We may reasonably hope, from the pleasing aspect of the present age, when mankind have dared to burst the fetters of prejudice and superstition, being determined to exercise their better judgment, and adopt plans more congenial to true taste, that the Roman character will be universally employed in all civilized states.

The Roman letter, it may be concluded, owes its origin to the nation whence it derives its name; though the face of the present and the ancient Roman letters materially differ, from the improvements they have undergone at various times.

The Germans and their confederates differ from us in calling those letters Antiqua, which we, as well as the French and other nations, term Roman. An inquiry into the cause of this distinction can be of small importance, further than it might prove a desire in the Germans to deprive the ancient Romans of the merit of forming those letters.

That good Roman makes the best figure in a specimen of typography, cannot be disputed; and this superiority is greatly improved by the founders of the present day. A printer, in his choice of type, should not only attend to the cut of the letter, but also observe that its shape be perfectly true, and that it lines or ranges with accuracy. The quality of the metal of which it is composed demands also his particular attention. The ingenious Mr. Moxon says,

"That the Roman letters were originally intended to be made to consist of circles, arches of circles, and straight lines; and that therefore those letters that have these figures either entire, or else properly mixt, so as the course and progress of the pen may best admit, may deserve the name of true shape."

By attending to the above mathematical rules, the letter-cutter may produce Roman characters of such harmony, grace, and symmetry, as will please the eye in reading; and, by having their fine strokes

and swells blended together in due proportion, will excite admiration in those who may take the pains of comparing the smaller with the larger sized letters. But to assert possitively what foundery can boast of true shaped letters would be speaking with too much presumption; since it is agreed, even by able penmen, that none can strike two letters of the same signification, so as, upon the strictest examination, to have the same likeness. If, therefore, it is impossible to write a true duplicate upon paper, it may be excused in those who attempt it in steel: for, were it practicable to copy so as to make it impossible to discover the least deviation from the original, letter-cutters too would then be able to supply accented letters, and such as are contained in ligatures, of the exact shape and symmetry with those of the main alphabet, though even these should have nothing but the fancy of the artist in support of their being true shaped.

We are aware that a variety of opinions exist respecting true-shaped letters; therefore we shall abstain from entering into a controversy upon that head, being persuaded of the impossibility of bringing a number of persons into the same way of thinking. As the Germans are justly entitled to the merit for the invention of typography and metal types, so are the Dutch famed for their improvement of the latter: which was held in the highest estimation for many years, till they were rivalled by our countrymen; from which period Dutch letter ceased to be imported for our use.

It is equally important that types should have a deep face, which will depend upon the depth of the punches, their hollows being in proportion to the width of the respective letters, and likewise that the punches are sunk into the matrices; for should there be a defect in this respect, the letter, of course, will

have a shallow face, and prove unprofitable to the purchaser, as was the case in France, where printers had very great reason to complain of the shallowness of the letter cast by their founders.* And though this, at present, is not the case in England, it may nevertheless be observed, that some of our Roman lower-case sorts are not equally fortified to endure the weight of the press, especially in founts of the less sizes, where the a, e, s, w, are worn out before the other sorts are materially injured; which few sorts, were they re-cast, and the old ones thrown out, would render a fount serviceable for a series of good standard works.

The composition of type metal depending entirely upon the discretion of the founder, and a considerable difference prevailing among them, often to the detriment of the printer, to whom it is a matter of great import that his type should repay him ample interest for its immense expense, we shall refer again to the ingenious Mr. Moxon, who has particularised the species and quantities of ingredients he made use of: "To 28 of metal, it required 25lb of lead, mixed with 3lb of iron and antimony melted together."

In Germany, steel, iron, copper, brass, tin, and lead, are incorporated with each other by means of antimony; and the quality of this metal is such, if properly prepared, that it will not bend, but break like glass; it is harder than tin and lead, something softer than copper, and melts sooner than lead. How

With respect to the above defects in letter, M. Fertel, a St. Omers' printer, has inveighed against them in the following terms: "We need not wonder that our press-work does not look better; for if the paper is apt to sink, or otherwise deceives the person that wets it, and the ink happeus not to be very clean, the eye of the letter is presently filled up; the pressman then, with his bodkin, turns graver, but with such an unsteady hand, and with so little precaution, that he more hurts than clears the letter. Had our characters the same depth as those abroad, French press-work would undoubtedly make a better figure also; but we have had new founts where the relief part of some sorts (considered from the centre of their hollows) did not answer to above the thickness of ordinary paper for printing---which is a shame!"

the metal is prepared in Holland is not precisely known; but there is sufficient reason to suppose that it differs both from the German and English.

Besides the three principal properties which we have mentioned, the following (like Satellites to good letter) are not undeserving the purchaser's examination, who ought to take notice,

1. Whether the letter stands even, and in line; which is the chief good quality in letter, and makes the face thereof sometimes to pass, though otherwise ill-shaped. 2. Whether it stands parallel; and whether it drives out or gets in, either at the head, or the foot, and is, as Printers call it, bottle-arsed; which is a fault that cannot be mended but by rubbing the whole fount over again.

8. Whether the thin lower-case letters, especially the dots over the i and j, are come in casting.

4. Whether the break is ploughed away and smoothened. 5. Whether it be well scraped, so as not to want rubbing down by the compositor.

6. Whether each letter has a due proportion, as to thickness; and whether they are not so thin as to hinder each other from appearing with a full face; or so thick as to occasion a gap between letter and letter.

7. Whether it be well bearded: which founders in France are obliged to do, to their own disadvantage, on account of their shallow letter. *

8. Whether it have a deep and open, single or double nick, different from other founts of the same body, and in the same printing-house.

We cannot too strongly urge the advantage to be derived from letter having a deep nick, and also that the nick should differ from other founts of that body in the same house. This may appear a trifling consideration; but in a large fount the difference in weight will be considerable, and consequently a saving to the purchaser. A deep nick is an advantage to the compositor, from its more readily catching the eye than a shallow one, and consequently greatly facilitates him in his business.

The French and Dutch put a shallow narrow nick to their letter; the former, to be singular, place the nick on the back of the letter.

ITALIC LETTER.

For the invention of this letter we are indebted to Aldus Manutius, by birth a Roman, who erected a printing-office in Venice, 1496, where he introduced the Roman types of a neater cut, and gave birth to that beautiful letter which is known to most of the nations in Europe by the name of Italic; though the Germans, and their adherents, show themselves as ungenerous in this respect as they did with the Roman, by calling it Cursiv, in order to stifle the memory of its original descent, and deprive the Romans of the merit due to their ingenuity.

In the first instance it was termed Venetian, from Manutius being a resident at Venice, where he brought it to perfection; but not long after it was dedicated to the state of Italy, to prevent any dispute that might arise from other nations claiming a priority, as was the case concerning the first inventor of printing.

Italic was originally designed to distinguish such parts of a book as might be considered not strictly to belong to the body of the work, as Prefaces, Introduotions, Annotations, &c. all which sub-parts of a work were formerly printed in this character; so that at least two-fifths of a fount was comprised of Italic letter.

At present it is used more sparingly, the necessity being supplied by the more elegant mode of introducing extracts within inverted commas, and poetry and annotations in a smaller-sized type. It is often serviceable in displaying a title-page, or distinguishing the head or subject-matter of a chapter from the chapter itself. To plead the necessity of Italic to distinguish proper names of persons and places, would be altogether needless; and argue, that the present age is less capable of apprehension than our forefathers, who knew the sense and meaning of words before Italic existed, at a period when one kind of type served for the title, body, and all the other parts of a work.