He abhorred mechanical industry, and only by consigning the type to the Thames, he wrote in his diary, could he guarantee it would never be used in “a press pulled otherwise than by the hand and arm of man”.
Are you saying it's sad that he preferred that, or sad that his wishes won't be respected?
More like that the only way we (collectively) can appreciate his work is via the very means that he feared so much as to destroy it in the first place. He'd likely say we're not appreciating it properly, only exploiting it.
now they're being printed and read without anything like a press being involved at all