers—that wizard hand of the Orient into whose finger-tips are distilled the mysteries of bygone centuries. A portion of the colour by means of this calculated pressure is drunk, absorbed into the paper, and only the transparency is left vibrating upon the fibres, like colour beneath the glaze. The “Catalogue Raisonné” of M. de Goncourt is a prose masterpiece. His descriptive touches, like pastels set in jewels, captivate the imagination. Through him we see the albums, the fans, the kakemonos, the surimonos. Oh, the prints, with their wondrous backgrounds, the delight of Utamaro! Sometimes straw-yellow, the uniformity broken with clouds of ground mica; sometimes gray in tint, like the traces of receding waves upon the beach. Some silvered backgrounds throw moonlight reflections upon the figures; some are sombre, bizarre—all are marvellous beyond words. And the colours! we cannot define them in English. The “bleus” (malades des mauves), the “rose” (beni) “si peu de rose, qu’ils semblent s’apercevoir à travers un tulle; l’azur—délavé, et comme noyé dans l’eau,”—not colours, but nuances, which recall the colours. And the “Gauffrage,” so effective with the print artists, with us a mere confectioner’s touch! It is said that “the æsthetic temperament of a nation is most subtly felt in the use of colour. Purity, coldness, sensuality, brightness, dullness of tints, are significant terms correlated to mental and physical human phenomena.” The assertion of Ruskin, that “the bodily system is in a healthy state when we can see hues clearly in their most delicate tints, and enjoy them, fully and simply, with the kind of enjoyment children have in eating sweet things,” is brought to mind in viewing the Japanese people upon the occasion of one of their great flower fêtes, feasting their eyes upon cherry blooms or trailing clusters of the wistaria. [Illustration: While Mother Sleeps. By Utamaro, named by M. de Goncourt: “Le Fondateur de L’École de la Vie.”]