The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-12-13
telegraph
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1884.
TIONs-PRINTISa AND LET.
TEpa


We discussed the comparative merits of Ame-
rican and European typography some days since
but the limits of single article forbade the mem
tion of some points connected with the general
subject which are Of interest and worth thinking
Of. We hinted at the small ad slncc made in the
style Of execution by any printers. We have
lying before us . volume printed at Rome in
A. d. 1875, which illustrates the fact In all that
makes a clear, handsome, re- liable book. this
volume equals the best work e the nineteenth
century. The invention OF he Roman type,
which soon took The place ol tlb black letter, had
just been made. This volume i3 therefore spe-
cimen Of the letter in It's earliest form.
1t is noteworthy that for some years past lovers
OF clear typography have been going back 10 that
same style OF letter, SO that books are now issued
from English and American presses which in
style closely resemble the earliest issues of the
Roman and other italian pre- lUs after the inyen.
tiOn of this form of letter Nor has the italc let
ter ever been improved siuCc the days Of Adus
the great Venetian printer. In lnish and attrac-
tveness to the eye the books OF Aldus, though
presenting grand compact mass of typography
are not surpassed by any modern work.
Ihe truth is very PLAIN, then, that in the inven-
ton OF metal type Gutenberg gave to the world
the art OF making elegant books. And the fact
opens up singular suggestion, namely, whether
the original inventor Of letters was not after all
entitled to greater gratitude from the race Of
man than the inventor Of metal type or the
L
often that men think of the discovery of the art
Of making sounds visible to the eve, so that the
power of the human voice can be extended be-
yond the mere limit of the human lungs. The
word "reading," in whatever language it is found,
implies the debt due 10 the inventor of q pho.
netic alphabet
Picture writing was of no special value until it
assumed phonetic character or until pictures
formed an alphabet OF sounds. IL was compare.
lively cay TO make q picture uf a scene, or am
event, or of desired object But to place in
distinct view before the eyes Of men the utter
ances of the human voice, so that the sounds
which had formerly died away in the rippes of
the atmosphere, and left no impression except on
the memories Of men who heard them, shonld
be impressed and conveyed from place to place.
aud preserved from age 10 age, this certainly was
the fundamental discovery on which philosophy
and science in all ages have depended. Even the
latest grand invention, the telegraph of Morse,
acknowledges its debt to the idea of a written
language, though 1t makes a new and peculiar
system of letters.
How and when this invention of letters origi-
mated 1t is bard to say. The earliest Egyptian
hierogly phics, dating at more than two thousand
years before Christ, are believed by learned men
TO be phonetic, or partially So Thus Champol-
lions system is based ON the theory that pictures
frequently and usually represent tho sound
uttered first in enUnCiating the name of the object
represented. AS, for example, in English an
&c would represent the long sound of L.,
while an elephant would represent the short
sound Of the same letter. This is n very natural
and not at all unlikely way of accounting for the
Oligin of phonetic alphabet. And if this sug-
IestiOn be correct, it would seem not impossible
that the invention of letters like the steam. engine
and other great motive powers in the physical
world, was growth Of years, and did not spring
at once into perfection, or even so near perfection
as to be of much practical use at the start.-N, T.
Journal of Commerce.