been printed; and puts in all those which have been omitted. To put in or take out words is very troublesome, as it disarranges all the lines succeeding it. To effect it the compositor overruns the matter; that is, he breaks it into fresh lines until the "out" is squeezed in, a little in each line, or until the double is spaced out, by increasing the spacing or distances between the words.

A second proof is now printed in the same manner as the first. This is called a revise. The reader compares it with the first proof, to see if the errors have been corrected, and also glances over it to detect any errors which may have escaped himself. The revise is returned to the compositor for correction in the metal, and after this has been completed, a third proof is printed. This is sent to the author for his corrections, and when they have been made a fourth proof is printed. This is read by the reader to see that the author's corrections are made, and to detect any errors which may have escaped the author and himself. When the errors, if any, have been corrected in the metal by the compositor, the form is ready for press. The first sheet printed is, however, treated as a proof, being examined by the reader to see that the numbers of the pages, the margin, and other things, are all right.

It may naturally be supposed that with so much care all errors would be expunged. Yet, perhaps, there is scarcely a book printed

which is entirely free from errors of the press. A celebrated French printer, famous for his accuracy, some years since challenged the world to find a single error in one of his books, when some one sharper-eyed than himself, detected forty, and broke the printer's heart. Some escape the reader; sometimes a mistake is made in the author's corrections, a wrong word being used, or the right word is put in the wrong place; sometimes the compositor in correcting one error makes another, just as the tinkers are reputed to make many holes in mending one; and, again, letters at the edges of the pages are apt to get broken off in the press or are drawn out by the inking-rollers, or the ends of the lines slip. Some of the early editions of the English Bible were very incorrectly printed. In an edition printed by Barker and Lucas in the year 1632, the word not was omitted from one of the Ten Commandments, and thus the Bible was actually made to teach the very sin which it forbids. The printers were heavily fined for this error, and the edition was suppressed. In a beautiful edition printed at Cambridge University in 1653, it was set forth, "know ye not the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God.' The righteous, of course, was meant. An edition, revised with great care by Dr. Blayney, was printed at Oxford University in 1769. This was considered a model of accuracy, yet, at the end of thirty years, it was

found to contain no less than 116 errors, and one of these was an omission of great importance. The discovery was made in this way. In 1806, Mr. George Woodfall, the celebrated London printer, printed a new quarto edition of the Bible. The copy printed from was the Cambridge edition, then in common use. The proofs were read and corrected in the first instance by the Oxford edition, and a multitude of gross errors were detected in the Cambridge copy. The proofs were next read and corrected by Dr. Blayney's edition, and no less than 1,200 errors were detected in the Oxford copy. Furthermore, 116 errors, as already stated, were detected in Dr. Blayney's copy. After the last proofs of Woodfall's Bible were taken, the forms were never removed from the press until the printing of the different sheets of the edition had been completed, to prevent errors creeping in by the displacement of letters. Up to the present moment only one error has been discovered in this edition of the Bible. This is surprising accuracy, remembering that every page of an octavo Bible contains more than 2,000 distinct pieces of metal, and every sheet between 30,000 and 40,000, the misplacement of one of which would create a blunder. Yet there are cases in which errors have added to the value of books, instead of diminishing it. For instance, the Sistine Vulgate, or the Bible of Pope Sixtus the

Fifth, was printed in the Vatican at Rome in 1590. The Council of Trent had declared "that the Vulgate alone should be esteemed authentic and that no one should dare to reject it on any pretence whatever." The Pope certified that this edition was an exact copy of the text. Yet no sooner was the book published than it was found to be full of misprints and other errors. At first, the correct words and alterations were printed on separate slips of paper, and stuck over the incorrect passages. But this greatly disfigured the book. Gregory the Fourteenth eventually ordered the edition to be suppressed, and a new edition was printed. The Bible of Pope Sixtus was thus converted into a rarity, and it is now much more sought after for its errors than the edition which superseded it is for its greater accuracy.

We have so fully described the printing press already, that a very brief description is required of the remaining operations in printing the sheet. The form having been laid on the table of the press, is "made ready." The tympan is wetted, and a sheet having been laid on the face of the type, the tympan is turned down, the table rolled in under the platen, and the platen pressed down on the tympan and form, by pulling the bar handle. When the table has been rolled out again, and the tympan opened, the sheet of paper is found sticking to the tympan, having been

brought off the type by sticking to the wetted surface. The paper is, of course, indented by the pages, being, in fact, an impression taken without ink. The frisket, which is covered with paper, is now cut so that the pages of the form may pass through it in printing; that is to say, apertures corresponding with the size and number of pages are cut in the paper. The effect is, that while the inked type touches the part of the paper to be printed, the cross bars and furniture of the form which also become inked, do not touch the part of the paper which is to form the margin. The printing now actually begins; the paper, which has been previously wetted to let the ink sink into it, is placed in a line with the tympan, elevated on a slanting table, called a horse. The pressman with both hands takes a sheet of paper from the "heap," and lays it on the tympan, where it is kept in its place by the frisket being brought over it, and two sharp points fixed on the tympan, so as to pierce the very centre of the sheet. While this is doing, a second pressman, stationed at the inking table, which stands in a line with the platen, inks the form with a roller made of treacle and glue, and covered with ink obtained from the smeared surface of the table. Printing ink, we may here say, is a mixture of linseed oil and lampblack.

The form having been inked, the first pressman turns the frisket down on the tympan,