The misplacement of a stop, or the transposition of a letter, or the dropping out of one, will make sad havoc of the sense of a passage, as when we read of the immoral works of Milton.  It was, however, a very complimentary misprint by which it was made to appear that a certain town had a remarkably high rate of morality.  In the address to Dr. Watts by J. Standen prefixed to that author’s Hor Lyric (Leeds, 1788) this same misprint occurs, to the serious confusion of Mr. Standen’s meaning,—­ p 120
                    ``With thought sublime
     And high sonorous words, thou sweetly sing’st
     To thy immoral lyre.’’

On another page of this same book Watts’ ``daring flight’’ is transposed to darling flight.

In Miss Yonge’s Dynevor Terrace a portion of one word was joined on to another with the awkward result that a young lady is described ``without stretched arms.’’

The odd results of the misplacement of stops must be familiar to most readers; but it is not often that they are so serious as in the following instances.  William Sharp, the celebrated line engraver, believed in the Divine mission of the madman Richard Brothers, and engraved a portrait of that worthy with the following inscription beneath it:  ``Fully believing this to be the man appointed by God, I engrave his likeness.—­W.  SHARP.’’ The writing engraver by mistake put the comma after the word appointed, and omitted it at the latter part of the sentence, thus giving a ludicrous effect to the whole inscription.  Many impressions were struck off before the p 121mistake was discovered and rectified.  The question of an apostrophe was the ground of a civil action a few years ago in Switzerland; and although the anecdote refers to a manuscript, and not to a printed document, it is inserted here because it illustrates the subject.  A gentleman left a will which ended thus:  ``Et pour te’moigner a! mes neveux Charles et Henri de M——­ toute mon affection je le!gue a! chacun d’eux cent mille francs.’’ The paper upon which the will was written was folded up before the ink was dry, and therefore many of the letters were blotted.  The legatees asserted that the apostrophe was a blot, and therefore claimed two instead of one hundred thousand francs each.

Several misprints are always recurring, such as the mixture of the words Topography and Typography, and Biography with Bibliography.  In the prospectus of an edition of the Waverley Novels we read:  ``The aim of the publishers has been to make it pre-eminent, by beauty of topography and illustration, as an _e’dition de luxe_.’’

Andrew Marvell published a book which p 122he entitled The Rehearsal Transprosed; but it is seldom that a printer can be induced to print the title otherwise than as The Rehearsal Transposed.