book-craft is time-honored-it is an ancient and worthy order. Paternoster Row is full of the odor and spirit of learning-it has an aroma of paper and print. There is no spot on the globe like it. The London book-trade is divided into the following branches-the general retail bookseller, the dealer in black-letter, or second-hand books, the wholesale merchant, who executes country and foreign orders, and the publishing, or manufacturing bookseller. The second class formerly did chiefly congregate in Little Britain-now they are scattered about Holborn, Covent Garden, and the Strand. These are depositories of those choice relics of the olden time, that often tempt such premiums from the bibliomaniac. While on this point, we cannot refrain from a recollection or two of the brotherhood. One was named Nunn; he kept an old book establishment in Great Queen street, and although a singularly large and corpulent personage, was scarcely less remarkable for his activity in early life, than for his austerity and moroseness in its later stages. By his parsimony and patient application to business, he became ultimately possessed of considerable wealth; and although this was no secret, yet his two daughters, who were (if one may hazard gallantry for truth) remarkably ugly, lived in single blessedness to the very autumn of life; but, strange to add, immediately after the demise of their venerable parent at the advanced age of eighty, they each entered into matrimonial alliances. Old Nunn possessed many peculiarities, and although not particularly remarkable for indulging any "sudorous brain-toils " of his own, he yet never appeared so contented as when immersed among the musty tomes of those who have left us in no condition of doubt as to that matter. We well remember, his curious custom of cramming his capacious coat-pockets, which, on one occasion, actually yielded four-and-twenty large octavo volumes before their contents were exhausted. D'Arcy, also a dealer in second-hand and black-letter books, in Holborn, rendered himself conspicuous, among other eccentricities, for the whim of having female attendants in his establishment, some of whom were decidedly pretty; and what is not less singular, it is said, he regulated their remuneration according to the ratio of their personal attractions. He died wealthy, like his eccentric contemporary before alluded to. The wholesale trade has always resided in and near Paternoster Row, but the chief house of this class was for many years on London Bridge. Osborne lived under the gateway of Gray's Inn. Tonson, opposite the Strand Bridge. Millar, facing St. Clement's Church, Strand. Dodsley, on the site of the Shakespeare Gallery, in Pall Mall. Publishers are said to keep the keys of the Temple of Fame. They minister at the altar of learning, and furnish the intellectual wealth of the world. Dr. Johnson considered booksellers the patrons of literature, liberal, generousminded men. Another quaintly asks, "Can a bookseller live, move, and have his being, in an atmosphere of intellect, and not absorb the very soul and spirit of his books through his pores?" An experienced bookseller is often better qualified to judge of a book, than all the critics that ever praised or blamed, since the days of Diogenes. Comparatively few, however, of the publishing fraternity pretend to critical censorship; they usually defer to the critical judgment of some literary friend, in determining the claims of any work for publication. Booksellers, moreover, evince an affinity of feeling in more instances than one, with the "genus irritabile.” We remember an incident, among others, to this effect. Goldsmith, who was originally poor and unknown, after the publication of the Traveller became of much greater consequence; and one day, on learning that a scandalous attack had appeared against him in a paper published by Evans, he called at the shop of the offending bibliopolist, and announcing his errand, proceeded to administer summary chastisement. The pugilistic encounter, however, proved ultimately to the overwhelming disadvantage of the worthy Vicar, who got well beaten himself and rolled upon the floor, to the amusement of the real offender, the author of the offensive article, who complaisantly stood by as bottle-holder on the occasion. As somewhat german to our chapter, we shall add a few supplemental words about printing and book-binding. In the United States the Press is represented by the illustrious Franklin, the Bacon of the New World-a tria juncta in uno, printer, author, and one of the great fathers of modern science; and who has been thus technically described by one of the fraternity, "the of his profession, the type of honesty, the ! of all, and although the of death has put a . existence, every § of his life is without a ||." Types have been likened to "A thousand lamps at one lone altar lighted, to his Type-setting in early times was not remarkable for its exactness and accuracy. In the year 1561, a book was printed, called the Anatomy of the Mass. It had only 172 pages in it; but the author-a pious monk-was obliged to add fifteen pages to correct the blunders. These he attributes to the special instigation of the "devil," to defeat the work; and hence may have come the use of the title, "Printer's Devil." It is said A printer's wife in Germany lost her life by feloniously meddling with the types. She went into the office by night, and took out the word "lord," in Genesis iii. 16, where Eve is made subject to her husband, and made the verse read, "he shall be thy fool," instead of "he shall be thy lord." that she was put to death for her wickedness. It is well known that printers of an early edition of the Scriptures were so heavily fined as to be utterly ruined, for leaving out the word "not" from one of the Ten Commandments. There is an edition of the Bible, called the "Vinegar Bible," from the parable of the "Vineyard" being printed "vinegar." Other equally notorious instances of errata in editions of the Vulgate, which provoked the anathemas of the Vatican, are on record. In one case there were six thousand errors, and after a revision, nearly as many more were detected on a subsequent inspection. It is, perhaps, scarcely possible to produce a book faultless, but the art, at the present day at least, approximates very closely to perfection, some of the more costly publications of London being of exquisite typographic beauty. Punctuation is as important to the sense as orthography. This is so self-evident that we need not cite any illustrations in proof. The oldest printing establishment in Europe, if not in the world, is that of M. Barth of Breslau, still extant, which we believe, has been for 350 years uninterruptedly in existence, in the hands of his ancestors and himself. The first book printed there was a German legend, in 1504. Bookmaking must be classed among the Fine Arts, for indeed it is an art in itself, whether we consider it in its exterior or interior decoration. The English excel all others in the tasty arrangement that is required in a really exquisite work. They understand it in all its minutiæ. The very titlepage is a model of neatness and elegance; and of such importance is the superintendence of their labors, that artists, "trained men in their vocation," are employed in most of the large establishments to attend to it in all its artistic capabilities. Contrast an English with a French or German work of equal pretensions-how quiet, yet how genial is the one in its superior refinement above all the others. Neither ought it to be forgotten that, while speaking about books, those who administer in such a wonderful degree to their attractiveness, claim some notice at our hands, for it is mainly owing to the engraver that a new dawning in this species of literary luxury has taken place, and those beautifully illustrated works that are ventured upon the broad waters of the Atlantic to gratify the fastidious, giving delight to numbers by their kindly remembrances, and laden affections, are the result of those silent workers. Their names, famous in this phase of decorative art on the other side of the great highway, are familiar as "household words." Yet we, too, have those in our midst who would make their impress in any nation. Danforth, Jones, Seely, Burt, and John Halpin, in historical; Smilie and Beckwirth, in landscape; and Fred. Halpin, in portraiture, are names that could not be lightly passed over anywhere ; and among our artists on wood, Bobbett, Childs, Andrews, Lossing, and others, keep up in a corresponding degree the merits of their particular professions. Bookbinding is an art of great antiquity. It is two thousand years and more since Phillatius, a Greek, divided the rolled volume into sheets, and glued these together in the form which is familiar to us. The rolls had been preserved from dust and injury by being kept in cylindrical cases, and a protection for the book in its new shape was soon found to be more necessary than before. This was supplied by securing the leaves between stiff covers, probably of wood at first, and thus began the modern art of bookbinding. Soon the board was covered with leather, making in external appearance a still nearer approach to the workmanship of our day; but it was not until the close of the fifteenth century, or the beginning of the sixteenth, that the stont pasteboard, called mill-board, which unites lightness with sufficient strength, was used as the foundation of the book-cover. When the sheet of paper of which a book is made is folded in two leaves, the book is called a folio; when into four leaves, it is called quarto; when folded into eight leaves, it is called octavo; when into twelve leaves, duodecimo, or 12mo.; when folded into 16 leaves, 16mo.; and when into eighteen leaves, 18mo., &c. The ancient Romans ornamented the covers of their books very elaborately. Those of wood were carved; and upon some of these, scenes from plays, and events of public interest, were represented. About the commencement of the Christian era, |