ements as to
give to the completed book an expression that shall be the outward
manifestation of its indwelling spirit. This is all that can be asked of
him; but, if he would add a touch of perfection, let him convey the
subtle tribute of a sense of the value of his subject by reflecting in
his design the artist's joy in his work.

PRINT AS AN INTERPRETER OF MEANING

The invention of printing, we have often been told, added to book
production only the two commercial elements of speed and cheapness. As
regards the book itself, we are assured, printing not only added
nothing, but, during the four and a half centuries of its development,
has constantly tended to take away. These statements are no doubt
historically and theoretically true, yet they are so unjust to the
present-day art that some supplementary statement of our obligations to
printing seems called for, aside from the obvious rejoinder that, even
if speed and cheapness are commercial qualities, they have reached a
development--especially in the newspaper--beyond the dreams of the most
imaginative fifteenth-century inventor, and have done nothing less than
revolutionize the world.

Taking the service of printing as it stands to-day, what does it
actually do for the reader? What is the great difference between the
printed word and even the best handwriting? It is obviously the
condensation and the absolute mechanical sameness of print. The
advantage of these differences to the eye in respect to rapid reading is
hardly to be overestimated. Let any one take a specimen of average
penmanship and note the time which he consumes in reading it; let him
compare with this the time occupied in reading the same number of
printed words, and the difference will be startling; but not even so
will it do justice to print, for handwriting average in quality is very
far from average in frequency. If it be urged that the twentieth-century
comparison should be between typewriting and print, we may reply that
typewriting _is_ print, though it lacks most of its condensation, and
that the credit for its superior legibility belongs to typography, of
which the new art is obviously a by-product. But we are not yet out of
the manuscript period, so far as private records are concerned, and it
still is true, as it has been for many generations, that print
multiplies the years of every scholar's and reader's life.

At this point we may even introduce a claim for print as a contrib