VAIN REPETITIONS.
[To TEE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I have just finished reading an octavo volume of which the sufficiently striking title is, let me say, " Thomas Jacob- son's Telephone." This title appears in gilt on the back of the volume and on its front cover•, and in print, in capital letters, on the page preceding the title page, on the title page itself, and on every one of the subsequent three hundred and fifty-two pages which go to complete the hook. What is the justification for all this monotonous iteration, at any rate, as to all these three hundred and fifty-two pages except, perhaps, the first P Of course, this is no special case ; such repetition of the title is the rule rather than the exception. Sometimes the pages after the title page on which the title of the book appears are only those with even numbers, the other pages being successively headed with a repetition of the title of the particular corresponding chapter ; but even then all such con- stant repetition is only relatively less superfluous. Is the object of all this repetition the guidance of the compositor, the assistance of the binder, the gratification of the author, or the profit of the publisher P As for the average reader, for whose perusal the book is intended, surely be may be credited with sufficient intelligence at least to remember the title of the work while be is reading it without having it thrust before his eyes every time he turns over a page.—I am, Sir, &c.,
SenteL.
[We agree. Why not imitate Thackeray's example in "The Rose and the Ring," where the page headings are individual and rhyme with each other P—ED. Spectator.]
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