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BOOKBINDERS.
IN the first chapter I mentioned bookbinders among the Enemies of Books, and I tremble to think what a stinging retort might be made if some irate bibliopegist were to turn the scales on the printer, and place HIM in the same category.

On the sins of printers, and the unnatural neglect which has often shortened the lives of their typographical progeny, it is not for me to dilate.

There is an old proverb, "'Tis an ill bird that befouls its own nest"; a curious chapter thereupon, with many modern examples, might nevertheless be written.

This I will leave, and will now only place on record some of the cruelties perpetrated upon books by the ignorance or carelessness of binders.
Like men, books have a soul and body.