Sttreetype Pfintiug.-^'Ntw Injlttutton. 45 



plates themfelves may become an article of commerce, not only for fliop-bllls, advertifcmcnts, 

 and other fimilar articles, but alfo for books of conftant fale and invariable ftrudure, fuch as 

 mathematical works, the claflics, religious books, and the works of celebrated authors dc- 

 ceafed. How far this inventivon might be of value, with regard to books which arc altered 

 and improved in every fubfequcnt edition, may, perhaps, be queftioned ; but on a loofe con- 

 fideration of the fubjeft, it feems as if it would, in every cafe, be advantageous to a bookfeller 

 to print a few copies of a work, and keep the prefs ftanding to print others as they may be 

 wanted ; — I fay it would be advantageous if it were not for the immenfe value in types, which 

 would, by that means, be locked up. But the ftereotype method has all the advantage of 

 keeping the prefs ftanding, with none of its inconveniences, unlefs the weight and charge of 

 metal in the plates (hould approach to that of the types they reprefent. To form fame judg- 

 ment of this, it may be ftated, that the works of Virgil, printed by Didot, in i8mo. which F 

 have had from De Boffe, form a beautiful volume of 418 pages, of 35 lines each. The cha- 

 radter ranges line for line with that called burgeois, No. 2. in Caflon's book of fpecimens, 

 the face of the letter being rather fmaller ; and we are told * that the price of the plates of this 

 work is twelve hundred franks, or 50I. ftcrling. From this fa£l fomc judgment may be 

 formed of the commercial queftion, but I am not at prefent provided with the means of mak- 

 ing the ftatement. 



Befides the Virgil and the Logarithms, Didot has printed*, the fables of La Fontaine, Cor- 

 nelius Nepos, Phaedrus, the Vicar of Wakefield, the works of Racine, 5 vols — of Boileau, 

 3 vols. — of J. B. Roufleau, 2 vols — and Lady Mary Wortley Montague's Letters. He is 

 now employed on an edition of Voltaire's works. All the works here mentioned are of the 

 eighteen fize, which, I fuppofe, to be better adapted to the prefent ftate of the art than the 

 larger fizes, perhaps from the difficulty of infuring pcrfedl cafts in the latter. 



Propojali for forming by Suhfcription, in the Metropolis of the Britijh Empire, a Public Inflitu- 

 tionfor diffufmg the Knowledge, and facilitating the general Introduiiion of ufeful mechanical 

 Inventions and Improvements y and for teaching by Courfes of Philofophical Leiiures and Ex- 

 periments, the Application of Science to the co/iimon Purpofes of Life, by Benjamin, Count of 

 Rumfordy F.R.S. M.R.I. A (sfc. Oilavo, 50 Pages. Sold by Cadell and Davies in 

 London, Price dd. 



This pamphlet confifts of an introdudion, followed by the propofals of Count Rumford, which 

 havt been adopted by the fociety. In the introduftion he ftates, how flow the advancement of 

 ufeful improvements has ever been, compared with the rapid adoption of thofe changes which 

 form the object of fafhionable caprice ; that the force of habit operates in favour of old methods ; 

 that novelty is ofFenfive, and men afhamed to learn in departments where they have fuppofed 

 their knowledge to be complete ; and that the pracftical introdu6tion of new improvements is 

 rendered more difficult by the ignorance of workmen who continually blunder, as well as their 

 prefumption which leads them to alter what they know nothing of. Hence he deduces the 

 great utility of a_general collection of models of things really excellent i not only becaufe the 



* La Dtcade Philofophique, &c No. 6. An. VII. 

 I inftrudion 



