he had not much knowledge on the subject,
I dare say, himself—but still he lived. There
are thousands of men in London who live in
a similar manner. Employment, income, have
they none: they cannot dig—to beg they are
ashamed; they do not steal—yet they must
eat, and drink, and sleep.

But Aloys' hope, though bent, was not
broken, and desire came, bringing with it a
tree of life, when his heart was very sick
indeed. Let the simple-hearted inventor tell
the story his own way:—

"I had just succeeded," he writes in 1819,
"in polishing a stone plate, which I intended
to cover with etching-ground, in order to
continue my exercises in writing backwards,
when my mother entered the room, and
desired me to write her a bill for the washerwoman,
who was waiting for the linen. I
happened not to have even the smallest slip
of paper at hand, as my little stock of paper
had been entirely exhausted by taking proof
impressions from the stones; nor was there
even a drop of ink in the inkstand. As the
matter would not admit of delay, and we had
nobody in the house to send for a supply of
the deficient materials, I resolved to write
the list with my ink prepared with wax, soap,
and lamp-black, on the stone which I had just
polished, and from which I could copy it at
leisure. Some time after this, I was just going
to wipe this writing from the stone, when the
idea all at once struck me to try what would
be the effect of such a writing with my
prepared ink, if I were to bite in the stone with
aquafortis; and, having bitten away to about
the hundredth part of an inch, I found that
I could charge the lines with printing-ink,
and take successive impressions. Thus the
new art was invented."

In the course of Senefelder's experiments,
he found it was not necessary that the
letters, or drawing, should be raised above
the surface of the stone, and that the
chemical principles, by which grease and
water are kept from uniting, were alone
sufficient for his purpose. In fact, the
grammar of lithography has its basis on this
principle: grease loathes water; has for it a
regular Johnsonian, Corsican, inextinguishable
hatred. Water, on its side, hates grease.
Now, the granular calcareous limestone used
in lithography loves both water and grease;
receiving the latter, indeed, with astonishing
avidity, and demanding fresh oleaginous
supplies with a rapacity only equalled by the
female members of the horse-leeches family.
A drawing being made upon the stone with
an ink or crayon of a greasy composition, is
washed over with water, which sinks into all
the parts of the stone not defended by the
drawing. A cylindrical roller, charged with
printing-ink, is then passed all over the stone,
and the drawing receives the ink, whilst the
water defends the other part of the stone
from it on account of its greasy nature. In
this we have the whole A, B, C,—the
accidence of lithography. Grease and water
abhor each other; but stone agrees with
both. As the scene-painter boasted that, with
a lump of whitening, an ounce of red-lead, a
pot of glue, and a pennyworth of blue-verditer,
he could paint a view of the bay of Naples;
so, and with not so much exaggeration, could
an artist declare his competence to execute
a rude work in lithography on a paving-stone,
with a tallow candle, a pail of water, and a
pot of lamp-black.

With astonishing perseverance the stout-
hearted Senefelder overcame all difficulties.
His failures were innumerable. But he
went on trying again, and trying back, until
he had successively invented the ink, chalk,
etching, transfer, and woodcut processes. He
experimented likewise in tinted and coloured
lithography,—what is now called the
polychromatic manner. He discovered the art
of printing in gold and silver, and moreover
essayed lithography on " stone paper " in the
sprinkled manner, and in imitation of India-
ink drawings. All this he called the high
art of lithography. Touching the engraved
process of the same art, he took off impressions
in imitation of line engravings, pen-and-
ink drawings, aquatints, mezzotints, soft
ground etchings, stipple or chalk engravings,
and outline plates. All this was done before
1819; and, in that year, with characteristic
candour and simplicity of heart, he gave to
the world a detailed account of every one of
his discoveries; divulged every one of his
secrets; laid bare, with childlike simplicity,
minute descriptions of all his recipes and
prescriptions; took the whole world into his
confidence, unreservedly. He had been abused,
vilified, misrepresented both at home and
abroad; but, in the whole of his voluminous
work, we find no passage more acrimonious
than one in which he asserts that, if "Mr. Rapp,
of Stuttgardt, thinks he invented lithography,
he is mistaken." He ends his labours with a
suggestion for the application of lithography
to cotton-printing, and with these simple
words: " I now close my instructions, and
wish from the bottom of my heart that my
work may find many friends, and produce
many excellent lithographers. May God
grant my wish!"

Peace be with thee, Aloys Senefelder!

The first lithographic prints published
were pieces of music, executed in 1796. The
art was introduced into England in the year
1800, under the name of polyautography. It
was vehemently abused, vilified, and opposed;
principally by artists and engravers, and fell
almost immediately into disuse; being
patronised only by amateurs. But, in 1819,
the late Mr. Rudolph Ackermann, who had
done good service to Art and Science in
other ways (his shop formed part of the
first house in London lighted with gas, and
people used to walk on the other side of the
street not to be too near the dangerous
combustible,) took up lithography, published a