ETIDORHPA AS A WORK OF ART.
PROFESSOR S. W. WILLIAMS, WYOMING, OHIO.
If a fine statue or a stately cathedral is a poem in marble, amasterpiece of the printer's art may be called a poem in typography.Such is Etidorhpa. In its paper, composition, presswork, illustrations,and binding--it is the perfection of beauty. While there is nothinggaudy in its outward appearance, there is throughout a display of goodtaste. The simplicity of its neatness, like that of a handsome woman, isits great charm. Elegance does not consist in show nor wealth inglitter; so the richest as well as the costliest garb may be rich in itsvery plainness. The illustrations were drawn and engraved expressly forthis work, and consist of twenty-one full-page, half-tone cuts, and overthirty half-page and text cuts, besides two photogravures. The bestartistic skill was employed to produce them, and the printing wascarefully attended to, so as to secure the finest effect. Only enameledbook paper is used; and this, with the wide margins, gilt top, trimmededges, and clear impressions of the type, makes the pages restful to theeyes in reading or looking at them. The jacket, or cover, which protectsthe binding, is of heavy paper, and bears the same imprint as the bookitself. Altogether, as an elegant specimen of the bookmakers' art it isa credit to the trade. All honor to the compositors who set the type,the artists who drew and engraved the illustrations, the electrotyperwho put the forms into plate, the pressman who worked off the sheets,and the binder who gathered and bound them in this volume.