In response to these demands, Gilles Demarteau perfected a process admirably suited to rendering the effect of sketchy crayon drawing. Leprince devised the process known as “aquatint,” by means of which the washes of water-color or sepia might be closely imitated upon the copper. Both these media came into frequent use, and often a brown ink was used in the printing, being deemed more appropriate to the subjects than the usual black, or the copper plate was painted with colors for each impression, a lengthy and delicate operation, and these color-prints--not to be confounded with prints colored by hand--are prized by many amateurs. A word here on these color-prints: LeBlon evolved a cumbersome method of three-color printing, engraving one plate for each color; often a fourth plate was added, as a foundation for the other three. The other method, mentioned above, was generally adopted, quite a number of engravers devoting themselves to this color-work. Now again temptation spreads out a world of enticing themes for discussion, which we must pass by: ornaments, elaborate decorations of theses, emblems, armorial designs, calendars. Even the teeming field of book decoration must not keep us long, entrancing though it be as a field for specializing study. It has already been remarked that in this field, formerly held by woodcut, the intaglio processes had assumed a monopoly. Artists of great repute were called upon for designs to ornament the elegant volumes offered to literary amateurs. The character of the illustration and ornamentation was dictated, not so much by the contents of the books as by the predilections of the buying public. A very high degree of technical efficiency prevailed among the engravers who busied themselves with illustrations for literary productions; they entered so thoroughly into the spirit of the designs that their own individual characteristics are hard to discern in the mass of light, dainty embellishments of the printed page. The fine harmony which blends together type and ornamentation in the books of that period, would be well worth imitation in our own advanced days. The subjects are amorous for the most part, as well befits a time when Venus ruled in French society. If you glance through the illustrated editions of the “Fables,” or the “Baisers” of Dorat, the “Temple de Gnide” of Montesquieu, the “Henriade” of Voltaire, the “Contes nouveaux” of Marmontel, or the “Chansons” of Delaborde, you will find there the best efforts of such masters of illustration as Eisen, Choffard, Gravelot, Moreau, and others, who struck the note demanded by the social _élite_ of their day. They idealize a hollow, shamming society, which they carry into fairyland by an art true in its rendering of a play-acting world. The dimpled, rosy Venus, the shepherdess of well-rounded, shapely figure,--these ideals of beauty are not Greek, nor of the great Renaissance period. Such divinities are