THE QUILL PEN THE MOST SUCCESSFUL AND FITTING OF ALL WRITING INSTRUMENTS--TENDENCY TO "WEAR" OUT--THE SOMETIMES AFFECTION FOR OLD PENS--DR. HOLLAND'S LINES ON THE PEN--SELECTION OF QUILLS TO BE MADE INTO PENS--METHOD OF PREPARING THEM--BYRON'S ESTIMATION OF HIS QUILL PEN--ITS INVENTION BEFORE THE SIXTH CENTURY UNCERTAIN-- EMPLOYMENT OF THE REED AND QUILL PEN TOGETHER UNTIL THE TWELFTH CENTURY--WHEN THE STEEL PEN CAME INTO VOGUE--WHO WAS ITS INVENTOR--SOME OBSERVATIONS ABOUT IT--QUANTITY OF MATERIAL SIXTY YEARS AGO CONSUMED IN PEN MANUFACTURE--A FEW REMARKS ABOUT GOLD, FOUNTAIN AND STYLOGRAPHIC PENS--MORE STEEL USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PENS THAN IN THAT OF SWORDS AND GUNS--POETICAL LINES ABOUT THE PEN. THE quills belonging to the feathers of birds seem to have been the most successful and fitting of all materials for pens, for, though steel and other metals are now used for this purpose to an immense extent, there is a power of adaptation in a quill pen which has never yet been equalled in metal. Quills, however, like other things, have a tendency to "wear out," and the trouble resulting from the necessity of frequently mending quill pens and a desire to write with more rapidity have been the main causes of the introduction of steel substitutes. A kind of affection has often been felt by an author or official, or their admirers, for the pen with which he has written any large or celebrated work or signed some important document; old worn-out pens, as well as new ones, have been preserved as memorials in connection with such matters, and Dr. Holland, who translated Pliny's "Natural History" in the sixteenth century, recorded an exploit connected with it in the following lines: "With one sole pen I wrote this book, Made of a gray goose-quill: A pen it was when it I took A pen I leave it still." The quills employed for pens were generally those of the goose, although the crow, the swan, and other birds yielded feathers which were occasionally available for this purpose. Each wing produced about five good quills, but the number thus yielded was so small that the geese reared in England could not furnish nearly enough for the demand, hence the importation of goose quills from the Continent was very large. The process surrounding the manufacture of a quill pen proves of considerable interest.