es, for he cannot
understand his business.

It will be understood that the rules which apply to the binding of this
Shakespeare equally apply to most other books. I propose, however, to
take such instances as I think present difficulties not already met, and
see how they can be overcome.

A second instance shall be the new edition of _Pepys' Diary_. The fact
that this, and many other books, are published volume by volume makes it
somewhat difficult to know whether to bind them at once or not to do so.
In the case of the new edition of _Pepys' Diary_, as neither the binding
of the large or small paper is unsightly, it should be left until
complete, one good reason for this being that, if it be bound volume by
volume as published, the binder will require a pattern volume each time,
and your pattern volume will be lying about his workshop each time a
volume is published. To register a pattern is by no means advisable in
the case of a really well-bound series of books. It may do well enough
for scientific and other journals, when great nicety of detail is not so
much required. In the case of well-bound volumes, a pattern should
accompany the order. A book like _Murray's Dictionary_, volumes of which
are slow in completing themselves, the parts of the volumes, current and
incomplete, should either be tied up in paper, and kept together, or
they should be placed between two pieces of millboard on the shelf where
they will finally be placed.

A third instance shall be an old book which requires repairing or
restoring. We will suppose that it is an old copy of _Clarissa Harlowe_,
which you have picked up on a country book-stall. Now the binding is
probably very much broken, and, being very dry, is getting rapidly
worse. It is time, therefore, that it went into hospital, and at the
bookbinder's hospital very clever operations are performed. To restore a
binding, paste is rubbed over the leather, and, after it is dry, it is
washed over with a thin solution of glue size. Again, when dry, the
volume is varnished and afterwards rubbed over with a cloth upon which a
few drops of sweet oil have been dropped. Here is one operation just in
outline. There are very many others, which I can only refer to. If there
are ink marks on any of the volumes of your _Clarissa_, which you wish
removed, this can probably be done so that no trace is left. Similarly
many grease-spots can be effectually removed. If a page is torn, it can
be repaired,