86. Diderot writes as a good Frenchman.... It is true that German text printed in one of the so-called gothic faces has a very heavy appearance; the page looks very black. Not for nothing were gothic faces called black-letter! But the lack of white space is really due to the design of the gothic faces rather than the prolixity of the language, though it is also true that the German of Diderot’s time was rather prolix compared to contemporary French.