SCIENCE IN THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD 



marks now in vogue, was, however, a work of even 

 more recent centuries. No manuscript, prior to the 

 day of the printing-press, is punctuated in quite the 

 modern fashion; but, for that matter, the popular 

 method of punctuating varies a good deal from genera- 

 tion to generation. Just at present, for example, the 

 colon is very much less in evidence on the printed page 

 than it was fifty years ago. 



But these are mere details. From a broader view 

 it may be said that all of the modern aids to the reader 

 had gained practically universal acceptance among the 

 makers of books before the close of the Middle Ages. 

 We have already seen that the books themselves at this 

 period were almost exact prototypes of modern books 

 as regards form and binding. Indeed, as already men- 

 tioned, the early printers made an effort to duplicate the 

 written book, and it may be added that it is sometimes 

 difficult to tell, at first glance, whether a book of the 

 fifteenth century is a specimen of early printing, or a 

 very perfect example of the writing of a scribe. It does 

 no harm to recall that the connoisseur of the period 

 regarded the printed book precisely in the same light 

 in which a modern connoisseur of painting regards a 

 chromo as a cheap, meritricious, inartistic imitation, 

 not to be countenanced by a person of taste or culture. 



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