brary examples from probably most of the
great printers and binders, but--I'm afraid you won't understand me when
I say it--they have never interested me particularly, nor do they now. I
am only interested in what I do myself; and when I explain I am sure you
will not think me egotistical."

"Go on," Huntington urged as Hamlen paused, but there was a break before
the speaker continued.

"You said a moment ago that you did not sympathize with some of my
books; that is perfectly natural. I said just now that I was only
interested in my own work; that, too, I believe, is natural. I have no
knowledge of the great _incunabula_, I know nothing of the history of
printing, and in making these few books I have had no thought of
producing examples of the printer's or the binder's art: they stand to
me simply as symbolic of certain phases of myself,--some good, perhaps,
some bad; but all representative of my mood when they were made. I tell
you, Huntington"--Hamlen continued with deep intensity--"I tell you now
what I have never before put into words, that those are not books at
all; they are simply the expression of a something in my soul which
demands an outlet, and it comes out through my finger-tips. That sounds
absurd, but it is the solemn truth!"

"Absurd?" cried Huntington. "My dear fellow, what you have just said is
the explanation of the books which we collectors, poor simple fools,
haven't been able to give. Don't you see that by your very act you have
placed yourself among the masters? What else are the sculptures of
Michelangelo, the paintings of Raphael, but the expression of their
messages to the world made through the media with which they were
familiar? With them it was stone and canvas, with you it is type and
paper and leather. Thank God you couldn't write!"

Hamlen listened to him in amazement, unable to grasp at once the
significance or the breadth of all he heard. It was natural that
Huntington's last words should be the first in his hearer's mind.

"What do you mean,--'thank God you couldn't write'?"

"I mean that what you have just told me is the reason why the arts of
painting, architecture and sculpture have stood still these four hundred
and fifty years. Stop and think, man! Who in those arts has surpassed
the work of the old masters within that limit of time? No one, I say; no
one! And why? Think of your dates! Four hundred and fifty years take us
back to the invention of printing. That was what di