BOOKS AND BOOKLOVERS[1]

The booklover is distinguished from the reader as such by loving his
books, and from the collector as such by reading them. He prizes not
only the soul of the book, but also its body, which he would make a
house beautiful, meet for the indwelling of the spirit given by its
author. Love is not too strong a word to apply to his regard, which
demands, in the language of Dorothy Wordsworth, "a beautiful book, a
book to caress--peculiar, distinctive, individual: a book that hath
first caught your eye and then pleased your fancy." The truth is that
the book on its physical side is a highly organized art object. Not in
vain has it transmitted the thought and passion of the ages; it has
taken toll of them, and in the hands of its worthiest makers these
elements have worked themselves out into its material body. Enshrining
the artist's thought, it has, therefore, the qualities of a true art
product, and stands second only to those which express it, such as
painting and sculpture; but no other art product of its own order, not
the violin nor the jewel-casket, can compare with the book in esthetic
quality. It meets one of the highest tests of art, for it can appeal to
the senses of both beauty and grandeur, either separately, as in the
work of Aldus and of Sweynheym and Pannartz, or together, as in that of
Jenson.

Books have doubtless had their lovers in all ages, under all their
forms. Even the Assyrian clay tablet, if stamped with the words of poet
or sage, might have shared the affection which they inspired. So might
the papyrus roll of the Egyptian, and so does even to-day the parchment
book of the middle ages, whenever its fortunate owner has the soul of a
booklover. From this book our own was derived, yet not without a break.
For our book is not so much a copy of the Roman and medieval book as a
"substitute" for it, a machine product made originally to sell at a
large profit for the price of hand-work. It was fortunate for the early
printed book that it stood in this intimate if not honored relation to
the work of the scribes and illuminators, and fortunate for the book of
to-day, since, with all its lapses, it cannot escape its heritage of
those high standards.

Mr. John Cotton Dana has analyzed the book into forty elements; a
minuter analysis might increase the number to sixty; but of either
number the most are subsidiary, a few controlling. The latter are those
of which each, if decided up