ork.
In more expensive publications some of Mr. Mosher's work, like his
quarto edition of Burton's "Kasidah," merits a place in this class. A
better known, if older, instance is the holiday edition of Longfellow's
"Skeleton in Armor." Who would not rather read the poem in this Old
English type than in any Roman type in which it has ever been printed?
The work of the Kelmscott Press obviously falls within this class.
The truth is, there is a large body of favorite literature which we are
glad to be made to linger over, to have, in its perusal, a brake put
upon the speed of our reading; and in no way can this be done so
agreeably as by a typography that possesses a charm of its own to arrest
the eye. Such a delay increases while it prolongs the pleasure of our
reading. The typography becomes not only a frame to heighten the beauty
of the picture, but also a spell to lengthen our enjoyment of it. It
cannot be expected that the use of impressive type will be confined to
literature. That worthiest use will find the field already invaded by
pamphlet and leaflet advertisements, and this invasion is certain to
increase as the public taste becomes trained to types that make an
esthetic appeal of their own.
Ordinary type is the result of an attempt to combine with legibility an
all-round fitness of expression. But that very universality robs it of
special appropriateness for works of a strongly marked character. It is
impossible to have a new type designed for every new work, but classes
of types are feasible, each adapted to a special class of literature.
Already there is a tendency to seek for poetry a type that is at least
removed from the commonplace. But hitherto the recognition of this
principle has been only occasional and haphazard. Where much is to be
gained much also can be lost, and interpretative or expressional
typography that misses the mark may easily be of a kind to make the
judicious grieve. But the rewards of success warrant the risk. The most
beautiful of recent types, the New Humanistic, designed for The
University Press, has hardly yet been used. Let us hope that it may soon
find its wider mission so successfully as to furnish an ideal
confirmation of the principle that we have here been seeking to
establish.
THE STUDENT AND THE LIBRARY
What does a student of five and twenty years ago still remember of his
college? My own first and fondest recollection is of the walks and
talks, _noctes coena
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