extent--is, in fact, an axiom; but not all
reading is long-continued, and not all is apart from considerations
other than instantaneous contact with the author's thought through his
words. It is these two classes of exceptions that we have now to
consider.

Let us begin with an example outside the field of typography. On the
first issue of the Lincoln cent were various sizes of lettering, the
largest being devoted to the words which denote the value of the coin,
and the smallest, quite undistinguishable in ordinary handling, to the
initials of the designer, afterwards discarded. Obviously these sizes
were chosen with reference to their power to attract attention; in the
one case an excess of legibility and in the other case, quite as
properly, its deficiency. Thus, what is not designed for the cursory
reader's eye, but serves only as a record to be consulted by those who
are specially interested in it, may, with propriety, be made so
inconspicuous as to be legible only by a distinct effort. Cases in
everyday typography are the signatures of books and the cabalistic
symbols that indicate to the newspaper counting room the standing of
advertisements. Both are customarily rendered inconspicuous through
obscure position, and if to this be added the relative illegibility of
fine type, the average reader will not complain, for all will escape his
notice.

Again, we may say that what is not intended for ordinary continuous
reading may, without criticism, be consigned to type below normal size.
Certain classes of books that are intended only for brief consultation
come under this head, the best examples being encyclopedias,
dictionaries, and almanacs. As compactness is one of their prime
requisites, it is a mistake to put them into type even comfortably
large. The reader opens them only for momentary reference, and he can
well afford to sacrifice a certain degree of legibility to handiness.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica is a classic instance of a work made bulky
by type unnecessarily coarse for its purpose; the later, amazingly
clear, photographic reduction of the Britannica volumes is a recognition
of this initial mistake. The Century and Oxford dictionaries, on the
other hand, are splendid examples of the judicious employment of fine
print for the purpose both of condensation and the gradation of
emphasis. One has only to contrast with these a similar work in uniform
type, such as Littre's Dictionnaire, to appreciate their s