Therefore, those people are wrong who seek to excuse the lack of assistance that I received in the beginning, by alleging that at the time no one knew if the process could be used to any great extent. They declare many productions of the present day to be far better, simply because the illustrator is more skillful, though in truth the printing is not so good as many of the first ones made by me. It has even happened that the assertion has found its way into print that I had invented only the rough part of the art, and never had been able to use it for more than music-printing, whereas this one or that one are the true artists, having succeeded in producing pictures.
These gentlemen, who are so quick with verdicts, should inform themselves a little. They would discover that aside from me (with the exception of Professor Mitterer's invention of the cylinder press), nobody has made a noteworthy improvement in the branches of lithography without having received it primarily or indirectly through me. Further they would have learned that these illustrators either made their first attempts under my personal direction, or else owe their skill to persons whom I taught; and lastly, that none of my critics can boast of having penetrated into the very inmost spirit of the art like only Herr Rapp of Munich, the venerable author of the work published by Cotta, _The Secret of Lithography_. If they learned all this, they might feel a little ashamed. But then, they would have much to do.
Had my skill in writing and drawing on stone been greater at that time, Herr Steiner would have given me opportunity enough and manifold. He permitted me to do a small book, _Rules for Girls_, in German script, which, on the whole, turned out of only average quality, as I had not practiced this style sufficiently.
Then he wanted me to draw Biblical pictures on stone or to let others draw them. At that time he was having Herr Schön in Augsburg etch the Seven Holy Sacraments after Poussin. As the etching was expensive, the impressions could not be sold for less than four kreuzer each. Herr Steiner wished to circulate these pictures so generally that they could serve as gifts from the country preachers to their little Christian pupils. He wished, also, to ornament various school-books with pictures of this kind, and thus, gradually, to replace the miserably drawn species of saints that generally fill the prayer-books of the pious households.