g books for him and not for private buyers, at least to give
his preferences a hearing. He wants his books no bigger physically than
they need be, and yet he would like to have them of a convenient height,
from seven to nine inches. He would rather have their expansion in
height and width and not in thickness, for the former dimensions up to
ten and a half inches by eight mean no increased demand upon shelf room,
while the thickness of every leaf is taken out of his library's
capacity. He would like to have no wasteful margins and no extreme in
the size of type. If it is too large, the book takes up too much room;
if it is too small, his readers will ruin their eyes over it or, what is
more likely, refuse to read it and so make its possession a useless
expense. For the sake of rapid reading he would like to have every wide
page printed in columns. For the same reason he would like to have every
possible help given to the eye in the way of paragraphs, headlines, and
variation of type, so far as it can be given in consonance with the
esthetic rights of the book. With these points observed, and the book
printed on paper as thin and as light in weight as can be conveniently
used and is consistent with opacity and strength, with clear type, clear
and durable ink, and good presswork, the printer will have done his
part, and a book will go to the binder that is worthy of his best
treatment.

What that treatment is the binder knows better than I can tell him. When
he has applied it, the book will come out of his hands at once solid and
flexible; unmutilated, either on the outer edges where mutilation can be
seen, or at the back where it cannot be seen, but where it nevertheless
hurts the integrity of the book; covered with honest boards that will
stand use, and clad with a material, cloth or leather, that is both
strong to resist wear and also contains within itself no seeds of
deterioration. Besides this let it have a character, however
unobtrusive, befitting the contents of the book, and the binder will
have paid his full debt to the present and the future.

While the librarian's ideals of bookmaking are not the only ones, they
are in harmony with the best, and there cannot be progress in bookmaking
without approaching his ideals. He is, therefore, by his very office
committed to every undertaking for the improvement of the book, and
because of the efforts of librarians and other booklovers there is
ground for belief that th