Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/215

205 miſtake I convinced him, by marking for him each ſubſtantive with a capital, in a paragraph, which he then eaſily underſtood, though before he could not comprehend it. This ſhews the inconvenience of that pretended improvement.

From the ſame fondneſs for an uniform and even appearance of characters in the line, the printers have of late baniſhed alſo the Italic types, in which words of importance to be attended to in the ſenſe of the ſentence, and words on which an emphaſis ſhould be put in reading, uſed to be printed. And lately another fancy has induced other printers to uſe the round s inſtead of the long one, which formerly ſerved well to diſtinguiſh a word readily by its varied appearance. Certainly the omitting this prominent letter makes a line appear more even, but renders it leſs immediately legible; as the paring of all men's noſes might ſmooth and level their faces, would render their phyſiognomies leſs diſtinguiſhable. Add to all theſe improvements backwards, another modern fancy, that grey printing is more beautiful than black. Hence the Engliſh new books are printed in ſo dim a character as to be read with difficulty by old eyes, unleſs in a very ſtrong light and with good glaſſes. Whoever compares a volume of the Gentleman's Magazine, printed between the years 1731 and 1740, with one of thoſe printed in the laſt ten years, will be convinced of the much greater degree of perſpicuity given by black than by the grey. Lord Cheſterfield pleaſantly remarked this difference to Faulkner, the printer of the Dublin Journal, who was vainly making encomiums on his own paper, as the moſt complete of any in the world. "But Mr. Faulkner," ſays my lord, "don't you think it might be ſtill farther improved, by uſing paper and ink not quite of near of a colour ?"—For all