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ANASTATIC PRINTING.

FROM THE LONDON ART-UNION FOR FEBRUARY.

It was our intention to lay the following article before our readers, when the subject was attracting most attention, but though ready for the press, it was several times crowded out. It is now inserted for the purpose of preserving it; and perhaps may inform some, who have not yet seen so full an account of this interesting and important Art.

[Ed. Mess.

The principal merit claimed by the proprietors of this patent is, in the first place, their method of repeating in low relief, (something like a lithographic printing surface,) the tracery of an engraved wood-block or copperplate from a cut or engraving from such block or plate, in such manner as immediately to yield impressions which are not in any way to be distinguished from those drawn from the original engraved surface. This is effected by means of acids, diluted to various degrees of strength, which act upon those parts of the plates remaining unprotected by the ink, and so leave the printing We announced, last month, an invention to which surface very slightly in relief. Another chief merit this name has been given, and also our intention to of the invention is the successful provision against describe it and point out its utilities in the present the spreading of the ink under any degree of presnumber of the Art-Union. As it is a main pur- sure, whereby the finest lines and sharpest edges pose of this journal to bring forward every dis- are repeated with singular precision. Another covery tending in anywise to the advancement of extraordinary result of the invention is the restorathe fine or useful arts, and consequently to the im- tion of the ancient or injured engravings or etchprovement of public taste, we hasten to lay before ings-that is, if an engraving has been injuredour readers some account of the process and results of "Anastatic Printing." It has been the fate of all beneficial innovations-and the more especially if they recommend themselves by their cheapness-that they have had to combat an array of prejudice, and the determined opposition of "vested interest;" this method of producing books To describe briefly the preparation of a plate or and prints will not be exempted from the common cylinder, let us suppose a newspaper about to be lot; but such is the extreme simplicity and unex- reprinted by this means. The sheet is first moisampled rapidity of the process in multiplying en-tened with diluted acid, and placed between sheets gravings, drawings, and books, that it must inevita- of blotting paper, in order that the superfluous bly be, ere long, established in general estimation. moisture may be absorbed. The ink neutralizes We have heard, years ago, of similar propositions, the acid, which is pressed out from the blank space but since they have never been matured into a solu- only, and etches them away. In all cases where tion of all difficulties, as in the present case, let the letter-press is of recent date, or not perhaps the honor and profit be to those by whose labor and older than half a year, a few minutes suffice for ingenuity reproduction is rendered not only practi- this purpose. The paper is then carefully placed cable, but triumphantly simple beyond all the hap-upon the plate, with which the letter-press to be piest ideas of stereotype. The drawing and prints transferred is in immediate contact, and the whole which accompany this notice, with the letter-press, passed under a press, on removal from which, and form together an example of this method of print- on carefully disengaging the paper, the letters are ing. The letter-press was first set in type by the found to reverse on the plate, which is then rubbed ordinary printer of the Art-Union, leaving space with a preparation of gum; after which the letters for the drawn or engraved illustrations, which have receive an addition of ink, which is immediately been set into their respective places on a proof of incorporated with that by which they are already the letter-press; the whole was cast on to a zinc formed. These operations are effected in a few plate, and so printed off; and it may be here ob- minutes. The surface of the plate round the letserved that there is no limit to the thousands of ters is bitten in a very slight degree by the acid, copies that may be drawn, nor the slightest dimi- and on application of the ink it is rejected by the nation of excellence in successive impressions, zinc, and received only by the letters, which are since new plates ad infinitum may be prepared charged with ink by the common roller used in from the copies now yielded. "The Nurse" and hand-printing. Each letter came from the press "The Revelry" are wood cuts taken from "The as if it had been imprinted by type-metal; and the Book of British Ballads ;" and the remainder are copies are fac-similes which cannot be distinguishdrawings by gentlemen whose names are under-ed from the original sheet. signed, and which have been transferred immediately to the plate. The invention is equally successful in application to the earliest printing-we have seen several transfers from books a century

not, be it understood, as regards the paper, but faded through carelessness, or defaced by accident-such engraving can be perfectly restored by having every line and touch refreshed with new ink, so as to give the work, with all its details, as if fresh from the wood or copper.

old.

Thus far it may be necessary to describe the process, that it may be understood by those of our readers who are not versant with lithographic manipulation; those who are, will recognize some similarity in the method of preparing the stone and

the zinc, as far as regards the gum, &c. The ple is, however, a happy and perfect adaptation to practicability of transferring letter-press, especially answer an end of incalculable public benefit, and prepared, or quite recent, to stone or zinc, has long that this may be speedily in progress of realization been known. A main advantage, however, and a must be the wish of all interested in the well-being most important one, possessed by the zinc over the of art and the cultivation of letters. stone, as a mere material to work from, is its porThe proprietors not having yet established their tability, and being easily formed into a cylinder; steam-press, it will be clearly understood that the for, although we have only spoken of a plate of results we speak of have been produced by a small zinc in relation with the results we have witnessed, hand-press. It is confidently hoped that the reit is to be understood that in the extensive opera-sults with steam will not be less satisfactory; this, tions cylinders will be employed. however, remains to be proved. Should a corres

66

It is not our purpose to enter more minutely into ponding success by this means attend the efforts of the scientific rationalia of this patent, but it is our the inventor, the most marvellous results must at business to consider its prospective utilities. It once ensue; for it immediately supplies a power cannot be received otherwise, by stock booksellers, whereby such a paper as the Times might be multhan as an estimable boon, since it will at once tiplied to the amount of 300,000 copies in a day. supersede the necessity of warehousing tons of And not to forget the value of the invention as restereotype and paper. There may henceforward gards art, such a paper might be illustrated by be printed only short editions of heavy works, or first-rate artists, whose sketches, one hour after of others of questionable sale; for, if such a work the events they celebrate, might be in circulation go off" beyond the expectations of the bookseller, with the paper. reprints in abundance may be effected from a single We quote the number 300,000 as something defiremaining copy, at an expedient interval. And the nite, but if it were necessary the number might advantage to the public must follow, in the reprint- extend to a MILLION!-provided always, we yet ing at a cheap rate of valuable works, the repub- say, the untried steam equals in any wise the prolication of which, according to the ordinary method, duction of the smaller press. It is useless to atwould be hazardous, as being extremely expensive. tempt comment upon this adaptation, supposing it Again, for book illustration, nothing could be better, borne out to the extent it promises; it is beyond the feeling of the orignal drawing being entirely the pale of all ordinary comparisons; calculations preserved, since the work of the artist passes im- and figures reduce it to a mean standard. mediately from his own hand to the page which it

is intended to adorn. Thus it is seen that the work is not brought forward according to the taste of the engraver, but what character soever it receives

from the artist, it is ultimately distinguished by the THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA; same on the paper. We may hope that the finest line-engravings may also be reproduced at a trifling expense.

AND MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES OF ALUMNI.

The

Our first appearance in the Messenger, then What treasures, therefore, of fine art may com- under the charge of our worthy predecessor, was mon enterprise call forth for the purification of pub-in behalf of the University of Virginia. lic taste! It will be understood that we speak of the system from actual inspection, having seen, in five minutes, letter-press and drawings transferred to the zinc and forthwith printed off.

We know of one printer whose stock of stereotype has cost no less a sum than three hundred thousand pounds, and it is probable that there exists in the London warehouses stereotype property for which upwards of a million has been paid. Surely, in extensive establishments, the employment of such means for the multiplication of books must be a saving to the printer, also to the bookseller, and consequently a benefit to the public, for the supply will create a demand which may ultimately be answered by the multiplication of valuable books proceeding at a square, nay, even at a cubic ratio. We have spoken of a few of the purposes to which "Anastatic Printing" may be addressed. It is impossible to speculate on the uses to which it may be applied in furtherance of useful art; the princi

same devotion which produced that vindication of her then, now induces us to make an humble, but earnest appeal in her favor, to the Public, and especially to her old Patrons and Alumni. This is done without the least disparagement to other honored Institutions. The University is a State Institution, and may well be vindicated in the Messenger.

At the period referred to above, She had received a succession of heavy blows, in frequent changes of some of her Professors, in the death of Mr. Bonnycastle, the removal of Doct. B., and the tragical end of Professor Davis. The occasion, therefore, seemed to demand the little assistance that we could afford.

As we said then, we repeat now, that," properly considered, there is nothing in the present circumstances of the University to cause any to * See S. L. Messenger for January 1842, p. 50.

withdraw their confidence, or support. If those |

Leaving the adverse use of the late disturbances professing to be her friends take unnecessary alarm, to her secret enemies, if she have any, and to narand yield to distrust, how can she hope for suc-row-minded demagogues in the Legislature, we cess? Let their encouragement rather be increased; address ourselves to her Friends and Alumni. and errors will be rectified, her influence elevated and extended, and she will soon go forth the pride of every Virginian, the boast of every upholder.

"No Institution should be encouraged where vice and immorality are not put down, or where any thing allied to them is tolerated. Are they tolerated at the University? Far from it. They are severely rebuked and punished; whilst every means of prevention is anxiously sought and adopted. Examine the laws of the University of Virginia, and learn how they are enforced, and it will appear that the discipline, though mild, is firm, moral, and to a certain degree religious. There is scarcely an Institution in the country, whose statute book contains more moral and salutary regulations. Many persons, remembering a period in her history, to which none of her friends revert with satisfaction, look upon her as a horrid school for the morals of young men. They have not read her late history: they even forget what important reformations a few years may bring about."

How then, it may be asked, did the late unfortunate disturbances take place? Certainly, not for the want of wholesome laws, nor of a disposition, to prevent and punish them. We have read the statements of various students, and have now before us the circular of the Faculty and the statement of the Court of Investigation. It is not necessary now to determine who was most to blame, Faculty or Students; nor whether it was necessary to call in the Military Arm. One very critical, might find something to condemn in all parties. But we are firmly persuaded, that a more causeless outbreak, for one so serious in its aspect and consequences, never did occur. It is to us an anomaly, that such measures should have been persisted in to such an extent, when a large majority of the students were not engaged in them, and perhaps not one of the rioters themselves, at the time, felt at peace with his sense of honor, in committing his depredations. Such another instance of anomalous rebellion, without any charge of injustice or oppression, or any right or privilege to be achieved, can not happen in a thousand years.

Dismissing the past, then, we look only to the future. This good must result, Experience will lead to amendment; and remedies even for such anomalies be discovered and applied. Amendments can never be so well reasoned out, a priori, as pointed out by Experience. In this way, the laws and organization of the State are modified and perfected. But strange to say, some people require a nearer approach to perfection in Colleges, than they can find any where else, and expect Professors to manage restive youths, whom their parents never have governed, nor could control!

VOL. XI-49

The friends of the University will recollect, that she is only twenty years of age. In this brief space, a mere moment in the contemplated existence of a perpetual Corporation, she has accomplished enough to satisfy and delight every man, who has a just sense of the value of moral good, of the slowness of its growth and the costliness of its production. In our own State, Alumni of the University are prominent in the learned Professions, in both branches of the Legislature and in Congress ;-some of them having been most honorably spoken of for the Senate of the U. S. Others are the heads of some twelve or fifteen Normal Academies, some of which are the first in the Union; whilst the pursuits of Agriculture are receiving such an impetus from the efforts of others, that already a Professorship of Agriculture is proposed to be added. These facts, so gratifying and encouraging at home, apply in full force to many other States.

All moral good, as we have said, is of very slow growth; and yet, how rapidly have the above fruits sprung up! In twenty short years, much more has been realised than was expected; and how inconsistent is it, for rational men to suffer an outbreak to outweigh all these blessings bestowed!

Age is necessary to impart veneration and a Name to a Literary Institution. Then, she becomes associated with the fame of Orators, Statesmen, Poets, Philosophers and Authors, who often return to worship at her Shrine. But this most important fact should never be forgotten; that however venerable an Alma Mater may be, her pupils must always be young. The wild and recklesss youth often outgrows his vicious propensities, but this can never repair the injury he may have inflicted, upon the peace and order of the College he once attended. So that Colleges are always exposed to the dissipation, thoughtlessness and even want of principle of the least orderly young men, who may be able to seek a liberal education; and men had just as well refuse to patronise the State, because her penal laws and police can not suppress vice and crime, as a University, whose students commit unpardonable excesses. If a son be prepared to leave his paternal roof, for college, at all, with much personal knowledge on the subject and the deepest solicitude in behalf of a moral education, we would have no hesitation in recommending the University of Virginia. Let her friends, then, hold fast their confidence and support; train their sons at home, and they need not fear to send them to College. But it is idle to neglect discipline, for fifteen years, and to expect a college faculty satisfactorily to enforce it. As well try to straighten the boughs of a tree, that have branched out in a

thousand directions, and to train them upon a trel- recipient, but are diffused by him to all around.

lis.

Whenever any evil threatens the prosperity of their Alma Mater, all her Alumni should flock around to aid her.

On the 4th of July next, meetings of the Alumni of several of our Institutions will be held. We would be very glad to coöperate also with the Society of old William and Mary; but a prior connection binds us to that of the University. Every Institutution should have such a Society, whose members should always be zealous and dutiful.

We urge upon the Alumni of the University to come up from all sections. They are now especially called on to rally around her. They owe her much and should come to lay their tribute upon her altar. Let there be a sort of gathering of the Tribes. Other States can send their sons, that there may be both counsel and communion, amongst us all.

In the success of this great State Institution, nourished in part by State bounty, the Public have the deepest interest.

We address to them the language, we have before employed; "Their sons are to be educated the benefits of education can not be confined to the

Let all, then, take the University somewhat into their own hands,-guard her, watch over her and lend her their zeal and a portion of their treasure. She will repay both; and they will rear an Institution, in which it will be an honor for their sons to be tutored. They will make Virginia the Literary centre of the South; the Fame of her splendid seat of Learning will draw students from every quarter; and one sentiment, together with a high degree of intelligence, be spread through our common country."

Whatever disasters may befall the University, we say to all, Hold on! Hope on! The drought may parch, or the tornado prostrate, the promising harvest of the husbandman, the product of much toil and long fertilization: he tills his fields and sows another.

One miscalculation may ruin the scheme of careful thought; but another is soon devised. The tempest may entomb the floating treasures of the merchant; but others soon ride over the same billows. Let all, then, take courage and renew their zeal. The fruits of Literary Institutions, though precarious and costly, are precious enough to repay every effort.

Ed. Mess.

Notices of New Works.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN SCHILLER AND GOETHE, editorial position, though we trust this is not the FROM 1794 TO 1805. Translated by George H. Calvert. only bond of sympathy, enables us to sympathize Vol. I. New York and London, Wiley & Putnam: 1845. with them, in what might be dry details to others. "The letters between Schiller and Göethé," In their letters they discuss Poetry, Science, says the translator, " are a record kept by friend- Literature, Religion, Art, Philosophy, "the familiar ship of the habitual feelings and thoughts of two inmates of such minds." One becomes a little great Poets." These "two great Poets" have tired of their frequent harpings on the term asthet been long known, through many of their translated ic, which they seem to use with the fondness of a works, to American readers; recently, through full child for its first-learnt word. The familiar refervolumes of their ballads and minor poems. But here, ences to their cotemporaries are instructive and they come to us in a new aspect, not only as au- entertaining, and the volume affords a very pleasthors, but as friends; not in the studied phrases of ing insight into literary life and labors in Germany. composition, though such men always write care- A great difference is observable between the tone fully and thoughtfully; but in the colloquial style of Schiller's feelings and that of Goethe's. The of correspondents, and with all the unreserve of such former is more affectionate, communicative and a mode of communion. "The correspondence con- self-explaining, whilst his deference and reverence sists of more than 900 letters, and embraces ten years of the prime of both, and ended only with Schiller's life." It was commenced by Schiller, who asks Goethe's advice and cooperation, in establishing a Literary periodical, in connexion with a circle whose regard for him was unbounded." Goethe replied, that "with pleasure and with all his heart he would be one of the Company." Thereupon, the "Horen" was commenced, and became the vehicle for these two poets and for a circle of bright and shining names. Much of the correspondence relates to the "Horen;" and our

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for Goethé are very prominent. The latter is more reserved and comparatively cold. This difference may have been partly attributable to the superior age of Göethé, and his farther advance in his literary career. But it was also owing to diversity of moral and mental constitution; and on account of it, from well known principles, Göethé impresses the reader with an idea of superior gran. deur; since Schiller so ingenuously looks up to him, whilst Göethé, if he does not look down upon his friend, at least seems simply to receive and sometimes cordially to acknowledge his homage. We

do not mean that Göethé never writes with the warmth of friendship, and does not pay a inerited tribute to the powers and character of Schiller; for early in their correspondence, he writes to Schiller: "Pure enjoyment and real benefit can only be reciprocal, and it will give me pleasure to unfold to you at leisure, what my intercourse with you has done for me,-how I, too, regard it as making an epoch in my existence, and how content I am to have gone on my way without particular encouragement, as it now appears as if we, after so unexpected a meeting, are to proceed forward together." "Of how great profit will be to me a closer intercourse with you, yourself will soon perceive, when, on a near acquaintance, you discover in me a kind of obscurity and holding back, which I cannot entirely master, notwithstanding I am perfectly conscious of it."

Better instances might be given, but this will suffice. This holding back" was partly "mastered," for as they progressed a favorable change seems to have come over him.

Mr. Calvert, the translator, animadverts with some severity upon the view taken of Goethe's character and merits, by Mr. Putnam in his . B. K. oration at Cambridge, in 1844. We were not pleased with the tone of Mr. C.'s vindication of his favorite; nor can we admit that its generalities are conclusive.

with renewed wonder observed the track that you have marked out for yourself. You seek for the necessary (the absolute*) in Nature; but you seek it by the most difficult route, which every weaker spirit will take care to avoid. You grasp in your view entire nature, in order to obtain light on her parts: in the totality of her manifestations you search for the key to lay open the individual. From simple organization you ascend, step by step, to the more complex, in order at last to construct out of the materials of the whole fabric of nature the most complex of all-man. By thus creating him, as it were, after nature, you seek to penetrate to the mystery of his structure. A great and really heroic idea, which shows how perfectly your mind combines in a beautiful unity the rich whole of its conceptions. You can never have hoped that your life would suffice to complete a plan like this, but to have struck into such a path is worth more than to reach the end of any other; and you have chosen, like Achilles in the Iliad, between Pythia and Immortality. Had you been born a Greek, or even only an Italian, and had a choice Naturet and an idealising Art surrounded you from your cradle, your path would have been infinitely shortened. Then would you on the first contemplation of things have seized the form of the Absolute, and with your first experience would the great art of representation have developed itself in you. But, being born a German, and your Grecian spirit having been cast in this northern creation, there was left to you no other choice, but either to become a

We would gladly say more on this interesting correspondence, but are admonished to close. The passages that might be extracted are so numerous, that we shall confine ourselves to the following portraits drawn by Schiller;-the self portrait, how humble! The other, how reverent and exalting He first draws the following sketch of his friend. "My entire store of thought has been set in motion by my recent conversations with you; for they related to a subject which, for several years, has busily occupied me. On much about which I could not obtain perfect harmony within myself, the contemplation of your mind (for thus I must call the fall impression of your ideas upon me) has kindled in me a new light. I needed the object, the body, to many speculative ideas, and you have put me on the track of it. Your observing look, which rests so calmly and clearly on all this, keeps you from getting into the by-roads, into which speculation, as well as an arbitrary imagination, obeying only itself, so easily goes astray. In your correct intuition lies all that analysis laboriously seeks, and only because it lies in you as a whole, is your own wealth concealed from yourself; for, alas! we only know that which we can take to pieces. Thence, minds like yours seldom know how far they reach, This may be rather too metaphysical, for its every and what little cause they have to learn from phi- phrase to be readily comprehended by the casual losophy, which can learn only from them. Philos-reader, but its main ideas can be. Goethe then ophy can merely dismember what is given to it;

Northern Artist, or, by the help of the power of reality withheld from it, and thus, from within outthought, to supply to your imagination that which wardly and through a reasoning process, to create as a Greek. At that period of life when the soul, surrounded by multifarious forms, constructs from the outward world its own inward one, you had rious genius, triumphing over its materials, discovered this want from within, and through acquaintance with Grecian nature, was assured of it from without. Thus were you obliged to correct (by a model which your creative genius shaped for itself,) the old inferior Nature already forced upon your imagination. Now this can only be effected according to leading principles. But this logical direction which the spirit of Reflection is obliged to take, does not harmonize with the asthetic through which only can it create. Hence, you had one labor more; for, as you passed from Perception to Abstraction, you were obliged now to retranslate ideas into intuitions, and to change thoughts into feelings, for only through the latter can Genius produce.

taken a wild and northern nature. Your victo

"Such is the judgment I have formed of the procedure of your mind, and whether or no it is just, yourself will know best."

but the giving is not the affair of the Analyst, but invites him to paint his own mind, which he does of Genius, which, under the concealed, but secure, as follows: influence of pure reason, combines according to objective laws.

"For a long time I have watched, although from some distance, the procedure of your mind, and ever

*Die Anschauung Ihres Geistes.

"Our acquaintance so long deferred, but which

*Sie suchen das Nothwendige der Natur. †By Nature is here meant the external world; all that makes impressions from without upon the inward faculties of the mind.

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