father
responded. "We seem to think we have unlimited time before us, and that
there is no hurry about reading the good things we mean to read before
we die; so we waste our precious moments on every sort of trash--cheap
novels, worthless magazines, newspaper gossip, and before we know it,
our lives are gone. I overlook your being so foolish; but for me it is
inexcusable. The Italians of the Renaissance did not give themselves
over to such folly. They put their hearts seriously into building up
their age and generation. Lorenzo de Medici dragged from the corners of
Europe and Asia some two hundred Greek and Latin manuscripts. Other
Florentines, Venetians, Romans collected private libraries. Princes of
the land turned their wealth not to their own idle pleasure but to
financing Gutenburg's invention and establishing printing presses which
the culture and brain of the country controlled. There was a printing
press at the Vatican itself, and scholars who were paid large salaries
met in consultation concerning the literature printed. The best artists
contributed their skill to the undertaking. Indeed, it was a
disagreement about some theological work that Martin Luther had come
from Germany to help with that sent him back home in a temper. And not
only was the matter printed carefully scrutinized but also every detail
of its production was thought out--the size of the page, the size of the
type, the width of the margins, the quality of the paper, the variety of
type to be used. What wonder that under such conditions printing was
rapidly transformed from a trade to an art. When we think of the
exquisite books made in this far-away day, we sigh at our present
output."

Mr. Cameron's face clouded, then brightened.

"Nevertheless when all is said and done, books are not for the person of
wealth alone. The work of the Aldi of Italy, the Elzevirs of Leyden, the
Estiennes of Paris, although of finest quality, was much too expensive
for universal use. For it is the subject matter inside the book which,
when all is said and done, is the thing we are after, and which we are
eager to spread abroad; and never in any age has every type of
literature been so cheap and accessible, or the average of culture so
high as now. If a person is ignorant to-day it is his own fault. Nothing
stands between him and the stars but his own laziness and indifference."

"_Time_, my dear Henry," interrupted Mrs. Cameron. "Do not leave out the
element o