The second point is the parallel of the first, in connexion with what may be called the manipulatory part of the treatise. Here again we must warn our readers that the book is but a Primer. The work already referred to contains no less than seven and twenty imperial octavo pages, about colours and gilding, and brushes, and other practical matters. This will furnish some idea of the magnitude of this part of the subject. But our little volume merely pretends to put beginners in the way of acquiring the power of learning more. And let us here remark, that in some particulars the colours selected, and the directions given differ, we observe, from the recommendations of other writers; and without therefore pretending for one moment to sit in judgment on those who differ with us, we will take the liberty of informing readers that our directions are based on the experience and observations of many years’ extensive practice of the art in question. We may also add that, though the Primer is intended to enable beginners to teach themselves, (and if its directions are carefully attended to, will have that effect,) still it is advisable, when practicable, to carry out those directions under the eye of a master at first, even if such supervision only amount to submitting to him the results of the earlier efforts, that he may point out the secrets of any failures.
Above all, the golden rule for the student of illumination is, not to attempt too much at first. Far more real progress is made by carefully, patiently, and accurately completing a single copy of one simple letter, such for example as the N in Example No. 3, than in hurrying over half a dozen more ambitious studies, in a way which may produce a certain effect at a distance, but will not bear looking into. Like Burke, rather aim to be ‘slow and elaborate,’ than dashing and effective; but be industrious, and let your motto be,—“Festina lente.”
In conclusion, it maybe as well to impress upon the reader two points: the first is, in great part, a mere repetition of the introductory sentences of our little volume, but cannot be too repeatedly urged on his attention. There is no pretension whatever in this slight practical essay, to give anything approaching to a complete dissertation on the art of illumination; such a task would occupy a score of such volumes as ours, and be then capable of almost illimitable further expansion. We have indeed already remarked that the subject is inexhaustible; and the last notable work published on the art well observes, that ‘men of the profoundest learning have devoted, some whole lives, and many of them long years, to the study of those precious pages, on the decoration of which the highest efforts of the illuminists of old were lavished; and have yet one and all confessed the partial and incomplete mastery of the subject which they, with all their labour, have been able to acquire.’ It is not to be expected, therefore, that within the comparatively tiny dimensions of a Primer anything more than the merest outline was practicable, all that has been attempted then has been to furnish just such a description and dissertation as is absolutely essential to the due comprehension of what the art is, and of what it is applicable to, leaving the student to search for further information among such of the larger and more abstruse works on the subject, as may be accessible to him at the reading room of the British Museum,[13] or elsewhere. Even at the risk of being accused of repetition, it has been thought wise to impress this point strongly on the reader’s attention. His motto should be an amalgamation of two well known ones—
Appendix.
