ornment is a curse. A person sees an attractive
pattern lying in a shop, and wants all his or her books bound like it,
without for a moment considering the anachronisms and impossible
combinations that will thereby be perpetrated. It is the same with
clothes. A man sees another man with a fine coat, and he straightway
thinks he, too, will have a coat of that same make and pattern. Never
does it occur to him to gauge the stature or character of the man who
was first wearing the coat. There is yet a good deal of the monkey and
the ape left in us. We seem to do our best to stifle our individuality,
and reduce our souls to one sad dead level of accursed and wicked
imitation. Some day we shall have our eyes opened, and then see that a
man may break the whole of the Ten Commandments at once, and yet he
shall be saved if he be not vulgar, and it is both senseless and vulgar
to copy old bindings on to modern books. The only decoration which the
copy of Shakespeare could require is a gilt line, or double gilt lines,
round the panels of the back. The full gilt back is fortunately becoming
extinct. It may well die.

Decoration of books should only be carried out when we are sure we have
an appropriate design, and when we are sure that the book is worth it.

There are now some other details to be looked after. I refuse to class
them as minor details, because towards the making of the perfect book
everything right is _essential_.

(1) The _Shakespeare_, being a book printed on paper of good quality,
should have the top edge gilt, but the other sides should be left
untouched or very slightly trimmed. (2) There should be one or two
markers in each volume, and the colour of these markers should
harmonise with the colour of the binding. (3) The lettering should be
chosen yourself. There should be a principal title _stamped boldly and
deeply_, and subordinate lettering stamped lower down and in smaller
type. Thus SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS or SHAKESPEARE merely in the top panel,
with the editor's name underneath, and then below should be lettered the
plays contained in each volume, and below that, at the foot, the date of
publication. (4) Three weeks to a month at least should be allowed for
the binding of such a work. (5) A folded copy in quires of a book is
always preferable to a cloth-bound copy. (6) If a binder should ever
suggest either a padded binding, a russia leather binding, or a tree
calf binding, you may instantly leave his premis