territory of the dictionary has only exceptionally been invaded. It does not presume to be inflexibly consistent; applicability, in the printing-office, is a better test than iron-clad consistency, and common-sense a safer guide than abstract logic. It lays no claim to perfection in any of its parts; bearing throughout the inevitable earmarks of compromise, it will not carry conviction at every point to everybody. Neither is it an advocate of any radical scheme of reform; in the present state of the agitation for changes in spelling, progressive conservatism has been thought to be more appropriate for an academic printing-office than radicalism. As it stands, this Manual is believed to contain a fairly comprehensive, reasonably harmonious, and wholesomely practical set of work-rules for the aid of those who have to do with questions of typographical style. For the benefit of those whose duties bring them into direct contact with the manufacturing department of the Press, specimen pages of the available types have been added.
The Manual of Style is now in its third edition. That it is recognized as possessing merit is evidenced by its adoption and use in many editorial offices, libraries, and proofrooms in the United States and Canada. This edition incorporates several new rules which it is believed will prove helpful, and at the same time seeks to elucidate some of the older rules, in the application of which difficulties may arise. Changes in literary practice, the legislation of learned societies, the recent development of the profession of librarian, with the
