We have made a standing arrangement for paper this year, of which the
present pamphlet is a sample, and we shall do our utmost to have the
whole volume printed in a neat and legible manner. As to _fine_ paper,
covers, etc., they are like fine clothes only necessary to encase the
bodies and souls which will not pass without them. You have, no doubt,
seen the preacher wrapped in the finest broadcloth, and a golden
chain for a watch-guard, who, after a labored effort for an hour
would only prove that he was a human frame, finely clad, but _no
preacher_. In clothing our thoughts in pamphlets, as in clothing our
persons, the proper rule should be, to have the apparel just such as
not to be noticed at all, and then the thoughts in the pamphlet or
the man himself may be seen. Let the attire be neat enough not to be
observed for its shabbiness, and plain enough not to be noticed for its
fineness, that the person in the attire may be seen. It is true, it
is desirable to have a paper printed plain and neat, but all this and
fine paper into the bargain will never make it go, if there be not some
life, spirit and power in the articles themselves.
Some men seem astonished that their publications do not circulate,
seeing that they contain such a display of the most elegant literary
taste, not seeming to be aware of the fact, that not one common reader
out of fifty ever perceives the mighty effort at all. Yet there can be
no objection to fine style. The difficulty in that class to which we
refer, is not that they write in fine style, but that there is _nothing
but the style_—neither soul, body, nor spirit.