THE GRAIMIIC EXPRESSION OF SENSE. 



PART II. 



KIN rixr, PRO i; I, i: MS 



i;v .\NN.\ DK.VNK liLTCHllK. 



l.N a ()iiper read before an .\mericaii Typographical 

 .\ssociation. Mr. T. L. de X'iiine, who is regarded as 

 the most eminent of Hving printers, remarked that 

 we make use of two distinct styles of printing, 

 ■'Mascuhne," or that which is noticeable for strength 

 and absence of ornament, and "Feminine." that 

 w hicli is characterised by delicacy, and b\- the weak- 

 ness which always accompanies delicacy 



■■ The object of the masculine st\le "' he sa\ s. " is 

 the instruction of the reader, and to this end the 

 printer tries to show the intent of the writer by the 



simi)lest methods For this he relies 



most u[)on the plainness of hist\pe, the blackness of 

 his ink and the excellence of his paper." 



In a scientific age this somewhat enigmatical 

 description of two graphic methods of expressing 

 meaning, leaves much to be desired, and may be 

 interpreted thus : — 



For "simple" read, "inatiequate," for "strength" 

 read "coarseness" and for "plainness of type" read 

 " monotony of st\le, consec]ucnt upon the degenera- 

 tion of the grajjhic symbols." 



The antithesis of " delicacy " is not " strength " 

 but " vulgarity." i.e.. the ignoring of delicate 

 distinctions, inaccuracy of definition, and loose 

 generalisations. 



The triumphs of modern Engineering, of 

 C'hemistrv, of Astronom\-, and indeed ail the 

 developments of modern civilization are due to the 

 science of Graphics, to the accurate notations of the 

 mathematical and exact sciences, and to " delicacx " 

 in all the graphic arts except that of the printer. 



The delicacv of the balance is not weakness, 

 strength is due to a nice adaptation of means to 

 ends, it is measured by its capacity for work, 

 and the progress of some sciences may be 

 attributed to the observation of extremely fine 

 differences in the form of minute organisms. 



Astronomy is not the same science as it was 

 before the invention of the telescope. Why should 

 typography be the same as it was before the 

 invention of the magnifying glass ? 



Print which had its genesis in the imitation of the 

 forms of animate nature, should be developed along 

 the same lines. The printed page should bear a 

 comparison with animate nature, simple indeed to 

 the superficial observer, and easily read, but upon 

 inspection, revealing hidden meanings and affording 

 more and more information to the student. 



The leaf does not obtrude its structure and the 

 arrangement of its veins and cells upon the passer- 

 by, but repays investigatiofi if the student w ill but 

 stay and learn in Nature's school from the only 

 teacher who is infallible. 



C'omi)are the delicate ramifications of the skeleton 

 of the leaf under the magnifying glass with the 

 coarse lines and empt\' spaces of the best specimen 

 of the t\pefounder"s art, and the contrast will strike 

 the beholder with astonishment and lead him to 

 reflect upon the wav in which the lessons of Nature 

 have been thrown away upon the masculine printer, 

 who has lost the instinct of imitation as well as his 

 \isual imagination. 



The object of an educational print is not that he 

 who runs ma\' read, but that by close investigation 

 the letters and words may be photographed upon 

 the brain, and be automatically reproduced by the 

 hand after constant repetition. 



The more information, then, that the idiograph 

 gives about itself the better, and for its study a very 

 excellent magnifying glass can be bought for the 

 moderate sum of fourpence halfpenny. 



To Mr. F. A. Bellamy's reasonable com()laint that 

 he has had to use twenty-five words to exiilain what 

 the printer could have exjiressed b\- one letter, it is 

 futile to answer : " That is true, but see how good is 

 the paper and how excellent the ink ! " 



The final s is always pronounced as z in English 

 and in French, when pronounced at all, and the 

 additional vocal effort necessary to produce the 

 hissing sound is logicalh- expressed by an additional 

 letter, "aS"— "aSS," " IS " — " MSS," differen- 

 tiating to the eye the unimportant auxiliary words 

 which are pronounced without any effort, from 

 the important idiographs. which are stressed. 

 This being the Englishman's normal vocal habit, 

 the printer should indicate where he has omitted 

 a letter bv the sign of contraction v as tl§, thl^ 

 — OU^, and so on, where the addition of a line 

 from left tt) right downwards is understood to 

 mark the contraction which so often occurs in his 

 w ork ; thus the letter j is logically printed = dlg'J 

 and illogically printed with a dot j, idlg = i^ 



It is not the desire of the printer " to instruct the 

 reader," or the "simplicity of the means adopted by 

 him," which causes constant confusion of meaning, 

 and perpetuates the curse of Babel ; it is rather the 

 fact that while the Fundamental System of the Stars 

 is " brought up to date," the printer remains four 

 centuries behind, at the point in the history of 

 writing when the typemakers and punchcutters 

 usurped the functions of the scribes, arresting its 

 natural develoiMiient, and causing w hat should be a 

 living and growing art to be crystallised, or rather 

 fossilised, in the present notation. 



Professor Leduc, who has chosen the accompanying 

 extract for a specimen of the Orthotype notation. 



