d the
globe, once remarked to a youthful visitor that it was a source of great
comfort to him that in collecting books in his earlier years he had
chosen editions printed in large type, "for now," he said, "I am able to
read them." The fading eyesight of old age does not necessarily set the
norm of print; but this is certain, that what age reads without
difficulty youth will read without strain, and in view of the excessive
burden put upon the eyes by the demands of modern life, it may be worth
while to consider whether it is not wise to err on the safer side as
regards the size of type, even by an ample margin.

It is now some thirty-five years since the first scientific experiments
upon the relations of type to vision were made in France and Germany. It
was peculiarly fitting, we may remark, that the investigation should
have started in those two countries, for the German alphabet is
notoriously hard on the eyes, and the French alphabet is encumbered with
accents, which form an integral part of the written word, and yet are
always minute and in poor print exceedingly hard to distinguish. The
result of the investigation was a vigorous disapproval of the German
type itself and of the French accents and the favorite style of letter
in France, the condensed. It was pointed out that progress in type
design towards the hygienic ideal must follow the direction of
simplicity, uniformity, and relative heaviness of line, with wide
letters and short descenders, all in type of sufficient size for easy
reading. In the generation that has succeeded these experiments have we
made any progress in adapting print to eyes along the lines of these
conclusions?

The printer might well offer in proof of such progress the page in which
these words are presented to the reader. In the four and a half
centuries of printing, pages of equal clearness and beauty may be found
if one knows just where to look for them, but the later examples all
fall within the period that we are discussing. It may be objected that
this is the luxury of printing, not its everyday necessity, and this
objection must be allowed; but luxuries are a powerful factor in
elevating the standard of living, and this is as true of print as of
food and dress. It must be confessed that an unforeseen influence made
itself felt early in the generation under discussion, that of William
Morris and his Kelmscott Press. Morris's types began and ended in the
Gothic or Germanic spirit,