haps, in the
folio Horace of 1799!? These are books which never have been, and never
_can_ be, eclipsed. Yet I own that the Horace, from the enchanting
vignettes of _Percier_, engraved by Girardais, is to my taste the
preferable volume.[146]

FIRMIN DIDOT now manages the press in the _Rue Jacob;_ and if he had never
executed any thing but the _Lusiad_ of _Camoens_, his name would be worthy
to go down to posterity by the side of that of his uncle. The number of
books printed and published by the Didots is almost incredible; especially
of publications in the Latin and French languages. Of course I include the
_Stereotype_ productions: which are very neat and very commodious--but
perhaps the page has rather too dazzling an effect. I paid a visit the
other day to the office of Firmin Didot; who is a letter founder "as well
as a printer.[147] To a question which I asked the nephew, (I think)
respecting the number of copies and sizes, of the famous _Lusiad_ just
mentioned, he answered, that there were only _two hundred_ copies, and
those only of _one size_. Let that suffice to comfort those who are in
terror of having the small paper, and to silence such as try to depreciate
the value of the book, from the supposed additional number of copies struck
off.

I wished to know the costs and charges of _printing_, &c.--from which the
comparative price of labour in the two countries might be estimated. M.
Didot told me that the entire charges for printing, and pulling, one
thousand copies of a full octavo size volume--containing thirty lines in a
page, in a middle-size-letter--including _every thing_ but _paper_--was
thirty-five francs per sheet. I am persuaded that such a thing could not be
done at home under very little short of double the price:--whether it be
that our printers, including the most respectable, are absolutely more
extravagant in their charges, or that the wages of the compositors are
double those which are given in France.

After Didot, comes CRAPELET--in business, skill, and celebrity. He is
himself a very pleasant, unaffected man; scarcely thirty-six; and likely,
in consequence, to become the richest printer in Paris. I have visited him
frequently, and dined with him once--when he was pleased to invite some
agreeable, well-informed, and gentlemanly guests to meet me. Among them was
a M. REY, who has written "_Essais Historiques et Critiques sur Richard
III. Roi d'Angleterre_," just printed in a handsome octavo