e books of the present decade will be better
than those of the last.

THE BOOK BEAUTIFUL

We who use books every day as tools of trade or sources of inspiration
are apt to overlook the fact that the book, on its material side, is an
art object. Not, indeed, that it ranks with the products of poetry,
painting, sculpture, and other arts of the first grade; but it has a
claim to our consideration on the level of the minor arts, along with
jewelry, pottery, tapestry, and metal work. Moreover, its intimate
association with literature, of which it is the visible setting, gives
it a charm that, while often only reflected, may also be contributory,
heightening the beauty that it enshrines.

Using the word beauty for the result of artistic mastery, we may say
that in the other arts beauty is the controlling factor in price, but in
the book this is the case only exceptionally. As a consequence beautiful
books are more accessible for purchase or observation than any other
equally beautiful objects. For the price of a single very beautiful rug
one can obtain a small library of the choicest books. Except in the case
of certain masterpieces of the earliest printing, in which rarity is
joined to beauty, high prices for books have nothing to do with their
artistic quality. Even for incunabula one need pay only as many dollars
as for tapestries of the same grade one would have to pay thousands. In
book collecting, therefore, a shallow purse is not a bar to achievement,
and in our day of free libraries one may make good progress in the
knowledge and enjoyment of beautiful books without any expense at all.

Public taste is probably as advanced in the appreciation of the book
beautiful as of any other branch of art, but it is active rather than
enlightened. This activity is a good sign, for it represents the first
stage in comprehension; the next is the consciousness that there is more
in the subject than had been realized; the third is appreciation. The
present chapter is addressed to those--and they are many--who are in the
second stage. The first piece of advice to those who seek acquaintance
with the book beautiful is: Surround yourself with books that the best
judges you know call beautiful; inspect them, handle them; cultivate
them as you would friends. It will not be long before most other books
begin to annoy you, though at first you cannot tell why. Then specific
differences one after another will stand out, until at la