Letterforms that honor and elucidate what humans see and say deserve to be honored in their turn. Well-chosen words deserve well-chosen letters; these in turn deserve to be set with affection, intelligence, knowledge, skill. Typography is a link, and it ought, a s a matter of honor, courtesy, and pure delight, to be as strong as the others in the chain.
Writing beings with the making of footprints, the leaving of signs. Like speaking, it is a perfectly natural act which humans have carried to complex extremes. The typographer’s task has always been to add a somewhat unnatural edge, a protective shell of artificial order, to the power of the writing hand.