Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No 3, September 1863: Devoted to Literature and National Policy — John Shaqi
Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No 3, September 1863: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No 3, September 1863: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Another paper, called the _New York Gazette_, was commenced by Wayman,
the former associate of Parker. In 1766, Wayman was arrested for a
contempt of the Assembly, upon no other charge than that of two
typographical errors in printing the speech of Sir Henry Moore, the
Governor of the Colony. One of these errors consisted in printing the
word NEVER for _ever_; and the other was the omission of the word NO, by
reason of which the meaning of the sentence was reversed. Wayman
protested that it was a mere inadvertency; but so tenacious were
legislators in those days of 'privilege,' that an investigation was
instituted; but in the end the transgressor was discharged from 'durance
vile,' on condition of acknowledging his fault, asking pardon, and
promising to behave more circumspectly for the future.
The Assembly, however, was more rigid in this case, from the suspicion
entertained that one of the errors was intentional; but such was clearly
not the fact.
Nothing can be more annoying to authors and publishers than errors of
the press; and yet those who are unskilled in the art of printing, can
scarcely conceive the difficulty of avoiding them. The art of proof
reading with perfect accuracy is an high and difficult attainment. To
arrive at ordinary accuracy in a daily newspaper, requires the reading
and correction of at least two proofs; and even then an editor, who has
not become case hardened, by long practice and long endurance, will
often be shocked at the transformation of sense into nonsense, or the
murdering of one of his happiest conceits, or the plucking of the point
out of one of his neatest paragraphs, by a typographical error.
In the early stages of the art of printing, typographical errors were
far more numerous than in books of modern execution, where there is a
real effort to attain to ordinary accuracy. It was then very common for
a volume of ordinary size to contain page upon page of _errata_ at the
close. One of the most remarkable instances of this kind was the curious
treatise of Edward Leigh, 'On Religion and Learning,' published in 1656.
At the close of the work were two folio pages of corrections in very
minute characters. The author himself complains as follows: 'We have no
Plantier or Stevens (two celebrated printers of another day) amongst us;
and it is no easy task to specify the chiefest _errata_; false
interpunctions there are too many; here a letter wanting, there a letter
too much; a syllable too much, one letter for another; words joined,
which should be severed; words misplaced, chronological mistakes, &c.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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