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ligion; and to detest the baneful operations of bigotry, enthusiasm, superstition and infidelity.

Such are the benefits we derive from books; and, as it respects the great body of the people, nearly all these advantages result from Printing; for without this discovery few would have been able to procure even a Bible, a manuscript copy of which must have cost, perhaps, five or six hundred dollars.

At the present period of light and information, we can easily conceive of the shackles which retarded the progress of the human mind, in its researches after truth, before the invention of the ars artium.

Ancient authors had no means of conveying to the world the knowledge they had acquired; they could, it is true, transcribe a few copies of their works, which, in circumstances the most favorable, could only reach a very few libraries of the most wealthy in a kingdom, and then, perhaps, were doomed to perpetual rest, or subjected to be destroyed by the caprice of the powerful, and the prejudices of the illiterate.

Printing removed the veil which obscured the reason of man; it broke the chain that bound him in superstition. By multiplying copies of the labors of the learned, and dispersing those copies over the earth, even to its remotest regions, he was enabled to search after truth in religion, in philosophy, in politics; and, improvement in the mechanic arts.

The advantages of books to society, have been a theme which has employed the pens of many writers, from the time of the origin of Printing to the present day.

A celebrated modern French author, thus ele. gantly describes the benefits which the world has al ready received from the invention and progress of the art, by augmenting the number of books.

"Printing has been applied to so many subjects; books have so rapidly increased, they have been so admirably adapted to every taste, every degree of information, and every situation of life; they afforded so easy, and frequently so delightful, an instruction they have opened so many doors to truth, which it is impossible ever to close again, that there is no longer a class or profession of mankind from whom the light of knowledge can absolutely be excluded. Accordingly, though there may still remain a mul titude of individuals condemned to a forced or vol untary ignorance, yet the barrier between the enlightened and unenlightened proportion of mankind is nearly effaced, and an insensible gradation occupies the space which separated the two extremes of genius and stupidity."+

An English divine, whose Essays are well known and approved by the learned and pious, is

*M. de Condorcet, in his Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind."

+ These distinctions between genius and stupidity have been revived within the course of a few centuries in Europe where, in the dark ages, all were reduced to nearly the same level of ignorance and brutality. Lord Lyttleton, in his life of Henry II, informs us, that in the reign of King Stephen, in the twelfth century, it was considered as a mark of nobility not to know a letter. This was before the discovery of Printing in Europe.

Dr. Vicessimus Khok.

one among many who inform us of the benefits which Christianity has derived from the increase of books; as well as the great utility of Printing to the literary and political world, notwithstanding the abuse of it by the artful and licentious. The observations of this able and pleasing writer are these, viz.

"To the art of printing, it is acknowledged we owe the reformation. It has been justly remarked, that if the books of Luther had been only multiplied by the slow process of handwriting, they must have been few, and would have been easily suppressed by the combination of wealth and power; but, poured forth in abundance from the press, they spread over the land with the rapidity of an inundation, which acquires additional force from the efforts used to obstruct its progress. He who undertook to prevent the dispersion of the books once issued from the press, attempted a task no less arduous than the destruction of the hydra. Resistance was vain, and religion was reformed; and we, who are chiefly interested in this happy revolution, must remember, amidst the praises bestowed on Luther, that his endeavors had been ineffectual, unassisted by the invention of Faustus.

"How greatly the cause of religion has been promoted by the art, must appear when it is considered that it has placed those sacred books in the hands of every individual, which, besides that they were once looked upon in a dead language, could not be procured without great difficulty. The numerous comments on them of every kind, which tend to promote piety, and to form the Christian phi

losopher, would probably never have been composed, and certainly would not have extended their beneficial influence, if typography had still been unknown. By that art, the light, which is to illuminate a dark world, has been placed in a situation more advantageous to the emission of its rays; but if it has been the means of illustrating the doctrines, and enforcing the practice of religion, it has also, particularly in the present age, struck at the root of piety and moral virtue, by propagating opinions favorable to the sceptic and the voluptuary. It has enabled modern authors, wantonly to gratify their avarice, their vanity, and their misanthropy, in disseminating novel systems, subversive of the dignity and happiness of human nature. But though the perversion of the art is lamentably remarkable in those volumes which issue, with offensive profusion, from the vain, the wicked, and the hungry, yet this good results from the evil, that as truth is great and will prevail, she must derive fresh lustre, by displaying the superiority of her strength, in the conflict with sophistry.

"Thus the art of Printing, in whatever light it is viewed, has deserved respect and attention. From the ingenuity of the contrivance, it has ever excited mechanical curiosity; from its intimate connexion with learning it has justly claimed historical notice; and from its extensive influence on morality, politics, and religion, it is now become a subject of very important speculation.

"But, however we may felicitate mankind on the invention, there are those, perhaps, who wish that, together with its compatriot art of manufactur

ing gunpowder, it had not yet been brought to light. Of its effects on literature, they assert, that it has increased the number of Books, till they distract, rather than improve the mind; and, of its malignant influence on morals they complain, that it has often introduced a false refinement, incompatable with the simplicity of primitive piety and genuine virtue. With respect to its literary ill consequences, it may be said that though it produces to the world an infinite number of worthless publications, yet true wit and fine composition will still retain their value, and it will be an easy task for critical discernment to select these from the surrounding mass of absurdity; and though, with respect to its moral effects, a regard to truth extorts the confession, that it has diffused immorality and irreligion, divulged with cruel impertinence the secrets of private life, and spread the tale of scandal through an empire; yet, these are evils which will either shrink away unobserved in the triumphs of time, and truth over falsehood; or, which may, at any time, be suppressed by legislative interposition.".

The Materials of which Books have been made.

THE methods of making books, and the materials of which they were composed, have been various in different ages of the world. Our progenitors appear to have been desirous of transmitting their knowledge and discoveries down to posterity; for that purpose they have successively used the ma

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