Liy^EAN SOCIETY OF LOXDOJf. 



25 



I 



suggest the mental conditioa wliich led to the fabrication of 

 evidence. The solution offered — that of self-deception — is, 1 

 hope, not only the correct one, but also the one which will bring 

 the least distress to my courteous correspondent. 



1, The Type. 



At the time wlien the revised address for 1913 was sent to 

 press, no clear evidence based on the type had been forthcoming 

 (Proc. Linn. Soc. Iyl2-13, pp. 40, 41). «ome of the founts 

 liad been found by Mr. Horace Hart in an undated catalogue of 

 Y. and J. Figgins, but their successors had been unable to trace 

 the history. JMr. Hart, on the whole, concluded that the 

 booklet •' nnglit very well have been printed in Boston at the 

 date mentioned" (p. 41). 



The enquiry has now been carried much furtlier, and has pro- 

 duced results of the highest importance. On July 16, 1913, 

 JMr. Hart wrote the following letter to his friend, the iate 

 Mr. Theodore L. De Vinne, of 300 West JSeventy -sixth {Street, 

 iS'ew York : — 



I am ti'oubling you with a question about the da^e oT certain types, wbicli 

 wiU interest you, es))ecially if you are able to make the uecessai-y relerences to 

 typetouiiders' catalogues in your o«n possession. 



I iiave a pamphlet, the titlepage of which is as follows : — 



SOME EECENT LECTURES. 

 By GEO. W. SLEEPER. 

 Boston: Ww. Bense, Printer, 1819. 



I bare been assisting to fix tbe date by means of the types, and I 



have chosen three founts as tests. 'Ihese are: 



(1) Type used for certain headings: Figgins's two-line long primer 



Monastic Ko. '1. 



(2) Ditto. : two-line brevier Monastic No. 2. 



(3) Ditto, : two-line small pica wide Latin. 



The point I would submit to you is, — Can you say with any certainty that 

 1, 2, or '6 existed in America as early as 1849 ? I find them in late editions 

 of Figgins's Specimen Books ; but unfortunately their business has been sold to 

 ilessrs. R. H. Stevens & Co., and the new firm Las not the means of finding 

 out anything about origins of types. 



I have not found these types in your specimen books. 



P.S. — On second thoughts, I am sending you a couple of rotographs, one 

 of tbe titlepage which contains tbe types I am writing about, and tlie other 

 containing a drire-down * beading. Tlie words "SOME RECEKT LEC- 

 TURES "are in the wide Latin type, and the words " The Origin of Life" 

 are in the two-line long primer and brevier Monastic No. 2. 



* A beading that is not printed at tlie very top of a page, but is driven 

 down, as at the beginning of any important section of a book. 



