It is quite possible that the revival of etching as a fine art, which took place early in the second half of this century, had no little direct influence on the illustration of the period. Many artists, who are foremost as draughtsmen upon wood, experimented with the etcher's needle. _The Germ_, 1850, was illustrated by etchings; but, with every desire to develop this suggestion, it would be folly to regard the much discussed periodical as the true ancestor of _Once a Week_ and the rest; even the etching which Millais prepared for it, but never issued, would not suffice to establish such claim. Two societies, the Etching Club and the Junior Etching Club, are responsible for the illustration of several volumes, wherein the etched line is used in a way almost identical with the same artists' manner when drawing for the engraver. Indeed, the majority of these etchings would suffer little if reproduced by direct process to-day, as the finesse of _rebroussage_ and the more subtle qualities of biting and printing are not present conspicuously in the majority of the plates. The _Poems by Tom Hood_, illustrated by the Junior Etching Club, include two delightful Millais', _The Bridge of Sighs and Ruth_, a _Lee Shore_ by Charles Keene, and two illustrations to the _Ode to the Moon_, and _The Elm-tree_ by Henry Moore. _Passages from Modern English Poets_, illustrated by the Junior Etching Club, was issued (undated), by Day and Son, in 1862, in a large octavo. In 1876 another edition in larger quarto, with the etchings transferred to stone, and printed as lithographs, was published by William Tegg. In this notable volume Millais is represented by _Summer Indolence_ (p. 10), a most graceful study of a girl lying on her back in a meadow with a small child, who is wearing a daisy chain, seated at her side. Mr. J. McNeill Whistler contributes two delightful landscapes, _The Angler_ (p. 7) and _A River Scene_ (p. 45). In these the master-hand is recognisable at a glance, although the authorship of many of the rest can only be discovered by the index. They would alone suffice to make the book a treasure to light upon. To praise them would be absurd, for one can conceive no more unnecessary verbiage than a eulogy of Mr. Whistler's etchings--one might as well praise the beauty of June sunshine. There are many other good things in the book--a Tenniel, _War and Glory_ (p. 3), four capital studies by Henry Moore (pp. 1, 16, 27, 28), which come as a revelation to those who only know him as a sea-painter. Four others by M. J. Lawless, an artist who has been neglected too long, _The Drummer_ (p. 2), _Sisters of Mercy_ (p. 12), _The Bivouac_ (p. 30), and _The Little Shipwrights_ (p. 36), are all interesting, if not quite so fascinating, as his drawings upon wood. H. S. Marks has a _genre_ subject, _A Study in the Egyptian Antiquity Department of the British Museum_. This portentous title describes an etching of a country lad in smock-frock, who, with dazed surprise,