per made and most of it is very bad. Our ideal book must, I think, be
printed on hand-made paper as good as it can be made; penury here will
make a poor book of it. Yet if machine-made paper must be used, it
should not profess fineness or luxury, but should show itself for what
it is: for my part I decidedly prefer the cheaper papers that are used
for the journals, so far as appearance is concerned, to the thick,
smooth, sham-fine papers on which respectable books are printed, and the
worst of these are those which imitate the structure of hand-made
papers.

But, granted your hand-made paper, there is something to be said about
the substance. A small book should not be printed on thick paper,
however good it may be. You want a book to turn over easily, and to lie
quiet while you are reading it, which is impossible, unless you keep
heavy paper for big books.

And, by the way, I wish to make a protest against the superstition that
only small books are comfortable to read; some small books are tolerably
comfortable, but the best of them are not so comfortable as a fairly big
folio, the size, say, of an uncut Polyphilus or somewhat bigger. The
fact is, a small book seldom does lie quiet, and you have to cramp your
hand by holding it or else put it on the table with a paraphernalia of
matters to keep it down, a tablespoon on one side, a knife on another,
and so on, which things always tumble off at a critical moment, and
fidget you out of the repose which is absolutely necessary to reading;
whereas, a big folio lies quiet and majestic on the table, waiting
kindly till you please to come to it, with its leaves flat and
peaceful, giving you no trouble of body, so that your mind is free to
enjoy the literature which its beauty enshrines.

So far then, I have been speaking of books whose only ornament is the
necessary and essential beauty which arises out of the fitness of a
piece of craftsmanship for the use which it is made for. But if we get
as far as that, no doubt from such craftsmanship definite ornament will
arise, and will be used, sometimes with wise forbearance, sometimes with
prodigality equally wise. Meantime, if we really feel impelled to
ornament our books, no doubt we ought to try what we can do; but in this
attempt we must remember one thing, that if we think the ornament is
ornamentally a part of the book merely because it is printed with it,
and bound up with it, we shall be much mistaken. The ornament must f