Prince

Primula thod ranking under the 21st order, Precia. See BoTANY Index. This genus includes the primrose, the cowslip, the polyanthus, and the auricula; some of the earliest and most beautiful ornaments of the flower-garden. For the mode of culture, see GARDENING.

ment, were destroyed. A new treaty was entered into, Prince. by which it was stipulated, that the Malay king should receive an annual payment of 6000 dollars. In 1800, a tract of land on the opposite shore, of 18 miles in length and three in breadth, was ceded to the company by the king of Queddah, on condition of receiving annually an additional sum of 4000 dollars. The number of inhabitants in 1797 was computed at about 12,000 persons of all descriptions.

PRIMUM MOBILE, in the Ptolemaic astronomy, the ninth or highest sphere of the heavens, whose centre is that of the world, and in comparison of which the earth is but a point. This is supposed to contain within it all other spheres, and to give them motion, turning them. quite round, as well as revolving itself, in 24 hours. PRINCE, PRINCEPS, in polity, a person invested with the supreme command of a state, independent of any superior.

PRINCE also denotes a person who is a sovereign in his own territories, yet holds of some other as his superior; such are the princes of Germany, who, though absolute in their respective principalities, are bound to the emperor in certain services.

PRINCE also denotes the issue of princes, or those of the royal family. In France, before the revolution, they were called princes of the blood, and during the short continuance of the constitution of 1791, French princes. In England the king's children are called sons and daughters of England; the eldest son is created prince of Wales; the cadets are created dukes or earls as the king pleases; and the title of all the children is royal highness: all subjects are to kneel when admitted to kiss their band, and at table out of the king's presence they are served on the knee. See ROYAL Family.

PRINCE of the Senate, in old Rome, the person who was called over first in the roll of senators, whenever it was renewed by the censors: he was always of consular and censorian dignity. See the article SENATE.

PRINCE'S Metal, or Pinchbeck, an alloy of copper and zinc, which has a resemblance to gold. See CHEMISTRY, No 2014.

PRINCETOWN. See New JERSEY.

PRINCE of Wales's Island, or Pulo Penang, is situated in the entrance of the straits of Malacca, in 100° Edin, Phil. of east longitude, and in 5° of north latitude. It is Trans.v.iii. about seven leagues in length and three in breadth, and p. 13, &c. is supposed to contain about 160 square miles. Its northern extremity runs nearly parallel with the main land at a distance of about two miles, by which a fine channel is formed, where the greatest fleets might ride in perfect safety, the height of the surrounding mountains acting as a barrier against the force of the prevailing winds.

The purchase of this island from the king of Queddah, on the opposite Malay coast, was made on behalf of the East India Company by Mr Light, who took possession of it on the 12th of August 1786. The settlement continued to enjoy peace and security till the year 1791, when a jealousy on the part of the king of Queddah, probably arising from a collision of interests, threatened it with the calamities of war. Mr Light, however, anticipated the attack of the enemy, and carried the scene of action to his own shores. A fort constructed by the Malays at the town of Prya on the opposite shore, and only two miles distant from George Town in Prince of Wales's island, was taken by assault; and almost the whole of the prows collected in the river for the conveyance of troops to attack the British settle

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The climate, considering its vicinity to the equator, is remarkably mild. The thermometer on the high grounds never rises above 78°, seldom more than 74°; and falls as low as 66°; while on the plain it ranges from 76° to 90°. Its healthfulness is certainly not surpassed by that of any European settlement on the coast. Out of a garrison of 300 troops (natives of Hindostan), not one died for the space of 14 months; a singular fact to be experienced by a new settlement in an uncleared country. This great salubrity is perhaps the effect of a constant ventilation, supported by almost continued but gentle breezes, added to the dryness of the soil, the uniform but gradual elevation from the sea to the foot of the hills preventing those stagnations of water, which, in tropical latitudes, are so highly prejudicial to the health of man.

A ridge of beautiful mountains, deeply indented with valleys, and covered with evergreens, divides the island longitudinally. Flagstaff hill, nearly the bighest on the island, is estimated at 2500 feet above the level of the sea. Innumerable rivulets receive their origin from these mountains, and are remarkable for the transparency and coolness of their waters. The soil, which is light and sandy near the sea, gradually changes to a rich clay as it approaches to the high lands. There the sugar-cane grows with the utmost luxuriance, and the most plentiful crops of rice are everywhere produced. The gardens have already furnished the inhabitants with cabbages and potatoes; and when industry shall have reached the tops of the mountains, it will be no surprise to see in the plantations most of the productions of Europe in their utmost perfection. Here are also produced pepper, cocoa-nuts, coffee, cotton, ginger, yams, sweet potatoes, a great variety of vegetables, and many different sorts of fruits. Among the exotics are the clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, pimento, hyapootee, colalava, and a number of other plants from the Moluccas and Eastern isles, introduced only a few years ago. In decorating the landscapes of this little island, nature has been peculiarly lavish. An assemblage of flowering trees and shrubs in perpetual blossom, and endless in the variety of their species, form the first shade. These are overtopped by forest trees of an immense height, which spread their vast branches on every side, and are covered with the richest foliage. Here strangers feel with rapture the effect of the breezes, which, from whatsoever quarter they blow, are strongly impregnated with the fragrance of the groves.

The original animal productions of this island are very limited. Of quadrupeds, the wild bog, deer, and squirrel, nearly comprehend the whole; but the absence of the tiger and leopard, whose numbers and ferocity almost render the opposite shores uninhabitable, amply compensates for this deficiency. The flying fox and squirrel are natives of this island; the former a non

descript,

and Danish, and 36 Asiatic, arrived in this island. The Prince, total number of arrivals, in 1800, amounted to 193; Principal. and in 1802, to 241, equal nearly to 57,000 tons.

Frince. descript, and a great natural curiosity. Of birds there are also but few, and only one which is remarkable for the melody of its notes. The crow and sparrow, the never-failing attendants on population, have but lately made their appearance. They are now, however, rapidly increasing and multiplying. All the domestic animals arrive here at great perfection.

The sea which surrounds the island, affords a vast variety of fish of the most delicious flavour, and its shores abundance of the finest turtle and oysters. In no situation indeed are the conveniencies and luxuries of life enjoyed in greater profusion. The advantages of the island in a political and commercial view are very considerable. There were nothing but wooden bridges on this island in the year 1800, which were perpetually liable to be injured, and which the rapid swell of the rivers frequently carried away; but four substantial bridges of brick and mortar were soon after that period completed, their foundations being of stone.

The markets are well supplied with different kinds of fish, poultry of all sorts, pork, grain, and great variety of the finest fruits and vegetables. The quality of the beef and veal is none of the best, and they import sheep from Bengal. Milk, butter, and bread, bear a high price, the two former of which are not very abund

ant.

Prince of Wales Island produces a great variety of timber, fit for every purpose of ship-building, and can furnish masts of any dimensions. Ships of 74 guns were provided with lower masts of one piece in the course of the late war.

There are few, if any places, more abundantly sup. plied with water, than this island, numerous streams of water flowing from the hills in every direction. Three or four of these streams unite, and form the Penang river, after traversing a considerable space; and it discharges itself into the sea, about a mile to the southward of the town.

This island contains mines of tin; but it is said they have never been worked.

Persons convicted of felonies, &c. in any of the British settlements in the East Indies are frequently banished to Prince of Wales Island, so that it may be considered as the Botany Bay of the East.

The following table exhibits the revenue and disbursements of the island, at several different periods, from 1789 to 1804.

The imports of this island consist of the various natural productions of the east, as well as of a great variety of the manufactures of the industrious inhabitants of those regions.

PRINCE William's Sound, situated on the north-west coast of America, and so named by Captain Cook in 1778. The men, women, and children of this sound are all clothed in the same manner. Their ordinary dress is a sort of close frock, or rather robe, which sometimes reaches only to the knees, but generally down to the ancles. These frocks are composed of the skins of various animals, and are commonly worn with the hairy side outwards. The men often paint their faces of a black colour, and of a bright red, and sometimes of a bluish or leaden hue; but not in any regular figure. The women puncture or stain the chin with black, that comes to a point in each of their cheeks. Their canoes are of two sorts; the one large and open, the other small and covered. The framing consists of slender pieces of wood, and the outside is composed of the skins of seals, or other sea animals, stretched over the wood. Their weapons, and implements for hunting and fishing, are the same as those used by the Greenlanders and Esquimaux. Many of their spears are headed with iron, and their arrows are generally pointed with bone. The food they were seen to eat was the flesh of some animal, either roasted or broiled, and dried fish. Some of the former that was purchased had the appearance of bear's flesh. They also eat a larger sort of fern-root, either baked or dressed in some other method. Their drink, in all probability, is water; for, in their canoes, they brought snow in wooden vessels, which they swallowed by mouthfuls. Our knowledge of the animals of this part of the American continent is entirely derived from the skins that were brought by the natives for sale. These were principally of bears, common and pine martens, sea otters, seals, racoons, small ermines, foxes, and the whitish cat or lynx. The birds found here were the halycon, or great king's-fisher, which had fine bright colours; the whiteheaded eagle, and the humming-bird. The fish that were principally brought to market for sale were torsk and holibut. The rocks were almost destitute of shellfish; and the only other animal of this tribe that was observed was a reddish crab, covered with very large spines. Few vegetables of any kind were observed; and the trees that chiefly grew about this sound were the Canadian spruce pine, some of which were of a considerable size. E. Long. 115. 21. N. Lat. 59. 33.

PRINCIPAL, the chief and most necessary part of a thing. The principal of a college or hall is the master thereof.

In commerce, principal is the capital of a sum due or lent; so called in opposition to interest. See INTE

REST.

It also denotes the first fund put by partners into a common stock, by which it is distinguished from the calls or accessions afterwards required.

PRINCIPAL, in Music. See FUNDAMENTAL, in MUSIC, and GENERATOR, in MUSIC.

not

Blackst.

PRINCIPLE, in science, is a truth, admitted without Principle, proof, from which other truths are inferred by a chain of Pringle. reasoning. Principles are of two kinds, primary and ge neral; and to the last the name of axioms is usually given on account of their importance and dignity. An axiom or general principle, when the terms in which it is expressed are understood, must be a self-evident truth; but from its very nature it cannot be a first truth. Our first truths are all particular. A child knows that two particular lines, each an inch long, are equal to one auother, before he has formed any general notions of length and equality. "Things equal to one and the same thing are equal to one another," is the first of Euclid's axioms; and an axiom it undoubtedly is, but to no man has it been a first truth. It is, if we may use the expression, a genus or class of truths, comprehending under it numberless individuals. Were a full-grown man introduced into the world, without a single idea in his mind, as we may suppose Adam to bave been, he would instantly perceive, upon laying together three pieces of wood each a foot long, that they were all equal in length; and if he were to cut another to the same length with any one of them, he would find upon trial that it was of the same length with them all. After a few simple experiments of this kind, he would, by a law of human thought, infer, that all things equal in length or in any other dimension, to any one thing, are in that dimension equal to one another.

Principal not always be an actual immediate standing by, within sight or hearing of the fact; but there may be also a Principle. constructive presence, as when one commits a robbery or murder, and another keeps watch or guard at some Comment. convenient distance. And this rule has also other exb. iv. c. 3. ceptions; for, in case of murder by poisoning, a man may be a principal felon by preparing and laying the poison, or giving it to another (who is ignorant of its poisonous quality) for that purpose; and yet not administer it himself, nor be present when the very deed of poisoning is committed. And the same reasoning will hold, with regard to other murders committed in the absence of the murderer, by means which he had prepared before-hand, and which probably could not fail of their mischievous effect. As by laying a trap or pit-fall for another, whereby he is killed; letting out a wild beast, with an intent to do mischief; or exciting a madman to commit murder, so that death thereupon ensues: in every one of these cases the party offending is guilty of murder as a principal, in the first degree. For he cannot be called an accessory, that necessarily presupposing a principal; and the poison, the pit-fall, the beast, or the madman, cannot be held principals, being only the instruments of death. As therefore be must be certainly guilty, either as principal or accessory, and cannot be so as accessory, it follows that he must be guilty as principal; and if principal, then in the first degree; for there is no other criminal, much less a superior in the guilt, whom he could aid, abet, or assist.

PRINCIPAL Point, in Perspective, is a point in the perspective plane, upon which a line drawn from the eye perpendicular to the plane fails.

This point is in the intersection of the horizontal and vertical plane; and is also called the point of sight, and point of the eye. See PERSPECTIVE.

PRINCIPAL Ray, in Perspective, is that which passes perpendicularly from the spectator's eye to the perspective plane, or picture.

Whence the point where this ray falls on the plane, is by some also called the principal point, which other writers call the centre of the picture, and the point of

concurrence.

PRINCIPATO, the name of a province of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, which is divided into two parts, called by the Italians the Principato Ultra, and the Principato Citra, the Hither and Farther Principato. The Hither Principato is bounded on the north by the Farther Principato and part of the Terra-di-Lavoro, on the west and south by the Tuscan sea, and on the east by the Basilicata. It is about 60 miles in length, and 30 in breadth; the soil is fertile in wine, corn, oil, and saffron ; and they have a great deal of silk, besides several mineral springs. The capital town is Salerno. The Farther Principato is bounded on the north by the county of Molese and the Terra-di-Lavoro, on the west by the Tuscan sea, on the south by the Hither Principato, and on the east by the Capitanata. It is about 37 miles in length, and 30 in breadth. The Apennine mountains render the air cold; and the soil is not very fertile either in corn or wine, but it produces chesnuts, and pastures in great plenty. Benevento is the capital town. The population of both in 1817 was 764,000. PRINCIPLE, PRINCIPIUM, in general, is used for the cause, source, or origin of any thing.

PRINCIPLE, in human nature. See DISPOSITION.

It. was not therefore with such weakness as some have imagined, that Hobbes affirmed those propositions commonly called axioms, not to be primary but secondary principles. A primary principle deserves not the name of an axiom, as it is only a particular truth including in it no other truth. There is not one of Euclid's axioms which has not been the result of induction, though we remember not the time at which the induction was made. That the whole is greater than any of its parts is a general truth which no man of common sense can controvert; but every one discovered that truth by observing that his body was larger than his head, his foot, or his hand; that a mountain is larger than a mole-bill in the middle of it; and that a piece of timber measuring what is called a yard is longer than any one of the divisions marked upon it, and termed inches. The particular observations are made through the senses and treasured up in the memory; and the intellect, by its constitution, compares them together, marks in what they agree and disagree, and thence draws its axioms or general principles. He, therefore, who should admit the truth of an axiom, and deny the evidence of sense and perception, would act as absurdly as he who accepts payment in a bank bill, and refuses it in the individual pieces of gold or silver which that bill represents. General axioms are of infinite use in the pursuits of science; but it is not because they create new truths; they only shorten the process in the discovery of such as might be found, with labour, through the medium of particular propositions. See Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric and Tatham's Chart and Scale of Truth.

PRINCIPLES, in Physics, are often confounded with elements, or the first and simplest parts whereof natural bodies are compounded, and into which they are again resolvable by the force of fire.

PRINGLE, SIR JOHN, an eminent physician and philosopher,

Pringle philosopher, was a younger son of Sir John Pringle of Stitchel, in the shire of Roxburgh, Baronet; took the degree of M. D. at Leyden, 1730; and published there Dissertatio Inauguralis de Marcore Senili, 4to. After having been some years professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh, he was in June 1745 appointed physician to the duke of Cumberland, and physician-general to the hospital of the forces in Flanders, where the earl of Stair appears to have been his patron. In February 1746, Dr Pringle, Dr Armstrong, and Dr Barker, were nominated physicians to the hospital of lame, maimed, and sick soldiers, behind Buckinghamhouse; and in April 1749, Dr Pringle was appointed physician in ordinary to the king. In 1750 he published "Observations on the Nature and Cure of Hospital and Gaol Fevers, in a letter to Dr Mead," 8vo (reprinted in 1755); and in 1752 he favoured the public with the result of his long experience, in an admirable treatise under the title of "Observations on the Disorders of the Army in Camp and Garrison," 8vo. On the 14th of April 1752, he married Charlotte, second daughter of Dr Oliver, an eminent physician at Bath. In 1756 he was appointed jointly with Dr Wintringham (now Sir Clifton Wintringham, Bart.) physician to the hospital for the service of the forces of Great Britain. After the accession of his present majesty, Dr Pringle was appointed physician to the queen's household, 1761; physician in ordinary to the queen in 1763, in which year he was admitted of the college of physicians in London; and on the 5th of June 1766, he was advanced to the dignity of a baronet of Great Britain. In 1772 he was elected president of the Royal Society, where his speeches for five successive years, on delivering the prize-medal of Sir Godfrey Copley, gave the greatest satisfaction. Sir John Pringle in 1777 was appointed physician extraordinary to the king. He was also a fellow of the College of Physicians at Edinburgh, and of the Royal Medical Society at Paris; member of the Royal Academies at Paris, Stockholm, Gottingen, and of the Philosophical Societies at Edinburgh and Haerlem; and continued president of the Royal Society till November 1778; after which period he gradually withdrew from the world, and in 1781 quitted his elegant house in Pall Mall (where he had long distinguished himself as the warm friend and patron of literary men of every nation and profession), and made an excursion to his native country. He returned to London in the latter end of the year; died greatly beloved and respected, January 18. 1782; and having no children, was succeeded in estate, and also (agreeably to the limitation of the patent) in title, by his nephew, Sir James Pringle, Bart. Among the worthy physician's communications to the Royal Society, the following are the principal: "Some Experiments on Substances resisting Putrefaction," Phil. Trans. N° 495. p. 580; and N° 496, P. 525, 550; reprinted, with additions, in Martin's Abridgement, vol. xi. p. 1365. 2. "Account of some Persons seized with the Gaol Fever by working in Newgate, and of the manner by which the Infection was communicated to one entire Family," vol. xlviii. p. 42. At the request of Dr Hales, a copy of this useful paper was inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1753, p. 71, before its appearance in the Transactions. 3. "A remarkable Case of Fragility, Flexibility, and VOL. XVII. Part I.

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+

#

Dissolution of the Bones, ib. p. 297. 4. "Account Pringle of the Earthquake felt at Brussels," vol. xlix. p. 546. 5. "Account of the sinking of a river near Pontypool, Printing, in Monmouthshire," ib. p. 547. 6. "Account of an Earthquake felt Feb. 18. 1756, along the coast of England, between Margate and Dover," ib. p. 579. 7." Account of the Earthquake felt at Glasgow and Dumbarton; also of a shower of Dust falling on a Ship between Shetland and Iceland," ib. p. 509. 8. "Several Accounts of the Fiery Meteor which appeared on Sunday, November 26. 1758, between eight and nine at night, vol. 1. p. 218. 9. "Account of the Virtues of Soap in dissolving the Stone, in the Case of the Reverend Mr Matthew Simson," ib. p. 221. 10." Account of the effects of Electricity in Paralytic Cases," ib. 481. And see a letter to him on that subject from Professor Winthorp. "Some Account of the Success of the Vitrum Ceratum Antimonii," was printed in the Edinburgh Medical Essays, vol. v.

PRINOS, in Botany, a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the hexandria class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 43d order, Dumosa. The calyx is sexfid; the corolla monopetalons, and rotaceous; the belly hexaspermous.

PRINTER, a person who composes and takes impressions from moveable characters ranged in order, by means of ink and a press.

PRINTING, the art of taking impressions from characters or figures, moveable and immoveable, on paper, linen, silk, &c. There are three kinds of print» ing the one from moveable letters, for books; another from copper-plates, for pictures; and the last from blocks, in which the representation of birds, flowers, &c. are cut, for printing calicoes, linen, &c. The first is called common or letter-press printing; the second, rolling-press printing; and the last, calico, &c. printing. The principal difference between the three consists in this, that the first is cast in relievo, in distinct pieces; the second engraven in creux; and the third cut in relievo, and generally stamped, by placing the block upon the materials to be printed, and striking upon the back of it.

2

Of the above branches, LETTER-PRESS PRINT-LotterING is the most curious, and deserves the most par- press print-. ticular notice for to it are owing chiefly our deliver-ing. ance from ignorance and error, the progress of learning, the revival of the sciences, and numberless improvements in arts, which, without this noble invention, would have been either lost to mankind, or confined to the knowledge of a few. "To the art of printing, Utility of (says an elegant essayist *), it is acknowledged we owe this art. the reformation. It has been justly remarked, that if* Dr Knox; the books of Luther had been multiplied only by the slow process of the hand-writing, 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 pro gress. 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,

Z z

that

Printing. that his endeavours had been ineffectual, unassisted by the invention of Faustus.

3

Good and evil result

"How greatly the cause of religion has been promoted by the art, must appear, when it is considered, that ing from it. it has placed those sacred books in the hand of every individual, which, besides that they were once locked up 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 philosopher, 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 favourable 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.

4

Its good effects overba

bad.

"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 connection 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 perhaps those who wish, that, togelance the ther with its compatriot art of manufacturing 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, incompatible 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 se

crets of private life, and spread the tale of scandal Printing. 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 the legislative interposition."

na.

tion of

Some writers have ascribed the origin of this art to History of the East, and affixed a very early period to its inven- the inven tion; particularly P. Jovius, (Hist. lib. xiv. p. 226. ed. printing. Florent. 1550), from whom Osorius and many others' have embraced the same opinion. But these have evidently confounded the European mode of printing with the engraved tablets which to this day are used in ChiThe invention of these tablets has been ascribed by many writers even to an earlier period than the commencement of the Christian era; but is with more probability assigned, by the very accurate Phil. Couplet, to the year 930. The Historia Sinensis of Abdalla, written in Persic in 1317, speaks of it as an art in very MEERMAN, vol. i. p. 16. 218, 219, vol. ii. p. 186. N. Trigault asserts that the Chinese prac tised the art of printing five centuries before. Count Ferre Rezzonico found at Lyons plates with words and names engraven by a Nuremberger 1380.

common use.

The honour of having given rise to the European method has been claimed by the cities of Haerlem, Mentz and Strasburg. And to each of these it may be ascribed in a qualified sense, as they made improvements upon one another.

I. The first testimony of the inventor is that recorded Claim of by Hadrian Junius, in his Batavia, p. 253, ed. Lugd. Haerlen Bat. 1588; which, though it hath been rejected by many, is of undoubted authority. Junius bad the relation from two reputable men; Nicholaus Galius (A), who was the schoolmaster; and Quirinius Talesius, his intimate and correspondent. He ascribes it to LAURENTIUS, the son of John (Edituus, or Custos, of the cathedral of HAERLEM, at that time a respectable office), upon the testimony of Cornelius, some time a servant to Laurentius, and afterwards bookbinder to the cathedral, an office which had before been performed by Franciscan friars. His narrative was thus: "That, walking in a wood near the city (as the citizens of opulence use to do), he began at first to cut some letters upon the rind of a beech tree; which, for fancy's sake being impressed on paper, he printed one or two lines, as a specimen for his grand-children (the sons of his daughter) to follow. This having happily succeeded, he meditated greater things (as he was a man of ingenuity and judgment); and first of all, with his son-in-law Thomas Peter (who, by

the way, left three sons, who all attained the consular dignity), invented a more glutinous writing-ink, because he found the common ink sunk and spread; and then formed whole pages of wood, with letters cut upon them; of which sort] have seen some essays, in an anonymous work, printed only on one side, entitled Speculum nostræ salutis : in which it is remarkable, that in the infancy