ield of vision, it is after
all not the only contemporary book; there are others from which we may
be able to choose one worthier to be the book of to-day than the
self-elected novel. But we shall not find it where commercialism is
rife. In the presence of that element we find still only an appeal to
the many--which, if successful, means large profits--by an appearance of
giving much while really giving little. In this game of illusion the
sound principles of bookmaking are forsaken. Books are not designed on
the basis of what they are, but on the basis of what they can be made to
seem. The result is puffery, not merely in advertising, but still
earlier in the dimensions of the book itself--the most modern and
profitable instance of using the east wind for a filler.

But at this point a new element is introduced, the public library. The
ordinary buyer carries home the distended book, and after he and his
family have read it, he cares not if it falls to pieces after the next
reading. Neither does he care if it takes up thrice the room that it
should, for he no longer gives it room. But the public library, under
the existing inflationism, must not only pay too much for its popular
books; it must also house them at a needless outlay, and must very early
duplicate a serious percentage of their first cost in rebinding them. So
burdensome has this last item become that our libraries are consenting
to pay a slightly larger first cost in order to avoid the necessity of
rebinding; and enterprising publishers, following the lead of a more
enterprising bookbinder, are beginning to cater to this library demand,
which some day, let us hope, may dominate the entire publishing world
for all books worth preserving, and may extend to all the elements of
the book.

But fortunately there is here and there the uncommercial publisher and
now and then an uncommercial mood in the ordinary publisher. To these we
owe a small but important body of work of which no previous age need
have been ashamed. Of these books we may almost say that they would be
books if there were nothing in them. They have come into being by a
happy conjunction of qualified publisher and appreciative buyers. They
show what most books may be and what all books will strive to be if ever
the majority of book buyers come to know what a good book is. This
brings us finally to the book of to-morrow, what we hope it will be and
how we can make it so.

The book of to-morrow,