told by an emblem--so receive, reader, his pictorial account of the art;
we cannot give his plate, so be content with _his_ description of it,
that is, Etching. "This beautiful virgin, sitting at a table, has before
her a copperplate, lying on a sand-bag; and near it stands a little
monkey, placing a lighted lamp before her. She is attended by Prudence
and Diligence, and Practice is setting the tools on an oil-stone. Her
chair is of ebony, adorned with figures of Sincerity and Assiduity,
wrought in ivory, and mutually embracing; behind which stands Judgment,
showing her a little further, Painting, accompanied by Apollo and Diana;
he holding up his torch, in order to enlighten Sculpture, and she hers
reversed, with purpose to extinguish it; the Genii, in the mean time,
are every where busy in providing necessary materials. The eldest offers
her a drawing, either redded or whited on the back, and a point or
needle for tracing it on the plate; this drawing represents the design
he is going about. Others, in an inner apartment, are employed in
heating a plate on a chafing-dish, and laying the ground even with a
feather. Here, one is etching--there, another biting a plate; others
taking and reviewing proofs, with great attention and pleasure--while
Fame, having a proof of a portrait in her hand, with her trumpet sounds
out at a window the praises of masters or engravers. Honour, crowned
with laurel, and bearing a small pyramid, is entering the room, ushering
in Annona or Prosperity, who has a cornucopia, or horn filled with
fruits. Round the room are set on pedestals divers busts of famous
etchers and engravers; as Marc Antonio, Audlan, Edelinck, Vander Meulen,
and several other Italian and French, as well as Dutch and German
masters. In the off-skip, Europe, Asia, and Africa appear standing in
surprise at the sound of the trumpet." There is nothing like example!
Who sees in this prophetic enigma, in his "chair of ebony," other than
"Ebony" himself, the "_most accomplished Christopher_," beaming with
"sincerity," and placid in his "assiduity," with "Judgment" waiting upon