of a numerous tribe of artifans, and constituted a very confiderable fource of mercantile advantage. Of an art, which, though it had yet acquired but fmall degrees of perfection, appeared of moft extenfive utility in religion, in politics, in literature, and even in commerce, no labour has been fpared to investigate the hiftory; but unfortunately, the enquirers into the origin arts, inftigated by the zeal of minute curiofity to push their researches too far, often difcover them fo rude, obvious, and inartificial at their commencement, as to reflect very little honour on those whom they oftentatiously exhibit as the earlieft inventors. Such has been the refult of the investigations of thofe who, diffatisfied with the commonly received opinions on the date of the invention of Printing, pretend to have difcovered_traces of it many years before the firft production of Fauftus, in 1457 and it is true, that the Speculum Salutis, and a few other books are extant, which are, on good reasons, judged to have been stamped, not printed fecundum artem, long before the erection of a prefs at Mentz: but the mode in which they were executed, like the Chinese, bears but little refemblance to the art of printing, properly fo called: it appears not, by any hiftorical memoir, to have fuggeffed the first hint of it, and is too imperfect to deserve notice as even the infant ftate of this momentous invention. : National pride, like the pride of individuals, is often founded on flight or dubious pretenfions. Thus have Germany and Holland contended, with all the warmth of party, for the imaginary honour of giving birth to the Inventor of Printing, who, after all, was probably led to the difcovery, not by the enlarged views of public utility, but by fortunate circumstances concurring with the defire of private and pecuniary advantage : but though the hiftory of Printing, like all other hiftories, is in fome degree obfcure and doubtful at its earliest period, though Strafburg has boafted Mentel, and Harlaem Coftér, as the inventor; yet is there great reafon to conclude, that the few arguments advanced in their favour are fupported only by forgery and falfehood and we may fafely affert, with the majority of VOL. II. writers, L writers, and with the general voice of Europe, that the time of the invention was about the year 1440; the place Mentz, and the perfons Gutenberg, Fauftus, and Schæffer, in conjunction. He who wishes to trace the art in its gradual progress, from the wooden and immoveable letter to the moveable and metal type, and to the completion of the whole contrivance, will receive fatisfactory information from the annals of the elaborate Mattaire. In the mean time, the effayift will avoid the repetition of facts already too well known and established to admit additional illustration, and will think himself more properly employed in making reflections on the literary, the moral, the political, and the religious effects which have refulted from the invention. It is, indeed, generally true, that the hiftory of a mechanical art affords but infipid entertainment to a mind which is tinctured with the liberality of philofophy, and the elegance of claffic literature. It often exhibits manual excellence united with fuch meannels of fentiment, and vulgarity of manners, as unavoidably mingles difguft with admiration: but to the truth of this general remark, the annals of typography are a fingular exception. Many are recorded to have laboured at the prefs, whofe literary attainments would have done honour to the chair of a profeffor. By their annotations, they illuftrated the fenfe and fpirit of thofe authors, the letter of whofe writings they embellished by the most beautiful and accurate impreffions. The names of the Aldi, of Robert and Henry Stephans, of Turnebus, and of many more who united mechanical ingenuity with profound erudition, will ever be remembered with refpect and gratitude by the votary of antient learning. Happily for letters, at a time when the valuable works of antiquity were contained in manufcripts fometimes illegibly written, and often mutilated or corrupted, a number of men arofe whole knowledge and fagacity enabled them to ascertain and exhibit, by the newly discovered art, the genuine reading Such men were greater benefactors to mankind, than many who have been more celebrated; nor is it an ill-grounded glory which Italy derives from her her Manutii, Germany from her Froben, France from her Stephani, the Netherlands from their Plantin, and England from her Caxton. Every student looks back with regret on those times when an Erafmus corrected what an Aldus printed; when, like the painter of antiquity, a printer expofed his production to the paffenger, and folicited cenfure; and when the legislature of a great nation provided by a ftatute, with a penalty, for the correctnefs of publications. To prefer, with implicit attachment, all the earlier productions of the art to the more recent, were to be actuated with the narrow fpirit of a typographical virtuofo; yet the truth is, what indeed was to be expected from the fuperior learning of thofe who were formerly concerned in the process, they furpass the more fplendid editions of latter times, in the one great excellence of correctness. It is true, indeed, that the fungous production of the modern writer, appears with a fplendour of paper, and brilliancy of type, unknown in the fifteenth century; and, if the work is written in the vernacular language, and on a familiar fubject, is perhaps fufficiently correct. It is true, likewife, that confidering the expedition of the artifan, the degree of correctness with which the common papers of intelligence appear, is really wonderful, and affords a ftriking inftance how much induftry can effect, when ftimulated to exertion by the hope of that abundant gain, which our more than Athenian love of political information conftantly fupplies. Of fuch difpatch, a Plantin would, perhaps, have denied the poffibility. Books of learning, however, efpecially when written in the dead languages, are indeed more flowly brought forth, but hardly with equal perfection. The mistaken avarice, and the grofs ignorance of the modern editor, often fruftrates all the past labour of printers, correctors, and commentators, who have toiled with aching eyes in the revifal of proof sheets, and in the collation of manufcripts. By one of thofe laudable artifices which prevent private avarice from withholding public benefits, the art was stolen from Harlaem, and brought to Oxford L 2 by by Frederic Corfelles. But while we are confidering the introduction of printing into England, not to commemorate the names of Bourchier, Turnour, and Caxton, who were moft inftrumental to it, would be an omiffion equally negligent and ungrateful. Nor fhould the tribute of praise be any longer withheld by neglect from earl Tiptoft and earl Rivers, who, at this period, were reftorers and patrons of learning in our own country, and who contributed to its advancement in imitation of their contemporary, Pius the second in Italy, both by their munificence and example.. No. CXXXVIII. ON THE MORAL, POLITICAL, AND RELIGIOUS EFFECTS OF PRINTING, WITH CONCLUDING REMARKS. T HE literary advantages derived from the invention of printing are fo obvious, that to point them out with all the formality of difquifition is unneceffary. But the moralift, no less than the man of letters, finds himself interested in the confequences refulting from the mechanical mode of multiplying the copies of books. To this caufe, he attributes that change in the manners and fentiments which has taken place within the interval of a century or two, and which cannot efcape even fuperficial obfervation. Philofophy once preferved among a chofen few, with the selfishness of an Alexander, who reprimanded Ariftotle for divulging the fecrets of science, has now diffused its influence on the mean as well as the great, the gay and the fair as well as the fevere and ftudious, the merchant and the manufacturer as well as the contemplative profeffor. Pamphlets and manuals, on every fubject of human enquiry, are circulated by the affiduous trader at a fmall price, among the lowest ranks of the community, the greatest part of whom have been furnished with the ability of reading by an eleemofynary education. A tincture tincture of letters, which was once rare, and formed a fhining character, has pervaded the mass of the people, and in a free country like our own, where it is not checked in its operation by political reftraints, has produced remarkable effects on the general fyftem of morality. Much good has refulted from it: happy, if it had not been mixed with that characteristic alloy of human happiness, much evil. Learning thus communicated to the vulgar, has taught the favage ferocity of grofs ignorance to yield to gentlenefs and humanity; but it has also fuperinduced a general indolence, refinement, and falfe delicacy. It has been the means of exhibiting to the beft advantage, the image of virtue in her natural beauty; but it has alfo held up to view the meretricious charms of vice in the falfe ornaments fuperadded by a corupt imagination. It has been a fteady light to lighten men in the path of truth; but it has also been an ignis fatuus leading them into the mazes of error, and plunging them at laft into the depths of mifery. If it has often tempted us to boaft of living in an enlightened age, it has no lefs frequently induced us to regret the old times of ignorant, but innocent fimplicity. If we fometimes look back with a mixture of fcorn and pity on the unlettered ages that preceded us; we alfo fometimes confefs ourselves ready to renounce the pride of fuperior knowledge for the folid happiness of that national probity, which, though it may not have receded, has not kept pace with our progrefs in fcientific improvement. Here, however, the old maxim will be fuggefted to every one, that a good argument against the ufe of a thing, cannot be drawn from its abuse. It will at the fame time be remembered, that the present times are ever feen through the fallacious mediums of prejudice and paffion; and that the cenfures of the fatirift may not arife from real degeneracy, but that common propenfity which has, in all ages, given rife to invectives against the prevailing manners. If it is true, that improvement in knowledge is a natural and laudable object of human defires, the more general that improvement, the happier and more perfect is human nature, and the more eftimable that art from which it is principally derived. But |